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

Invitation to play: Art as an interactive experimentation in ‘LOOPLAB’

Viewers get to interact with the art in “LOOPLAB” at McGuffey through February 28. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Playing with the art in a gallery is not always the viewer’s first instinct. “I always worry that video [art] is intimidating, but then you put on a lab coat and it changes things,” says multimedia artist Fenella Belle. In an exhibition this month with photographer Stacey Evans, Belle’s lab coat is both symbolically and physically present. It points to the creative experimentation that the two artists seek to inculcate in gallerygoers, but it’s also an interactive element in one of the works. Titled “LOOPLAB,” the full exhibition includes video and fabric installations as well as small cyanotype prints and an interactive collage at the McGuffey Art Center.

Belle and Evans originally met through their day jobs as art instructors at Piedmont Virginia Community College and both became McGuffey members approximately two years ago. While teaching a summer camp together, “We noticed that we have some similar styles in terms of teaching, approach and trying to get people to be playful and not intimidated by art,” says Belle. Based on this, the idea for this exhibition was formalized in the summer of 2015, motivated in part by the McGuffey Art Center’s annual call for member exhibitions.

Since then, the two artists have shared many hours in each other’s studios, meeting once a week to swap ideas and play with various materials. The collaboration has largely focused on interaction and experimentation from day one. “We just took out a piece of paper and we really didn’t have any plans. It was just, ‘Let’s throw some stuff on here and see what happens,’” recalls Belle.

Though both artists share a tactical approach, their aesthetics diverge drastically. Belle is bright colors and organic shapes; Evans is more subdued, with a tendency toward the technological. “Fenella’s really good with a hammer and I’m really good with a computer,” says Evans. Where Belle might use a flower or the looping silhouette of a leafy vine to accent a piece, Evans is more likely to incorporate an outdated credit card machine or flip phone. “In our practices, we each have discarded materials that are hard to throw into the trash can,” says Evans. “So, we have a lot of material that we want to recycle and reuse, transforming that into something new.”

The McGuffey exhibition also includes the display of two prior individual works that are featured in “LOOPLAB.” The first was created for the 2015 PVCC faculty show and featured magnetic shapes on steel wall panels. “[It’s] the most free-form since it gets completed by the viewer,” says Belle. Indeed, it invites the viewer to touch and play, rearranging the shapes and colors while also acknowledging the impermanence of any one configuration.

The second display from their partnership took the form of an interactive video during PVCC’s annual Let There Be Light event. Belle and Evans engaged viewers as co-experimenters. Clothed in lab coats, they encouraged visitors to project their shadows onto the video in an improvisational performance.

While both of these previous works are engaging, the highlight of this exhibition is a new series of oversized cyanotypes. Making use of this process to create silhouette prints on light-sensitive surfaces, Belle and Evans created an immersive and playful installation that plays off their skills. “I’m really committed to interactive stuff,” Belle says. “I like to make spaces that people can walk into. I know how to do big fabric, and [Stacey] knows how to do cyanotypes.”

Collecting found materials from other projects, the two artists assembled boxes of objects to use as the negative space in the cyanotype exposures. Belle and Evans coated 7′ silk panels with photosensitive chemicals and allowed them to dry before being stored in light-blocking black garbage bags to await the perfect, sunny day.

“We got the coldest day of January, but the sun was out,” says Evans. They constructed a temporary tent on McGuffey’s front lawn, allowing space for one fabric panel in its shade, then composed each panel, placing objects directly on the fabric to create patterns and shapes. When Belle and Evans were happy with the arrangement, they pulled back the tent to expose the large sheet of photosensitive fabric to the sun. The exposure time for each panel was 15 minutes, after which they would take it inside to rinse and then start the process again on the next panel. Once rinsed, the images on the fabric are permanent. Seven of these printed panels hang from the gallery ceiling and the result is a gauzy maze, submerging viewers in the blue waves of floating fabric punctuated by lighter swirls and blocks that are abstract and free-form.

As with the other two pieces, the cyanotypes are, in a sense, completed by the viewer. Until someone interacts with the magnets, the video or the immersive space created by the cyanotypes, the pieces themselves are incomplete. The act of play is the final component of the collaboration, and one in which we all are invited to take part.

What are your favorite artistic collaborations?

Tell us in the comments below.

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Drink to that: Books meet beer in new series from JMRL

Angela Flournoy’s critically acclaimed novel, The Turner House, is JMRL’s February Books on Tap selection. It will also be featured when Flournoy comes to Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book in March. Photo: LaToya T. Duncan

By boasting a statistically impossible number of local bookstores and authors, it’s clear that Charlottesville is a town with an ardent love for all things literary. It’s also a beer town, supporting more than a few local breweries and countless other watering holes that serve up brews from nearby ZIP codes. Inspired by these two interests, the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library created the Books on Tap reading series, held on the first Thursday of each month at Champion Brewing Company.

