Issue 33 • November 2020 • Facebook.com/TalkArts
IT’S ALL ABOUT
ARTS
Kelly Ransom
November 2020 In This Issue • Kelly Ransom – her raw words resonate by Janice Williams • CJ Lori – Magical Realism by Curt Naihersey • Randy Veraguas – In Living Color • Local Music Scene by Perry Persoff • Poetry – “It Could Be Worse” by Michael Gallagher and “The Label” by Stephen Levin and “YESTER-WAYS” and “Goblet Sin” by Michael Ball compiled by Curt Naihersey • Pictorial Splendor of Jason Getz, Wakana Yokota Irie, Elizabeth Pothier and Marc English compiled by Curt Naihersey • Art Tripping in Boston by Janice Williams • Tess’s To Do by Tess McColgan • Afterland Part 11 by Edward Morneau
To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts - such is the duty of the artist. Robert Schumann It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
IT’S ALL ABOUT ARTS www.itsallaboutarts.com facebook.com/TalkArts ROSLINDALE ARTS ALLIANCE www.roslindalearts.org facebook.com/Roslindale-Arts-Alliance-129685993761701 ART STUDIO 99 www.artstudio99.com facebook.com/Art-Studio-99-145566388819141 Twitter @artstudio99 Instagram - janice_art_studio_99 Published by It’s All About Arts by Janice Williams, Editor Copyright 2020 - All Rights Reserved Glenn Williams - 617-543-7443 glennsmusic.williams@gmail.com Janice Williams - 617-710-3811 janice@artfulgift.com TO ADVERTISE - REQUEST OUR MEDIA KIT ALL ADVERTISING REVENUE GOES TO THE IT’S ALL ABOUT ARTS YOUTH ART SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM. MORE
Kelly Ransom – her raw words resonate By Janice Williams
To know Kelly is to be delightfully energized and entertained. You cannot spend one minute around Kelly without feeling a wide array of tumultuous emotions and sheer joy. Her life journey so far has been notable and very story worthy. Not one to easily call herself an artist, Ransom said, “I never considered myself an artist and I just recently started being comfortable whispering to close friends that I am a writer. But, I suppose, I am an artist and my form of art is writing. I also have had love affairs with culinary arts, singing, and graphic design”. Yet her very existence is a colorful palette overflowing with eager enthusiasm and deep truths. Born in Jamaica Plain, MA. Ransom recently moved back to her beloved community after living in nearby Roslindale for 5 years. Her character fits the Jamaica Plain demographic – “committed to the environment, fair-trade commerce, and sustainable agriculture, a place that’s hip and way left-of-center when it comes to politics” (per BU Today article “Getting to Know Your Neighborhood: Jamaica Plain - A guide to eating, shopping, and hanging out in a hidden corner 2008”). During our interview Ransom remarked: “There was a brief stint in Revere but my heart is always in Boston”. After work as an LGBTQIA++ activist (at local nonprofits), as a bartender and executive chef (self-taught), in politics (worked for a Boston City Councilor), as a co-host for a local television program (It’s All About Arts on BNN Media), she was hired as Director of Communications & Events for Roxbury nonprofit MPDC. Ransom is an expert at planning and managing events. She is also a longtime volunteer for Roslindale Village Main Street. She lights up local events with both her attention to detail, vivacious personality and her chic fashion sense. While I love all the above things about Ransom, it is her writing that brought me to want to tell her story. She told me: “I have been writing since I was very young. I remember writing papers and essays for fun in the 4th grade. I have journals as far back as 1997 and poetry books I wrote as far back as 1999. I’ve never not written but I’ve also kept it incredibly concealed as a part of my identity. I love it so much that I used to think that I was unable to bear the pain of someone telling me I sucked at it, so I kept it hidden. Now, at 34, I don’t care what anyone thinks!”. The majority of her writing carefully examines and reflects on sexual/physical/mental & emotional abuse, homelessness, PTSD, anxiety. and generational addiction. These are all things she has faced (and is still facing) in her life. Ransom plans to self-publish an anthology of her work for her 35th birthday in 2021as a gift for herself. She says, “I really hope the raw messages behind my words resonate with others and encourages them to un-censor their trauma”.
the impossible task of 2020. What can life be when “The Impossible Task” is opening your fucking eyes? kfr It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Kelly Ransom – her raw words resonate By Janice Williams
sown. no fabric could twine around this body hold it together serve suit of armor from heartrending truths hold it together on the blinded sprint into redoubtable obscurity hold it together on the pilgrimage back to myself kfr a lesson: don’t lessen. I don’t care if the colors aren’t as bright for you as they are for me. don’t dim my shine and don’t harsh my high. kfr Another fun fact about Kelly is her love of art. She collects paintings of hot dogs and as seen in this photo she even sports art dresses covered in hot dogs! Her favorite artist is Joey Mars. Ransom says, “I have been following his career since I was 8 years old. I have always loved his work and whenever I go to Provincetown I miss his shop. He is the artist I have followed the longest”. For more of Ransom’s raw words, visit kellyransom.com, also on Instagram:@the.ransomnotes. For info about hiring Ransom for an event visit ransom-productions.com. Contact: kelly@ransom-productions.com Side Note: Ransom kept her creative juices flowing during this pandemic by hosting a very informative and entertaining weekly live Facebook event - Lockdown Lunch - where she interviewed local celebrities. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/KellyFRansom/videos
It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Kelly Ransom – her raw words resonate By Janice Williams
MORE KELLY Roslindale Village Main Street Annual Tree Lighting
Co-Host of It’s All About Arts TV Show with Glenn Williams
Serving “hot dogs” to community youth with City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George
It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
NOW AVAILABLE Thank you Edward Morneau
Volume 1 Soft Cover Book March 2018--February 2019 158 pages: $25.00 +S/H/Tax
https://www.amazon.com/Its-All-About-Arts-Annual/dp/B0848WD1H2 It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Volume 2 Soft Cover Book March 2019--February 2020 236 pages, $35.00 + S/H/Tax
https://www.amazon.com/Its-All-About-Arts-Annual/dp/B084Z3PC28
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C J LORI!
