Jim Lucio Cheerleader for Artists

Jim Lucio is a visual artist, photographer, curator, programmer, producer of performance punk prank events, and the visual arts coordinator for the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.  He talks about his latest show with Jeremy Crawford, Under One Roof, at the G Spot Gallery.

Some thoughts from the interview:

• [bright colors] make you happy
• that tightrope walk [of creating art] is exciting and makes us feel alive
• if you do what you love, it does snowball [like] cranberry sauce wrestling
• arts are important to me because I feel like a cheerleader for artists
• just do it

Why Art Freewrite

I free-wrote with Linda Osodi before her interview.  We free-wrote on the prompt:  why art?
She recites hers in the interview http://mysuperartfriends.blogspot.com/2010/12/linda-art.html

This is my freewrite reaction to:  why art?

• Because we can
• Because we must
• Because I can’t get through a day without a story or a metaphor
• Because we are at that level of civilization with a higher functioning brain
• Because we express
• Because we can use it to better see ourselves
• Because we can feel like we belong together
• Because we’d like to complain
• Because we want something pretty around the house
• Because we want to teach and be better
• Because we want to sing and dance and make a joyful noise
• Because we know we are going to die
• Because we want to explore the undiscovered country of our souls
• Because we want to find where our spirit lives and art gives us clues
• Because we have to cry and laugh
• Because we want to prove that time means nothing, that Moliere and Shakespeare and Hardy all speak to me from beyond the grave

When I was nine, I saw Franco Zeffirelli's masterpiece film Romeo and Juliet and I've never been the same.

Visual Artist Bridget Riley Said

Being interviewed by the BBC for her show at the National Gallery, British visual artist, Bridget Riley, talks about art in the link below.

BBC Interview of Bridget Riley

"Artists organize how you look, show you ways of looking, and this will be your own way of looking."
Bridget Riley

More Baltimore Murals

I'm with Todd Mion and love some public art.  Here's one of my very favorites that so beautifully reflects its neighborhood at the corner of North Avenue and Harford Road.  On the north panel is the following box:

Tom Miller Murals 2008, Created by Tom Miller

Re-painted by Spoon Popkin

Assisted by Emily C.D.

Produced by J4P Associates, The Department of Housing & Community Development and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

Thanks Baltimore Mural Program!  You brighten our lives.

Linda = Art

Linda Osodi is an actor and a sharp dresser.  We free-wrote before the interview on the prompt:  why art?  Linda kicks off our interview by reading her free-written thoughts.  Some of those are:

• "art is an expression of self"
• "art is freedom from the uniform"
• "art is how you see things"
• "art is every second we breathe"

Dave & The Weird Alchemy

Dave Kiefaber is a writer, blogger, techie and occasional musician.  He slices.  He dices.

Some thoughts from this interview:

• "Art is really a fundamental part of the human experience because we are one of the few animals who make things for aesthetic and expressive reasons, not just for utilitarian ones.  That's the fun of having a higher functioning brain."
• When you write, "there's a weird alchemy process of tone, pace, voice, character, so many elements to balance to get people to follow you where you're going."
• When you read, you "experience things by proxy."
• "Sometimes staring at words is like looking into the abyss."
• "How is the sound of S connected to its symbol?"

Ralph Waldo Emerson Said

American essayist, poet and leader of the Transcendentalist Movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his essay, Civilizaton:
Ralpheal paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phildas carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

Mardee Bennett

Mardee Bennett is an actor and singer.

Some quotes from the interview:

• "We do art to remind ourselves that we are more alike than different."
• "You have to remember it's not about you.  . . .   There is no play without the audience."
• "You have to find [more than one] outlet for creative expression."
• "It's healthy to put your creative energy into other mediums."
• "Musical theatre is hard."