Author: Sarah Lawson

Sarah has lived in Charlottesville since 2002 - long enough to consider herself a local. In addition to graduating from UVa and co-founding The Bridge Film Series, she has worn a variety of hats including book designer, documentary film curator, animal caretaker, and popcorn maker. The opinions here are completely her own and unassociated with her work at Piedmont Council for the Arts (PCA). Sarah's interests include public art, experimental films, travel, and design.

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Arts

Artists-in-residence offer a different kind of mapmaking

Using cartography as an art form connects our personal story to a public one and allows us to visualize our own historical perspective in The Garage’s “Memory Mapping” project. Publicity image.

Recent construction has changed the ways a lot of us navigate Charlottesville. For some, it’s physically changed the mechanism by which we travel: a commuter who used to savor the peaceful walk to work might now ride a bike just to get past all the noise and dust more quickly. Or perhaps it’s only changed the routes we use to get places: “Well, if you get off before the Park Street exit and then take the side streets…” Either way, our mental maps have shifted. 

If you’re like me, though, your personal routes and maps are constantly evolving. The longer I live here, the more landmarks change, places accumulate memories, and side streets reveal themselves. The warehouse with windows full of geraniums is now a successful barbershop. A house that was a point of fascination for me years ago has come to be known as the house of a good friend’s parents now. You get the idea.

As part of the New City Arts artist-in-residence program, Laura Snyder and Mara Sprafkin have been working with guests and staff at The Haven to create hand-drawn mental maps. Thus far, the project has resulted in the creation of approximately 30 maps, each representing one person’s perspective and memories related to Charlottesville.

As a resident or visitor in a place, we all develop these mental maps to give our lives a spatial and geographic reality but also meaning, past and present. To translate these landmarks and routes of our lives into a writing or drawing is to share them with others. Which is basically what any map does, though this type of mental mapping is much less standardized than, say, a Rand McNally atlas shoved into your glove compartment.

Technology has made personalized mapping more public. Whenever you geotag an image or social media post, you’re adding a landmark to your map. Over time, these digital imprints form a holistic map of our individual worlds—favorite coffee shops and bars, where we choose to vacation, and memorable distractions from a routine. However, Snyder and Sprafkin would like you to try a more hands-on approach.

Cartography can show the social, political, and lived realities of a place. Maps can fulfill purposes beyond navigating and accurate representation. A map on a 1976 cover of The New Yorker is a great example. The hand-drawn Saul Steinberg map pokes fun at New Yorkers’ narcissism by equating the length of a single Manhattan block to the rest of the United States. It charts the mental longitude of a population rather than the literal latitude of our nation.

Italian artist Alighiero e Boetti also re-imagined uses for cartography with large, embroidered world maps such as his “Mappa del Mondo.” Produced between 1971-1994, these works focused on the ever-evolving geopolitical nature of nations by filling in shapes of countries with the design of the corresponding national flags at a specific moment in time. These maps don’t describe location, they describe power.

A Charlottesville native, Snyder holds a masters in visual arts from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has shown her work internationally in galleries, museums, and independent art spaces. A Brooklyn transplant, Sprafkin received her master of fine arts degree from Columbia University and has also exhibited extensively.

Snyder and Sprafkin’s current project grew out of one that Snyder completed in the historic neighborhood of Getsemaní in Cartagena in 2012. As Snyder explains, “I got interested in critical cartography, and was involved in a community mapping project while living in Colombia that allowed me to better grasp the power of maps and the idea of using maps to generate dialogue between community members about shared spaces. The mapmaking was a crucial part of documenting and making visible the memories and history associated with the neighborhood and the deep ties that the inhabitants had to it.”

All of the community memory maps that the artists collect during the Charlottesville project will be displayed in an exhibit at The WVTF and Radio IQ Gallery, with an opening reception on June 6. By presenting the diverse maps together in one place, the artists hope to help create a greater sense of understanding of Charlottesville and the people who are our neighbors.

The public is invited to participate in the mapping project by attending the free community mapping event at The Garage on May 9 from 5-7pm. And don’t worry about honing your cartography skills in advance. Sprafkin assures that “participants only need to show up with their own memories.”

