Audubon at the GRAM - 4/26/11

Today in 1785, John James Audubon was born, and as it happens the Grand Rapids Art Museum has a small visiting exhibit featuring 30 of his bird prints, on loan from the Shelburne Museum in Vermont (photos not permitted but this wall was okayed; I also snagged one print in the photo, not intentionally I assure you :).

John Audubon has a fascinating personal history but that is not dealt with in this exhibit. The emphasis is on his work and the art of print-making. Two rooms feature his prints and another room provides information on the art and the tools of print-making, along with some background on subsequent editions of Audubon’s work and bird illustrating predecessors.

The introductory room contains a short summary of Audubon, a letter written by him, and a map showing his travels in the U.S. where he obtained his drawings over a 17 year period. 

To its credit, the museum does state that Audubon hunted and killed his subjects before drawing them. Today that may be a bit of a shock but in the 1800s, it was de rigueur.

“He drew the majority of his subjects on the spot after killing and posing them in a life-like manner...”  Actually he spent hours and sometimes days wiring the specimens before drawing them, and he also hired hunters to go out and kill birds for him. Here's an image found on the internet that is included in the exhibit.

Audubon drew from 1820-1826 and after being rebuffed by at least one American publisher, he took his work to England and received enough attention and funding to begin publishing his “Birds of America.” He also sold subscriptions to his work.  King George IV was a subscriber.

In 1829, Audubon returned to America, and made repeated trips during the 1830s. By 1838, over 400 plates were made, “drawn from nature by J.J. Audubon”, “engraved, printed and colored by R. Havell, London.”  Most prints in the exhibit have a print date visible and a few do not coincide with the date on the museum tag, which reflects the best guess as to when the drawing was done. About a third of the displayed prints are from the 1820s, and the rest are from his 1930s trips. 

The Havell Company traced the original Audubon drawings onto copper plates, and used etching and aquatint to engrave into the plate a detailed replica of the original watercolor. They then hand-colored the engravings. One print, the Wild Turkey, also credits W. Lizars with the printing. And that is an interesting back story. Originally, Audubon brought his work here but was not satisfied with the ten plates engraved by W.H. Lizars. He brought his work to Havell, where it remained. A Havell print now sells for thousands of dollars, and a complete folio, into the millions.

With new technical advances in color printing, Audubon and his sons attempted a less expensive edition in the 1840s, hand-colored lithographs, known as the Octavo Edition. One of these volumes is displayed in the museum, under glass.

John Audubon died in 1851. A few years later, his sons began work on another version of his work, produced by the Bien Printing Company. They produced and sold color-printed lithographs of part of Audubon’s work, but with the onset of the Civil War production was halted.

Unfortunately for the family, it became destitute and John Audubon’s widow sold his original water color drawings in 1863 to the New York Historical Society, who presumably still have them. She also sold most of the original copper plates for scrap.

There’s much more to say and read about this fascinating man and his work, and the information provided in this exhibit was not enough for me. It drove me to find out more, and that’s not a bad thing to take away from any exhibit. It’s definitely worth a visit, maybe two.

This peacock photo was taken in 2006 at the Oakley Plantation in Louisiana where Audubon spent four months in 1821, teaching the owner’s daughter and roaming throughout the area. He drew 32 bird pictures while here and the plantation is now an Audubon State Historic Site.

Approaching Armageddon And National High Five Day

Imminent Armageddon ideas have been around for hundreds of years, and National High Five Day for just ten. But today they coalesced in downtown Grand Rapids.


I noticed the motor home and other vehicles first, parked on Monroe Avenue. Then the man on stilts with his sign caught my attention and I pulled over to read the sign. As I did so, the stilted man was approached by someone from the Grand Rapids Press who was asking him why he was doing this.

Neatly pulling it all together, a few shouting people with a bull horn were informing everyone within earshot that the end of the world was 30 days away. Standing in front of the Civil War Memorial on Division, they could be heard several blocks away on Monroe Center.  

So make someone happy with a high five, or be very afraid. I think I’ll stick with this guy who just played on.
 

If you really want to know more, check out these sites:


http://www.nationalhighfiveproject.org/about-national-high-five-day

http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html

It's now May 22, 2011 and we're all still here. Whew!

Ice Chess and a Sousaphone - 1/11/11

A chess set sculpted out of ice sounded too interesting to miss. Local ice sculptors, Randy Finch and Derek Maxfield, are starring in a new television series on the Food Network, called “Ice Brigade.” This event is to be one in that series.