MAGICAL REALISM
Spring is in the Air - 2020
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by Curt Naihersey
In the pre-pandemic days, one of our favorite Autumnal jaunts was to visit the varied Open Studios throughout the city and other towns. Always a crash course on local artists reaching out to their public inspiring, evocative, and enlightening. Most times we were just strolling and viewing, but occasionally came upon someone whose art demanded a purchase - the truest support we could offer. And so, about a dozen years ago we entered the charming and enchanting world of CJ Lori.
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Ms. Lori is a self-taught oil painter and mixed-media sculptor. She has lived and worked as an artist in Brookline, Massachusetts for over thirty-five years. Her work reflects her interest in literature, anthropology and psychology, as well as an abiding fascination with the natural
world. Often called "Neo-surrealism" or "magic realism," Ms. Lori's paintings explore the complex relationship between humanity and the environment.
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Committed to art activism, she served in 1997 as First Vice-President of the National Women's Caucus for Art, and for several years as President of the Boston Chapter. In 1996, she co-chaired the national conference of the Women's Caucus for Art, "Transforming Tradition," in Boston. Ms. Lori has also served as a member of the Brookline Council for the Arts and Humanities, Inc.
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Ms. Lori’s artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New England, in New York, and in Chicago. Her work has been shown at the Danforth Museum in Framingham in OFF THE
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WALL, Community of Artists, and Figure, Fantasy and Illusion, Selections from the Arthur S. Goldberg Collection. In 2007, she won first prize in Paint!, a national exhibition at the South Shore Arts Center. She had a solo exhibition, “Close to the Trees,” in June, 2019 at Galatea Fine Art in Boston, where she served as Exhibitions Chair and Vice President from 2017 - 2020. Her other interests include reading (especially Henry James), traveling, watching professional football, listening to music, and walking in the woods.
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Ms. Lori is represented by Array Contemporary in Boston and 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, Massachusetts. For further info, contact: cjlori@ix.netcom.com
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prefer to explore the empathic implications of humanizing the elements of landscape. By identifying with our environment, we are more likely to appreciate its significance and fragility, and to deepen our individual connections with it.
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My primary medium is oil paint on canvas, wood or panel. Paint is applied in many layers, building and adding nuance through color and transparent glazes. I often work with tiny brushes for fine detail. I find satisfaction in intricacy, because it appeals to me viscerally, and because it parallels some of the complexities I am trying to capture and express in my work. Through my paintings, I try to simultaneously celebrate the splendor that surrounds us while acknowledging its inevitable ruin.
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ARTIST STATEMENT: The desire to have another see through my eyes is a compelling motivation. To me, painting is a form of communication through which I try to convey my experience so that the viewer will see what I see and feel what I feel. I exaggerate or distort color, form and composition to emphasize sensations that are often contradictory: clarity and mystery, excitement and sorrow, beauty and decay.
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In the “Trees Leaving” series, these contradictions also incorporate a touch of humor. They are part homage to Magritte’s floating men in bowler hats, part ecological statement and part allegory of loss, liberation and the yearning for escape.
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I paint a landscape as a metaphoric portrait in which we can see ourselves. The shapes, gestures and surfaces of the trees reveal my affinity for anthropomorphosis. Despite its status as scientific taboo, I photo: David Weinberg
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******************* When we first entered CJ’s home studio those many years ago, we walked through a hallway of paintings that jumped off the wall into our imagination - a vivid realm of mind and visions - a canvas frontier of vast perceptions. There was distortion, darkness, and the absurd humor of surrealistic, mysterious dreams come to life. Her art was a combination of new and familiar terrains to walk through and absorb. In the years we have known her, her focus has shifted from her earliest works of “nightmares and dread” towards a new gentility of meaning and nuance, captured in locales that belie the anxiety of the present times. Still, some of these paintings create a moral, existential
discomfort…we want to chuckle even as we bemoan the fate she has captured.
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CJ favors working in a succession of series paintings, inspired by her travels, and all fully defined in their different themes…i.e. “Prism”, “Human Nature”, “Neighborhood”, “Birch Trees”, “Cape Cod”, “Pandemic”, etc. Her very successful “Trees Leaving” series caught our attention immediately. (She has produced over fifty variations so far.) I commissioned her to paint the cover of my group’s 2009 album, Leaving the Farm, similar to the painting below. That made our bond even tighter, as we have seen most of her subsequent gallery exhibitions in the ensuing years. Total fans forever…and now we will chat:
Take Me With You - 2018
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2. With several pieces ongoing at once, how much time do you spend working on your art? I try to spend anywhere from three to six hours almost every day actually painting or sketching, and I am often thinking about ideas at any time.
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3. Who has influenced you? Who do you look towards for inspiration and influence? I find inspiration in the works of George Inness and Max Ernst, and then, of course, Rene Magritte and all the surrealists. When I look for inspiration, I go outside and find it in the natural world. To that scene, I will often add elements from my imagination or memory that hold meaning and feeling for me.
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Soliloquy -
1. Tell us about a typical day for you in this pandemic era. What are your major responsibilities right now, in work and life? How do you balance them? A typical day is a combination of some time on the computer answering emails and marketing, some painting time in the studio, and some time with the responsibilities of life – cooking, cleaning, and family – and hopefully a walk outside! I have a few blog entries on www.pandemiclens.com with images of work created during this time and my thoughts that surround them.
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4. How do you perceive inspiration & creativity? Have you tried any other stylistic approaches? 2020 Inspiration is sometimes a welcome guest for whom I always try to keep the door open. At other times, it is a process within reach if I quiet my thoughts and open myself to it. Creativity to me is a way of thinking on many levels at the same time, while trying to explore and innovate.
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5. What is the driving force behind your creativity? For me, there is a definite motivation to communicate, to share my own observations and experience through visual depiction. And that motivation leads to inspiration and the desire to create.
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6. Can you tell us how you do it? What are the ingredients for such beautiful works? The detail and precision is always admirable and resonant. Thanks, Curt! I do a few sketches on paper, then switch to canvas or panel and use thinned oil paint to get a rough sketch and see if anything else unexpected happens. Once I have the composition down, I paint in layers from the back to the front. I use Liquin Fine Detail as a painting medium, and 20/0 brushes (Princeton Liners) when doing detailed work. I try to keep a few paintings going at once, for drying time and to have options on what I feel like painting or what kind of natural light is available.
