Last Friday, February 24th, I stopped into fellow LCC instructor Jon Meyer’s studio to see the documentary Through a Lens Darkly presented by Photography at Oregon, a non profit organization in Lane County that puts on exhibits and other events like the showing of this film particularly in the field of photography. Though a Lens Darkly showcases the history of African American Photography in America from Fredrick Douglas, who’s self portraits were some of the first published and well known African-American photographs that showed blacks in a positive to the contemporaries  of the late 20th century. Filmaker Thomas Allen Harris intermingles history with his own childhood memories and his introduction to photo taking. The harsh images of lynching and mystral shows are mixed with happy families enjoying a normal life. References and interviews with Anthony Garboza and Renee Cox enhances the story about the “National Family Album”.

The people of Photography at Oregon were very friendly and welcomed all who walked in with free popcorn(which was delicious) and free coffee(which was instant. The man I was sitting next to seemed like he was thrilled that there was free stuff and signed up for the mailing list just on that alone. I attract the coolest people to talk to. At the end of the movie it was mentioned there was going to be a discussion amongst ourselves the viewers which seemed awkward in a way to me, it being one of the first times I have been to one of their events. I didn’t stay for anxiety sake. At one point of the screening I went to the bathroom and heard a noise that sounded like I got locked out of the screening. Hopefully the more I go to things like this, the less I will overthink what people think.

I guess also this was something of a cop out for this project. I mean it was a movie, that was originally shown on PBS. I could be full of BS and just watched the movie on tv, which I didn’t I swear. I should of at least gone to an event where the artist or even filmmaker was in attendance. I have done that before. This one time Crispin Glover was in town at the bijou and he was in the lobby during the movie. I had to pee in the middle of the movie so when I went to the lobby and Glover tried to avoid interaction with me by going to the courtyard but he didn’t that theres no exit in the courtyard and that is where the bathrooms are, which is where I was going. so he had to turn around and we had an awkward head nod moment. I used to hang out with a gal who worked at Vistra frame shop and they are a part of the first Friday art walk. I would go and visit when she had to hang at those things. I used to mind my P’s and Q’s and try and manage my vino and cheese intake. BOY OH BOY OH BOY! I DOOOOOO LOVE ME SOME FREE CHEESE!!!

LINKS….

https://photographyatoregon.org

I went for the Professional Practices for this assignment. I attended an event here at Lane. The event was titled Print makers of the Northwest. I have no experience in printmaking. so I thought to myself this would be an interesting talk to hear and maybe learn something from. I believe we have all heard of printmaking but I was unaware of the process or perks of doing printmaking. The talk was lead by Susan Lowdermilk and Tallmadge Doyle, they are both very experienced in printmaking. Both artists have been doing this work for years. Susan and Tallmadge have taught many classes and workshops about the process of printmaking and how you can use printmaking for many things. Susan is an instructor here at Lane, she teaches a printmaking class that you can make pop-up books in. Tallmadge use to be an instructor here at Lane and at UO.  They each explained their favorite techniques on how they liked to make prints, and they discussed the many other ways prints can be created. Susan and Tallmadge I believe do most of their work on woodblock, where they use different tools to carve out their piece. They discussed how each print maker like many other art forms use a special technique that forms an individual image for themselves. It is quite a process, and they explained it as almost being mysterious being able to lift up the paper you printed on and seeing the final product. First, you have to gather the materials you need. Prints are kind of like stamps, I think of printmaking as similar to stamps. You make grooves or etch into a platform. Your platform could be a piece of plexiglass, piece of rubber, a copper plate, or a block of wood. After you think you are finished you fill the grooves with ink and then you lay a piece of paper over whatever platform you are using and the paper soaks in the ink from the grooves. It is all done by hand too, you can incorporate different art forms into one piece like drawing to etch out your platform, or painting for the color mixing. We were surrounded by prints, at the event. Every direction you looked there was a print hanging next to a print that was made using a totally different technique. Some prints were mixed media, that used watercolor and the process of printmaking. Others blended colors in a way I couldn’t understand, until Susan and Tallmadge explained. The prints that were being shown were part of the Non Profit organization One thing that really caught my attention about printmaking was the fact that you can create multiple originals. Multiple originals that are handmade, Its not very common in the many different types of art. Susan had told us that she probably had at least one print if not more of each of the prints she has ever created. To be able to keep an original copy of each of your works kind of intrigued me. I wish I could have been able to have a original of almost every piece of my own artwork.

