Red Interactive art opening slated for September 22 in Superior

Red Interactive is inviting the public to an art opening the evening of September 22 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 1410 Tower Avenue in Superior (the New York Building). The project is an experimental art initiative conceived by Ed Newman and John Heino as part of Phantom Galleries Superior.

Utilizing social media, Red Interactive has received virtual and physical submissions from six continents, a dozen countries and a dozen states over the past few months since its inception in May. This opening is the first tangible event presenting a sample of what has been happening in virtual space. Admission is free. Attendees are strongly encouraged to wear red.

On display will be the acrylic paintings and mixed media constructions by Newman and the photography of Heino as well as work by various contributors to the Red Interactive Facebook community which had more than 21,000 pageviews this past month. One section of the gallery is devoted to kids’ pictures from China. The event will also feature red-themed dance performances.

“We’re asking that everyone who joins us that night bring with them a red object that can be incorporated into a collaborative sculpture,” said Newman.

In response to the question, “Why red?” Heino says, “Red is a trigger and a theme. It could have been ‘blue’ or "farm animals’ or ‘show tunes for $100.’ The theme merely presents the first thread from which the ultimate tapestry is woven into fractals of infinity. Why red? Because it has such a rich array of connotations – passion, danger, romance, intrigue and the like.”

Phantom Galleries Superior is one of six Phantom Gallery initiatives in the state of Wisconsin supported by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the state of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. PGS is a unique partnership between Superior Public Art Creating Community Environments (SPAC2ES) and Superior Business Improvement District (BID), the property owners, the artists, and the community. Use of properties is generously donated by the owners. Additional support comes from multiple artistic resources, the BID, and the Morgan Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.

For immediate release, September 9, 2011

For more information about Red Interactive contact:
John Heino jheino@chartermi.net or (218) 590-1145

For information about Phantom Galleries Superior contact: Erika Mock erikamock@gmail.com 715.392.1150

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Seven Minutes with Fairy and Goddess Artist Liza Lambertini

When I first saw Liza Lambertini's it evoked a number of emotions, ranging from the innocence of childhood to Peter Pan's Tinkerbelle. She calls her work Fairy & Goddess Art born out of love.

Originally from Queens NY, she currently resides in Long Island with her husband and wonderful “fur people” family.

Ennyman: How did you first come to take an interest in art?

Liza L: I believe as soon as my hands started cooperating, my one hand held the bottle and the other wielded a crayon! Art and creating came naturally to me since I was a baby. Art is more than an interest for me and this has been so throughout my life. Today art is a way of living and a means of manifesting positive and putting love into the world for me.

Enny: What is your favorite medium to work with and why?

Liza L: I am a graphic artist. Which means I paint using a pen/brush and an electronic tablet. I love to paint and hand draw my work in this way because I feel it allows me a freedom that I would not have with other mediums. I have painted in acrylic, oils, watercolor, pencils and so forth. I am still learning more working in graphic art and it is very exciting to me. A path of discovery and growth.

Enny: Who have been your favorite artists and how have they influenced you?

Liza L: I love Cecily Mary Barker’s children flower faeries. I admire her work because I see the innocence and discovery of wonderment in the natural world with her faeries. Which visually aligns with my own belief of sweet faeries and their purpose to inspire love of the natural world. Cecily is also one of the first artists out there who truly devoted her work to the faeries. She was around before I was born. Silhouette artists like Diefenbach, whose nymphs I remember seeing as a child, to this day are breathtaking to me. Ultimately and awesomely my favorite artist in the whole world is the Being who created all the beauty that surrounds me on a daily basis. I call it Nature. It has supported me to create from my own heart and to incorporate the love I see around me that I am truly enthusiastic about and grateful for. This has led me to be the original creator of this new and exciting style of fairy silhouette art with vibrant and richly colored backgrounds. :D Faery cheers!

Enny: What was it that attracted you to the themes in your current work involving faeries?

Liza L: I believe it was being switched at birth :D Then I began drawing and out popped a faery! Laughter, joy, wonderment, discovery. The positive pixie possibilities and the wonder of it all. I have believed in the faeries since before I could talk. I strongly feel preserving the beauty of the inner child is crucial to the creative and open mind, because it is within this place that possibilities of creation and art begin. I can’t say for certain if it was I who was attracted to the faeries or they to me. Probably both. To me they are a part of my life and my heart, this has always been and always will be. For me it was not simply an attraction. This too is a way of being. Love is magic.