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7. When you’re creating, what comes first: the colors - the size - a feeling or a memory? Is it intuitive or academic? Yes! All of the above! Although I would have to say that usually the idea comes first, whether or not it is a memory. When it comes to painting, I am much more intuitive than academic.
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8. Though it seems obvious to me, do you have any social message that you try to portray in your work? I believe the environmental message is pretty clear. I hope that people feel a deeper personal kinship with trees and the natural world from seeing my paintings. 9. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists? Be true to yourself, stay true to yourself, and only become an artist if you have no other choice in order to do that. 10. Where & how will you be exhibiting in the upcoming future? There are lots of actual shows now that also have a virtual exhibition at the same
time for those not ready to visit. I believe all the shows I mention can also be viewed on their websites, which I will include: I have three paintings at 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, and will be dropping off a new one for their winter show “Plenty”, November 21 – January 8 <www.13FOREST.COM>
I will be in the National Exhibition “Tipping Point”, juried by Gerry Bergstein at the South Shore Arts Center in Cohasset November 5 – December 18 <www.ssac.org>
I will also have a new painting in “Art and Activism”, a show of the National Association of Women Artists, MA Chapter in the SoWa arts district at 460 Harrison Ave., C-6 October 28 – November 23 <www.nawama.org>
My painting in the Brookline Arts Center show “PRISM” is currently on view through November 13 at the Beacon Street Gallery in Coolidge Corner – they are open seven days a week, and you can see the show pretty clearly from the sidewalk if you don’t want to go in. <www.brooklineartscenter.com>
One of my paintings was also selected for the Rockport Art Association and Museum’s “National 2020”, scheduled for December 5 – 31 <www.rockportartassn.org>
The online exhibition by members of Array Contemporary, “Darkness Before Dawn”, can be viewed now at <www.arraycontemporary.com/exhibits/>
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Other shows that had been postponed are in the works, and we have all seen how things can change, but I am hopeful for lots more opportunities to share my art.
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Twilight Flight - 2020
HAPPY THANKSGIVING - EVERYONE!!! ______________________________________________________________________________! ! !! Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s All About Arts Magazine
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RANDY VERAGUAS In Living Color In my spare time, on sunny days, I like to keep busy...tennis, biking, walking or hiking. During inclement weather, which I love equally with sunny, lots of baking and reading take place. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, my Samsung Note 10 Plus is nearby to catch a good shot. I also use it to edit my pictures. That’s what relaxes me before bed, editing.
I have a real weakness for houses. I have well over 1000 pictures of houses. I adore them all. Big or small! Short or tall! As a real estate agent it’s such a treat to be able to work in them. To me, they each have as much character and uniqueness as person.
From a recent day walking at World’s End in Hingham, being reminded by Mother Nature of one of the myriad reasons I live here.
My selfie. I was on a set, in character playing Mitzi Shore, the Comedy Store owner, and thought this would be the kind of selfie she’d have taken. It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Randy Veraguas - In Living Color My son, Haven Veraguas, in our living room, that is now doubling as his classroom, while attending Berklee College of Music.
Haven when he was giving me the, “Mumma, please, enough with the picture taking” face.
Between classes during covid, strumming his guitar. To reach me, please call 781-635-5414. I’m a member of the Hull Artists. I’ll be in an exhibit on Nov 21st here in Hull. I’ve lots of websites. I write and paint,, as well...Friend me on Facebook! Randy.veraguas@hotmail.com It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
My favorite subject sitting with his favorite subject.
THE LOCAL MUSIC CORNER - Perry Persoff Not surprisingly, the word from many musicians is “stalled, “suspended,” and the like as pandemic-related precautions continue… Darren Buck of the band Hank Wonder reports that the group is waiting for the studio’s OK to record the last three songs for their second album. If you are into spending the fall and even early winter months hiking near lakes, perhaps you like the atmosphere generated by hearing the call of the loon. One of these last three songs may then be right in your zone - it is called “Loons On The Lake.” Hank Wonder have been working on the new album with Zachariah “Zack” Hickman (who has worked with Josh Ritter, Mark Erelli, Dinty Child, Kris Delmhorst, and so many prolific Boston area musicians over the past 20 plus years). ==================== Back at the Livestream Cafe… A twist to Greg Klyma’s weekly Thursday stream All Together Now - featuring guest performers, a video segment, fun graphics, etc - is requests from listeners/viewers. Okay, requests from listeners/viewers is probably a part of most livestreams, particularly the regular weekly ones. But in this case, Greg has perused and parsed through them for an album’s worth of them. Last month he released By Request Vol 2. This is twelve of the most-requested songs from ALL TOGETHER NOW. Start your journey into the show at Greg’s website, Klyma.com, then click one of the All Together Now links on the right side of the page.
==================== Have you visited the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation lately? They have been doing their Thursday 2 Shift Music Series since the Spring of 2017. Michael Tarbox of the Tarbox Ramblers curated the series until late 2017. Mark Erelli has been driving it since then. And in these days of no physical gatherings, the series is continuing. They are doing multi-camera livestreams from the (empty) main gallery. Coming up in November will be sets from Kemp Harris on Nov 12 and Mark Erelli on Nov 19. Peaking into December, Alisa Amador will be doing the honors on Dec 3 . Those are all Thursdays, by the way. Shows begin at 7:30pm. Details and links can be found at https://www.charlesrivermuseum.org/ second-shift-music-series. nd
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==================== Are you the next Greater Boston/New England area musician or band to watch out for, but thanks to the Pandemic you can’t get exposure? Use the Force, Luke… er, that is, make use of the technology, Luke (or whatever your name may be). Open Mic’s are still happening, but they are remote. Check into your area venues’ websites to investigate their ROM’s. Maybe that’s a play on computer technology. But in this case it means Remote Open Mic’s. ==================== While the weather is holding out, restaurants continue to hold outdoor seating. Those that have heating lamps on their patios combined with customers who arrive in layered fleeces and hoodies, etc, will last longer outdoors. Some of those restaurants/pubs/eateries with outdoor
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seating also sneak in some live music on the weekends. If they have the distance between the diners and the singer or singers (probably no more than two or three with on-stage social distancing), they can have a music set up. Again, check with your favorite places to see if they may have this - because some of them are doing just that! And of course, the situation may be weather related.