By: Nieman Adams-Jackson

For my X4 project I decided to go with the informational interview option. You can say I lucked out on this project quite a bit, because I was able to interview one of my best friends, Steven Zeller. To give you a bit of back story, Steven and I have been best friends from HighSchool when I used to live in Vegas, so we have quite a history together.

Steven is currently traveling for his job with the company Cirque Du Soleil, who is touring their show Kurios in multiple cities across the United States. He works for the company under the title of Sound Technician technically, but his tasks include much more. On any given night he could be running the front of house, running backstage monitor, which is mixing the bands monitors. He is also in charge of running and maintaining video and communication for the technical tracks of the show. He also uses headset com packs to receive stage cues from the stage manager. So essentially in a nutshell he is running the whole show, under the title of Sound Technician.

Usually Cirque only does one show a night on Tuesdays through Thursdays. On these days he arrives four hours before the show to fix or maintain all of the presettings for the audio levels. On days where he does two shows he shows up 6 hours early, to test mic’s, do soundchecks for the bands, and make sure everything is operational before showtime.

Steven went to school for recording arts, working in recording studios, and then sound studios for tv and film with his focus in Automated Dialogue Replacement. Automated Dialogue Replacement is raw dialogue that you would shoot for film and rerecord it in a studio. He was study this at LMU.

Unfortunately he got broke and came back home to Las Vegas. He enrolled at the  University of Las Vegas Nevada. He was undeclared for a year, and in the meanwhile started working at the radio station on campus to continue within the realm of his interests.

In Spring of 2012 he realized he could major in theater arts/ design in technology, and learned all aspects of technical theater. He graduated in Spring of 2014, which was when he was offered a job with Cirque Du Soleil: The Beatles Love, at the Mirage hotel and casino. The Mirage is the  home to that famous tiger that mauled Roy, from Siegfried and Roy. Love is actually in the Siegfreid and Roy theater now, after they reconstructed it. He worked for The Beatles  Love for three years, until he got an offer to go on tour for the show Kurios. His favorite part of tour is getting paid to travel the country, and in 2018 the world when the show goes international.

He said it can be difficult working for an international company. Working with coworkers from other countries where English is their second language, you have to convey certain goals that you have to accomplish. Especially when it comes to high stress situation like loading in, and loading out the show.

In his spare time he played with Shayna Rain which is his band. He has gone on three tours with them, and did the mixing for their last ep. He started off playing bass and moved over to drums and programming, toured the west coast three times, and the entire country one time. Enjoyed the fact that they got share their music with complete strangers, and that music could bring complete strangers together. Unfortunately he had to leave the band in order to go on tour with Cirque Du Soleil. He feels like leaving the band in order to go on tour is the right choice, but he does miss it. In order to succeed with his goals, he does felt that it was the right choice.

Cirque Du Soleil is coming to Portland in Fall if you would like to check out the show. Posted below is a music video of his band that he directed and edited, and a promotional video for Cirque Du Soleil’s Kurios.

The activity I attended was the Prints from Print Arts Northwest lecture in Building 11’s main gallery on February 15th. The two women who presented the artwork were, Susan Lowdermilk and Tallmadge Doyle. They also had their own pieces in the show too. There were many things that interested me about this art show. I chose to go to this lecture because it gave me something new to learn about. I knew nothing about art that came from printmakers until now.

Printmaking has been around for a very long time and has become modernized and more technical over the years. Currently, three-D printing is becoming very common. As I was looking around at the pieces of art, they all seemed completely different because they are. There are many different ways to do printmaking and with knowledge about the prints, you may be able to tell what kind it is and how it was made. For example, dry paint, mono type, and solar plate are a few different ways. Printmaking definitely does not seem easy, but it can be very creative and simple.

The definition of printmaking is, “multiple original”. The speakers described the art to be like stamps. Printmaking pieces come from all around the world. There are also many limited editions of printmaking art. Many people have made their living off of being professional artists. I have a huge amount of respect for artist and their work. It’s truly an amazing sight to see.

By: Gabby Mujica