The idea grew out of a similar event that JMRL Central Branch Manager Krista Farrell attended at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg. Importing the idea to Charlottesville, Farrell enlisted local resident Sean Tubbs to help with brainstorming before the first event, which took place in October. Since then, Books on Tap has met monthly at Champion to discuss what readers liked —and disliked—about the most recent selection.

Titles have included Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds and Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan, among others. “In December we talked about a book I’d never heard of and I actually enjoyed hearing what others didn’t like about the book,” Tubbs says. “I loved [the book], but the group was a way to hear why others didn’t share the experience. We need more places in our community where we can safely disagree with each other, and this group has been fantastic for me.”

Books on Tap discussions typically last an hour, with Farrell facilitating the conversation. Attendees are responsible for their own bar tabs, but the Friends of the Library provides snacks. The event has grown in participation each month. “With the advent of social media, I find myself wanting to find out what other people think about the books I’ve read,” says Tubbs. “But that’s a flat and hollow experience compared with actually talking to people about their experience reading the same material.”

For the February edition of Books on Tap, the discussion will focus on Angela Flournoy’s 2015 fiction debut, The Turner House, which earned a place on several 2015 best books lists, including NPR’s Best Books of 2015, the New York Times’ Notable Books of 2015, and O, The Oprah Magazine’s 10 Favorite Books of the Year. Flournoy was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award. “One of the attendees actually suggested this title and we thought it was a great choice because we knew she was coming for the Virginia Festival of the Book [and that] the book had been on some notable lists for 2015 and tied in with Black History Month in February,” says Farrell.

The novel explores the multilayered relationships in a large African-American family as its members navigate parenting and growing old in Detroit. It’s an examination of the city’s economic despair, but it’s also a celebration of family. The sublimely readable tome touches on other topics as well, including mental illness and beliefs in the supernatural. In other words, it’s the perfect book club book: fast-paced and enjoyable to read, while grappling with issues that are, to some degree, universal. It’s not a book with a clear right or wrong; there is no winner or loser. It’s a book that asks the reader to consider his or her personal perspective, while forcing the characters within the pages to do the same.

Reading the book in advance isn’t a requirement for attending Books on Tap, and neither is drinking beer. According to Farrell, anyone is welcome to just show up and listen to the discussion if they don’t feel prepared or eager to contribute.

While JMRL hosts other book clubs for a variety of ages and reading interests, Books on Tap is designed to attract an audience of readers that is, well, untapped. “We wanted to try a book club outside of the library…[to] bring the library to a location and demographic that might not be coming in to the library. We hope to reach new potential patrons, connect and engage (to the library and to each other) and demonstrate that the library has something for them too,” says Farrell.

Indeed, Books on Tap has already shown it’s a way to transcend negative stereotypes of libraries by bringing books to the places where readers already spend time. “I’m always impressed with how our library is constantly looking for ways to advance their mission,” says Tubbs. “It’s not just about new buildings. It’s about taking reading into local spaces such as Champion, where the clientele is generally intelligent and interested in the world. I love the idea that the library is trying to create pockets of community.”

The next Books on Tap discussion takes place on February 4 at 7pm at Champion Brewing Company. Later this month, JMRL will also host a kick-off party at Champion for the 2016 Big Read program, featuring Carson McCullers’ classic, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and a custom-brewed Champion beer to match: Lonely Hunter Ale. For more details, visit JMRL.org.

What is the last book you’ve read with a book club?

Tell us in the comments below.

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Arts

Eye witnesses: Danville civil rights stories told through portraits and memories

The Reverend Thurman O. Echols Jr. (far right) was arrested as a student protest leader in Danville in 1963. He is currently the pastor of Moral Hill Missionary Baptist Church, in Axton. Photo: Library of Virginia

According to the Virginia Historical Society, “The most violent episode of the civil rights movement in Virginia occurred in Danville during the summer of 1963.” Demonstrators were beaten back by police in the streets, and legal battles for equal rights simmered.

In July of the same year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was motivated to speak in the city, hoping to curb the police brutality that accompanied local efforts at desegregation. Close on the heels of the Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrations that made headlines that spring, the Danville protests garnered the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, along with national media coverage. When all was said and done, however, Danville did not integrate public schools until 1970, and some of those legal battles raged beyond that year.

An exhibition opening on Saturday at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center seeks to provide personal depth to those events through oral histories and portraits of some of the people who participated. Titled “The 1963 Danville Civil Rights Movement: The Protests, the People, the Stories,” it’s a collaboration between journalist Emma Edmunds and photographer Tom Cogill.

The collection is an outgrowth of Edmunds’ earlier project, “Mapping Local Knowledge: Danville, Virginia, 1945–75,” which was first on display at the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute in 2005. This extension of the work began in earnest when Cogill got involved. “He said he was interested, and might like to take photographs of some of the people I was interviewing, and photograph some of the sites,” says Edmunds. “His portraits bring these individuals alive, allow a viewer to meet the person and convey each person’s dignity.”

The 50th anniversary of the Danville protests took place in 2013, which prompted Edmunds and Cogill to focus on these events in the development of a new exhibition, and place the community at its center.

