DrumatiX Puts the Spring in Springtime

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

DrumatiX performing at Seaport Village.

DrumatiX: You may not be familiar with their name, but if you’re out and about in the next month and looking for a good time for kids and adults of all ages, you will be. 

They’re an award-winning company of drumming dancers who are this year’s Performing Artists-in-Residenceat San Diego International Airport. And Noa Barankin, their founder, artistic director and choreographer, is an unusually creative personality.

“I am drawn to visually aesthetic setups,” she said, when we first met, in a phone-call. “We have props and equipment that we designed and built ourselves. As you'll see, the whole choreography is a design within itself. We create soundscapes using our bodies, feet, found items, and drums. And the whole set—including drums, crates, barrels, and a big bass drum—has to fit into my Nissan Rogue so I can take the show to different places.”

She also designed the DrumatiX costumes, logo and website, and invited my husband and me to one of their rehearsals.

 

In rehearsal: Noa Barankin, wearing a logo-themed T-shirt,
with the main part of a bucket drum

The rehearsal process was interesting, but we were really blown away on April 21^st when we saw DrumatiX in performance at Seaport Village.  There were eight dancers onstage, not yet in the costumes they’ll be wearing at the airport. Seeing all the things they used as instruments—trashcans included—I couldn’t believe Noa fit them into her car.

Five Drummers

 

Three Boomwhackers

The show was an hour-long delight, with audience interaction throughout. Among the instruments were colorful Boomwhackers, color-coded plastic tubes tuned to musical pitches which I’d never even heard of before, though many in the audience seemed to recognize them. After the show, Noa confessed she’d originally made her own versions out of 10-foot-long LED pipes after researching the wavelengths required, but they weren’t as colorful or as long-lasting, so she’d let them go.

 

Noa drumming onstage.

Here’s a brief introduction to Noa Barankin:

Originally from Israel, she lived in Boston for nine years before moving to San Diego in 2022. She started DrumatiX in Boston in 2017, creating an innovative blend of tap dance, body percussion and drumming, combined with found items and invented instruments; she chose Home Depot buckets for drums because their orange color popped onstage. DrumatiX is now a bi-coastal company, a welcome addition to San Diego’s arts scene.

Noa lives in North Park, which she calls “a vibrant, artistic and colorful neighborhood that inspires me every day.” Her husband is a data scientist, and they have three boys—8, 4, and 1 ½ years old.

She somehow finds time to teach for Arts Education Connection in schools around San Diego, but DrumatiX shows are her main activity this spring. “I like to keep my showpieces bite-size,” she said. “Short enough for everyone in the audience to stay involved.” 

Be prepared for some really good times with DrumatiX.  Here’s where you can find them:

DrumaztiX - Spring 2024 at the San Diego International Airport, in Terminal 2, Mondays and Fridays from April 29^th- May 10^th, 10 a.m.-noon, with pop-up performances throughout the Terminal offering opportunities to join in the show. 

Airport Residency sign at Seaport Village

 

Drumatix Rhythm Delivered at the San Diego International Fringe Festival at Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park. Various times from May 17th-May 26th.  Check Fringe Festival site for schedule and tickets.

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

 

Exploring the Importance of Roots in Our Lives at PHES Gallery

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

A collaborative piece by PHES owners Paul Henry & Ellen Speert.

It’s always a good time to visit PHES Gallery in Carlsbad and their current show is well worth seeing. The theme is Roots, and 16 artists were invited to show what the word means to them.

Root Rising by Lucy Boyd Wilson 

A video installation greets you as you enter the gallery.

Here’s the artist's description: 

“It’s a meditation of flowing energy, tangles of roots, descending, deepening, evolving… breaking free into the inevitable upwelling bloom of color and creative joy.”   (Music from the Spotted Peccary album Convergence)

There were certainly varied responses to the Roots theme.  Here are two by Cheryl Tall.

Saraswati: Leaf Goddess, a hand-built ceramic piece.

 Roots Suite, a quartet of colorful faces on the wall behind the goddess  .

Three pieces by Ann Mudge had a room to themselves.