For those interested in the artist residency program hosted by New City Arts and The Haven, new applications will be accepted through June 7. More details are available at www.newcityarts.org.

What’s on your map?

Tell us about it below.

Categories
Arts

A once-in-a-lifetime evening of experimental cinema at the Bridge

Media artist Jason Robinson (pictured) will team with Nathan Halverson for the live performance of an experimental cinema piece in Screensavers 001 at the Bridge on Saturday. Photo: Publicity photo.

It’s been almost a year since Vinegar Hill Theatre closed its doors, and we’re still months away from the promised renaissance of the Violet Crown Cinemas, so it’s hard to know where to watch a movie in Charlottesville these days. I’m talking about a movie that’s neither mainstream nor blockbuster; one that experiments with and expands our definition of movie-going.

Institutions such as the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, Alliance Française, and many others host semi-regular movie screenings. Aspiring film- and video-makers are mentored each day by the staff and volunteers at Light House Studio. The annual Virginia Film Festival and UVA’s student film club, Offscreen, host screenings for students and community members alike. And on and on. So, the question remains: In a city with such a substantial interest in the movies, why is it so hard to see something that’s avant-garde but not art house, perceptual rather than documentary? Let’s call this broad category of films “experimental cinema.” It’s not a perfect term, but you’ll find that that’s fairly appropriate.

Unlike a romantic comedy or an apocalyptic action movie, experimental cinema doesn’t have a seamless storyline that your best friend can predict long before the characters finally kiss or the world implodes. Often it doesn’t even have a story or characters at all and it can be abstract, visually disjointed, non-narrative, and aurally unique. At its best, experimental cinema is an incredibly creative, personal, and engaging experience. The diversity of techniques and styles are unending but can be briefly represented by the films of Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Su Friedrich, and even Charlottesville’s own Kevin Everson, who recently screened his work at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

However, if you want to view and experience experimental cinema, where should you go? Ordinarily, that would mean watching digital versions of some of these films online or making a trip to Richmond, Washington, D.C., or even New York. On April 26th, though, the answer to that question is simply The Bridge PAI. Screensavers 001: A Night of Experimental Audio Visual Performances will take place that evening, featuring collaborative film, video, and audio performances.

Wait, performances? That’s right, for one night only, Charlottesville will be treated to the creation of audio and visual experiments that are improvised and edited as you watch. The performances will feature the collaborative work of three sets of artists: Jason Robinson and Nathan Halverson; Taka Suzuki, Ryan Maguire, and Jon Bellona; and Greg Nachmanovitch and Will Bollinger.

Robinson and Halverson worked together on the film Summertime Flies, earning them the 2011 Screengrab New Media Arts Prize. Both are media artists focusing in sound and video, often incorporating field recordings and live performances into their work. Halverson also teaches media arts at the University of South Carolina while Robinson is the Program Director for Charlottesville’s Light House Studio.

Suzuki is a Charlottesville-based artist who was recently awarded UVA’s Aunspaugh Fellowship to continue his work in film, video, and photography. His work has been screened and exhibited internationally. Maguire and Bellona are both current Ph.D. students in composition and computer technologies at the UVA Center for Computer Music. They recently performed as part of the New Music Ensemble during the McIntire Department of Music’s “A Night of New Music” at Old Cabell Hall.

Nachmanovitch is a student filmmaker at Light House Studio and Bollinger is a Richmond-based musician and composer with roots in Charlottesville. Bollinger was also awarded the best bassist award at the 2011 Music Resource Center Battle of the Bands.

Together, these seven artists will create an immersive experimental cinema experience using feedback loops, found footage and VHS tapes, images and video that are responsive to audio, field recordings and drum machines, and even good old fashioned guitars, microphones, and projectors. It’s literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience since the work will be fleeting and improvisational. Even if you preferred to watch this from the comfort of home, you couldn’t. The shared experience of it, the hum of projectors, and the interaction with the performers is all part of this experimental cinema experience.

If we’re lucky, the Screensavers 001 name hints at more experimental cinema events and performances to come. Perhaps the Bridge will even become a regular venue for experimental cinema, as it was during the Bridge Film Series that concluded more than a year ago. For now, to quote performer Jon Bellona, “You and I have the ability to touch and shape the sounds [and images] around us” and movies don’t get much more experiential than that.

