Savion Glover: Sound Your Shoes.

The crowd has gone and I'm still clapping for Savion Glover's SoLe Sanctuary.  Rhythm-rhythm-rhythm is smack-dab center spotlight in Glover's show - but, there is the conscious balance of stillness too.  No Busby Berkeley pretty girls, no glitz and dazzle - or musical shenanigans to pad the performance... because here - with Savion Glover - are the feet and the legs and the heartbeat, ears and memory of a tap-dancing hoofer who knows his art - the art of pure rhythm pouring forth from his soul to his soles.

Savion Glover SoLe Sanctuary program flyer - with addition of blue.

Reading the program flyer, prior to the show - there was promise the performance would be good - for the text itself was full of rhythm and thought:  "Entering the Monastery of His Out'ness, Gee Oh Dee, Tranes Tribute, Holy Strings, The High Priest of Gone, Improvography, Directed and Choreographed by Spirits Known, Meditation on the Art of Tap" - and listen to these rhythmic names... "Little Nuk Nuk, Cat Daddy".  And the performance overview:  "Savion Glover's Reverence for the Art of Tap is Put to the Stage Literally in the Form of a Living Altar... ."

If you are a fan of tap, rhythm, percussion, drum, bass - You just have to see SoLe Sanctuary for yourself.  The miraculous, glorious racket Glover - and hoofer Marshall Davis Jr. - make with their feet, I can only aspire to create with my typewriter.

As a Bravo-Encore-Shout-Out, here is my ode to SoLe Sanctuary:

Savion Glover, Sound Your Shoes

Shiva Nataraj of Clackety-Clack

Train on Track

Percussive Locomotion

Mediatation of a Hoofer's Soul

Circle and Slide

on Life's Rhythm-Ride

Tic Toc

Clip Clop

Drum Staccato

Pizzicato

Whisper-Crash and Clatter

pitter-patter-Morse Code 

Ode

to the Universe Pulse

Om

All Sounds 

Yin-and-Yang-of-Still-and-Quick

Quick and Still, Yang and Yin

Song Stepper

Hands Together

Franz Marc's Audible, Living Color.

Franz Marc's 1914 Animals in a Landscape, which you can see here , reflects the artist's reverence for and strong connections to color.  Marc - perhaps a synaesthete - saw a world in which color contained vital emotions - and even sound.

Depicting cattle yoked to an environment of "prismatic forms" - Animals in a Landscape, recently displayed as part of Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts Detroit Institute of Arts German Expressionism exhibit, is said to "symbolize the integration of all living things" within the cosmos.  Marc and other members of The Blue Rider - Der Blaue Reiter - believed colors to be imbued with spiritual values capable of battling the "corruption and materialism" of their time. Text in quotes - Frist Center for the Visual Arts audio tour commentary.

Do your color perceptions coincide with those of Franz Marc?  Here are a few of his color theories:  BLUE is male, penetrating, and spiritual - YELLOW is female, joyful, and spiritual - RED feels heavy and fierce and must be kept in check through a balance of the male and female.

Do you feel the energy or emotions of color?

Flachen-Schmuck, Rhythm, and Optical Art in Clothing.

Synchronicity, convergence - it happened after I'd been researching works of Wiener Werkstatte artists - reading about Klimt and Floge, while free-falling into Sonia Delaunay wholeheartedly:  a page 103 photo in February 2013 Harper's Bazaar literally sprang from the page, like an accordion-fold... geometric, angular, and going-somewhere.

Harper's Bazaar, page 103, "The Style: Bold Prints, Pattern Up". February 2013.

You understand what I'm talking about here - don't you? - it's that tunic and pant combo, with the jump-off-the-page zig-zag-chevron-diamond-stripe flachen-schmuck, (flachen-schmuck is German for surface decoration... this I learned while reading about artists of the Wiener Werkstatte - who were experts in flachen-schmuck).  I love the term flachen-schmuck, by the way - and have been using it whenever possible to describe anything that zing-zing pinballs my eyeballs.

Flachen-schmuck has become a flexible part of my vocabulary though, because as you well know surface decoration can be good or bad - an example occurring recently as I thought "too much flachen-schmuck" recently when I stood before a 40-foot statue - gilded and painted like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. (Not me, but the statue.)

Here's another beautifully mesmerizing example of flachen-schmuck.  It's a graphic look over which I waxed enthusiastic in this March 2012 post, when the same zing-zing pinballing of my eyeballs occurred.  At that time I was unaware of the term flachen-schmuck, but the graphic-optic patterns of the coat and curtain in Vogue's Francoise Gilot feature were eye-engaging in precisely the same way.

Francoise Gilot - Vogue, March 2012 - Tina Barney photograph.  Oscar de la Renta coat.  Gorgeous!

Since reading about Sonia Delaunay and her idea of simultaneity - which recognizes the behavior and interaction of color groups and the perceived movement that colors can create - I've been brainstorming such theories frequently.  

Look at the curtain there behind Gilot.  

Scroll up and look at the zig-zag-chevron-diamond-stripe tunic and pant ensemble.  

What's causing that rhythm?  