Consequences 1 (wood, paper, and steel) by Mary Donovan

 

Passport, mixed media on handmade paper by Juanita Perez Adelman

Let’s end by going back to the beginning, with Paul and Ellen’s collaborative piece. Paul wanted to make a cabinet out of some cherrywood and poplar that had been lying around in his workshop for decades. Then his sister visited some long-lost relatives in Florida and sent him copies of old family photos they had. So, the piece became his Polish Family Cabinet—his roots are in fact Polish, as is the cabinet style—and the photos went inside. 

There was a space at the bottom which he was going to fill with a little carving, but he asked Ellen what she might do; she came up with the trees, which he loved. Here’s a closer look at Ellen’s painting, with one of Paul’s family photos above it. 

 

Paul called the cabinet their first real collaboration. “No,” Ellen said. “Our first real collaboration was our daughter!”

There’s much more to see in the gallery—33 pieces in all—and Roots will be on view through June 15, so you have time to contemplate your own roots before you see these. There will also be an artists’ talk by Lucy Boyd Wilson and others on May 26 at 5 p.m. 

Roots
PHES Gallery
Until June 15
Gallery hours are Thursday-Saturday, 2-7 p.m., though PHES will be closed April 25-27.

P.S. from Paul Henry: His long-lost Florida relative just bought the Polish Family Cabinet!

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

By Patricia Frischer

Joscelyn Gardner - the braids and slave collar and
plant inducing abortion of an Afro-Caribbean women

In 60’s and 70‘s, the British art world labeled Caribbean art with the cliché of tropical foliage and vibrant color. But, of course, Ancient native Caribbean art was about the creation myths, stories of animals gods and human heros with body ornaments, wood and rock  carvings and paintings and lots of ceramics both pottery and sculpture. Pre-colonial Caribbean art is documented at its best between 1000 and 1492.  

By the 1990’s, there was not exactly a return to those ancient ideas except in how those themes represent one of the major goals of artists: definition of self within the current time.   

This brings us to the current Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition in La Jolla: Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today showing from April 18 through July 21, 2024. 

This exhibition demonstrates with the selection of 24 artists, who are either living in the Caribbean or have ancestry there, that they have moved long past the jolly image of bright flowers and colorful birds.  

The wall labels use any number of metaphors to try to relate the work to each other in a contemporary dialogue in five main categories. Territories refer to bodies and identity changing through migration. Formal Rhythms draws attention to the movement through space as well as the movement caused when materials, techniques  and subjects change. Landscapes brings up resource exploitation and colonialism.  Exchange challenges the geopolitical relations with Arab, Asia and America. Image Making reminds us of historical references. These works can easily slide between these labels so it is important to looks at the individual works.

Álvaro Barrios - blue for the sea

Álvaro Barrios - red for violence

Lorraine O'Grady

Lorraine O'Grady - a palm tree made of pine leaves

Peter Doig

Daniel Lind-Ramos - a beach warrior

Engel Leonardo - faceless goldmining dolls

Maksaens Denis - spirit of the dead and guardian of cemeteries

Ebony G. Patterson

Suchitra Mattai

Suchitra Mattai (detail)

Suchitra Mattai (detail)

Alia Farid - mosque inspired kilim carpet

María Magdalena Campos-Pons - a walk through the sugar fields...spears as the sharp leaves, 

María Magdalena Campos-Pons (detail)

Julien Creuzet

Julien Creuzet - metal floor silhouettes

 

Working in cities across the globe, the exhibition’s artists also include Candida Alvarez,  Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Christopher Cozier, Jeannette Ehlers, Tomm El-Saieh, Rafael Ferrer, Denzil Forrester, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ana Mendieta, Keith Piper, Freddy Rodríguez, Zilia Sánchez, and Adán Vallecillo.  

As explained in the press release,  “Forecast Form challenges conventional ideas about the region and reveals the Caribbean as a place defined by constant exchange, displacement, and movement rather than by geography, language, or ethnicity.” It is organized by Associate Curator Isabel Casso, who worked on the exhibition at MCA Chicago, where the exhibition originated. Casso said “MCASD is proud to be the final and only West Coast venue…”  

Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora  at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
April 18 through July 21,

Public and Members’ Programs 
May 25, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. — Lecture on the Move: Dr. Jade Power-Sotomayor and Maru Lopez
July 13, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. — With Guavas In Your Eyes Workshop: Natasha Kozaily
July 18, 6 – 7 p.m. — Rebellion & Movement: Bomba Liberté
Public tours: Every Saturday at 2 p.m. Free with paid admission.