Screensavers 001: A Night of Experimental Audio Visual Performances will take place on April 26 at 8pm at The Bridge PAI. Donations will be accepted but the event is free and open to the public.

Where do you watch movies in Charlottesville? Tell us in the comments section below.

Categories
Arts

Daniela Sandler explores activism in urban reinvention

Despite boasting the wide, tree-lined streets of the Jardim America and Jardim Paulista neighborhoods, São Paulo is also home to countless dilapidated tenement buildings, or cortiços, that have the chance to serve as incubators for creative urban interventions.

For many, Brazil conjures images of rain forests, samba dancers, and favelas. It’s also the host country for this year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. A great deal of news coverage has detailed both the construction that has gone into preparations for these global sporting events as well as resulting public demonstrations demanding stronger social infrastructure for residents. This global attention, combined with Brazil’s mix of rural Amazon villages and densely populated cities like São Paulo, makes the country an interesting laboratory in which to re-imagine public space and examine the role it plays in our political and social interactions.

In response to these issues and their global relevance, the UVA School of Architecture is hosting a public talk on April 14 entitled “Empty Space: Popular Demonstrations and Architecture in São Paulo” with Daniela Sandler, a visiting assistant professor of art history, theory, and criticism from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Sandler studied architecture and urbanism at the University of São Paulo and her work often focuses on space- and place-based social inequalities. Her presentation will address urban activism in Brazil but will also draw on work by philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre and social scholar Michel de Certeau, as well as the Occupy movement in the United States and recent protests in Turkey.

Responsible for some of the most popular explorations of contemporary public space, de Certeau and Lefebvre both emphasize the role of the individual in re-imagining and activating public space. They argue that, whether conscious or unconscious, public space is defined through our navigation of everyday routines, including the routes we take to work or even the way we flip through a weekly newspaper such as this. In de Certeau’s book The Practice of Everyday Life, he proposes that something as simple as walking in the city can be a political action—if we let it.

Opting to take a shortcut through a public park rather than following the sidewalk can be a tactical and political response to institutional definitions of place. Curious? Try walking under rather than over the Belmont Bridge and you’ll get a glimpse of what he means. This subtle deviation can change your experience of the bridge and open up a variety of new ways to re-imagine this point of transition.

São Paulo’s Prestes Maia building is a great example. Long abandoned, by the early 2000s the Prestes Maia building had become one of the world’s largest squats, housing an estimated 2,000 people. In 2003, more than 100 artists led an occupation of the building to transform the space into a living artwork that simultaneously acted to bring public awareness to the plight of its occupants. Following mass evictions by the government in 2006, the building has since remained sealed by cinder blocks.

This site demonstrates the potential that lies in re-imagining a space that was originally defined by an outside institution for a different use. Though impermanent, a new social awareness and community engagement became possible when the everyday experience of Prestes Maia was actively reconsidered. A more general example of this is the popular practice of redeveloping warehouse and manufacturing zones into arts and culture districts in the United States and Europe.

According to de Certeau, small actions offer resistance to the increasing prevalence of private space and encourage everyone to become a producer of their own individually lived reality rather than a consumer of the institutionalized norm. By liberating spaces through creative re-use as political occupation, we subvert the rituals defined by institutions in order to contribute to a more public and democratic environment.

Likewise, Lefebvre encouraged people to understand and revolutionize their everyday life through changes in patterns. Space is a means of power and control, defining where you can go and what you can do in the public sphere. Deviating from these definitions can provide a rupture point in which the public can re-imagine everything from mainstream social hierarchy and definitions of citizenship to public safety and the accessibility of public transportation.

Lefebvre’s idea of the “right to the city” influenced the Brazilian federal legislature’s 2001 city statute, which works to protect social uses of public spaces over commercial uses and to integrate participatory management into city planning efforts throughout the country. In practice, the city statute has, among other things, helped São Paulo become a petri dish of sorts for urban reinvention—an interesting perspective to apply to local projects like the Landmark Hotel on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

To encourage further exploration of these ideas on a local level, Sandler will share her experiences from São Paulo and share in-depth studies of similar projects to re-imagine public space and interactions.