“We went to a Sunday morning service at Loyal Baptist Church in Danville to stand in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves and to invite them to come back in two weeks to be interviewed and photographed and to bring documents to be scanned,” recalls Cogill. “Two weeks later, the response was much greater than we had imagined: many people, many stories, very many documents to scan.”

Edmunds estimates she has collected more than 40 oral histories from Danville residents, though not all of the people were photographed and some have since passed away. Together, these personal perspectives helped Edmunds recreate the historical events of 1963 through an experiential lens.

One of the collected accounts in the show is from Nannie Louise Pinchback, who participated in a July 20, 1963, protest in Danville. “After seeing so many of the children who participated in the movement and seeing those who had been brutally beaten…,” says Pinchback, “I became convinced that I had to stand up and protest the evils of segregation, even if it meant going to jail. So that is what I did.”

Even though Edmunds, a Virginia native, grew up 30 miles from Danville, she was unaware of the civil rights movement there. “[Dr.] King was making Danville the focus of his fall 1963 campaign…I was 17, a graduating high school student, living less than an hour from Danville. Yet I knew nothing of these events.”

Many years later, when Edmunds first learned of the town’s important role in the civil rights movement, it was almost by accident. She was working as a journalist when she attended an exhibition at the Atlanta History Center and stumbled upon a story she’d never imagined, igniting a desire to research the protests.

“I wanted to learn more about what happened in Danville [but] could find little written about it,” she recounts. “So, I left my job and returned to Virginia [in 1998], with a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities fellowship, to find out more about the Danville civil rights movement and to start research [on] my family’s racial history. And I’ve been working on both ever since.”

Edmunds is quick to acknowledge that the project is larger than her own efforts or even her collaboration with Cogill. “Most of all, credit goes to all the people who opened their homes, trusted me, shared their photos and documents and told me their stories. It has been such a privilege to do this work, and none of it would have been possible without these partnerships, institutional and individual, and without this support,” says Edmunds.

An opening reception for “The 1963 Danville Civil Rights Movement: The Protests, the People, the Stories” will be held on January 23 with remarks at 7pm. The exhibition will remain on display through April. Later this year, the exhibition will return to Danville, where Edmunds hopes it might become a “permanent civil rights display for residents, educators, the public and visitors.”

Do you have local history stories to share? Tell us in the comments below.

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Arts

Thrown together: City Clay potters team up to help IRC refugees

The first Throwdown to benefit the International Rescue Center took place at City Clay January 6. Members of City Clay and guest artists were invited to the studio to create handmade dishes for IRC refugees. Photo: Amanda Maglione

“Creativity can make a positive and welcoming impact on families right here in Charlottesville,” says Katie Bercegeay, volunteer coordinator for Charlottesville’s International Rescue Committee.

Though this applies to us all, she’s specifically referring to the refugees who are welcomed in Charlottesville through the ongoing efforts of IRC staff and volunteers. Since it was established in 1998, the Charlottesville branch of the IRC has helped resettle approximately 2,000 refugees in our region. A new effort led by City Clay pottery studio seeks to support these efforts to make refugees feel welcome, bringing together local artisans to craft handmade pottery for those who are working to make a new home for themselves.

The brainchild of City Clay owner Randy Bill, the inaugural Throwdown launched January 6. During this half-day event, members of the City Clay community and guest potters were invited to the studio to create—or throw on a pottery wheel—handmade dishes to donate to IRC refugees. More than a whimsical way to contribute to a local nonprofit, the event was a direct response to the IRC’s need for basic supplies to give to recently arrived refugee families, who often start with nothing as they embark on a new life.

“When a family first arrives in Charlottesville, we equip them with one of each essential items per person. With donations of kitchenware, families are able to move beyond their immediate needs and have multiple sets for themselves and more comfortably have company over for a meal, which is so customary, culturally speaking,” says Bercegeay. In fact, Bill’s idea for the project came from just this type of communal meal.

“This fall, my daughter, Annie Temmink, started tutoring [through the IRC] a young woman and her two roommates from the Congo. We invited them to Thanksgiving dinner and I got to know a little bit about their lives,” recalls Bill. “Our heart went out to these 20somethings as they face such a new and daunting life in Charlottesville. Yes, they are safe and receiving assistance, but the learning curve is almost incomprehensible.”

Consulting the IRC’s website for needed donations to support these new friends and other local refugees, Bill stumbled on a surprise. “After money and warm clothing were cups, plates and bowls,” says Bill. “It was such an obvious fit for [City Clay].”

From there, it was simple to conceptualize the Throwdown because City Clay potters have worked together on a similar project in the past, crafting bowls to be used at the Charlottesville SOUP series of micro-financing dinners. Bill activated her vast network of potters in the area and alerted the local IRC of her plans. “When I learned that City Clay would be hosting a throwdown to specially craft pots for refugee families, it warmed my heart,” says Bercegeay. The Throwdown launched with great enthusiasm from approximately three dozen participants. These local artisans donated their time and skills to the effort, resulting in about 150 dishes to be donated to refugees. The project is ongoing though, and Bill invites potters to continue contributing handmade goods to the IRC as part of City Clay’s efforts.

