Saturday, November 7, 2009

Heino @ the Red Mug

If you're at all acquainted with the Twin Ports art scene you will no doubt be aware of the Red Mug, a gallery/coffee house in the basement of the old Superior City Hall. The operative word is cool, or maybe warm (the vibes), or chic. One patron here called it "an artsy little coffee house." And tonight, we've got a special event on tap... an art opening for John Heino's photography exhibition called Fleeting: Excerpts from Infinity.

Heino is probably better known for three decades of keyboard antics with the Centerville All Stars, as well as the original song compositions that flooded the tracks of his first CD, Not Dead Yet. (He's written more than 300 songs not yet in circulation.)

It only makes sense that the mood being established here weaves both art and music. From 5-7 a local jazz team called Perfectini created two hours of sweet melodious riffs to fill in the background. From 7-9 the All Stars then assembled to perform a two hour set called Centerville Unplugged.

Perfectini is composed of Robert Linnemann on sax and Darin Bergsven, electric guitar. I had heard about town that they were special and now I know why, their soothing sounds offering hints of Miles and Wes Montgomery or Billy Bernard.

Of Heino's photography Lance Coultier, lead singer for the All Stars said,"Wonderful, gosh, I'm very impressed. And I do like the titles for the pieces."

The titles are quite entertaining actually. Splash, Composition D, Red Thread, Fish Camp, Multigrain, After Flow 30, Leave Them Kids Alone, Abode of the Vital Force and more. O.K., you get the picture. This guy is having fun. But he's not just funnin' us. It's serious work and a joy to engage.

I asked Centerville guitarist George Zissos what he thought of John's photography and he said, "I didn't know about this side of John. I'm amazed."

"He's got an eye for the right shot, especially the color photos. I could never take a photo like that," said Gary Koski while pointing to a spectacular image titled Manitoba Twilight.

The artist's reception here is nice, but even a slow roll through his online gallery at JohnHeino.com will give you a pretty good picture of what you missed.

Ansel Adams purportedly stated that "twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop." The 35 images here challenge this limitation and I'm confident you'll enjoy seeing the world through this particular lens. It's all good.

4 comments:

Christella D. Moody said...

Sounds like a fun evening.

Ed Newman said...

Yes, it was pretty cool... good vibes, good music, good people all around.
e.

"Hillsider Newspaper" said...

I enjoyed this show. Yes, John has a good eye. I liked how he showed off texture in the close up of sand beaches. I also like the photo of the lily. John told me that it was truly so vibrant that he was worried people would not believe that was its real color.
Naomi

Ed Newman said...

Hey, thanks for checking in. John not only has a good eye, he has a good heart. It has been fun watching his enthusiasm level the past several months as he shared what he was trying to do.
The best thing is, the best is yet to come.
e.

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