Art Throb

Sylvia Lovely, a restaurateur and author, shares insights about her new book, "My Family Tree Food and Stories." The book combines Sylvia's passion for food and storytelling, encouraging families to preserve their culinary traditions through personal anecdotes and recipes. Sylvia, with co-author Nancy May, has crafted a unique culinary journal filled with engaging narratives and spaces for readers to add their own. During their conversation, Kate and Sylvia examine the overlooked art form of food presentation, exploring its role in creating memorable dining experiences. Through heartwarming stories from her years in the restaurant business, Sylvia highlights the intersection of food, art, and community, underscoring how independent restaurants foster innovation and personal connection. This episode is a delightful exploration of culinary arts as a vital and expressive form of art that brings people together through shared traditions and creative flair. You can find the book at Amazon.

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KATHARINE ERICKSON is the Museum Manager at the 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington.  She worked previously as an educator at a number of museums including the National Gallery of Art, the Washington Nati0nal Cathedral, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and for the majority of her prior career, at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, where she managed the Gallery Teaching program.
She joined 21c in her current role in the fall of 2023.

The current temporary exhibition installed in November 2024, is titled:
Still, Life!  Meaning and Mending in Contemporary Art.
As the punctuation suggests, this is a play on the recognized art form of the "still life" genre - flowers and fruits in various stages of ripeness and decay for example, but also a more subtle reference to the fact there is still life post pandemic albeit still with all its turmoil and controversies.  
 
Isolation fosters loneliness and disconnection, but also generates introspection and reflection and many of the works in this show attempt to capture this swing of thoughts and emotions experienced by many during the pandemic.  But they also bear witness to resilience and hope, as for example Valerie Hegarty's monumental and complex work FRESH START would infer.
Katharine discusses this new show, shares her thoughts on several of the works and talks about her first 18 months as Museum Manager at 21c Museum Hotel.

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ADAM TAYLOR BROWN better known as ATB, is a metamodern artist. 
In his work — a lifelong vocation titled SOULED, he conspires with his audience fusing performance and visual art through time to explore the universal truths: how perception creates reality, how mortality gives life its urgency, and how time, finite yet immeasurable, becomes the ultimate measure of meaning.
Grounded in the artist's personal history - witnessing his father's paralysis while celebrating his eighth birthday - SOULED began as a meditation of finiture.  It has since grown into a profound and universal invitation: to confront the fleeting nature of our days, to question how we assign value, and to reflect on what we leave behind.

ATB releases his work in a WAVE which is a series of 12 identical works sold consecutively for up to 12 days. 
The price of the first WORK is determined by the number of its WAVE.
The price of each subsequent WORK doubles sequentially.
WAVE #12 titled SMOKE will be released on January 4, 2025.
WORK not sold by the end of the WAVE is burned at a WAKE.

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In this episode of ArtThrob, host Kate Savage engages in a riveting conversation with Ave Lawyer, the visionary co-founder of the site-specific theatre company "On the Verge." Celebrating 16 years of transforming unconventional locations into immersive stages, Ave discusses their upcoming production of the historical drama "The Lion in Winter," set to premiere in late January at the storied Luigart Studios. Kate and Ave explore the unique appeal of site-specific theatre, from performing in eclectic venues like historic homes and vibrant gardens to the tactile challenges of lack of changing rooms and maneuvering audiences through intricate settings.

Ave provides a captivating glimpse into the complexity and intimacy of producing such immersive experiences, sharing an amusing anecdote of an audience member's spontaneous involvement in a previous production. They delve into the rich history of Luigart Studios, a venue that transitions seamlessly from its past as a hemp factory and jazz nightclub to its current role as an artistic hub, ready to host the dynamic narrative of "The Lion in Winter."

The discussion brings forth the modern relevance of the play, likening its power dynamics and family intrigue to contemporary figures such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Ave also emphasizes the flexibility of the script's anachronisms, allowing for a contemporary interpretation that resonates with today's audiences. Adding layers of depth, the episode touches on the seasoned cast, including Missy Johnston as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Kevin Hardesty as Henry II, who bring a familial atmosphere both on and offstage.

Ticket urgency is a recurring theme, with production popularity leading to quick sell-outs, and the consideration of providing refreshments at their current venue adds to the full immersive experience for the audience. Kate and Ave conclude with a broader discussion on the state of local theater in Lexington, mutual gratitude for each other's contributions, and a hint at a future episode dedicated to this topic. 

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Don Ament made his first photographs at the age of ten with a Polaroid Big Swinger camera, and has been photographing professionally since high school in the 1970’s. From 1995 to the present, he has worked full-time as a Fine Art photographer.
 
He was born with cataracts in both eyes, and, beginning at age three, had several surgical operations in the early 1960’s to save his vision. However, he remains legally blind in one eye, and experiences visual challenges in his other “good” eye. He does not have normal 3-D vision.
 
Ament has studied under, and worked with, some of America’s leading contemporary photographers, including John Shaw, Bill Fortney, Charles Cramer, and Bill Atkinson. He is a recipient of the Kentucky Al Smith Fellowship award, as well as numerous other financial grants and awards, and has led many workshops on photography and the art of seeing.
 
