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Arts Fine Arts News

Making Art by Suzanne M Steiner

White and greens in blue — Mark Rothko

Making art—Suzanne M Steiner

I am an artist and have been making and teaching art most of my life.. It is really who I am and in my senior years I realize that my personal philosophy about the act of creating a work of art is not about the skill of translating exact replica’s of Natures images, but rather making visible, the invisible joys, sorrows and wonders of life, fully experienced by the art maker.

The two following excepts seem to epitomize that concept for me and I share them with you. So much has been written about art on so many often quite opinionated levels. But art just IS and we know it not just when we see it, but when we feel it!  And it can nourish us the viewer in many personal ways as it tells our story.

The first excerpt is from a book “Life, Paint and Passion” by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley. I used the book as a guide in teaching my class ”Artplay for Adults”, offered at the Cancer Caring Center for cancer survivors, of which I am one. Both the students and myself enjoyed this experience of making expressive art from our inner selves and being at one with both the media and the message.

“Paintings must be viewed on the same ground which they were created——their aliveness, their energy, their vulnerability—in order to be appreciated. The visible painting is just an echo of a much greater process.  What is reflected in the forms, images, and colors is the by-product of a journey that has taken place on an inner landscape. The real painting has been created on the canvas of the psyche; the true artistic product is the personal transformation that has taken place within the painting experience itself.”

And secondly, I find the following, this offering by Muhammad Ali, in it’s simplicity so deeply inspiring.

“And so it has taken me all of sixty years to understand that water is the finest drink, and bread the most delicious food, and that art is worthless unless it plants a measure of splendor in people’s hearts”

Taha Muhammad Ali—1931-2011

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Arts Film Fine Arts News

Rothko’s Rooms – The World of Mark Rothko Abstract Artist

ROTHKO’S ROOMS, produced and directed by David Thompson is a journey into the world of Mark Rothko (1903 to 1970), who in the period from 1940 into 1960’s was one of the leading American Painters in the Modern Art world. The unique thing about this educational documentary is that it goes beyond mere facts and history.  Using action, interviews, archival elements, and additional footage, the documentary story penetrates Rothko’s abstract view of the world — unlocking the door to Rothko’s abstract work. This is a beautifully crafted documentary film well worth watching.

Rothko’s work and fragments of his life are brought into focus with the aid of voice over narration by Dilly Barlow. Also interviews and commentary with Sean Scully, Artist, Brian O’Douherty, writer/artist, and other artists, friends, family, critics, art historians, collectors and museum curators.  One technique used throughout the documentary is to conduct the interviews in front of subjectively lit paintings by Rothko.  This has an amazing effect, like being there with someone giving you a guided tour. Classical music, Mozart (Rothko enjoyed Mozart), is used in the film under interviews and in other scenes. Between interviews and commentary there are moments when you are allowed to spend a few moments on your own with the work and music.

ROTHKO’S ROOMS looks at Mark Rothko’s life from age ten when his family moved from Russia to Portland Oregon. Upon graduating from high school he won a scholarship to Yale. According to his daughter he did not begin his career as an artist until after he finished studying and then moved to New York City. The documentary makes a beautiful transition from archival photographs of Rothko to New York City and a series of shots of the city in a twilight rush of colors. The lighting and cinematography in ROTHKO’S ROOMS is excellent and helps to tell the story. It goes beyond simply getting a good exposure. The sound track whether it’s music or the sound of a subway train pulling into the platform, also helps set the mood and subjectively narrate scenes.

ROTHKO’S ROOMS goes a long way in helping one to understand abstract modern art; how the work represents emotion, environment and the artist’s presentation of those realities. The film looks at Rothko’s early years, his time at Yale, his evolution from the early years and New York abstract minimalism to his later painting. Like many artists Rothko did not like labels. He wanted his work to stand on its own. Rothko said: “I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience as I had when I painted them.”

ROTHKO’S ROOMS examines the circumstances surrounding Mark Rothko’s refusal to deliver work he was commissioned to create for a space in the new Segrams Building in New York City. He apparently did not understand that the work would be exhibited in a Four Season’s restaurant. He visited the restaurant before the installation happened and returned the $35,000 fee he had received. This work is now exhibited in the Tate Modern in London, England.

