The County Board of Supervisors awarded a Resolution acknowledging Cheryl Evans for having won first place in the County Poetry Out Loud competition and third place in the State Poetry Out Loud competition.  On Tuesday April 20^th Ms. Evans was presented with the Resolution, during the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting.  Cheryl accepted the resolution and recited a poem for attendees, from her original works.  In attendance were AC5 commissioners P.J. Shelton and Darija Walker, along with Robin Moore, Supervisor Glover, and Cheryl’s teacher, Pandora Sibley.  Congratulations to Cheryl on this official recognition of her outstanding achievements!   

ART PASSAGES:  MIXOLOGY Gallery Opening Review 
Mixology Gallery is open to the public 9-5 Mon-Fri at the County Administration Building
651 Pine Street, Martinez, CA

   Photos Scott Belding Photography

On Wednesday April 14, 2010, AC5 celebrated the opening of the new Art Passages gallery, Mixology.  In keeping with AC5’s mission, to act as a convener of the arts in Contra Costa County, this event marked a gathering of artists from the visual, dance, and literary arts disciplines in an evening of information sharing, reflecting on art, enjoying snacks and mingling among “living sculptures”.  The Mixology gallery, open to the public from 9-5 on weekdays, features six artists representing a range of talents from mixed media collages, oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, photographic art, monotype etched print, and commercial graphic art.  The six exhibiting artists were in attendance as well as AC5 commissioners Shelton, Callahan, and Walker with AC5’s managing director Belding, the show’s curator.  The event was also attended by invited Bay Area poets and writers who will participate in an Ekphrastic poetry contest based on the Mixology gallery. 

Moving Arts Dance provided an unique and breathtaking performance of Living Sculptures, where dancers are placed in the gallery in still poses that appear as sculpture, subtly and imperceptibly changing and moving during the 2-hour event, demonstrating a mastery of physical control and aesthetic beauty.  There were 75 guests in attendance with over a dozen poets gathered for the Ekphrastic event.  View the Ekphrasis poetry contest rules PDF file here.   

ANNOUNCING ART PASSAGES: MIXOLOGY Ekphrastic Poetry Contest & Online Gallery 

Click here to view the Mixology Gallery slideshow.  With the opening of Art Passages Mixology gallery, we invite poets to participate in an Ekphrastic poetry contest.  Ekphrasis poetry is the art of writing poetry in response to another artistic prompt.  In this case, poets can select from works on display in Mixology, to write a poetic response either as a piece of poetry inspired by the art, or as an interpretation of the art.  It is recommended to view the art in person at the gallery however poets may also participate by viewing the Mixology gallery online and choosing the art for which they will write, online. The Ekphrasis poetry submissions are due by May 8, 2010.  Click here to read the guidelines PDF document.  The winning submission will be placed on display at the gallery next to the artwork for which it was written.

ARTBEAT:  What inspires you to write, how does an idea form and how does it take shape?

Maria Rosales:  It depends.  Most of what I like to think are my best poems, come from nowhere.  I often feel that I am not writing them at all, that they are writing me.  It’s something that will grab me usually in the middle of the night.  Four o’clock in the morning is a very fertile time for my mind, and I’ll wake up with an idea.  If I am organized I’ll write it down, but I’m not always organized.  A lot of people say they keep a notebook with them all the time.  I would be lying if I said that’s true.  I try to hold onto the nugget of the idea and get to writing as soon as I can.  In my later years what I’ve found is that my problem with my hands being arthritic causes me to need to write on a laptop, so the notes part is difficult.  If I scribble something in the middle of the night I might not recognize it the next day (laughter).  Some poems come out start-to-finish - done.  Others I may work on.  And every good poet will tell you the whole business is the rewrite and the rework and the rewrite, to find just the correct word in a certain place.  I feel less polished than that.  My poems write me, sometimes the right word is there, sometimes I go back to it years later and realize, oh my goodness, I should have used this.  Or that doesn’t work, I need to rework that.  The older I get the more reworking I am doing.  But, mostly I’ve been writing all my life in one way or another and it isn’t as much a desire as a necessity.  When ideas come in the middle of the night, it is rarely about a dream.  There may be one phrase or two phrase suggestions, or even a visual image that I can’t quite get my head around.   Sometimes it’s a first line.  There isn’t any pattern to it. 