Enny: Any suggestions for emerging artists?

Liza L: Shakespeare said it best “To thine own self be true”

AND

"Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom. It is as true as sunbeams.".... Douglas William Jerrold

Enny: What's the best way to see more of your work?

Liza L: We are currently updating my entire site and will be doing a renovation. So please check back to see a more updated version in the future.

You may find me and my faeries at... http://www.lizalambertini.com

And my adventures/miracles in nature here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizalambertini

Wordless Wednesday, 9-7-11

Today in the Arts

Happenings around town and around the globe.

1. New York artist Miya Ando's sculpture After 9/11 was unveiled in central London yesterday. Mayor Boris Johnson did the unveiling. The piece is constructed from steel taken from the World Trade Center.

2. Sotheby's is conducting an Islamic World arts sale that will feature exceptional ceramic works from the collection of Harvey B. Plotnick.

3. Ruth Ziólkowski, the 85-year-old widow of artist Korczak Ziólkowski, is continuing the mountain-sized monument to Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The memorial when finished (if ever finished) will be over 600 feet long and nearly 600 feet high. Roughly 17 miles from Mount Rushmore the monument might actually make the four presidents' heads seem small. The head of Crazy Horse will be 50% larger than those of the famous presidential quartet.

4. Mat Collishaw's seminal work Bullet Hole will be featured in the 12th Istanbul Biennial. Bullet Hole depicts a horrific would to the top of a human scalp. Interestingly enough, though titled Bullet Hole and brutally graphic, the wound was caused by an ice pick? Which begs the question, is this some form of false advertising?

5. Bonhams is offering a 1964 Aston Martin owned by Shane Filan of the Irish pop group Westlife. The car was purchased in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where it had been found and in need of a full restoration. Westlife was the first and only musical act in history to have their first seven singles run up to number one on the charts. (What? The Beatles missed with one of their first seven songs? Which one? Does anyone remember?)

6. Speaking of Kuala Lumpur, one of the pieces that has been contributed to the Red Interactive art show/event in Superior, Wisconsin, is from the Malaysian capitol as well, by artist Biba Zain. This afternoon the exhibit will be installed at 1410 Tower Avenue as part of the Phantom Galleries project, a creative solution to the problem of empty buildings in downtown spaces. While property owners seek tenants, artists have the opportunity to do commerce, or just find a new audience for their works.

For more information on Red Interactive, check out their Facebook page.

In the meantime, draw a picture today... or take a moment to appreciate one.
e.

All stories here were featured in today's ArtDaily Newsletter, except one. To subscribe visit www.artdaily.org

Top right: Children's art from China that will be on display at the Red Interactive Phantom Gallery through the end of October.

Something To Talk About

Anyone who has had even the most remote brush with the media knows that 9/11 is coming upon us very rapidly now. Until ten years ago the significance of this date was pretty much a non-event, except for those of us with birthdays on the 11th, like myself.

In 1964 when I was reading the backs of some of my baseball cards I noticed that Larry Bearnarth, a relief pitcher for the hapless New York Mets, shared the same birthday as I. I was turning 12 and he was turning 23. The Mets, a new club that became part of the National League the year before, were embarrassingly bad, and it must have been tough to be a pitcher on a team whose claim to fame was playing in New York, along with being the losingest team in baseball.

Larry grew up in New York, in a city where there were no "twin towers." And when the Mets came along, and later when they became amazing, there were still no twin towers. In fact, it wasn't until 1973 that the official seven-building World Trade Center complex officially opened with its 13.4 million square feet of primo office space. (Think of all that rent!) Considering all the architectural wonders in Europe that have lived through centuries of war and weather, this building complex is almost like a child that dies in its infancy. It never reached its 30th birthday.

So with the tenth year anniversary of "the infamous" 9/11 approaching we're seeing lots of magazines beginning to re-visit this event, its impact and its significance. Here are a couple stories that seemed worth sharing. The first is from the India Times, an article about the bullying and abuse directed toward Muslim and Sikh youth in American schools after the 9/11 attacks. The second is a review of Jason Burke's The 9/11 Wars, which summarizes the impact of the ten years that followed in the wake of that disastrous day. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a lot of journalists used Burke's book as a resource for fresh insights on the seemingly unrelated but interconnected events of these past years.