His work has been collected by over 5000 patrons throughout the United States and Europe. He talks about his work and his recent commissioned installation of 12 photographs in the Lexington Senior Center titled: FAYETTE COUNTY: NATURE'S RADIANCE, a deep dive into the natural areas of Fayette County spanning a 12-month period.

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​Jill Schinberg has worked for music promoters, agents, international festivals, and performing arts centers in various capacities both on the road and in venues large and small. She started her career at Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa and subsequently held positions with San Francisco Bay Area music promoter Another Planet Entertainment, Festival Internacional de Videodanza in Buenos Aires, Rena Shagan Associates in New York, and Cal Performances in Berkeley. Along with producing and directing, she has served as a consultant to emerging arts organizations, venues, professional associations, and dance companies in the United States and South America.
An ‘expat’ from a 20+ year career in arts management, Jill is currently an Associate Professor of Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky. She researches arts management consulting, programming as an artistic practice, and workplace equity issues and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Leadership and Management, Arts Programming, and Arts Entrepreneurship. She is a founder of Demographic Trends (www.demographic-trends.com), a startup dedicated to collecting and analyzing demographic data for organizations in the arts, culture, and entertainment industries.
In this interview Jill talks about a pitch competition that her Arts Administration students will present.  This will be the seventh year for FISH TANK: Emerging Entrepreneurs in the Arts.   Students work in teams and present an arts innovation.  Each presentation is fleshed out with a budget .  There will be a panel of three judges and after a questioning opportunity they will determine the best new idea. 

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LESA AKER IS a self-taught artist hailing from the beautiful rolling hills of southern Kentucky near Somerset. She has lived on a farm from the time she was born and has seen many circles of life which led her to appreciate the short time we have with our animal friends and our human ones as well.
Her medium of choice is pastel, as she find it allows for a vibrant and detailed expression of her love for animals.  Her inspiration comes from the natural world and the incredible creatures that inhabit it.
She sees the beauty and magic that surrounds us, from the delicate flutter of a butterfly’s wings to the powerful presence of a majestic horse and the awesome rushing of a waterfall.  She strives to capture the spirit and essence of each subject in her artwork, using color and texture to bring life to them on the paper.  Each piece is a representation of her deep connection to nature where the beauty of the animal kingdom is celebrated, and the wonders of our surroundings are appreciated.

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Lexi Bass has a BA in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky,  a MA in Art from the University of Louisville and an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University.
​She is currently a lecturer in Animation and Digital Art at the University of Kentucky School of Arts and Visual Studies and an experimental filmmaker and artist.  Her films have screened widely in London, Amsterdam, and other European cities and Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and various locations across KY.  Her new film Meander will air on Tuesday 15 Oct at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center at 6:30pm. 

Meander (2024) Lexi Bass
As artificial intelligence replaces workers in our increasingly elderly global population, companies engineering AI race robots amidst human inequities and emerging problems of AI sentience. The sum spells disaster for the human race in the dystopian world of Meander, which evokes both ancient Greek mythology and near-future science fiction. Meander finds herself destitute in the Underworld with no way to finance escape other than offering her biological potential for surrogate pregnancy up to dubious experimentation in an underground facility. Meanwhile, filmmaker/narrator, Lexi Bass, recounts her experiences of pregnancy and motherhood at the precipice of age 40 and the loss of her own mother shortly after, questioning the future of humanity at the precipice of Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Super-Intelligence. 

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Last year LARRY PEMBLE, eldest son of famed Kentucky writer and photographer James Baker Hall and his family decided to establish the James Baker Hall Foundation with a mission to honor and continue Hall's interest in mentoring writers by providing direct support to Kentucky literary and visual creatives. Pemble, who is President of the Foundation along with Vice President JEANINE TRIPLETT, talk about the Foundation's first Book Award which will be presented to poet George Wesley Houp who will receive $3,000 and a publication from Accents Publishing. 

In addition to discussing how the selection process was undertaken, Pemble and Triplett talk about why this award is so important in the literary world, and how they intend to honor Jim’s legacy by providing financial funding for emerging and established voices who specialize in continuing the unique voice that is Kentucky.

The 1st Book Award will be presented on Tuesday, 1st October at Spalding University.

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VISIONS IN TANDEM, is a collaborative Retrospective Exhibition of Dobree Adam's fiber art intertwined with Jonathan Greene's  poems. Lexington Art League, August 2 to September 20, 2024
 
This collaborative retrospective exhibition of works in fiber and photographs intertwined with poetry considers dialogues of vision and voice in the spirit of haiga, the Japanese tradition of painting with haiku. The art of haiga is about the synergy of collaboration, the richness and depth of an added layer of meaning each work brings to the other.

This exhibition centers on brief encounters and in-depth responses to living on their Kentucky River farm as well as to their travels. These encounters have brought reactions to landscape, sense of place, colors and rhythms, ambience, architecture, culture, and design aesthetics as well as inspirations for new bodies of work.

In the spirit of haiga, consider how the poems, fiber art, and photographs are related, and how seemingly unrelated works influence or redefine one another.

Dobree and Jonathan have developed a deep artistic collaborative relationship over their 50 years together. Dobree has become not only Jonathan’s personal editor but also a major contributor in the publishing of many Gnomon Press books and books Jonathan has designed and/or produced for others. They have had collaborative shows at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in Missouri, the Headley-Whitney Museum, and the Evansville Museum of Art.

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