“My hope is that we will have a collection of pots from our studio along with donations from area potters to contribute quarterly, along with an annual Throwdown,” says Bill. “I have a feeling this will grow in ways we can’t yet imagine.” She adds that the Richmond IRC branch has already expressed interest in creating a similar initiative.

“I hope other community members and organizations will be inspired by the Throwdown: to learn more about refugees in our community—how they enrich Charlottesville culturally, linguistically and even economically,” adds Bercegeay. In addition to strengthening the refugee community and improving the lives of individuals within the IRC, the Throwdown and collaborative philanthropic efforts like it provide the chance to strengthen the ties between local potters as well.

“How fabulous for us to be able to do what we love and provide people in need with pottery produced in their community,” says Bill. “It is important that we find ways to welcome, in meaningful ways, those who have suffered so much.”

For those who aren’t skilled with clay, there are still plenty of other avenues to support IRC refugees in Charlottesville. “Needs vary greatly from person to person and family to family,” says Bercegeay. “Items such as heavy winter coats right now are in great demand. Assistance with English language learning and acclimating to the community and American culture are also great needs, which we assist with in several ways, including by matching volunteer tutors and mentors.” The list goes on and on.

What other ways can we creatively support local community members or nonprofits in the new year? Tell us in the comments below.

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Arts

Fragments of conversation: Art and discourse in a new exhibition at McGuffey

The work of Jim Respess (left) and Steve Fishman (right) makes up the collaborative show, “Fragmentation,” at the McGuffey Art Center through January 31. The First Friday opening reception will take place on January 8. Image: Courtesy Artists

Scrawled on a chalkboard in Jim Respess’ studio in the basement of the McGuffey Art Center is a Sol Lewitt quote that reads, “Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.”

It’s a reminder that the artist has used for years, seeking to push himself to higher levels of expression. In lieu of aesthetic perfection, Respess craves the dialogue that art can create between artists and the work, as well as the viewer. It’s what continues to move his art forward, and it’s one of the factors that led to a new exhibition at McGuffey this month, titled “Fragmentations.”

The exhibition is a collaboration between Respess and his longtime friend, Steve Fishman, an artist based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The two met as students at Virginia Commonwealth University more than 20 years ago, and their efforts as working artists have kept them in contact ever since. “We were both older graduate students and it was a great help to have an ongoing dialogue about the experience and our individual processes, because we work very differently,” says Fishman.

Both artists are members of the McGuffey Art Association and so their dialogue on art continued despite geographical differences. The conversations take a different form these days, however.

“One of the things that we’ve been doing that I’ve found very valuable is studio FaceTime [meetings] and really looking at the work and saying, ‘Lend me your eyes and your brain on this,’” says Fishman. These tele-critiques have become a ritual over the last couple of years, imbuing fresh energy to their friendship and each artist’s work.

While Respess has been a renting member at the downtown art center for more than 20 years, Fishman is an associate member of the organization. “I lived in Richmond for a long time and found my way to McGuffey in the late 1970s,” he says. “I would walk the halls and meet the artists. I’m honored to be part of it now, and I’d like to be more participatory from a distance. I feel like I’m kind of the Chapel Hill ambassador.” Though he can exhibit work at the center and participate in McGuffey’s expansive network of artists, he didn’t have a physical presence in the Charlottesville arts community—until now.

Fishman and Respess’ FaceTime exchanges will be the focus of “Fragmentations,” which features artwork that has grown out of the artists’ dialogue. “I think we are both very cognizant of the fact that we’re both just learning,” says Respess. “I try to take on new processes to be stupid. I try to make myself stupid. The idea is the thing that’s driving what I’m trying to do, and the materials are secondary.”

The work is heavy with the honesty of experimentation, imperfect at times but clearly a demonstration of the process for each artist. While Respess creates colorful, oversized sculptures, Fishman focuses on two-dimensional prints that occasionally dip into his background in painting, etching and drawing.

“We help each other because my technical understanding of materials and his thinking abilities make a pretty interesting fit,” says Fishman. “We can bounce ideas and come to new understandings of what we’re trying to do.”

Respess is the philosopher of the two, using his art as a tool to grapple with specific concepts. Fishman is the craftsman, seeking to perfect the expression of ideas through his medium. Both produce work that is abstract and conceptual rather than a faithful reproduction of reality.

“I can make things look like I want them to, but so what,” says Fishman. “I want to say something more. So, the work that I’ve made involves using forms and shapes and spaces.” His work is less about portrayal of physical reality and more of an exploration of abstract ideas and texture. It’s an additive process, and one that constantly grows alongside the work.

“Some of [the pieces] are prints gone awry that grew into more interesting things,” says Fishman. “I feel like I don’t want to be closed to what the thing can grow into. It can sort of have a life of its own.”