ROTHKO’S ROOMS is both an informative and entertaining documentary. It should be watched by anyone interested in understanding modern art, Mark Rothko’s work or enjoying an excellent documentary film. But the major achievement of this documentary is that it brings you closer to Rothko’s work and his message.

J R MARTIN – AUTHOR – Documentary Directing and Storytelling – REAL DEAL PRESS

ROTHKO’S ROOMS -2000 – 60 MINUTES PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY DAVID THOMSON, CAMERA MIKE ROBINSON, FILM EDITOR MALCOLM DANIEL © BBC -DISTRIBUTION KULTUR

TRAILER

ROTHKO’S ROOMS TRAILER

 

Rothko’s Rooms / Mark Rothko

Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.

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Arts News Photography

The Family of Man – Documentary Photography Exhibit

THE FAMILY OF MAN EXHIBIT AND BOOK

CREATED BY EDWARD STEICHEN

ORIGINALLY OPENED IN 1955 THE MUSEM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK

A DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT AND BOOK

It must be a wonderful experience to walk though this exhibit of photographs documenting “The Family of Man,” and to linger and examine each picture depicting so much human life and activity. No narration and/or interviews are needed, each photograph speaks for itself and then joins the overall collection of pictures creating a myriad of impressions. This exhibit is a testament to the fact that documentary actuality and explorations come in all forms, not just on film or video. The title of the exhibit was inspired by the expression “family of man” found in a speech by Abraham Lincoln.

The Family of Man Exhibit Clervaux

Clervaux, Castle

The Family of Man Exhibit, created by Edward Steichen, is a documentary employing still photographs hung in an exhibition environment. It began life in The Museum of Modern Art, New York and ultimately traveled around the world to thirty-seven countries. It is now housed in Clervaux, Castle in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen’s birthplace. The exhibition is undergoing restoration and will not be open to the public until 2012.

Photographs from the exhibit can be viewed in The Family of Man book version, with an introduction by Steichen and a prologue by Carl Sandburg. While the book cannot give us the same experience as viewing the exhibit, it does present the photographs as a documentary compilation of the exhibit.

In the introduction to the book Steichen writes, “The exhibition, now permanently presented on the pages of this book, demonstrates that the art of photography is a dynamic process of giving form to ideas and of explaining man to man. It was conceived as a mirror of the universal elements and emotions in the everydayness of life – as a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world.”

Photograph by Dorthea Lange – Migrant Mother

 

The pictures come from all over the planet. Steichen with the help of his wife and staff culled 503 photographs from the two million photographs submitted by amateurs and professionals. Two hundred and seventy-three photographers, male and female, from sixty-eight countries took the 503 photographs used in the exhibit. Included in these numbers were many photographs from the US Library of congress and Life magazine. The exhibit traveled worldwide during the Cold War. Steichen felt that it might help for the world to see the “essential oneness of mankind.” The photographs are grouped in themes including love, birth, work, play, death, pleasure, pain, fears, hopes, tears and laughter.

All of the photographs in the book are black and white. Photographs that depict love in many forms begin the story of The Family of Man. Not only lovers embracing but also love demonstrated in many forms including the love of parents for their children. There are photographs by well known photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorthea Lange, Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Diane and Allan Arbus, Mathew Brady and many more.

Until 2012 when the exhibit reopens in Luxembourg, the book version of The Family of Man, on its own, is well worth a visit.

Post written by  J R MARTIN –   AUTHOR CREATE DOCUMENTARY FILMS, VIDEOS AND MULTIMEDIA  Also Director of the Documentary Course at Full Sail University.  See other documentary reviews by James R Martin at http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/reviews

 

Categories
Health Life News Reading

Born To Run – A Hidden Tribe, Ultra Runners and New Ideas About Running

According to author Christopher McDougall the basis for this book and the fast-moving adventure story he tells, was a question? Why does my foot hurt?  Why do I and other runners eventually sustain all types of injuries? But this story has a lot more going for it than why runners get injuries. It’s a great read and hard to put down at times even if you’re the type of person who fights off the urge to exercise by lying down.