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Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all for now.
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JW
Stay safe, stay sane, be smart, and spread laughs when you can! ! !!
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IT COULD BE WORSE [the exciting final installment in the Woody trilogy]
Woody and his partner in the squad car. End of the shift, a slow Tuesday night. A big noise from over on Spring Street, not very far. From the sound alone, they knew something wasn't right. The scene was chaotic when they arrived. Five parked cars sideswiped, and one standing at an angle A guy at the wheel, clearly drunk, needing to be revived. Another traffic related mess to untangle. Woody introduced himself, asked the driver his name. "I am William Didsbury. I teach at St George's prep school," was his slurred reply. Woody had seen this movie before. All drunks are different yet somehow the same. "Well, sir, we have to arrest you, take you in for DWI." The guy was crying as they loaded him in the caged back seat. "Oh, what have I done!? My job. My reputation. My family. Alcohol is a curse." Woody turned around and told him it could be worse. "How could it possibly be worse!?," was his pathetic bleat. "Well I could be your son. And then I'd be Woodbury Didsbury." With that observation, the tension went out of the situation. Even the guy found it funny, both laughing and crying, he almost ceased to worry. The mood was much lighter by the time they pulled into the station. - Michael Gallagher __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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! Postscript: Woody served twenty-three years on the Newport, RI police. In all that time he never: shot anybody, applied a chokehold, clubbed anybody with his nightstick, used tear gas, taser or pepper spray (okay, the last two were not invented yet). Neither had he a kevlar vest, nor night-vision goggles, nor flash-banggrenades, nor any of the other obscene trappings of our modern day over-militarized occupying army of unnamed, unidentified police. He drew his gun on a couple occasions when going into a building not knowing who or what might be in there. Once, responding to a breakin at the Coca Cola plant and instead of using a gun, Woody jumped out from behind a stack of boxes to scare the perpetrator into submission. His superiors often assigned him to work alone; they said he had the skills to talk his way out of most any situation. He saw himself as a peace officer, there to calm and diffuse situations. If two drunk sailors were fighting with fists, he stood back and let them go at it knowing that bare knuckle fisticuffs is an exhausting enterprise. Knives were a different story. Woody once got a long diagonal slice through his winter police jacket from a crazed knife wielder. The department refused to issue him a new one.
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(Woody @ age 44 and his first grandchild)
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The worst bar in Newport in those Navy days was The First and Last Call, so named because it was next to the dock where the liberty ferries pulled in and was the first place the sailors hit on arriving on shore and the last place they stopped before going back out to their ships. Constant fights. But the biggest, worst brawling melee ever was a full scale riot over parking at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. Who knew that jazz enthusiasts were street fighters. Woody was only 20 in 1960, so neither a cop nor a rioter. Although a mediocre student with very poor SAT scores (yes, they had SATs then), he talked his way into Rhode Island College. He had to drop out three months into his ill-fated college career when his girlfriend got pregnant. They married and had four kids. There have been seventeen feature films shot in Newport, including High Society, Amistad, True Lies, Reversal of Fortune, Lolita, The Great Gatsby (the Robert Redford one - not the Leonard DiCaprio one) and my favorite, Moonrise Kingdom. Woody was on hand directing traffic for many of them. If they make a movie about the life of Woody Ring, I think he should be played by Matthew McConneghy. Not the brooding Matthew McConneghy in True Detective but the younger bongo-playing free spirit Matthew McConneghy of Dazed and Confused. Woody met Robert Redford on the Gatsby set when the movie star asked him for directions to Bailey's Beach. The producer needed a small motor boat for a scene and Woody rented the production his Boston Whaler for $300 a day Woody was also on hand for the many runnings of the America's Cup yacht race, then held every four years in the waters off Newport (until the Australians won and took the event away to Perth). Here he is posed on the dock with Miss Australia for the epic race series won by Courageous. It was Woody who coaxed Ted Turner off the stage when his drunken post race victory speech turned into an embarrassing homophobic rant.
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! I hope the Biden-Harris ticket wins. After abolishing the Department of Homeland Security (sounds fascist because it is fascist) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is a nest of racists, they should appoint Woody as czar of police reform.
Title: "Noontime Lobsters at Bailey's Beach" - from Mr. Gallagher’s personal collection !
Woody and Miss Australia
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Bailey's is the snootiest beach in Newport
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! THE LABEL Torn to confetti, the address label flies, scattered in a gust of wind. No identity on a shred. Just a paper sliver, a speck, a piece of a single letter, clinging statically to my finger. That is all, that remains of you, as you left too, blown away In pieces, sliced and torn. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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! You scattered, and then were gone, until all that was left was an address label. - Stephen Levin
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YESTER-WAYS I almost pass many sketches on this or that wall. Just now, push-pinned in every room. portraits on wide, off-white sheets appear,
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I hold no velvet bag filled with lovers I have pushed away (or who have quit me). You and I can not claim failed marriage; then we might be done forever.
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What is love’s expiry date? Its best-if-used-by date? A shattered bond does not dim nor erase what was. We were kind to us. Thus, our long-ago joys ever remain…in a Hawking space-time, where and when what was still is.
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Am I inconstant and unchaste if I notice portraits of others, as well as yours? While not the one, you remain one. Your face and the others’ present to me. I sigh for anyone who does not see sketches.
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Of course, we had our moments… Nights surely, morning frolics too, and café afternoons with sweet—then bitter— G&Ts over tiny white tables right on 7th Avenue. While M20 buses and peds passed, we shared anticipation, the soon of mind, word and hand.
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If you wonder do I keep feelings for you, if I still think well of us, know the yesses. The ideal of us lives and loves. You can only murder love doggedly.
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! Our thousand feats are a crumbled book of us. I do not and cannot know you in this moment. Yet sketched and etched, we are deeply rutted and strongly rutty in our shared past.
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Ever-you ever-us.