A print that was slightly off becomes the inspiration or base layer for a new drawing, which might then continue to evolve with future layers.

Respess embraces a similar approach in his sculptures. For any single sculpture, “I can keep pushing that, changing it around, changing the scale,” he says. “There’s a lot of information and ways that I can alter it. I’m realizing that I can push this a lot further. This is just a starting point.”

For this exhibition, there’s a final element of collaboration and dialogue that comes in the arrangement and hanging of the show. With luck, each artist’s work will spark further conversations, between the individual pieces but also among other artists and community members who view it.

“We can have that conversation here,” says Respess. “I think that’s one of the functions that McGuffey serves in the community. And that is much bigger than anything that I do or that Steve does.”

Tell us about other unique collaborations in the comments below.

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Give back, give art: Make it a philanthropic holiday with local nonprofits

Service Dogs of Virginia sells its dogs’ unique artwork to raise funds for the canines’ training to assist people with special needs. Photo: Courtesy service dogs of virginia

“We know people are looking for creative ways to give. What we hear repeatedly is, ‘I don’t need anything, I don’t want anything,’” says Sally Day. As director of development for Service Dogs of Virginia, Day knows plenty about the importance of end-of-year philanthropy for local nonprofits. In response to this, the organization’s founder and executive director, Peggy Law, launched a campaign five years ago to raise support through artwork made by the service dogs themselves.

“It’s built on the same commands that the dogs learn anyway,” explains Day. The touch or mark command gets the dog to dab a paw in the paint and then onto the canvas. Repeated with a range of colors, an abstract artwork begins to emerge.

“It’s funny to watch because some dogs are not really that into it,” says Day. “Then we have other dogs…one in particular loved to paint. She really seemed quite contemplative about it. She had big paws so she could really make a statement on the canvas. But who knows what was going through her mind.”

Now a holiday tradition, these paintings are sold as a way to raise funds for the dogs and the clients with whom they are eventually matched. The costs associated with each service dog are higher than you might expect. At approximately $20,000 per dog each year, they include day-to-day care at the training center and in each puppy’s foster home where it lives on nights and weekends when it’s not at “school,” as the Service Dogs of Virginia training center is known. Add together food, supplements, equipment, toys, transportation, veterinary bills and the wages for professional trainers who work with the dogs, and the high price begins to make sense.

“It’s a real challenge, but we are committed to not charging the clients for the dogs since most of them already have significant costs associated with their disabilities,” says Day.

Paintings can be purchased as individual gifts or as part of a dog sponsorship in honor of a friend or family member. The sponsorships are also a critical component of the nonprofit’s operations. “We’re an organization that helps people with disabilities, but many people get drawn in because of their love of dogs,” says Day. “And it makes it personal when you can choose the dog who really appeals to you and really follow how the dog is doing in training.”

Sponsoring a specific dog is an opportunity to learn about dog training and disability services, but also about the importance of philanthropy and the impact it has on local nonprofits. Sponsors (or those who receive the gift of a sponsorship in their honor) receive periodic updates on the dog’s training progress and interests, and can even meet “their” dog in person by making an appointment at the training center.

Original paintings are available for sponsorships of $65 or more, and range from 5″ x 7″ to 11″ x 17″ canvases. Packs of note cards featuring the dogs’ artwork or portraits of the dogs themselves are also available for donations of $12. All proceeds go directly to support the ongoing work by Service Dogs of Virginia to train dogs to assist people with a variety of special needs.

Making this kind of a financial contribution to an area nonprofit has a direct effect on the local community, unlike incentive programs such as Amazon Smile, which donates a scant 0.5 percent of your purchases to your nonprofit of choice. Plus, quirky gift items like those from Service Dogs of Virginia and other organizations provide something for everyone on your holiday shopping list.

Center for Nonprofit Excellence Executive Director Cristine Nardi refers to the same phenomenon as the “rising trend to give rather than get” and explains that this type of philanthropy can be a meaningful way to exchange gifts with friends and family.

“The holiday season is an important time of year for many nonprofits who rely on end-of-year gifts to help fund their community work, whether it’s food security, youth development, legal aid or protecting our local environment,” says Nardi. With hundreds of nonprofits in the area, there are plenty of options to match the interests of everyone on your gift list.

Hospice of the Piedmont is once again offering its annual Dining Around the Area book full of coupons to a variety of local restaurants and wineries, with a total estimated value of $1,200. It also includes deals for performing arts venues, such as Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Blackfriars Playhouse, Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, Four County Players, Live Arts, The Oratorio Society, The Virginia Consort and Wintergreen Performing Arts. All the proceeds go to support hospice programs, and the offers are valid through November 2016.

Another option is to give books in honor of your friends and family. Both the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and Books on Bikes have wish lists—you can essentially give to the entire community while honoring a specific loved one. Titles range from Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey to Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! by Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl.

What other gifts are available to support local nonprofits?

Tell us in the comments below.