You will immediately be pulled into the Born To Run story, as if you’re sitting there with McDougall in “the dim lobby of an old hotel on the edge of the desert” in Mexico, as McDougall obsessively waits  on the slim chance that the a man he doesn’t even know exists might appear. Caballo Blanco, the mystery man of Mexico’s Sierra Nevada region and Copper Canyon is that man.

McDougal’s style of writing is first person.  He tells you the story as if you were sitting down having a bear with him.  He weaves together a great nonfiction story that covers his experience and introduces a cast of real live characters including famous distance runners, trainers, scientists, drug dealers, and the fabled running Tarahumara Indians who live in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico’s Sierra Nevada mountains.

For me, someone who has run for thirty years, this story hits home. Coincidentally my son gave me Born To Run as a present for my recent birthday. After all those ears of running my right knee  started aching along with nearby muscles in that leg. I have always ran for exercise. I’ve run a few 5K’s and a 10K once.  People have criticized my running style for my lack of “heal/toe” action. But until now I never had an injury or ache. Getting into a more natural style of running, as described in the book along with switching to a more minimalist type of running shoe alleviated the problems with my knee.

Born To Run is not only a great story it introduces a number of ideas and concepts about running that I never knew about. Good story and some great information and tips on running. What’s not to like?

Review written by Jim Martin

 For additional information on Caballo Blanco – Caballo Blanco’s Last Run: The Micah True Story

[amazon_enhanced asin="0307279189" /]

Categories
Observations Politics

Mitt Romney and The Blair Witch Project

Harvey Weinstein

 

Will Money and Hype Save This Movie?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harvey Weinstein was a guest on the Rachel Madow Show on July 6, 2012. She interviewed him about being a fundraiser for President Obama and other Democrats. When asked about the big disparity in the amount of money wealthy Republicans have raised for Willard Mitt Romney, as compared with what has been raised by wealthy Democrats this election cycle, Mr. Weinstein offered an analogy from his experience in producing and distributing films . He compared two motion pictures made for the same amount of money one that did extremely well and the other “so-so.” His point was that you could spend twice as much money on the so-so movie, and it would still under perform the first movie because it lacked the spark that a hugely successful film needs.  The point being that President Obama has the spark and quality to continue to be a successful President whereas the Romney movie just doesn’t have what it takes to make it at the box office.

Point well-taken Mr. Weinstein; I respect your expertise.  But I also know that there is always that movie that everyone thinks is a bomb that somehow finds an audience for some reason. One of the worst films I have ever seen was The Blair Witch Project, which I hesitate to even call a film. Yet it did extremely well at the box office because of a novel and effective advertising strategy that built an audience before the picture even came out.

For three years the Republican Party and its agents have conducted a smoke and mirror negative campaign against President Obama. They have tried every possible ruse, lie, and political move to obstruct and destroy his Presidency; all of this at the expense of the American people and the economy. They are so currently entrenched in telling the “big lies” that they believe they can continue and the audience they have built will not notice. I notice and many other Americans who are not brain washed by propaganda and fear notice too. It is going to take more than noticing to counter the Republican money and propaganda machine against the  reelection of President Obama. Democrats don’t understand this is a critical battle in an ideological war that has been going on for a very long time.

It seems like there is plan to destroy this democracy on the way to installing a corporate aristocracy which will rule over a totalitarian and possibly theocratic state. Okay, so this is starting to sound like some nut case conspiracy theory  (By the way, I’ve have a script I’d like to offer you to read Mr. Weinstein); but something is going on when so much effort is being put into taking back the white house, senate and holding on to the majority in the congress. Not to mention the far right tilt in the Supreme Court.

The majority of lies and attacks against the President are accepted by part of the population because they want to believe the worst about the President for either political or racial reasons. They are the audience of Fox Cable Faux News Channel. They listen every day to unrelenting lies, distortion and misrepresentation by a self-proclaimed right wing propaganda organization directed by Roger Ailes, president. Ailes was previously a media consultant for Republican presidents, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

The far right, neo-con corporate aristocracy has been working on this agenda since the days of the John Birch Society. They will not stop even when President Obama is reelected. The only way to slow them down is for the general public to not only reelect the President but to also vote for moderates and liberals of both parties. Governors of states who have gone along with this far right agenda must be replaced with moderates or liberals who will cooperate with the federal government. This is going to take a major informational advertising campaign. Meanwhile Blue Dog Democrats are running for cover instead on uniting with other Democrats.