Meantime, life goes on....

Ten Minutes with Artist Sandi Harrold from Down Under

Sandra Lea Harrold was born in Warwick, Australia. Sandi grew up on a cattle and sheep property on the Darling Downs, a farming region in Queensland with a landscape dominated by rolling hills covered by pastures of many different kinds of crops including vegetables, cotton, wheat, barley and sorghum. She currently lives in an outer Western suburb in Brisbane, Queensland.

I met Sandi through social media and invited her to contribute to our Red Interactive project when I saw how much she loves that vibrant expressive color.

Ennyman: What do you consider your most significant achievements?
Sandi Harrold: I received a lovely letter from a mother who had purchased one of my paintings for her daughter suffering from depression, telling me how she was sure the painting had helped in her daughter’s recovery. I have donated paintings to the Cerebral Palsy League, and several other charities, for auction.

Enny: Who have been your favorite artists over the course of your career?
Sandi: I really don’t like or dislike any particular artist. I love bright happy paintings. I don’t stop and gaze at sad dreary paintings – I’m definitely not a ‘sophisticated’ art critique – I like what I like and that’s that!

Enny: Who most influenced you when you were young?
Sandi: My beautiful Grandma Zara was my greatest ally. We’d sit on her window seat and she would paint the most delicate little birds for me with her tiny set of water color paints.

Enny: What are you currently working on?
Sandi: I am continuing to dream up ideas for paintings. I love to create paintings whereby the viewer can look at the painting, have a laugh, and create their own story and attach it to the painting. I am used to making up happy stories to tell the kindergarten children in my care, or my own children when they were younger, so new, and crazy, ideas comes naturally!

I just finished painting my dog Jack climbing up a ladder to chat with three giraffes!

Eyes are my big ‘thing’. Everything has to have big eyes – the windows to the Soul.

Enny: Any suggestions for emerging artists?
Sandi: I’ve only been painting for the last 4 years. My style is my own. I don’t mind that some people find it lacks technique, or that it’s too light-hearted. I tried having art lessons once, and paid a small fortune, to learn how to use art products. I stopped going after the fourth week as the teacher kept scoffing at my work and asking, “What exactly are you trying to achieve here? The eyes are too big... blah blah” – I really wanted to tell this guy that I’ve sold close to 400 paintings in these four years – but I decided I didn’t need his negative energy, so I left to continue to do my own thing.

I wash off or paint over some paintings, because if they’re not making me smile, they don’t last!

My advice for emerging artists is to listen to your own Spirit and paint what you like – never try to please anyone else, or to copy anyone else. There’s a unique artist within us all. All you have to do is let it out!!

Enny: What's the best way to see more of your work?
Sandi: I have a web site – www.sandiharrold.com.au. I welcome feedback and any suggestions or good ideas for paintings are always welcomed. xx

Red Carpet For Red Interactive

This is it. The days are flying off the calendar like autumn leaves during a late season Nor'easter. The Red Interactive roll-out is rumbling into town this week. For those unfamiliar with the show, Red Interactive is an experimental art initiative conceived by Ed Newman and John Heino.

The open house, billed as a "must" event on the Twin Ports arts calendar, will be the evening of Thursday, September 22, but tomorrow we're slated to begin claiming the space at 1410 Tower Avenue with a full-scale setup scheduled for Tuesday the 6th.

There are still plenty of unknowns. For example, this week a surprise package of artwork arrived from China, each piece featuring the a tribute to the color red. We have no idea where the next package of red art will come from, or what it will be.

Another component of the open house will be the 3-D Red Collaborative Sculpture. We're asking everyone who comes to the opening to bring something red that they can add to the show. Whether it's a red key to a red door or a lock of red hair, we'll find a place for it... or ask you to.

The red-themed objects d'art will become a backdrop for red-themed performance -- music, dance, poetry. What's more, opening night will be catered by The Red Mug... and there may even be some red wine.

Parallel to this physical show, space and performances, Red Interactive will continue to maintain its virtual space on Facebook, which is serving to catalog the thread of interactions from our various artists, participants and friends. Some elements will move back and forth between physical and virtual Red Interactive spaces. This is open architecture. We welcome all artists, creative thinkers and people who simply enjoy art--particularly experimental projects. The only boundary is that this is a public arts project, so we ask that all physical and virtual contributions are appropriate for public display.

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