Before We Go
As you know, Garage Noir will suspend publication as a
monthly newsletter and blog after this issue.
Before we go, we’ll share a final taste of the energy, diversity and
creativity we find churning all around us, featuring in this issue:
A few parting shots at “the establishment,” two very
different and very fine artists of New Haven, a heartfelt and lyrical tribute
from Young Tim, an soul injection for the suburbs and a little dragon so dangerous
you should have a fire extinguisher standing by.
Judging by your responses, Garage Noir has been a success. I am proud of all we’ve done. Garage Noir was the collaborative e-zine of
art, music and the creative process and, perhaps, will be again someday.
Thank you for participating.
Karl Stephan, Editor
And Your Point Was
What, Exactly?
Excerpted from recent review in a glossy art periodical,
newsstand price $5.95 US:
“Thematic pairs -
vegetal, anthropoid, experiental - heighten drama and underscore conceptual
unity. Geometric, spatial compositions
suggest the stability of the built environment; freeform and planar compositions
inscribe the sensual flux of the natural one.”
I’ve seen this excerpt in context and I know the artist’s
work well. I think the second sentence
might mean: “Some parts of the picture looked like buildings; other parts
looked like plants, or animals.” Sorry, I
can’t make any sense of the first sentence at all.
Readers of glossy art table magazines know this style of art
writing. It’s the dense excelsior of
typeface you find applied to every style of art between the costly gallery
advertisements. To the reader, it is unhelpful. To the artist, it’s a positive disservice.
The point of Garage Noir was to bring you closer to art, music
and the creative process by sharing original work accompanied by plain English text
with first-hand commentary wherever possible.
Integrating art with real life was our priority. I hope it was helpful.
Willard Lustenader:
A Patient Man
(Email karl.stephan@cox.net to receive a copy of the illustrated Garage Noir)
“White Cut-outs, 1 Pale Green” Oil on linen, 36”x36” Copyright 2008 Willard
Lustenader, All Rights Reserved
I spent an afternoon recently with artist Bill Lustenader. We enjoyed lunch near his studio in downtown New Haven, after which he
graciously invited me up to his loft-style studio and living space overlooking State Street.
Years of open-air landscape painting, hard-edged abstraction
and classical figuration practiced in varying proportions have lead Bill
Lustenader to his current happy mode of expression, inspired by his young son’s
paper cut-outs.
A graduate of Vassar
College and the London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, Bill is
deeply versed in art history, but finds in his current work something so
intensely subjective and immediate as to be almost outside of that history.
In his studio I observed what thought was a glass
palette. (Durable and easy to clean,
many painters prefer glass as a mixing surface.
I use it myself.) Showing me the
grain, Bill demonstrated it was cherry veneer from his grandfather’s workshop.
Making wood as hard and smooth as glass takes a patient
man. So does the best art. Bill Lustenader’s work may be seen around the
country, and online at www.wlustenader.com
For Belma Geneva
Engebretson Hetzel – by Tim Mund (her grandson)
Grandma asked me four years ago to sing and play guitar at
her funeral. After my wife Anne’s
grandmother Ruth passed away in 2005, I sang and played at her funeral. Grandma Hetzel was there. A few weeks later when I spoke with Grandma
over the phone, she said, “Tim, I liked your song. I want you to sing at my funeral.” I said,
“Grandma, I’d love to sing for you, but you’ll be with us for a long time, so
we don’t have to pick out any songs yet.”
To that she replied, “Nope, I only have money for two more years, that’s
it.” Grandma had the frugal Norwegian
gene.
Here is my song, based on “Girl From The North Country” by
Bob Dylan, 1963.
Well, if you're
travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit
heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who
lives there.
She once was a true
love of mine.
Well, if you go when
the snowflakes storm,
When the rivers freeze
and summer ends,
Please see she has a
coat so warm,
To keep her from the
howlin' winds.
Please see for me if
her hair hangs long,
If it rolls and flows
all down her breast.
Please see for me if
her hair’s hanging long,
That's the way I
remember her best.
I'm a-wonderin' if she
remembers me at all.
Many times I've often
prayed
In the darkness of my
night,
In the brightness of
my day.
So if you're travelin'
in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit
heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who
lives there.
She once was a true
love of mine.
Tim’s 4-year-old nephew, Nathan, said Grandma went straight
to heaven on a rocket ship: Grandma wouldn't want to waste any time getting to
where she was ready to go.
Tim Mund is a musician,
software executive and father in Chicago, Illinois.
Kevin Daly: Hot
Rods, Hendrix, Hearts & Minds
(Email karl.stephan@cox.net to receive a copy of the illustrated Garage Noir)
“Amino Blaster (Slight Return)” Copyright Kevin Daly 2009, All Rights Reserved
I have never met Kevin Daly.
Our work has appeared together at group shows, and we’ve corresponded
briefly but I know he’s a generous and hard-working artist, totally committed to
his mode of expression. To paraphrase
Kevin:
He applies the vernacular of pop culture to modern formalist
painting to explore the relationship between desire and necessity.
To me Kevin’s work is about hot rods and rock and roll (Hendrix
aficionados will note the reference above), the prototypical American mix for
winning hearts and minds.
Large and (visually) loud, sometimes ironic but never
cynical, Kevin’s work celebrates life. Kevin shows his work frequently. It can also be seen online at: www.kevindaly.us
Live Music Review: Sharon Jones in Baltimore – by Martha Marani
Six moms from suburban Baltimore, we were surrounded by urban hipsters, porkpie hats, six-inch mohawks and lip piercings – but all the contrasts fell away as we joined the collective shimmy and shake of a Sharon Jones show at Baltimore’s Ram’s Head club.Sharon and her Dap-Kings issued challenge after challenge, pulling a gentle-looking guy we dubbed “Pat” onto the stage first, then two frat boy types with surprisingly good moves before dismissing a girl in a strapless black dress with an eye roll (we agreed.) For a girl in cowboy boots - the only one to give Ms. Jones and her Dap Kings a run for their money - she stepped back to make room. Respect. But nothing any of us did - no hip swaying, foot stomping, hand clapping or finger snapping - came close to keeping up with the boundless energy that’s packed into this musical dynamo. We were better for trying though. It’d been raining in Baltimore for days and days. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings chased those clouds away. The sun is shining today. I have a song in my heart - “100 Days, 100 Nights” - and a shimmy in my step. Take it, shake it, throw it on the floor. The sun is out and Ms. Sharon Jones has been to Baltimore!
Martha Marani is a
writer, editor, neighborhood activist and mom in Baltimore.
Caution: Hot!
(Email karl.stephan@cox.net to receive a copy of the illustrated Garage Noir)
“Kate’s
Dragon,” Applique, crayon and marker on
construction paper. Copyright Katherine Marani 2009, All Rights Reserved
Our Final Playlist*
– (Garage Noir MySpace Songs of the Week for May):
"Não Interessa Não" – by Brazil’s fabulous Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda.“Wonderlust King” – from Eastern European gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello.“Buhalla” – hypnotic music of Morocco by Hassan Ben Jaafar."Rock & Roll Is Never Gonna Die" – super-punk from London’s Atomic Suplex.“El Reloj de la Pastora” – by Mumbai Taxi, from, naturally: Indianapolis, Indiana. *Note: Garage Noir will continue to recognize deserving artists on MySpace weekly.
Editorial Statement
Garage Noir was the
collaborative e-zine of art, music and the creative process. We were an inclusive free publication, delivering
varied non-mainstream information and creative content to an unlimited
readership. We invited content
submissions which were selected according to the publication’s monthly theme.
Perhaps someday we will again.
Art Music Life
THANK YOU.