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GOBLET SIN By careless caress, I leave you outline of whorls, loops and arches of thumb and index finger. Gossamer tracings adhere to your goblet bowl, etched with skin-oil fingerprints on your glass, front and rear. A human gripped the goblet, inattentive to the marks left by groping, bent to pleasures. Also even kissing the rim. Sommeliers, oenophiles and drunks, the spectrum of wine-glass raisers, each and all elevate goblets to see, smell, swish and savor. In our lives, small flaws are easy, easy to correct and even easier to overlook for camaraderie. Do not play pedant or niggle. Can you imagine offering a guest a wine glass with a fingerprint visible on the bowl? Well, yes.
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- Michael Ball
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Jason Getz
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Wakana Yokota Irie
“My World That Splashing Creates”
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Elizabeth Pothier
“Handmade”
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Marc English
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Art Tripping in Boston By Janice Williams
I have been an artist and art promoter for many years. I consider myself very lucky to live in a city that celebrates and covets art as much as Boston does. My art tripping in Boston began in 1975. I clearly remember an impressive visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (mfa.org) on Huntington Avenue. I was there to do research for a class assignment during my studies at Boston State College. I developed a lifelong thirst and passion that day for all things art. Now 45 years later, I have a memory bank full of Boston art people, places and things. Most still exist and I will share a few here in hopes that others can discover, appreciate and enjoy. Be sure and check out info about whether these places are open or closed due to the current pandemic situation. At the very least take a tour of the art on the individual websites. MUSEUMS Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – gardnermuseum.org This is a place that is a delight to visit. From the story behind the story of how a home became a world-renowned museum to the lush and gorgeous courtyard gardens to the famous paintings and objects, I return year after year. Photo is from the museum website of the beautiful Nasturtiums that cascade into the courtyard every Spring. ICA - icaboston.org I have only had the opportunity to visit this museum on the Boston’s waterfront once but tis is excellent place to see contemporary art. According to website Select galleries are currently closed for the installation of i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, opening Nov 18. GALLERIES
SOWA - sowaboston.com Boston’s largest and most active grouping of art galleries and shops - 20+ galleries inside of a 2-block radius. They have a wide array of places to visit and enjoy including a farmers’ market and other outside events. Openings and receptions are held on the First Friday of each month. Photo: Canvas Fine Arts Gallery at 460 Harrison Avenue, Suite 21C.
Newbury Street - Before SOWA became trendy, Newbury Street was the location for high end art galleries. In my younger days, I would spend hours walking along the street and stopping into galleries heavily interspersed with high end retails shops - most of them like galleries themselves. Today there are some notable galleries well worth the visit: Copley Society, Arden Gallery, Vose Gallery, DTR Modern Galleries, Pucker Gallery, Gallerie d’Orsay and Gallery NAGA to name a few. A favorite of mine to visit on Newbury Street was the International Poster Gallery which has now moved to SOWA. All these galleries have website just Google the names. Gone but not forgotten Judy Rotenburg, William St. George and Society of Arts and Crafts. . PUBLIC ART Boston has a solid reverence for public art. There is a whole department devoted to it – Boston Art Commission. https://www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/boston-art-commission. Some of the more notable installations and my favorites are Make Way for Ducklings by Nancy Schön in the Public Gardens, Poe Returning to Boston by Stefanie Rocknak at Boylston and Charles Streets and The George Greenamyer sculpture Traffic in Roslindale Square. A good list of public art and locations is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_art_in_Boston Photo “Traffic” chris@clangphotography.com It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Art Tripping in Boston By Janice Williams MURALS/STREET ART Boston has many amazing murals, and most are scattered liberally throughout its neighborhoods. My own neighborhood of Roslindale has quite a few really cool murals. Boston has its own “Mural Crew” - Enhancing the style and visual landscape of Boston’s neighborhoods since 1991. Photo: Madison Park Vocational Technical High Mural. Photo by Joni Lohr - See more at https://www.facebook.com/jonilohrphotography
OTHER Rose Kennedy Greenway - rosekennedygreenway.org “The Greenway is the contemporary public park in the heart of Boston, welcoming millions of visitors annually to gather, play, unwind, and explore”. It has temporary exhibitions of contemporary public art. Currently showing: Lantern Stories by Yu-Wen Wu and Wind Sculpture by Yinka Shonibare. While this is just a very partial list. Boston is an art friendly city. For now because of the pandemic, the theatres and small galleries are patiently waiting to open or to be fully operational. In the meantime, stay connected through their websites and support art in whatever way you can.
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ess’s November To-Do List
Keep up the good work! Wear a Face Covering in Public Spaces It is imperative that we all wear face coverings around others, wash our hands, practice physical social distancing and very importantly - get tested for COVID19 if you don’t feel well. (image from City of Boston)
Roslindale Squares Virtual Event Video Recording Aired on BNN and is also on YouTube
Thank you to all who joined us at Roslindale Village Main Street for Episode One of Roslindale Squares: RVMS’s local spin on the celebrity tic-tac-toe game show Hollywood Squares on Wednesday, October 7th on Zoom. A recording of the show aired on Boston Neighborhood Network (bnnmedia.org) in late October and is also now on YouTube, so if you didn’t catch the show live, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWE4Mus4wiA Stay tuned for Episode 2, coming soon! Visit roslindale.net to sign up for RVMS’s Enewletter and stay up to date on upcoming happenings and local business news.