ARTBEAT:  Your biography talks about writing your first poem at age eight.  How did that experience come about?  Did you always write from then on or were there periods of non-writing?

Maria Rosales:  There have been many periods of non-writing.  There were times in my life when I was just not able to write.  But I would scribble notes constantly or I would draw.  And I would get intensely interested in other things.   For years I was very interested in dance and that was my primary energy release and passion.  But the desire to write has always been there.   And poems have sort of sprung up from nowhere throughout my life.  Now if I go through a dry period and I am not writing very much, I trust that it will come back.  I imagine it is a well that never really runs out of water. 

ARTBEAT:  Do you remember that eight-year-old experience, the first poem…?

Maria Rosales:  I almost remember the poem.  I wouldn’t dare to try to recite it, because I don’t remember it completely.   But I know the theme of it.  It was about some people tramping through snow - they were lost in the wilderness, and they ate their dog.  I don’t know where that story came from or why it wanted to express itself that way.   I had it written in non-rhyming couplets - each couplet had one line with an image of the beauty of the surroundings and one contrasting line describing their plight.  And it just came from nowhere – I have forgotten a lot of things in my life, but the impact of receiving my first poem never left me.

ARTBEAT:  Are you inspired by other writers and do other writers influence your own writing?

Maria Rosales:  Absolutely.  I am always reading other poets.  I am always reading novels, always reading other people’s short stories.  I love to hear other peoples’ turns of phrases. There is no doubt about it that we inspire each other.  I am in a writing group every week.  Part of the joy of that is hearing the other voices.  No matter what we are writing about, the individual’s voice and style always comes through even when we try to mask it. 

ARTBEAT:  What is your process for having works published? 

Maria Rosales:  I don’t focus a lot on getting published.  It’s not as important to me as it used to be.  When I was coming out of the poetry closet so to speak, it was really important that I get published in different venues and that I felt that recognition.  I don’t really have a passion about that any more.   If something gets published it’s almost by accident.  I don’t do a lot of submission.  So I’m not a good person to ask about how to you select the right venue.  I usually get referred by someone to a particular magazine or journal.  This brings me to an important point:  I love promoting other people.  I hosted a Monthly Poetry Reading here in Walnut Creek for four years.  I’ve spent a great deal of energy in last few years both presenting other poets, recommending other poets, getting involved in administration of poetry contests or banquets or presentations, and so a lot of energy goes to that kind of endeavor.  I serve as a board member of the Ina Coolbrith Circle - every year we have poetry contests and I’ve done several stints as the chair for that.  And we have another subgroup of members who actively go out and read poetry to seniors.  Silver Voices is an outreach program of the Ina Coolbrith Circle.  The Silver Voices mission is to bring poetry to seniors where they live or gather – in assisted living facilities, senior centers, and so on.  The idea is to go to places where seniors are really not able to travel so much.  We take poetry to them.  And not so much take our own poetry as poems that they would be familiar with.  Because often to hear poetry that they’ve heard in their youth can bring forward powerful memories and really stimulate their imaginations.  So we focus on the classics so to speak.  And we do presentation pieces where we will actually dress in costume and present that way.  So that is a budding project that we are very excited about.   The poets involved are all members of the Ina Coolbrith Circle exclusively. 

ARTBEAT: How did you get involved in Poetry Out Loud?  What was it like being a judge for the 2010 Poetry Out Loud event at Acalanes High School?

Maria Rosales:  I was invited by Scott Belding to assist with finding judges from the poetry community.  I asked other board members from the Ina Coolbrith Circle – Robert Eastwood, Maggie Morley and Gayle Eleanor – to join me.  We all had a great time – it was truly inspiring to hear those young people recite – it takes real skill to do that – and they were so passionate.