What public space in Charlottesville would you like to re-imagine? Tell us in the comments section below.

Categories
Arts

‘From Jackson 5ive to Boondocks’ explores African- Americans in animation

Bruce Smith has worked as an animator for over 30 years and is best known for feature films such as Space Jam (above), The Princess and the Frog, and Tarzan. He is the keynote speaker at the Heritage Center’s symposium on African-Americans in animation.

The word “animation” conjures up the glorious childhood routine of plopping in front of the television on Saturday mornings for hours on end. However, that’s just a small glance at an incredibly varied and ever-evolving genre.

Early animation ranged from magic lanterns and zoetropes to flipbooks and silent films. Today, it’s a genre that holds everything from “The Simpsons” and “Adult Swim” to “The Proud Family” and Pixar shorts. Increasingly, there’s an appreciation for work like the latest Hayao Miyazaki feature-length narrative film, The Wind Rises (currently in theaters), and Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War. However, despite its popularity and versatility, animation is rarely addressed from any perspective other than that of a viewer or consumer. It’s difficult to define and analyze production values or develop critical engagement with such an adaptable and varied genre. The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center seeks to change that with an upcoming symposium, titled “From Jackson 5ive to Boondocks: African Americans in Animation in the Post-Civil Rights Era.”

The symposium is the first in the biannual Heritage Center at the Edge series, which seeks to celebrate and explore the artistic and cultural productions of African-Americans. “From Jackson 5ive to Boondocks” provides a closer look at the animation genre and its role in defining and encouraging African-American participation in pop culture.

As people around the country celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the Heritage Center identifies this landmark legislation as a transformative moment in the history of American animation. Historically a genre prone to perpetuating negative racial stereotypes, American animation was deeply affected by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In the 1960s, the genre began evolving in ways that would dramatically change the perception of African-Americans over the ensuing five decades. These changes not only led to an increase in positive depictions of people of color, but also an increased presence of African-Americans working as practitioners of the medium and innovating new methods of animation.

The change didn’t take place overnight though. In fact, immediately following the Civil Rights Act, there was actually a sharp decrease in African-American depictions in animation, which only began to steadily climb again in the early 1970s. Viewed widely on television, in movie theaters, and emerging from the pages of comic books, a greater diversity of depictions started to become available and African-Americans enjoyed more extensive character development within the genre.

Since then, the proliferation of handheld devices and personal viewing options has grown the impact of animation as an agent of social awareness and change. Heritage Center Executive Director Andrea Douglas wants to engage the conversation. “With the immediacy and increased availability of such images, it is important to understand what kinds of messages about African-American culture and people are being delivered,” she said. The symposium will bring scholars and practitioners to the table to explore these issues.

Animator, director, and producer Bruce Smith will deliver the keynote address on Friday. Perhaps best known for his animation work on Space Jam and “The Proud Family,” Smith has also worked on Disney features including The Princess and the Frog and Tarzan. Saturday’s guests include Richard Breaux, assistant professor of ethnic and racial studies and history at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; Carmenita Higginbotham, associate professor of art history and American studies at UVA, and Christopher P. Lehman, author of the award-winning book The Colored Cartoon.

In addition to the engaging talks programmed during the symposium, the Heritage Center made sure to include more hands-on events for those who want to experience animation from the perspective of a practitioner. An animation workshop for teens and a workshop on stop-motion animation (open to all ages) reinforce the holistic and innovative view of the genre provided by the symposium.

“We are partnering with the graduate program at VCU’s kinetic imaging department because we want to be sure that we are including practices that are defining the advancement of the medium,” said Douglas. Animation is also currently taught at Monticello High School, Charlottesville High School, and Light House Studio, but the Heritage Center’s workshops provide a short-term and inexpensive way for youth (and adults) to test the waters.

Maybe this all sounds great, but you really just want to watch some cartoons. Well, you’re in luck! The Heritage Center is also hosting a Saturday morning cartoon screening as part of “From Jackson 5ive to Boondocks.” A variety of short, animated works will be shown, giving an entertaining yet historical overview of the work discussed by symposium speakers. Free for kids under 8, this is a great reminder that animated images carry meaning and foster childlike wonder at any age.