A chess board was painted on the ice rink at Rosa Parks Circle and the huge chess pieces stood on the board. One set was milky white and the other was crystal clear. They were beautiful and quite impressive.

The chess game was to begin at noon and the film makers wanted around 1000 people there as onlookers/extras.  When I arrived shortly before noon, there were just a handful of people present. A few more showed up as time went on but it couldn’t have been many more than 100. It was cold, in the twenties, windy, and snowing. 

A short while later, the ice staff (brigade) started moving all of the chess pieces around. Apparently they weren’t set up on the proper sides. Time continued to tick away with movie cameras and official photographers intermittently shooting on the ice rink. When moving the pieces again to prevent them from being stuck to the ice, one member of the brigade pushed a little too hard and a piece tipped over with a loud crash. Oops!

More shenanigans by the ice brigade were all we had to watch. That included dragging one of them across the chess board to clear the snow, and polling the audience to find someone who actually knew how to play chess. At one point Finch was being filmed carving a block of ice. Immediately the film crew, official photographers, and the brigade circled around him, pretty much blocking the view from everyone else (I did manage to get one picture).

About 45 minutes later the game finally began, and lasted about 5 minutes. Ah well. By that time I was freezing and ready to go. The funniest thing I saw, however, was this sousaphone player who would occasionally blow a few notes. She certainly gets into the spirit of things! But I don't think she liked having her picture taken.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meyer May Home - 11/30/10

In 1908, Meyer May commissioned the famous American architect to design a home for him and his family. May was a wealthy businessman who owned a successful clothing store in Grand Rapids. The neighborhood, now known as the Heritage Hill district was, and is, filled with Victorian style homes, and Wright’s prairie style design, completed in 1909, stood out like a sore thumb.

It has low horizontal lines and more than 100 windows, including art-glass skylights. Electricity was considered a probable fad at the time and homes were being constructed with gas jets alone or with both systems. Wright rejected this and installed only electric lights throughout the home (it wasn’t until the 1930s that 90% of urban homes had electricity). Ahead of his time in many ways, Wright also installed a central vacuum system. The overall feel of the home is warm and open. Interior walls appear only where they need to be for structural support.

It’s inviting once you are inside, but Wright made it difficult to locate the main entrance with the reasoning that if you did not know where the entrance was, you were not welcome.

Alas and alack, May’s family grew and he put on an addition not of Wright’s design, and the home was subsequently sold several times over the next decades. In the 1960s, it became a multi-unit rental, with carports and extra entrances added. The garden was paved over for parking. Disrepair ensued.

In 1985, the Steelcase Corporation purchased the structure. They took two years to painstakingly research and renovate the building back to the original Wright design. All additions were removed and the garden was restored. Some of the original furniture was retrieved and other accoutrements were added as faithful reproductions or antiques from that era. It is now considered to be the most complete restoration of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in existence (or maybe that’s just a Grand Rapids claim 😊).

Wright not only designed the space, but he also designed the furniture, chose the carpets and colors, and designated where pictures should be hung by posting two plugs in the wall. He never designed another home in Grand Rapids. Although he was commissioned for a home near to this one, he scandalously left the country in 1909 with his mistress and never worked in Michigan again. His life and other work fill volumes.  

The kitchen is not open for touring and has been converted into a modern facility, suitable for hosting exclusive dinners by the Steelcase Corporation. In 1987, the home was opened to the public for tours and was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a beautiful combination of light, space, and lines, and is a delight to behold. Just don't make the mistake of leaning on a piece of furniture during the tour 😉.

Grand Rapids Symphony - 11/20/10

The evening began with Ritirate notturna di Madrid, by Boccherini (1743-1805), arranged by modern composer Luciana Berio (1925-2003). It was a charming, short piece with little evidence of Berio’s modern work.  The program notes were very informative in explaining Boccherini’s intention of portraying an approaching, and then departing, band on a street in Madrid.

Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 was composed as one movement, and although it was fast-paced, the various sections were easily discernable. Although it had its moments of beauty and interesting instrumentation layering, it was our least favorite of the evening.

The highlight of the evening was Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The music is incredibly  dramatic and used to that effect in various movies. Probably everyone in the world has heard the opening “O Fortuna.” Text and translation were provided in a separate 4 page insert and the noise of paper rustling was disconcerting at times. If one is unfamiliar with the text, the issue becomes whether to follow along with the translations or to sit back and wrap yourself in the music. It’s a difficult call.