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Natural progressions: Dean Dass contemplates ‘The Kingdom’ at Les Yeux du Monde

Dean Dass’ “Upper Moormans, 2015” is part of his exploration of natural history, animal life and human migratory patterns in “The Kingdom” at Les Yeux du Monde. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Nestled among the tall trunks of a forested area in Ivy, a studio is situated a short walk away from the home of artist Dean Dass. When making prints, he’ll often use his UVA studio, but for long-term and large-scale paintings and collage works, this home studio is the locus of activity.

“I always wanted to live in a forest,” says Dass. “It’s not as great as Helsinki, but it’s pretty nice.”

Between home and his workspace, a footbridge crosses a stream and the path is buried in pine needles and leaves at certain points. Though a short distance from a highway, the location embodies the very balance between the earthly and the sublime that Dass explores in much of his work.

This month, a selection of these works is on display at Les Yeux du Monde, curated by the gallery’s owner, Lyn Bolen Warren. Titled “The Kingdom,” the exhibition features the artist’s collected studies of natural history, ranging from paintings of clouds and birds to collaged prints of the migratory habitats of humans: in this case, taking the form of collaged prints of A-frame camping tents.

One of the selected works is an outgrowth of a Dass collage from 15 years ago, with new layers and a drawing added to alter its original appearance. Another piece is a recent landscape painting so monumental that Dass could very well continue adding to it for years to come. “I just sand it down and start building up again. I’ll work forever on a painting,” he admits.

Even smaller paintings of birds represent a significant investment of time by the artist. “It took a year to decide whether I should put the labels in or not, so that’s why it took me so long to get started,” says Dass. The result is detailed and endearing while also unsettling, perhaps reflective of the fact that the paintings are based on taxidermied birds in an avian archive. Here, the aesthetic is less about the graceful motion of flight and more about creating an empirical record of feather patterns.

Earlier this year, Dass gave the annual “Animals in the Kingdom of God” lecture at Calvin College in Michigan, and the name of this exhibit speaks to the same theme. “It implies a kind of inventory, a list: birds and animals, clouds, landscapes and all these creatures,” says Dass.

Though he recently exhibited for the launch of New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery in September, both Dass and Warren agree that was a lead-up to “The Kingdom.” The selection at Les Yeux du Monde is a more diverse mixture of his work and pieces that have been in progress for a longer period of time.

When he’s not creating his own work, Dass is a UVA printmaking professor and it’s rare to find a student who isn’t profoundly affected by his tutelage. Dass sees himself as a mentor but “at a certain point we’re just friends,” he says of his students, many of whom have found success as artists after graduation. Dass also considers himself a researcher, which is evident in his ongoing investigation into techniques and mediums. “Just like in biology or environmental science, it’s pure research,” he says. “It gives freedom from the market. Every painting is an experiment.”

One example of this openness to experimentation can be seen in his layered paper collages. “I think it’s interesting to make inkjet [printing] behave like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s not a photograph; it’s not a lithograph; it’s not a screenprint. It’s not anything [defined],” says Dass. Throughout Dass’ collages, the gossamer effect of this process lends an ethereal aesthetic to cellular structures or icons like the camping tent, which otherwise could be mistaken for a page torn from an old scouting guide.

“He defies all boundaries of mediums in print and comes up with amazing concoctions,” says Warren, who has been a supporter of Dass since he first arrived in Charlottesville in 1985.

“I went to his very first studio sale and I, who didn’t have any money, bought five of his prints,” she says. “They still speak to me and make me feel something. After many years, these are among my most cherished pieces of art.”

Dass has gone on to exhibit his work nationally and internationally, but remains a popular and respected presence in the region as well. “I go into houses and see his great pieces that we’ve sold that are being lived with and enjoyed constantly. It just feels so good,” says Warren.

On January 16, Les Yeux du Monde will host a gallery event with poetry readings, talks and performances by Stephen Hitchcock, Christopher Yates and others to accompany “The Kingdom.” This event, which begins at 4pm, is free and open to the public. The exhibition of Dass’ work will remain on display through January 18.

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Art on demand: Rally ’round at Second Street Gallery

Jason Robinson saw beauty in the breakdown for his video Wastewater, inspired by a visit to Moore’s Creek Wastewater Treament Facility. The work is included along with lenticular prints in Second Street Gallery’s “Sustainablity” exhibition. Photo: Mina Pirasteh

“It’s a fascinating place. It’s in my neighborhood, within walking distance from my house, but I had no idea it was there,” says filmmaker Jason Robinson, describing Moore’s Creek Wastewater Treatment plant. This type of facility probably doesn’t top most people’s list of neighborhood places to explore, but the allure was quick to present itself to Robinson.

He first encountered the spot while leading a Light House Studio field trip for a documentary project at Moore’s Creek in collaboration with the Rivanna Conservation Society. “While helping [the students] film, I was immediately taken with the entire place,” Robinson recalls. “The various structures and machines are situated in a very particular way that reminded me more of a sculpture park than an industrial waste facility.” Along with the machinery, the wastewater itself inspired Robinson to return and shoot his own video.