The Heritage Center at the Edge symposium, screenings, and workshops take place in the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center Auditorium on March 28-29. For more details visit jeffschoolheritagecenter.org.

What’s your favorite Saturday morning cartoon memory? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

Categories
Arts

Must-see panels at the Festival of the Book

Chip Kidd took time off from designing book covers for his own book, Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design.

Each March, visiting and local literati of all ages and reading preferences fill Charlottesville for the annual Virginia Festival of the Book. History buffs and romance readers mingle with self-published writers and award-winning authors including John Grisham, Lois Lowry, and John Lewis.

Attendees have lots of choices to make during the five-day festival (March 19-23). Elaborate transportation routes are planned to get from one venue to the next and it’s a struggle to find a window to eat between author panels. Inevitably, there are sessions that slip through the cracks or hold a conflicting time slot. There are also the can’t-miss moments.

Sometimes obvious, sometimes buried deep in the schedule, these are the hidden gems sought by festival goers. The 2014 panels offer two such opportunities with authors who are especially notable for being offbeat and off the beaten path.

You know Chip Kidd. Perhaps not by name, but if you’ve ever picked up a copy of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, David Sedaris’ Naked, or Haruki Murakami’s IQ84, then you’ve held his work in your hands. You can get to know Kidd a bit better through a special StoryFest presentation on his recent book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design.

As a graphic designer known for his book covers, Kidd is quirky and engaging. A focus on typography and visual puns imbues his designs with a distinct personality that is easily identifiable on coffee tables, bookstore displays, and library shelves around the world. Words can’t do justice to the designs, but a stunning amount of his work is collected in Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006. Go take a look; I’ll be holding your place here when you get back.

Infinitely versatile, Kidd is also a writer. Much like his book covers, Kidd’s two novels (The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners) are witty and colorful explorations of graphic design. Autobiographical in parts, with main characters who are practicing graphic designers, the novels are accessible and fun to read.

Taking a break from fiction, Kidd’s recent authorial stint led to the publication of a graphic design guide for children. Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design features easy -to-understand explanations of the design process, samples from some of the modern design masters, and hands-on projects to try. The book’s Tumblr (gothebook.tumblr.com) even has a way to submit designs (your own or your child’s; no one has to know) created during these projects. This book—and really all of Kidd’s work—is meant to draw attention to the art form of graphic design and bring awareness to the design that goes into every aspect of our daily lives. Whether it’s a book cover, a gum wrapper, or a printed festival schedule, you’ll never look at the world the same after an encounter with Chip Kidd.

“Chip Kidd and Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design” will be held on March 22 at 4pm in the Monroe Room at the Omni Hotel. The event is free and open to the public.

Off the beaten path

There are guidebooks to help you find the best jazz club in New Orleans or the most authentic pizza in Naples, and then there are books for travelers seeking the furthest corners of the world. Bradt travel guides are the latter, meant for adventurers—and armchair adventurers—but certainly not for your average ski bunny or beach bum planning an upcoming vacation. For example, new releases include guides to Borneo, Sudan, Jordan, and Zimbabwe.

In an ideal world, my bag would have been packed before I even finished writing that sentence, and I’d be on a plane to Harare by now. But that would mean missing Hilary Bradt’s Festival of the Book presentation, where she’ll share tales of her own travel adventures as well as her similarly daring efforts in forming Bradt Travel Guides Ltd.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the publishing company prints travel memoirs as well as adventure guides, including the founder’s breathtaking story of crossing Ireland on horseback. The theme that runs through all Bradt books is that of sustainable travel. For example, a popular series is on slow travel (similar to the slow food movement). All of the titles, though, are packed from cover to cover with helpful information, informed tips, and a uniquely engaging degree of the individual writer’s personality. The publisher also offers a Bradtpackers newsletter for readers interested in having these tantalizing travel tales delivered directly to their inbox.

Though Bradt’s wanderlust was born out of a deep love for Laurence Olivier and a theater mishap, her first travel guide was written while floating down the Amazon River. She seemingly hasn’t stopped adventuring, writing, leading tours, and publishing since. Thus far, she’s written 14 books and helped create an international community of adventurers who share her curiosity. Bradt will be sharing in person at “Wild Adventures and Extreme Publishing with Hilary Bradt,” moderated by Jeanne Siler on March 21 at 10am at a free panel in the City Council Chambers.