It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
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ess’s November To-Do List Support Local Small Businesses this Holiday Season Shop Small, Shop Local & Shop Early! Small businesses continue to be hit hard by the effects of the pandemic. In addition to following State & City regulations and recommendations to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, you can support local businesses by choosing to shop small. So many locally-owned and operated shops make the majority of their operating funds for the whole year during the holiday season. Choosing to purchase gifts, food, decor, and other holiday-time supplies at local small businesses will help them stay
afloat as we work towards reaching a “new normal.” Many retail shops in Roslindale Village have updated their websites during the pandemic (or before) to allow for easy online shopping which means you can #ShopSmall from home. In some cases businesses are able to offer free or discounted local delivery. If you want to shop in person, start earlier than usual to help shops with less space reach more customers over time and remain compliant with their in-store capacity limits. If you’re looking to treat yourself to a haircut, salon service, manicure, etc., do so close to home! I trust businesses owned & run locally the most to keep their shops clean and offer special touches that help clients feel safe and welcome. You can always give a gift card to a loved one who could use some self care - maybe one of the hard-working teachers or medical workers who are doing so much for us right now. If you’re planning to make some fancy dinners over the next couple of months to celebrate holidays with family at home, purchase your food items locally! If you’re looking to skip cooking & clean-up, research your local restaurants and get some delicious takeout, and remember, ordering Tess McColgan has been working for Roslindale Village Main Street as their Program Manager since April 2018. In this role, she plans community events, uses marketing to promote local businesses, and supports the projects of volunteer-led committees. Coming from a large family full of artists & musicians, she’s always had an enthusiasm for local art, and in October 2018, Tess started as Glenn William’s co-host for the It’s All About Arts TV show until its final episode in June 2019. In her free time, she continues to seek out local art, learns new crafts, explores museums, practices yoga & gets out in nature as often as possible. Photo: Bruce Spero Photography at brucespero.smugmug.com
It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
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ess’s November To-Do List
If you have sensitive skin like me, then wearing a mask during the day can sometimes mean breakouts, dry skin, irritated skin, etc. from your nose area to your chin. After some googling and trial and error, I’ve found some easy, at-home remedies that can help normalize that facial skin. Try one or more of the below DIY remedies out at home once your un-masked for the day. • Green Tea is known for its antioxidant properties and is great for your body & your skin. Brew a cup of green tea with one tea bag (or serving of loose leaf tea), remove the tea bag after suggested steep time, then let it cool. Dip a face cloth or cotton ball in the room temp. green tea and pat over a washed and dried face. Leave on for 30 mins, an hour, or even sleep with the green tea on your face and rinse in the morning. • Witch Hazel is a great, natural toner for that under-mask area. Put a few drops on a cotton ball after washing your face to clean up any extra dirt or bacteria before putting on moisturizer. • Baking Soda can serve as an easy, gentle exfoliant. To use it this way, you could add a teaspoon to a gentle face wash before washing your face. Another option is to make a paste with 2 tablespoons of baking soda and a little water. Apply it to your face as a mask, leave that on for 5-10 minutes and wash it off with warm water using slow, circular motions when you rinse. Baking soda is gentle enough not to mess with your face’s natural oils, but its tiny grains do a great job of sloughing off dead dry skin cells. Some people add a drop of lemon juice to this paste, so you could try that for some extra zest. I found that combination a bit harsh for my skin. • Put a couple drops of your favorite essential oil on a wet face cloth and put it in the fridge. After washing your face with warm water and drying (or after you exfoliate with baking soda!), place the face cloth on your face for 5 or so minutes to soothe your pores and help with any skin inflammation.
“Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.” Catherine Pulsifer
It’s All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Afterland by Edward Morneau Part Eleven: Winter Emissaries From Part 10:
“The Tesseract is now here and is about to tell us the story taken directly from the Pages of the Cosmos,” said Fenton Bailey, his mind now satis>ied.
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age after holographic page, The Book of the Cosmos turned itself—its images could not possibly be understood unless Mollie provided a narrative, which she, at times, was reluctant to do. Fenton Bailey tried to fill in the spaces where she was mute, but the others were either suspicious, bored, or mystified. “Excuse me, Sir,” said Bob, the suspicious one. “Your explanations fall short of what I’m seeing.” “Your point?” Fenton hated to be interrupted. “My wife and I are simply mediums, each like a page turner for a pianist at a concert recital. The turner of pages may read the music to know when to turn, and even the greatest virtuoso must, in turn, play the music; but all mediums do not exist unless ears turn to listen to what hath been delivered unto them to find meaning.” “That means nothing to me,” complained the Vatican attorney, who despised the world of hath thee thou and thus. He pressed the remote to “pause” the darkness box and smiled, freezing two images in transition—the universe, and Mollie. “What doth these mean?” he smiled, always pleased to mock.
Photos: John Gonski; Collage: E. Morneau
“This is Hiroshima reassembled into a block of its own artifacts— before shot and after shot:
Hiroshima Earth It's All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Hiroshima under Cosmic Repair