Well meaning Judeo/Christian groups have been co-opted into supporting the far right against the very doctrine of their religions.  This is done by taking fringe issues of interest to certain religions and inflating them in the minds of Americans. Issues like abortion. How many actual abortions are performed in relation to actual births in this country?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard these numbers discussed. According to census data about four million births were projected for 2011; that is 1.98 children per woman in the United States. According to Guttmacher Institute about two percent of women have abortions for unintended pregnancies. The majority of these women in the US are Christian. Perhaps these religions and individuals against abortion should talk to their own constituents and families instead of trying to impose their beliefs on the entire population.

The most recent convoluted issue exploited was the protest of catholic bishops against the Affordable Health Care Act. Aided by Republicans in Congress the notion that employers needed to include birth control in their health insurance coverage became somehow an attack on religious freedom. Not of individuals, but of the Catholic church, in that they were against birth control and did not want it in the health care benefits for their employees even if they did not have to pay for it and even if the employees were not Catholic. The anti birth control posture of the Catholic Church leadership is not shared by its members. Even after it was negotiated that the insurance companies would cover birth control at no charge to these employers or employees the Bishops decided there was still an attack on their religious freedom.  Religions freedom is about individuals and government being separate from the religious institutions. Religious Institutions and organizations, who pay no taxes, and corporations are not people.

The far right aided by a number of factors has pumped up the vitriolic rhetoric in anyway possible. They take any topic that comes along and try to turn it to a referendum against President Obama especially if it is actually a positive achievement like turning around the economy and creating 4.5 million jobs. It’s not enough, not fast enough etc.  At the same time Republican Governors are laying off police, firemen, teachers and other public employees which creates more unemployment. Republican members of congress consistently obstruct bills that would create jobs. They use their majority in Congress to create chaos and then blame it on the President.

Getting back to Mr. Weinstein’s analogy, the Romney script has no story it does not allow you to “suspend disbelief.”  No amount of money will make the movie worth watching.  However, will enough hype and money promoting The Romney Project fool people in going to the box office and buying a ticket? It worked for Blair Witch. Democrats, moderates, progressives and independents need to take this election seriously. There is too much at stake to take any chances.

Written by Jim Martin

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About News Politics

Welcome to Almost Seventy-One

Did you know that human heads have gotten smaller over time? Have our brains shrunk as well?

Almost Seventy-One.com is many things. The topics on Almost Seventy-one range over a wide spectrum including news, people, politics, the arts, contemplation, meditation, ideas and more. Almost Seventy-one is a metaphor for experience and reflection, not chronological time. It is open to anyone interested in sharing their thoughts on a range of subjects about life in general, learning, relationships, art, contemplation, travel, poetry, writing, politics, priorities, recreation and opinions. We accept posts from anyone interested in submitting them.

 

 

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Our outlook on life politically is definitely left of center. We believe that this country is in a dangerous moment in its history when one election could shift the balance too far in one direction. If the far right gains control  of the White House the United States is headed toward destroying the democracy created in 1776. Liberals (and moderates) don’t take away people’s right to vote. Liberals try to take care of people, so your Social Security and Medicare are safe with Liberals. Liberals ask the top 1% of the population to pay their fair share of taxes. Liberals don’t start wars with Iraq or Afghanistan. The list goes on.

So yes this blog may be considered left of center or liberal. But it seems that the United States has survived because of a power balance  between extremes. If that power shifts totally to one side or the other the survival of this democracy is jeopardized. This is why most citizens of the country are moderates who shift positions between moderate conservatism and moderate progressive/ liberal on most issues.

This blog is open to all types of discourse. As far as the political commentary we look for opinions that make a case rather than spew vitriolic rhetoric. Please keep comments civil.

J R Martin

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