This week, he will display the results of this effort, a 16-minute silent video titled Wastewater, as part of the “Sustainability” exhibition at Second Street Gallery. It’s a meditation on our environment and the ways we adapt it for our needs, that’s both horrifying and strangely beautiful.

“I love that this idea was started during a project with Light House and is premiering across the Live Arts lobby at Second Street Gallery,” says Robinson. “Just like the wastewater, my video is completing its journey right where it started but in a completely new form.”

The wastewater plays a starring role in an abstracted form, sharing the screen with flickering light and the large machinery that originally caught Robinson’s eye. The video will play on a loop in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition, so that viewers can stop in to see it anytime in the coming weeks. For one night only, though, Wastewater will feature musical accompaniment by Ryan Maguire.

On December 11, Maguire will perform a live soundtrack collage for the video, using CD players and digital recordings. “The use of refurbished digital technology highlights the idea of refuse and is a reminder of forced obsolescence,” says Maguire. “I wanted to make a collage of the sounds of motors and engines generating air pollution in juxtaposition to Jason’s footage of wastewater to draw attention to all the ways in which these two things are similar and distinct.” The two artists have collaborated in the past on projects that involve live video manipulation by Robinson as well as other improvisational accompaniments by Maguire, who is currently a Ph.D. student in composition and computer technologies at UVA.

“Ryan was the only person I thought of for this,” says Robinson. “I am constantly amazed by every single thing he makes. I sent him the video and a few notes about my process, but I know very little about what he is doing and what it will sound like. His performance is going to be a surprise for me too and I can’t wait to hear it.” Afterwards, Robinson will give a short talk about his work, including the nine lenticular prints he has on display in the main gallery exhibition for “Sustainability.” The video installation and exhibition will remain on display through January 30.

Artistic draw

On December 12, Second Street will host the first annual Gallery Rally, encouraging bystanders and art collectors alike to visit the gallery to witness the creative process—and maybe even go home with an original piece of artwork or two.

Based on a model that’s become popular around the country, the Gallery Rally features a roomful of local artists, all creating original drawings for one afternoon.

“I think drawing is a basis for a lot of artists’ work and is a really good way [for others] to begin to understand their process and thinking,” says SSG Executive Director Warren Craghead. The public is invited to watch them work, and each piece will be available for sale as soon as it’s finished. “We have so many strong artists here in Charlottesville and so many people who are engaged with and support the arts that we thought a party like this will be a great way to bring them together,” Craghead says.

Craghead will also be among the participating artists, along with local painter Sarah Boyts Yoder and almost 30 others. Together, the Rally group represents a wide swath of local talent, including illustrators, sculptors, printmakers and other artists.

Inspired by the Monster Drawing Rally at 1708 Gallery in Richmond and similar events, the event was instigated by the gallery’s Fun Committee, of which Yoder is a member. “With this event, SSG is engaging and showcasing the incredible local talent that is thriving here in Charlottesville, and giving Charlottesvillians a chance to experience it in an intimate and first-hand way,” says Yoder.

The event continues Second Street’s long tradition of community outreach events for kids and adults alike. “It’s not just watching artists work…it’s being in the room as so many are creating at the same time,” Yoder adds. “What amazing energy.”

The Gallery Rally event will take place from 4-7pm on December 12. Admission is $5 (for ages 12 and older), and all drawings will be available to purchase for $50.

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Glad tidings: The annual Gift Forest pop-up finds a new home

The Gift Forest has been celebrating local craftspeople and DIY artisans for 15 years. The pop-up is now open on the Downtown Mall. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

When Sarah Carr started the annual Gift Forest pop-up holiday shop in 2010, it took place at The Bridge PAI. “I called the shop Great Gifts through 2012 and changed the name to Gift Forest in 2013,” says Carr. “I had a much stronger vision for things in 2013. That’s when I started to feel the project was equal parts an endeavor to make artists money and to construct an art installation composed of all of their work.”

The wide windows of the gallery lent the shop the extravagance of Macy’s holiday installations, while the eclectic selection and festive decorations earned it a devoted base of shoppers and fans. For five years, Belmont residents and others came to expect the pop-up to return every December, each time with a marked improvement in the quantity, quality and quirk of the shop’s offerings. “Pop-ups were a lot less common at the time, so I was finding my way with very little help,” reflects Carr.

Celebrating its sixth anniversary this month, the Gift Forest has made a big move this year. Now located on the Downtown Mall, Carr and company set up shop in the space formerly occupied by Vivian’s Art for Living. The Gift Forest opened its doors in the new spot on November 30, but the official opening party for the shop will take place during First Fridays on December 4, with music by Colin Powell.