By not following along or not knowing the text, one might wonder at the shrill, grating solo by Brad Diamond (Oh, you’re a swan being roasted; in that case, well done.) One would also miss the ribaldry and humor of the poems.

The other two soloists had much bigger roles to play. Carrie Hennessey sang beautifully with her smooth, soprano voice, but Aaron St Clair Nicholson was the star of the night. His baritone range was extensive and each solo was expressively performed. There were a few times, however, when the chorus seemed to be overwhelming him.

The Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus was very powerful yet so controlled. There was never a voice hanging on after a cut-off and the performance was extraordinary. Occasionally throughout the work, the Grand Rapids Youth Chorus rose to play their part in the performance. At the conclusion, Music Director David Lockington looked quite pleased, and the audience was as well.

ArtPrize - Fall 2010 - the Big, the Bad, and the Beautiful

 

 

 

Thousands of words have been written about this event and I’m going add a few more with these observations.

If your entry is not in the central downtown district, you don’t have a chance of placing in the top 25.

If you create something huge, and you are in the central downtown district, you will likely be in the top 10.

Create a face or a landscape made out of tile, used wine corks, plastic balls, etc., and you will get people’s attention.

People who never otherwise come downtown Grand Rapids will wander around the city like lost souls, irritating everyone who regularly frequents the city.

Driving downtown is treacherous for reason stated above.

For ArtPrize purposes, people will go where they can see the most for their time. Hence, outlying areas displaying 1-10 pieces will not bring in people, and this should not surprise anyone.

Venues displaying only through an outside window are lame and should be discontinued.    

Venues closed during the day on weekdays are equally lame and should be shunned.

Meijer Garden was a well-run venue hosting numerous exhibits. It had a regular bus run but still didn’t have a chance of competing with downtown venues.

All that being said, I loved wandering around looking at the ArtPrize exhibits and hope that it will bring more people into Grand Rapids on a regular basis. I’d like it to be easier to view every exhibit without spending two weeks driving around to do so, however.

“Art” is lost among the venues and the large creations. Although I admire the craft, the  ingenuity, and workmanship of many things I saw, was it art? I am fond of Nessy and the Steam Pig, but are they art? They’re creative, outdoor sculptures meant to engage and entertain. I loved the sentiment and story behind the huge penny, but is it art? The mermaid out of toothpicks? That’s just tenacity and toothpick craftsmanship. An exhibit at a downtown church was mostly religion-infused opinions, and a few interesting works of art were lost among them. Another downtown church was open during the day only on weekends when crowds were the thickest so it was skipped.

The one entry that really had an impact on me was the photography of Ryan Spencer Reed in the DeVos Place. Entitled “Detroit Forsaken”, the photos looked like scenes from a third world bombed-out country, but it was inner city Detroit. If he had been displayed in the Art Museum, he might have had a chance.     

For all of its weaknesses, ArtPrize brings great benefits to the city, not the least of which are the many outdoor murals that remain part of the city scape. And perhaps everyone who comes downtown next year will know how to get to the Art Museum, except the person who deliberately walked on the salt and earth exhibit.

The Beat Goes On...but not for long ~ 1007 E Fulton St, August 27, 2010

In an earlier life, the store was part of a local chain of music stores called "Believe In Music," 1970s to the late 1990s. Mario worked for the chain and when they sold this location, he bought it and gave it its Sonny & Cher inspired name. After 31 years in the music business, Mario started liquidating his inventory last December.

Walk into the store and, except for some modern day music on display, you are stepping back into the 1960s. I expected to catch a whiff of pot but was just greeted by the scent of old cigarette smoke.

Autographed pictures and record albums cover the walls. The back shelf is filled with collectible dolls, most in unopened packages; among the oldest were a Grace Kelly and a Barbie loves Sinatra. Rows of CDs fill the room along with some DVDs and a few VHS tapes and 8-tracks. Of the two large incense displays, one was empty - sold-out.

I bought a few CDs and a Grateful Dead t-shirt, took a last look at a 5' round metal peace sign wrapped with lights that was leaning on a board painted with a portrait of Elvis, and wished Mario all the best.

Update 2013: The Beat is long gone as of this year and the building completely remodeled.

Kangaroo Kitchen and Catering is operating in the building currently.