ARTBEAT:  What are some of the writers’ organizations & events that you want our ARTBEAT readers to be aware of.

Maria Rosales:  The Bay Area is loaded with Poetry Readings.  It’s rich with it.  Just about every weekend somewhere there is a poetry reading.  This (April) is national poetry month.  Just last weekend there was a poetry festival which was just fabulous, happens every year, in Pleasanton. This is a two day event and writers come from all over California for that.  Every weekend there’s a reading.  One of the best ones in my opinion is at Valona Deli in Crockett – but almost every town has at least one reading. There’s a local author Deborah Lee Pagan who produces a monthly newsletter called Strictly East – Deborah keeps tabs on the poetry readings and events in Contra Costa - actually everything east of the tunnel – if any of your readers are interested in getting on her mailing list, they can email her at debralee@astound.net.  Poets and writers who want to network with other writers might consider joining the Ina Coolbrith Circle – which is named after California’s first Poet Laureate, and has been going since 1919. www.coolpoetry.org is our website. Oh, and the annual Dancing Poetry Festival website is www.dancingpoetry.org.

ARTBEAT:  How do you balance your career with your writing.  Would you ever want to be a full time writer?

Maria Rosales:  It is a challenge.  I am terrified of becoming a fulltime writer because I am afraid I would be a sloth.  I think I get a lot done because I have to cram everything into just a few hours and that makes me very focused when I need to be.  If I had an unlimited amount of time I imagine I would stretch every task to fill the time, so I don’t think I would be any more prolific as a fulltime writer. 

ARTBEAT:  What is the most passionate subject for you to write about?  Is it possible to say?

Maria Rosales:  No.  What might be recognizable is the voice behind what I’m writing about.  There certainly is a voice in my fiction, which few people in my circle know about.  I write short shorts, or Flash Fiction.  This started just a few years ago. And I am writing more fiction now than I am writing poetry. 

ARTBEAT:  Can you give us your definition of Ekphrastic poetry:  what is it and can you talk about the experience with the dance performance of your poem Last Breath?

Maria Rosales:  Ekphrasis basically usually means to write in response to another artistic prompt.  Currently there are Ekphrastic events around, the one in Martinez at the Art Passages gallery called Mixology, for example.  There have been many in recent years.   It’s been blossoming in the Contra Costa and Alameda counties.  Normally poets will be invited to come and view art and then write in response to it, either to describe it quite literally, or to present an emotional response that is inspired by the piece.  Some of my husband’s works have had very powerful poems written in response to them.  His art is very visceral and speaks straight to the unconscious so it’s perfect for that.  (Note to readers:  Maria’s husband is the painter Marco Rosales-Shaw.)

But Last Breath is a bit different.  Moving Arts Dance and I have actually collaborated more than once. The first time, I invited some poets to come and observe them presenting the dance called White Light, a piece performed by Moving Arts Dance and choreographed by Viktor Kabaniaev.  The winning entry for that was by William Landis - that’s a lovely poem that is actually up in the current Martinez Mixology gallery.  That was the first time we’d done that.  Then there is an annual Dancing Poetry Festival in San Francisco at the Legion of Honor building.  I invited Moving Arts Dance to consider doing something with me.  They were working on a piece called Black Widow and I wrote a poem directly for the dance.  That was the first time we tried that.  That was really challenging.  It worked, and I read the poem at the same time the dance was being performed.  It was very well received by the audience.  We kept being invited to do it again.  We were trying to come up with something for the next event.  Anandha (Anandha Ray, Artistic Director of Moving Arts Dance) suggested, how about we do it backwards.  Last time you wrote to us, how about if we dance to your poetry?  So I brought in Last Breath, which was something that is very dear to me.  It is based on a memory of my sisters and I sleeping in the same bed and going to sleep at night and trying to lull ourselves down to sleep at the same moment.  And it also wonders what the moment of transition of death will be like.  I imagined that we would collaborate in a similar way that we had done before, with me standing there reading my poem either before or during the dance.  But she (Anandha) didn’t want that; she pushed me to dance!  So she recorded my voice reciting the poem, put it to music and we danced it.  At 58 she had me dancing on stage.  My friend, Laura Wine Paster was not a dancer at all but she stepped up and did it with me.  Mariko Takahashi was the main character and the professional dancer.  