A cosmic repair, if you will.” Fenton pressed play on the darkness box. “I thought you were an eologist.” “I am…” “What exactly is an eologist, asked Elgin Fast, interrupting, pretending interest, plainly bored by all things Vatican and Cosmic. Bob calculated that few people on Earth know what an eologist is. “In my spare time I study the letter E. E is the most prominent of vowels. It also stands for ‘energy,’ and weirdly enough, E at the end of ‘lovE’ stands for the ‘loss of energy.’ It’s a paradox.” “Yes, it is, but it is the great human paradox that governs all others…and that’s why we are here.” Fenton Bailey knew by the look on the faces of his audience of three that nothing cosmic was doing the job. He would need the wisdom of two-dimensional Mollie to step out the darkness box and iron the wavy, wrinkled hologram of herself and inflate back into a three-dimensional being. He paused the machine once more and beckoned his wife to leave the Tesseract. Mollie rolled her eyes and began her return to 3D, which, ironically, would take some time and cause her to be irritable and aggravated. But while she was ironing and inflating the wrinkles of time out, the App Master broke his own silence and nudged up to Fenton: “I have to say, Mr. Bailey, so far I’m a bit mystified by The Book of the Cosmos—your dead wife’s holographic presence notwithstanding,” Zorwell whispered to Fenton. He fidgeted while Mollie was 3Ding—an odd sight, like ribbon candy morphing into cauliflower—wondering that if he simply ‘logged out’ from the Afterland app, maybe the whole bothersome universe would simply disappear. “I suspect that some of this is your magic and trickery, but all I really want to know is this: Are there aliens? Are you and the Mrs. aliens? Please, tell me. I gotta know.” Fenton shrugged and mentally assigned Zorwell to that lot of humanity who had to believe in something outside of the self. If it wasn’t the gods, it was God; if it wasn’t Superman, it was Braniac 5; if it wasn’t Hitler, it was Ghandi; if it wasn’t Einstein, it was Klaatu. The default to suspended disbelief— this is, and what continues to be, the flaw in the whole of the Soul Retrieval System. “Do you know Luke, Zorwell?” “Hmmm. Not sure I know any Lukes. Skywalker?” Mollie threw him such a stare. “Oh, do you mean the ‘Bible Luke’?” “Yes, the Bible Luke.” “I do.” Zorwell was pleased with himself. “Do you remember the famous proverb he attributed to Jesus? And remember, Luke would know—he was a doctor of sorts.” “Sorry. Didn’t know there was an Apostle of Medicine.” But Zorwell lifted a curious finger to his lips. “Oh, oh…yes, yes—Was it, Doctor, heal thyself ?” “Very good. Look to yourself. Good. But wrapped up in that all-important exhortation was some biblical instruction much larger than medical advice.” “Ahhhhh…let’s see! Doctor, do no harm?” “That’s very nice, but…ahhh… think within.” “Of course—Save thyself!” Zorwell beamed when Fenton was about to nod his approval, but…
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“What seems to be the problem here?” Mollie looked peeved, yet boldfaced, ironing out the last few wrinkles of time and inflating a few of its cauliflower curves into her own carbon frame. Fenton was flummoxed. “Well, my love, it seems that our friends want a simple explanation of what it all means.” “All of it?” “Eology, mainly, dear.” “Energy? That’s it? You kids on this planet harness the energy of the sun and you are just now asking about it? That’s rich.” Kids? Zorwell noted to himself that something happened to Mollie while she was a two-dimensional being. Does the process of leaving the simplicity of two-dimensionality to resume three dimensionality require a vaudevillian sense of sarcasm on re-entry? Is sarcasm the missing piece to understanding existence? “Mrs. Bailey, we are simple folk. This xenology, eology, thisology and thatology—these terms mean little to such simple folk. I’m the son of pickle farmers…” “Stop it right there, Appboy!” Mollie screeched, now cauliflowered into three-dimensionality. Fenton went over to comfort her and give her water. “Have a seat. Sit for a spell. Take your time.” Zorwell liked Fenton, as he was sort of folksy…for an alien, if, in fact, he was an alien. “Mr. Bailey: Let’s back up, let’s talk about love. Bob said something about the E in love…? The darkness box suddenly released itself from “pause” and continued to roll random holographic images of the human story—all the nice things on The Voyager’s Golden Record—but punctuating these images with an obsession of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While Mollie was resting from the shock of cross-dimensionality shifting, the array of images became an all-out visual assault. Mollie was not ready to re-enter to mediate this cosmic outrage, so Fenton needed to distract the others from this assault lest they themselves dive into the darkness box. “Bob, you brought it up. Help us out. What is it about E?” Fenton stepped in front of the darkness box, but not within reach of the power of its draw. “Relative to energy, all endeavors end in E—not the letter, but the results. Love ends in E, but love’s loss of E—its energy—occurs because love itself is hard to sustain, is fraught with disappointments, and has difficulty measuring up to how the imagination allows for hopE to incubatE in its promisE. HopE ends in E, but despair is always around the corner. IncubatE ends in E, but its energy is finite in that what it incubates must be emancipated from its insulation. PromisE ends in E, but is always stalked by the liE. The liE ends in E, but is stalked by the truth, and on and on went the Vatican attorney… During Bob’s treatise on E for Energy, Elgin Fast slipped away, pretending to be caught up in the elegance of the E of it all. In reality, he had a headachE, which also ends in E, but would not deter him from resuming his original mission: To find Zorwell’s phone and sell it to the highest bidder. It occurred to Fast that Zorwell was too clever to hide his phone among Vatican clutter. He would therefore hide it in the open for quick access.
It's All About Arts Magazine November 2020
When Elgin first barged into the Cappella Paolina, he was taken in by its enormous and decorous door—the Sala Regia. Designed by Daniele da Volterra, the ornamental stucco flourishes created nooks and crannies —places to hide small things. This is where Zorwell must hide his cell phone, he believed; and this is where he was headed. But he needed to find a ladder. That may be a problem. He asked himself —Where did Michelangelo stash his ladder? Meanwhile, Bob continued: “Let’s take success as an endeavor. It permeates everything, from finding one’s legs as a toddler to marching off to war for flag and country. There’s no E at the end of success, but its energy is always subverted by possible or inevitable failurE. A toddler find her legs and then watchful eyes concerned for her safety inhibit her movements; a soldier marches towards bravery and victory to find himself at the end of a bullet, bomb, or rope, wishing he was a toddler finding his legs.” While Bob was rambling about the curse of Eology, images of war, war, and only war rolled past Fenton’s eyes, exhausting him, but rousing Mollie from her recovery from cross-dimensionality shifting. “But war is the one that alarms the universe itself.” Mollie finally spoke, sat up, and straightened out her last time wrinkle. Voyager’s images of a tranquil earth, of its natural harmony, it symmetry to time and space—obliterated altogether. There was evidence of sorrow in her brow. “Your private torment is not our concern. Your global torment affects the galaxy. This is our concern.” Our concern? Yes! Zorwell knew it—“Aliens! Let us give thanks,” he said, not knowing he said it out loud. Mollie moved menacingly towards Zorwell. “You think we are aliens? You think we brought this SRS here from another world?” “Yes, in fact, I do,” said Zorwell, confident in his guesswork. “Yet, you knew of the Soul Retrieval System from the start, as soon as you engaged Afterland, even before my husband first visited you. The moment you acknowledged the SRS we heard you.” “Say what…? It was a guess. I made the whole thing up. It was pure marketing that made me do it.” So much for guesswork, the App Master thought. “And please stop yelling.” Mollie turned her back and joined Fenton, who was still guarding the darkness box. “You see, Zorwell, you summoned us here. I’m not telling you things you do not know. We are your future awareness. You