‘War and Peace’ Musical at Cygnet Theatre Would Make Tolstoy Dance.

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt
Photos by Maurice Hewitt

 

 A week before showtime, Costume Designer Shirley Pierson
posed with a handful of sketches outside the theater.

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, which just opened at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town, is a far-out-of-the-ordinary event. It’s a pop-rock opera that is, as the detailed program informs us, “adapted from a scandalous 70-page slice of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’.” It gives new meaning to the overused word “immersive” and is a thousand times more amusing than Tolstoy; Cygnet’s program includes a link to Tolstoy’s relevant chapters if you want to check.

Written by playwright/composer/lyricist/actor/musician Dave Malloy, who played Pierre in the first off-Broadway production, the show became a huge hit on Broadway, where it was nominated for 12 Tony awards and won for best scenic and lighting design in 2017.

The look of the show is a major attraction, and costumes are a big part of that look. Happily, I got to interview Cygnet’s award-winning costume designer Shirley Pierson before the show opened and not only saw the sketches she originally did for the costumes, some of which you’ll see here, but also heard about her unusual path to becoming a costume designer, which I’m sharing here too. 

The Designer’s Sketches

 

Natasha: A lovely young woman, she’s engaged to Andrey,
who has gone off to war, and makes the dreadful mistake of falling for Anatole.

Andrey: Natasha’s fiancé, an honorable man
away fighting Napoleon’s army.

Anatole: A handsome scoundrel
who goes after Natasha.

Hélène: Anatole’s sister, no better than her brother.

Pierre: A wealthy man, kind but socially awkward,
unhappily married to Hélène.

On opening night, the finished costumes really came to life on the super-active performers, and there were three amazing costumes in the show’s opera-within-the-opera that left us wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Shirley said there were some surprises, and she was right. I won’t reveal the surprises; you’ll have to go see for yourself.

Shirley Pierson: A Designer’s Life 

Shirley did not take a direct path to costume designing, though she’s been sewing and working with textiles since she was five years old.

“I grew up on a farm in Nebraska and learned on my grandmother’s treadle machine,” she said. “I went to a one-room parochial schoolhouse till 8^th grade, then went on to high school in our small town. There were only 49 in our graduating class, and there were only two possibilities for women then: teaching and nursing. So I chose nursing, and became a travelling nurse.”

She wound up in Los Angeles, in psychiatric nursing—a background she says serves her well in a fitting room with actors.

From nursing, she segued into clothing, at Robinson’s Department Store’s buying offices for junior clothing, in the days of Guess Jeans and glam rock. Then she went into manufacturing, buying textiles from all over the world.

“I liked the story every textile told, but I didn’t want the almighty dollar to be driving what I did,” she said. “So I started designing textiles and prints, mainly for children, and then got into costume design, and got involved in theater.”

Along the way, she met and married Eric Pierson, who had been working in Script Development and wanted to get a PhD in Media Studies. One of the best places to do that was at the University of Illinois, so they went there, and she began taking courses in theater and puppetry.

Back in California, he started teaching New Media, Film and TV at U.S.D. and she got her MFA in Theatrical Arts and Technical Design at SDSU. While still a student, she won her first award for costume design and was soon gathering more awards for her work. I remember the brilliantly weird costumes she did for Shockheaded Peter at Cygnet, which won her a Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Costume Design in 2017.

On her website she says she believes in “strong, purposeful lines and textures” and the power of costume design. “Costume supports story and…sparks creative imagination for the actor wearing it, the company members performing around it, and the audience member viewing it.”

She’s also an Associate Professor of Clothing and Textile Arts at San Diego College of Continuing Education, where she opened a Fiber Tech Lab. “I love being in the classroom, and letting people know what digital arts can do,” she said. “This is definitely a Renaissance period we’re in, and we need not to be intimidated by the changes but ready to immerse ourselves in the possibilities.”

And what about the show? 

It was a delight, full of audience involvement, great music, great voices, and besides all the fun, some emotional moments too. At the end, we joined the entire audience’s standing ovation.

If you’re ready to immerse yourself in a great theater-going experience, don’t miss this one. Due to tremendous audience response, the show’s run has been extended through May 26!

 Here’s the “Family Tree” from the program, so you can meet the characters in advance.