ARTBEAT: In Last Breath, how did you link those two concepts, the idea of you and your sisters lulling yourselves to sleep, and the final moment of sleep - death.  How did that come about?

Maria Rosales:  A friend of mine allowed me into her dying process.  It was one of the best gifts I have ever been given.  I found myself wondering what was going on for her as she was approaching that.  And she did allow me into every stage of two years of her knowing she was going to die.  And so then, one minute she was there, and the next she was not.  She was such a powerful person, she lived very well and she died very well.  I was inspired by her, and I think the poem is partly about wanting to go out as courageously as she did, and be there for the moment.  I want to taste it, like the poem says.  I want to be right there. 

We met Brooke Goff at the Art Passages Mixology gallery opening.  Brooke is a talented Bay Area visual artist with a passion for aquatic life.  From her profile in the AC5 Arts Directory:  “I am an art lover.  Any form of art triggers my creativity. I am into drawing almost anything. I was raised around the water, so most of the art I do, is based around the water. However, I am inspired by all of nature's forms.



"...I can draw an object just how it appears, either it being a human, dog, or pictures of mermaids or fairies, it will be almost to the exact. I love to throw a cartoon twist on some of my pictures. My passion is children’s books, and I would love to someday publish my own. I am a Special Ed teacher, and my students teach me something new every day. So I try to apply what I learn to my art.”  Click here to view Brooke’s work in the AC5 Arts Directory. In the Arts Directory you can rate her work as a visual artist, and contact her by phone or email. 

ARTFUL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MONTH 

This month we present two contributors for Artful Photographs of the Month.  Maria Rosales contributes two photos from her portfolio and Carolyn McKechnie contributes four photos from her series Black and White Mourning.  Maria’s approach in these photographs is to frame the image with the idea that it will not be edited beyond the snapshot.  The art is in the original view behind the camera lense, and she spends time focusing on what will be shot knowing that it will be the final image.  Carolyn is a graphic artist and enjoys editing her photographs, sometimes pushing the limits of contrasts, shadows and light, drawing out the extremes from the original photo.  We hope you enjoy these contributions!  Readers, please submit your photos next month to keep us all inspired!!

photo by Maria Rosales


photo by Maria Rosales


Circle of Life  photo & editing by C.McKechnie


Land of Enchantment photo & editing by C.McKechnie


Alone photo & editing by C.McKechnie


Betrayed photo & editing by C.McKechnie

Carolyn's work can be viewed on her public Facebook link here.

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ARTS VIEW:  Arts in the Media 

Welcome to Arts View a new monthly feature written by contributing ARTBEAT editor Jan Weiss.  Jan is an artist and writer, with a background in arts publishing and arts licensing.  She has graciously agreed to contribute a monthly article lending her insights on the Arts as it relates to media, advertising and promoting emerging artists.  Jan has a true passion for showcasing other artists’ work.  Keep an eye on this section as it promises to be very interesting! 

Art and the Art of Social Networking
By Contributing Editor Jan Weiss
Artwork in this section by Jan Weiss

If you are like most artists you would probably prefer to be in your studio creating art, actively engaging your brain in new designs and moving ahead onto the next creation.  I know I would, but in order for the world to know about your art then you must tell the world. The technology used today changes by the hour; in reality keeping up would be nearly impossible but having a working knowledge of social networking and on-line marketing will make a big difference in the number of people who have the pleasure of viewing your creations.