Share your favorite authors with us in the comments section below.

Categories
Arts

Must-see panels at the Virginia Festival of the Book

Chip Kidd took time off from designing book covers to write and design his own book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design.

Each March, visiting and local literati of all ages and reading preferences fill Charlottesville for the annual Virginia Festival of the Book. History buffs and romance readers mingle with self-published writers and award-winning authors including John Grisham, Lois Lowry, and John Lewis.

Attendees have lots of choices to make during the five-day festival (March 19-23). Elaborate transportation routes are planned to get from one venue to the next and it’s a struggle to find a window to eat between author panels. Inevitably, there are sessions that slip through the cracks or hold a conflicting time slot. There are also the can’t-miss moments.

Sometimes obvious, sometimes buried deep in the schedule, these are the hidden gems sought by festival goers. The 2014 panels offer two such opportunities with authors who are especially notable for being offbeat and off the beaten path.

You know Chip Kidd. Perhaps not by name, but if you’ve ever picked up a copy of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, David Sedaris’ Naked, or Haruki Murakami’s IQ84, then you’ve held his work in your hands. You can get to know Kidd a bit better through a special StoryFest presentation on his recent book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design.

As a graphic designer known for his book covers, Kidd is quirky and engaging. A focus on typography and visual puns imbues his designs with a distinct personality that is easily identifiable on coffee tables, bookstore displays, and library shelves around the world. Words can’t do justice to the designs, but a stunning amount of his work is collected in Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006. Go take a look; I’ll be holding your place here when you get back.

Infinitely versatile, Kidd is also a writer. Much like his book covers, Kidd’s two novels (The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners) are witty and colorful explorations of graphic design. Autobiographical in parts, with main characters who are practicing graphic designers, the novels are accessible and fun to read.

Taking a break from fiction, Kidd’s recent authorial stint led to the publication of a graphic design guide for children. Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design features easy -to-understand explanations of the design process, samples from some of the modern design masters, and hands-on projects to try. The book’s Tumblr (gothebook.tumblr.com) even has a way to submit designs (your own or your child’s; no one has to know) created during these projects. This book—and really all of Kidd’s work—is meant to draw attention to the art form of graphic design and bring awareness to the design that goes into every aspect of our daily lives. Whether it’s a book cover, a gum wrapper, or a printed festival schedule, you’ll never look at the world the same after an encounter with Chip Kidd.

“Chip Kidd and Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design” will be held on March 22 at 4pm in the Monroe Room at the Omni Hotel. The event is free and open to the public.

Off the beaten path

There are guidebooks to help you find the best jazz club in New Orleans or the most authentic pizza in Naples, and then there are books for travelers seeking the furthest corners of the world. Bradt travel guides are the latter, meant for adventurers—and armchair adventurers—but certainly not for your average ski bunny or beach bum planning an upcoming vacation. For example, new releases include guides to Borneo, Sudan, Jordan, and Zimbabwe.

In an ideal world, my bag would have been packed before I even finished writing that sentence, and I’d be on a plane to Harare by now. But that would mean missing Hilary Bradt’s Festival of the Book presentation, where she’ll share tales of her own travel adventures as well as her similarly daring efforts in forming Bradt Travel Guides Ltd.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the publishing company prints travel memoirs as well as adventure guides, including the founder’s breathtaking story of crossing Ireland on horseback. The theme that runs through all Bradt books is that of sustainable travel. For example, a popular series is on slow travel (similar to the slow food movement). All of the titles, though, are packed from cover to cover with helpful information, informed tips, and a uniquely engaging degree of the individual writer’s personality. The publisher also offers a Bradtpackers newsletter for readers interested in having these tantalizing travel tales delivered directly to their inbox.

Though Bradt’s wanderlust was born out of a deep love for Laurence Olivier and a theater mishap, her first travel guide was written while floating down the Amazon River. She seemingly hasn’t stopped adventuring, writing, leading tours, and publishing since. Thus far, she’s written 14 books and helped create an international community of adventurers who share her curiosity. Bradt will be sharing in person at “Wild Adventures and Extreme Publishing with Hilary Bradt,” moderated by Jeanne Siler on March 21 at 10am at a free panel in the City Council Chambers.