As is its tradition, the store carries a wide variety of handmade, repurposed and vintage items from regional crafters, collectors, designers and artists—totaling approximately 100 individuals. “We’re excited to be on the Downtown Mall this year because we are obviously getting a lot more exposure in this space. We have also been able to invite about twice as many vendors,” says Carr. Familiar names like Elaine B Jewelry, Richard Crozier, Budala Pottery and Monolith Studio Knives stock the shelves, and Carr hopes to provide an alternative to big-box stores while also supporting the local artisans and creatives whose work is for sale.

The Gift Forest will be open daily through December 24, providing plenty of time to forage for one-of-a-kind gifts, from vintage clothes and handmade books to holistic cosmetics, silkscreened accessories and fine art. Further, expect to see some performance art and other events at the shop later this month as well. For details, visit face book.com/giftforest15.

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Inside the sound: Duo Grand Banks takes its improv to the masses

Grand Banks duo Davis Salisbury and Tyler Magill have been partners in drone music since 2001. Their first label release, QB4: 1877-1896, is due on cassette from Oxtail Recordings on December 5. Photo: Publicity photo

You can’t cover a Grand Banks song. Don’t even think about it. It’s not a question of chops or instrumental know-how. It’s about the unique relationship between the two musicians in the band, the growth of their friendship over the years and their approach to making sound together. “If somebody asks me what Grand Banks is, I call it textural improvisation,” says Davis Salisbury. With Tyler Magill, Salisbury has been playing music as Grand Banks since 2001. The two started the project while playing in other local bands together, christening their endeavor with a name that had been rattling around in Magill’s head for a while.

The band has evolved over the years, incorporating different instruments on and off, depending on what interests the duo at any given time. The sound has changed as well, shifting from assaulting noise to Grand Bank’s current approach, which touches on the description of sometimes melodic drone music. As in any creative relationship, there is a substantial amount of give and take between Salisbury and Magill.

“When we have been playing for a while, we’ll get to a point where I can’t tell who’s making the sounds, it’s just kind of manifesting itself,” Salisbury says. “That’s a really interesting creative place to be in. You’re in it and you like it and you want it to keep happening. But you’re also fighting the urge to make something happen. Getting too excited while playing in Grand Banks can often be a detriment to the music.”

From the audience, the experience of a Grand Banks show asks only for openness, curiosity and patience. Indeed, there remains a sustained interest in the band, both locally and further afield. “We have these people who are really supportive of it over the years. They just get it and appreciate that we make the effort,” says Salisbury. “I get to play for people who are willing to take the chance, to live inside the sound and try to appreciate where we’re coming from with it.”

Passages of sound can last for minutes and feel like hours, but the reverse is true as well. “The ability to play with time and people’s experience of time is fascinating to me and that’s really the only reason I play music,” admits Salisbury.

Similar to meditation, when a Grand Banks show works, it unlocks a way of being that seems removed from space and time. There is only the immensity of the sound, with little distraction from Salisbury and Magill, who are fairly introverted in their performance styles. “It doesn’t look like we’re doing anything,” says Magill. “We would play the same show whether there were people there or not.”

Now, as the band approaches its 15-year mark, Grand Banks is celebrating its first label release. Sure, it has released CD-Rs in the past, but nothing on a label. The album, titled QB4: 1877-1896, is comprised of 4-track and reel-to-reel recordings, and will be released on cassette this month by Oxtail Recordings. “It’s archival material in that we recorded it in 2001 or 2002, but we dug it up and it’s all been re-contextualized and collaged,” says Magill.

You won’t find anything resembling a single on a Grand Banks release. “I consider us primarily a live band,” says Salisbury. “We have a few things that we return to, but for the most part we just improvise live. So, even with these recordings, they are improvisations, but ones done without an audience.”

In the back of his mind, Salisbury admits that he always thought Grand Banks would play a show one day and the duo would meet a guy—maybe one who knew a guy—who would ask to release a Grand Banks album on a label. Recently, at one of his solo performances as Dais Queue, Salisbury met Mike Nigro from Oxtail Recordings, who expressed interest in releasing an album for him. Though Nigro’s interest was initially in Dais Queue, one thing led to another, and the forthcoming Grand Banks album found a home.

A cassette release show is scheduled for this week at an unannounced location, with Nigro and other musicians opening for the band—but it won’t be at a formal venue. In fact, the bigger local venues rarely invite Grand Banks to perform, and the pair almost never plays more than a few shows in Charlottesville per year.

“They don’t take chances on stuff like us,” says Salisbury. “I have no interest in being involved in shows where the main priority is making sure enough people show up to justify the fact that the venue booked the bands. I think it’s cultivating the side of music I’m not interested in participating in anymore.”

Salisbury and Magill continue to focus on what’s important to them as Grand Banks, challenging one another in their improvisations while creating work that they find interesting.

“Collaborative art is really hard, and it’s not fun all the time,” Davis says. “It’s a struggle, but that’s what’s been special about Grand Banks. Life gets hard for us, but Grand Banks is always easy. There are no words to express how much I get out of playing in Grand Banks. It’s one of the things I do that will never not be special. And I just hope everybody finds stuff like that in their life.”

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