Zach. End of Summer Studios

Zach spent a month at the MassArt Summer Studios this year. It's a great program for high school students interested in studio art (or fashion or jewelry or graphic arts). Everyone has to take a "2d and 3d fundamentals" course and "Issues and Images" class, then you can specialize in various disciplines. Zach took ceramics and photography.

They visited a lot of museums in the area like the MFA, Gardner, ICA, and the Harvard Sackler, and discussed the work there and what it meant, etc. During drawing, they got to work with live models for the first time. At one point, each student brought in their work for a critique, which Zach enjoyed alot! He said he got great feedback and ideas. It seems like they got a lot done in a short amount of time and it convinced him to continue to pursue the arts. I'm not sure I would have predicted this when he was 2 yrs. old, but it makes sense now!

Each class had a final project due at the end, which was included in the student show last Saturday. Above is his photo essay, which had to do with smiles. Yes, we had to pose one night about 11 or 12 for this one. (In fact, working late at night, sometimes w/ assistance, might have been a theme, too!)

The ceramics final project was quite interesting, since it was more conceptual than the work we had seen before. It has to do with opening up....to me, it looks very organic and has a lot of movement in it. A lot of people at the show seemed to be impressed by it. I think Zach wanted the glaze to be a bit different than it turned out. We're trying it out in our garden now. :)

For the 2D/3D classs, he did a wire sculpture - actually 4 of them, with 2 figures each. It's showing a sequence of a kick...i.e. someone kicking someone else and falling. Here it is at the show. (His teacher suggested a larger figure, so the last one is bigger, but he used it for effect to show the other one being dominated.)

I won't post all the comments from the instructors, but I will say that he did well there and is looking to attend next year! Hopefully he can get the application done early and we'll be done with it.

I'll post more later or on his secret website, which is sitting there doing nothing so far...

Chris

Butterfly

The butterfly bush actually attracts butterflies! This isn't the usual monarch that we see around here, but it's pretty cool looking (and big). We saw this outside the front window and I ran out to take a bunch of photos.

Chris

New to Me Music

Here are a few recent discoveries in the collection:

Carrie Rodriguez - saw her on Austin City Limits and had to check it out further. Sounds modern and traditional at the same time. Interesting songs.

The Be Good Tanya's - I think they came up in an amazon.com list after looking at the Wailin' Jennys. Who knows? but they're good! They seem to be on leave at the moment.

Red Molly - We saw them at Club Passim in Cambridge recently and they are very entertaining and great musicians. They are still on tour.

Sara Watkins - Solo album. She of Nickel Creek, I enjoyed this one, too.

Bill Frisell - Disfarmer - new CD from Frisell written to accompany a photo exhibit by Arkansas portrait photographer Michael Disfarmer. You can hear it on NPR if you want. Another mix of new and old sounding music. Some of the stuff sounds like Phillip Glass and other like Hank Williams.

Marc Ribot - After reading an article in my favorite mag - Fretboard Journal - decided I needed to explore his music. Hard to pin down, depending on the setting, but I like the Cuban inspired band Los Cubanos Postizos and his solo guitar work, like on the Masada Guitars album, which also has Frisell on it. He's also worked with Tom Waits, Albert Ayler, and the Raising Sand album with Robert Plant and Alison Kraus.

Oldies but Goodies Dept.

Picked up some blasts from the past - Little Feat, Old and in the Way, It's a Beautiful Day, Pentangle, Mingus, Wes, Grisman, and Piazzola! Too many to mention and go into detail on, but a good mix to add to the collection.

I will mention one name, however, and that is Cal Collins, who I saw in Cincinnati quite a bit when I was there and is the most awesome jazz guitarist you never heard of. I had all his records and the digital versions are hard to come by. Luckily discovered some online, because they are not all available on CD or mp3.

That's it for now, check out this music now.

Chris