Share your favorite authors with us in the comments section below.

Categories
Arts

Telegraph Gallery serves up community alongside graphic art and comic books

Michael DeForge’s Ant Colony will be featured at the March 6 gathering of the Comic Book Club at Telegraph Gallery.

Tucked away on Fourth Street NE just off the Downtown Mall, Telegraph Gallery still feels a bit like a secret portal to a different world. The hand-painted letters on the storefront windows tug at passersby with the promise of things both unknown and exciting. At once a gallery, bookstore, workspace, and shop, Telegraph showcases the unique strengths and aesthetics of husband-and-wife co-owners David Murray and Kate deNeveu.

Since the store opened in March 2013, its First Fridays receptions have attracted crowds to explore new, limited-edition artist prints, priced so that even the leanest budget can afford to start an art collection. The gallery also hosts free, hands-on Comic Craft Days, as well as author panels and readings. In a town with a strong traditional literary scene, Murray and deNeveu have successfully formed a community hub that works to expand our definition and appreciation of alternative forms of storytelling through comics. For the past few months, they’ve been experimenting with another way to share their passions: Comic Book Club.

Focused on encouraging new readers and informing a community discussion of alternative comics, Comic Book Club is open to all. The books discussed so far have included True Swamp: Choose Your Poison by Jon Lewis and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware. The club gatherings have brought out a diverse group of people excited to discuss every detail, from narrative arc and panel layout to general impressions and questions. First-time readers will feel welcome alongside dedicated fans of specific authors.

“So far the response has been great: we’ve made new friends, dug into some good books, and eaten our fair share of cheese,” said Murray. “Getting more interesting books in readers’ hands is one of our favorite parts of this job.”

Intrigued? The third installment of the Comic Book Club will feature Ant Colony by Michael DeForge.

Released in January, Ant Colony is fresh off the press from Montreal-based publisher Drawn and Quarterly. The narrative provides a striking analysis of human nature through an intimate (at times very intimate) look at the inhabitants and interactions of the titular ant colony. DeForge’s aesthetic is one-of-a-kind and his touch is immediately recognizable in each panel. For those unfamiliar with his work, DeForge’s series of small format comics, entitled Lose (Koyama Press), makes a great entry point.

Animal and insect forms feature prominently in much of Deforge’s work and this book is no different. However, bright colors and a goofy drawing style belie the fact that this isn’t a comic book for kids. Originally a series of short-form comic strips called Ant Comics, the long-form book compiles the story in a beautifully designed tome that breathes anew with each turned page. DeForge is skilled at leaving room to inhabit his worlds and this story will certainly stick with the reader long after the last page.

Ant Colony has a dark humor and existential tone that will appeal to many, but certainly not all. In the end, it’s a well-crafted comic narrative for readers who are interested in exploring the depths of humanity in the company of dog-headed spiders and warring ants.

Spin-offs and follow-up stories from the Ant Colony universe seem highly likely, given the artist’s prolific work. This month finds him fresh off a book tour for Ant Colony, as well as an appearance at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair, where he debuted a new comic book with co-author Patrick Kyle.

For now, readers can enjoy DeForge’s invigorating new work with the help of Murray, deNeveu, and new friends with a shared obsession. The next meeting of the Comic Book Club takes place at the gallery on March 6.

Speaking of volumes

In other efforts to re-imagine books and what we do with them, the Virginia Arts of the Book Center (VABC) is hosting an exhibit of limited edition, handmade books this month in Staunton. Created during the 2013 collaborative project, “A Bookmaker’s Dozen,” 27 local artists teamed up to create this series of miniature books. This exhibit features 15 2″x3″ books showcasing a variety of printing styles including letterpress, lithography, etching, and giclée, as well as a variety of hand binding styles ranging from coptic to accordion. The opening reception will be held on February 28 from 5-7pm at Barrister Books in Staunton.

Want to take a bookmaking class of your own? The VABC operates a working studio and print shop in the Ivy Shopping Center that’s open to the public for classes, and past bookmaking projects are also available to view upon request.

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