 

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Book, Lyrics and Music by Dave Malloy.
Adapted from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Directed by Sean Murray
Music Direction by Patrick Marion
Choreography by Katie Banville
Costumes by Shirley Pierson

Cygnet Theater
Apr 10 - May 26, 2024

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

Allied Craftsmen of San Diego: Hands On Design at Oceanside Museum of Art

 by Patricia Frischer

Cheryl Tall - Japanese guardian lion dog, a fierce protector from evil spirits

Guusje Sanders, the juror of this exhibition Allied Craftsmen of San Diego: Hands On Design at  Oceanside Museum of Art from March 30 to August 18, 2024  has chosen what she thinks if the best of the works submitted. She is a curator at Mingei International Museum, an institute that is based on craft. The display of the work is not solely based on a grouping of materials, but it also lends itself to certain themes. The order that I have presented them below thus jumps a bit back and forth.

We are long past the discussion on craft as art. It is a non-issue. These craft-persons  are members of the Allied Craftsman (founded in the mid-century) are all highly skilled artists who communicate through their given mediums.

 

I started with animals – a dog, a phoenix bird, a polar bear, a horse and a butterfly. I traveled to works that are using light, then those that are wood and containers for other things. Some textiles next, then two figurative works, telephone poles and a literal ceramic rug which led me to more patterns. Finally to works that are suspended and last work that typifies the reference to all sorts of found and upcycled objects. The most prominent but not the only theme was the environment, a easy band wagon on which to jump. 

The display was well thought out and the signage informative with artists statements about their creations. There were old friends and new discoveries,  plus these additional artworks by artists not illustrated here: Beston Barnett, Sandra Berlin-Kroll, David Browne, Levi Casias, Ellen Fager, Erik Gronborg, Joanne Hayakawa, Ashley Kim, YC Kim, Lisa Maher, Ross Stockwell. 

Irène de Watteville - a dreadful kitchen fire inspired this phoenix rises from the ashes with an array of vegetables adorning its survival.

Jeff Irwin - Polar bear as ice flow rug becomes a strong case for climate change.

Mimi Levinson - Using a peach pits to embellish this primitive ceramic horse. 

Norma Pizarro (detail) - tiny leaves make up these butterflies
as they emerge from  or return to a mirror crack in the multiverse

Norma Pizarro

Cheryl Nickel - Medical glass test tubes are illuminated
 with the motion of your body

William Leslie with Alessandra Colfi - Paper and bent wood take wing.

William Leslie with Alessandra Colfi (detail)

Paul Henry - Modern meets regency
with a special little drawer for an M&M

Adam John Manley -Rescued wood if finely balanced

Warren Bakley - It takes less than the usual 24 minutes to go from distraction to connecting the dots in this ceramic work

Gail Schneider - The epitome of the title hands on design
or are there bodies trying to get out. 

Kathleen Mitchell - subtle carved indentions enhance these profound shapes

Viviana Lombrozo - no not ceramic, but hand painted quilted cloth
and not a vessel but a twist of fabric. 

Charlotte Bird - An unfold cloth book hangs from a towel rack

Kathy Nida - A proper rant again the waste in the world,
even at the expense and to the glory of the arts

David Cuzick - The most compelling of the works in this exhibition, with the tiny hands feet and legs
and the bulbous body. Is is floating up or falling down? We share his distress. 

David Fobes - Cross concentric circles make this paint by numbers soar into another realm. 

Terri Hughes-Oelrich - An ode to the power in our lives. Will we miss it when it all goes wireless?

Mary Cale Wilson - Terracotta carpet - nope, this is not a magic flying one, but with its earthenware fridge and raised motifs, it is much more than just a rug. 

Jason Lane - Hand made module forms create a strong pattern of interlocking shapes

Judith Christensen - Coffee filter lined up to educate us about so many scientific subjects.
We should also be this dedicated to further our knowledge of the world. 

Judith Christensen (detail)

Polly Jacobs Giacchina - Tiny loops of wire holding rocks and raffia weaving
somehow evoke peace and contemplation. 

Linda Litteral - Childhood memories on house with no windows hiding who know what. 

Kerianne Quick - A smell and a look extended on telescoping wands
help us avoid contact during the COVID year. 

Allied Craftsmen of San Diego: Hands On Design at  Oceanside Museum of Art
March 30 to August 18, 2024

March 30 to August 18, 2024