The world of social networking is about sharing information – in small bites – all the time. Let’s start with a few simple ones. Say you have a Word Press* site and you want people all over the world to find you. Simply having the site and expecting browsers to find you in a Yahoo search are not going to happen. You need to announce your presence and that is done by sharing. On a Word Press site you can download a widget – which is an active button that provides information. This widget will have several icons that represent some of the biggest social sharing sites. These are: Twitter, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Digg, Facebook and Reddit. If you have this widget on your site you can share your post…each one of them with tens of thousands of other viewers all over the world. These are information sharing sites. Once you complete your post, click on each of these icons which will take you to the site and you will share a small bit of information about your latest post. Use the right tags and press send.  You will need to register for all of these sites first so to make it easy, first do all your registering and then when you create a post you can easily and quickly send it out. You do not have to have a site hosted by Word Press as this is just one example but there are many hosts who can provide access to these widgets as well.

*A note about Word Press. This format is a blog, much like Typepad and Blogspot. I happen to choose Word Press for this article because it’s what I use and it has a format that is flexible, user friendly and has great themes. But the other ones mentioned above have similar widgets and one may be better than another for you depending on what your goal for your site is. But that’s for another issue.

One thing to remember is that your post will rank on sites by the words you choose. It’s best not to be too obscure because more than likely someone who is searching for art will not use this obscure statement or sentence and you will not be found. I start every post I write with “Emerging Artist”. This way someone who is searching for “emerging artist" may see my post in the search results. The first sentence should include obvious information about your post. Let’s say you just finished an 18x24 oil painting of Mt. Diablo. The first sentence should be something obvious such as “just completed an oil painting on canvas of Mt. Diablo”. In those few words you have given a lot of information such as the substrate, the medium, the subject and who completed it. Let’s say a potential buyer is interested in finding an oil painting of Mt. Diablo. They would probably open up their Google search box and type in “oil painting, Mt. Diablo” and you being the search engine genius used these exact words in your first sentence. You have increased your chances of ranking higher in search engines, ultimately being found. Remember, when you write your post write it so that it can be found.

In the first paragraph I mentioned the word tag but didn’t go into detail, so quickly – a tag is a word that might be used in a search. For example, what if you listed a necklace on your Etsy site? What words would be used to describe the necklace? They could be: necklace, etsy, jewelry and the kind of beads used or the medium such as wooden beads, plastic beads, silver, gold, copper etc. Again, don’t be obscure…be very obvious! Put yourself into the mind of someone searching and what methods they would employ to search for a necklace on-line.  

There is so much to be shared in search engine marketing and social networking and this is just the tip of the iceberg. More to come in future issues of Art Beat.  

Bio: Jan Weiss is an artist and writer living in Martinez. Jan writes for on-line content magazines and hosts her own web site for emerging artists: The Art Planet.

FINE ART SERIES:  Now Showing on CCTV  
Contra Costa TV Airs Fine Arts Series, A National Gallery of Art Video Loan Program Sponsored by AC5

AC5 has teamed up with CCTV to offer a video series from the National Gallery of Art Video Library program.  In an effort to bring high quality arts information to our community, the AC5 is sponsoring a series of educational videos made available to us from the National Gallery of Art.  This program began airing in February 2010 and will be ongoing.  Check local listings.  Showtimes are:  SUNDAYS 7 - 9 PM, WEDNESDAYS 9 AM and the first and third Thursday of every month from 6 - 7 PM.  The series begins with featured American artists.  The content is high quality and educational, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

ANNOUNCING ARTBEAT Video Magazine 
Featuring Interviews of Artists from Contra Costa County

ART BEAT Video Magazine Presents The Art of Authentic Movement:  An Interview with Anandha Ray

Have you heard about ARTBEAT Video Magazine, the television series?  Soon to air on CCTV, the ARTBEAT Video Magazine will feature candid interviews with local artists within Contra Costa County.  The program is being developed by Scott Belding, the new Managing Director of AC5.  Belding brings with him a very colorful history in the Arts and Entertainment fields.  Motivated by his goal to realize the mission statement of the AC5, which is to help bring awareness and experience of the arts to all members of the communities in Contra Costa county, Belding set out to create a television program that would bring to viewers an up-close and in-depth experience of artists at work in the community.  The first interview was conducted on location at a dance theater in Concord.  The program will feature Belding as the interviewer, talking with acclaimed artistic director and choreographer, master teacher and former dancer, Anandha Ray.  Ms. Ray proves to be an interesting subject for this pilot program, and the show includes video footage of beautiful dance performances choreographed by Ms. Ray.  We hope you will enjoy this new series and encourage you to tell your friends!  Exact air times have not been determined, but a press release will be sent when the pilot program is scheduled, which is anticipated to be soon - May 2010.