are beings who react and look back to pro-act. You have been doing this at various intervals of your history, which always sets you back. Re-act, Look-back, Pro-act,—that’s your mantra, in that order. Now, Before, Forever. And it has to stop before it all ends.” Zorwell breathed in the mysticism. They cannot be aliens, he thought; aliens have no time for puzzles. “Bobby, can you help me out here?” Bob stopped wandering around sermonizing to himself about the dualities of E and needed to put his lawyers hat on: “I’m an attorney, and a pro at obfuscating meaning and I don’t even know what you are talking about. This country bumpkin, cyber punk…” “Hey! You are all here because of me. Remember that!” Zorwell once again beamed with pride. Suddenly, the darkness box abandoned its cosmic Power Point History of Humankind and War and was engaged with the cinematic journey of Voyager 1 to the rim of the solar system. With profound elegance the spacecraft hurtled through space, sped past planets, and entered the Oort Cloud where it stalled and took its place among other Kuiper Belt Objects. Fenton and Mollie turned and spoke as one: “We are digital holograms, intelligence-blueprinted sentinels created from the information you loaded onto the Golden Record. For decades we existed outside of assembly. We are your soul emissaries returning to warn you, but prevented from doing so for decades. You summoned us. Your Voyager was the greatest expression of your love, but your digital universe was at its infant stages and you could no longer talk back to yourselves when we entered what
It's All About Arts Magazine November 2020
you see here.” They all turned to see the odd-looking little human spacecraft craft stuck in the rim of the Sun’s solar system. “Then came Afterland. An invention by this…this ‘country bumpkin cyber punk’.” Zorwell blushed. “We received the the digital yearning of humanity’s ceaseless curiosity regarding the beyond— your metaphysical Achille’s Heel—an obsession cast in poetry and chaos that draws attention from the here and now. And with it the digital instructions for our assembly.” Suddenly, the darkness box transitions into a flip-book images of ribbonesque streams of solids and vapors and swirling geometric and circular forms—icons of being and unbeing, of visible dislocation and invisible presence. Mollie and Fenton walk into the darkness box and take their places as holograms among these two-dimensional ribbon beings and unbeings. “Here is the collective energies of souls—the eology of the beyond.” Fenton took half-human, half-unbeing form among the ribbons. “They are all a part of the Soul Retrieval System. We old souls visit your Afterland to retrieve the souls of the newly deceased and escort them to forever or back to the living. It is the choice for each soul to stay in forever and fold into the larger force of energy, or to return to animae—the state upon which unconsciousness builds into awareness then into being. Some, like us, want to serve other souls—Soul Retrievers—to escort those stuck in Afterland.” Zorwell was intrigued and continued to be mystified, but needed to borrow a page from Bob’s ‘book of skepticism.’ “I’m sorry, Mr. Bailey, but if I remember correctly, didn’t your wife NOT want you to return to Afterland to see her?” Fenton folded himself into what looked like a crane: “That was pure marketing.” Zorwell smiled. “Touche!” “We knew you’d ‘jimmy-up' the system to reach beyond what you originally intended.” Suddenly, Fenton unfolded himself into a fiery version Sadako Sasaki. The App Master’s smile disappeared. “Mollie’s visit to Afterland was a warning. Over the years she heard from returning souls who wanted to re-animae that the world was no longer fit for souls. Many older souls from past centuries had walked through the wars, Holocausts, and Hiroshimas and would not escort those souls who sought to return. Soul Retrievers resigned from their cosmic employ and joined eternity. The result? With a declining inventory of souls to inhabit beings, the End of Times was inevitable. Soul-retrieving elders tried everything to entice repopulating the world with old souls for newborns. But even the lure of hearing the music playing in a mother’s womb could not entice some souls to re-animae.” Bob had heard enough. “End of Times, you say? Is that why your wife is ushering in the Second Coming in Detroit?” The darkness box roared and levitated. Suddenly, once again, the floor of the Cappella Paolina disappeared beneath their feet, but they were not falling through it. There were clouds and shards of light and shapes of familiar continents below their feet, as if they were looking through glass. Zorwell looked up and around and realized he was nowhere familiar, caught between the fiction and fact of space. The others disappeared. With no one around him, he was alone…desperately alone. He wondered if this was the darkness box singling him out because he had put its creation in motion. All the subterfuge— the
It's All About Arts Magazine November 2020
Purgatory App, the distraction of the Second Coming, the analog-to-digital return journey of The Voyager, the Soul Retrieval System, the overtures, foolish stories, and warnings from Afterland—mere marketing strategies to benefit his commerce: All of it was now outside himself, or was he was falling within himself, falling into the darkness box itself? Zorwell saw some thing fast approaching through a storm of Afterland’s cubes and orbs—plug-ins of his own design—and remembered the last time he shuddered and encountered flight in the form of spiritual abyss: He had to fall through the air of history to encounter Sadako Sasaki. Now she was soaring up from the Japanese archipelago, heading straight towards him. Trailing her were endless armies of living origami cranes. These are The Wandering Souls of Hiroshima, thought Zorwell. And they flew by him and disappeared until they turned abruptly, folded themselves into origami missiles, and fell back to Earth as sky bombs, dancing like whirling dervishes, expressing a Sufi dhikr—a remembrance of something holy that must be part of a Long Dance. They exploded upon landing, destroying nothing, and the Earth become red, then green, then blue. It was a ceremonial dance of light and darkness, and the armies of new living cranes returned, soaring again towards the looking glass, up on which Zorwell stood frozen. This seemed to go on forever, until Sadako Sasaki screamed—
あなたは私たちの魂を持っていないでしょう—
Anata wa watashitachi no tamashī o motte inaideshow: You will not have our souls!
The last living origami crane in Sasaki’s charging army was of the spectral likeness of Zorwell. It appeared beneath him…and he could not get away from it, as it would follow him—its face fixed beneath his feet.
My soul is following me. How do I set it free? Zorwell was lost in thought and he fell to his knees. The darkness box stalled, whirring and sputtering —the looking glass with its army of cranes vanishing. The Baileys fell out of the old holograph—writhing on the floor, shifting from 2D to 3D. When Bob helped Zorwell to his feet, the Sala Regia door burst open, both quickly stepped back, their mouths agape: “Hey!” It was Elgin Fast, holding up the treasure he sought. “I’ve got your phone. I’ve got your goddamned cell phone, you hick.” Then he ran back out of the Cappella Paolina. To be continued…
Afterland & Collages Copyright 2019 by Edward Morneau
It's All About Arts Magazine November 2020