ANNOUNCING Art Passages Television Series 

Art Passages featuring video highlights of the Art Passages Gallery in Martinez

 

Art Passages is a new television program being created that will feature an in-depth look at the Art Passages gallery currently on display at the AC5 Gallery location in Martinez.  In an effort to implement the mission statement of the AC5, the video program is being created to extend viewing access of the gallery to persons who may be homebound or persons with disabilities that may make it difficult to visit the gallery.  This program is still in development and airtimes will be announced soon. 

ANNOUNCING CCTV's ARTBEAT Programming Schedule 

ART BEAT has regularly scheduled programs on CCTV.  Below are the timeslots for ART BEAT AC5 sponsored programming.  

SUNDAY NIGHTS:  7 - 9 PM
WEDNESDAY MORNINGS:  9 - 10 AM
THURSDAYS 1st & 3rd OF EACH MONTH:  6 - 7 PM

The general format is, ARTBEAT Video Magazine, followed by Fine Arts Series.  The Art Passages video program is to be scheduled soon.  As a general note all AC5 TV shows are part of ARTBEAT... this includes:

Fine Arts Series, A National Gallery of Art Video Program
ART BEAT Video Magazine, Interviews of Contra Costa County Artists on Location
Art Passages, Video footage of the Art Passages Gallery in Martinez

NEWSLETTER CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:  Three Opportunities  

The ARTBEAT newsletter has three monthly sections with content published from submissions by our readers.  This represents three wonderful opportunities for artists to increase their visibility and share information with the public and with other artists in the community.  We invite and encourage readers to submit articles with photos and links, for the following sections of ARTBEAT:  

(1) ARTIST’S SPOTLIGHT publishes selected articles submitted by local artists or arts organizations in Contra Costa county.  The selected articles will not be used to advertise or market the artist's work.  Rather, they will focus on artists' point of view about their work, projects, activities, or lifestyle and experiences.  We want to feature artists' writing about their passion for their art, their challenges and their solutions, about surviving as an artist or arts organization in today's economy. 

Call for Submissions:  To be considered for this publication, artists and arts organizations can submit articles to AC5.  Articles selected for publication will be featured in the following month's ARTBEAT newsletter.  The deadline for the next round of submissions is May 20th.

Submission Guidelines:  Articles can be submitted via email to ac5@ac5.org. Articles may be submitted as in-line text within an email, or as a document attachment.  Please limit your submissions to no more than one page of single spaced text in 10 or 12 point font.  Images related to your article (no more than four) may be included as attachments and you may include web links.  Please do not send hard copy submissions.  AC5 reserves the right to edit submissions.

(2) ARTFUL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MONTH In an effort to expand the effectiveness of the AC5 Mission, which is to be a convener of the arts, and to make the arts available to everyone in Contra Costa County, we would like to raise "arts awareness" through monthly publishing of photographs submitted by local artists and photographers. 

Call for Submissions:  We request and encourage our readers to submit photographs of their art or, artful photographs.  Include in your submission a brief description of the photo(s) and any web links that relate to the work.  Please limit the number of photographs to four photos per submission.  For the February issue of Artbeat, the submission deadline is May 20, 2010.  Send submissions as image file attachments to ac5@ac5.org. 

(3) ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Call for Submissions:  The call for submissions is simply to register in the Arts Directory at http://directory.ac5.org/. 

AC5 IS ON FACEBOOK 


We invite you to join the AC5 Facebook group.  We will post events and general information from time to time on Facebook, and members can use the group page as another means to communicate with fellow artists, share information, and post images and videos of their work. Click here to join the AC5 Facebook Group.