Maybe the colors, but as I see it - perhaps much of that graphic-optic art rhythm is a result of black and white contrasting pattern - with color introduced to the mix.  The red and orange/yellow do vibrate because they're such similar colors... one feels the heat of red and orange... a flame-like flicker.

Then, of course think about the works of Klimt - all that surface decoration.  Not really like Delaunay at all, because with Delaunay - there was more emphasis on surface interruption... interrupting the perceived planes and giving a sense of multi-dimensional depth.  Klimt's rhythmic surfaces seem - to me - more two-dimensional... a gently undulating, albeit psychedelic, plain/field.

Summing up all this flachen-schmuck, it appears there's a Wiener Werkstatte, Delaunay, Klimt, (and perhaps Futurist), surface-decoration trend already pinball-rolling.  

By the way, I would attribute the designer of the great tunic/pant combo - and have tried diligently to discover the designer - but still no answer.  If you know, please comment.  I think it's a fantastic look!  Not subtle, not discreet, not for the timid - but it absolutely emits energy.

Remarkable Enid Yandell: 19th Century Sculptress.

The Parthenon stands intact today... in Nashville, Tennessee... an impressive full-size replica of the Greek temple.  Therein you'll find a wealth of historical wisdom, an art gallery - and a 41-foot tall gilded goddess Athena... but not - perhaps disappointingly - the Athena of Enid Yandell... in 1897 deemed the largest statue ever created by a woman.

Enid Yandell - turn-of-the-century sculptress - created Nashville Parthenon's first Athena for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.  Yandell's Pallas Athena (based upon the Pallas of Velletri - at the Louvre) stood sentry outside Nashville's Parthenon.  Strong hero-protector-goddess of all-things and endeavors wise, brave, just, skillful, shrewd, and artistic - Athena... at least Yandell's Athena... was not equipped to battle weather and time.  Nashville elected to replace Yandell's Pallas Athena.

Enid Yandell with Pallas Athena, circa 1897.  Photo from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

After admiring the Parthenon exterior - its ornate mythologically-inspired pediments - its centaur-ific wrap-around frieze - its magnificent columns - its enormous and mysterious doors, I entered to find well-documented history of Nashville's Parthenon and of the Centennial Exposition.  And it was there, among the walls of historical information and beautiful artwork, I saw Enid with her Pallas Athena.

Nashville, Tennessee Parthenon pediment, frieze, and grand columns.  Photo Toile La La.

Magnificent doors of Nashville, Tennessee Parthenon.  Photo Toile La La.

While it is true Yandell's Athena was a smaller goddess than the one regally reigning and residing in present-day Nashville's Parthenon, the small but mighty 25-foot Pallas Athena has a look which is more fierce, serious and take-charge capable.  You may however choose to differ should you compare the 25-foot Pallas Athena to the 41-foot Athena Parthenos... both are awe-inspiring.

All in all, as awe-inspriring as any statue of any Athena statue - it's a remarkable fact and feat that Enid Yandell, a woman of the late nineteenth century should make her mark as a prolific artist/sculptor.  As proof of the magnitude of this triumph, one should perhaps consider Yandell's words describing another statue - Struggle of Life - portraying "the attempt of the mortal soul within us to free itself from the handicaps and entanglements of its earthly environments".

In addition to images of Yandell's Pallas Athena (sometimes referred to as Athene), it was a description of Yandell in her Paris studio - at the impasse du Maine in the Latin Quarter - which drew me to the artist.  Before Pallas Athena set sail for the U.S., Enid held a bon voyage party - "a candle-lit feast" inside the statue's torso... Tres Chic!

Wikipedia entry image, chromolithograph by The Henderson Litho Co., 1896/1897.  Library of Congress.

In the aerial view above, I believe you might envision Yandell's Pallas Athena smack-dab in the center.

Read more about the Nashville Parthenon at this Interesting America Richard Grigonis article.

See Enid Yandell's Pallas Athena in situ as it was in 1897 - here at Tennessee State Library and Archives.

My Dear Vogue, You Have Grown Too Thin.

My Dear Vogue,


True companion, with love and concern I type this letter to you - for pen and slow mail may find you too late. 

Your heft and rustling pages have comforted me through most of the days of my life.  

This September past - year 2012 - your cups ranneth over.  Over an inch in thickness, you carried your weight beautifully.  You elegantly displayed your boom-chicka-boom, va-va-voom love-handles-of-fashion and they rendered my knees weak.

On the heels of The Health Initiative pledge, you were not only barking - but biting and ravishingly ravenous - voracious.  You were healthy and vibrant.  Imagine my dismay, when I caught a glimpse of you on my grocery store shelves... your emaciated January 2013 presence a meager, wraith-like version of your bodacious September self.

Being so intelligent - as well as lovely - you are well aware that rapid weight loss is not healthy.  One's body needs some fat - not the subcutaneous fat of advertisements and inserts and celebrity gossip, but the good-cholesterol fat of page after page of artful fashion, educational articles, and friendly chatter.  

This mnemonic device is sometimes helpful - HDL (good cholesterol) "healthy", LDL (bad cholesterol) "lard".  Simply think to yourself:  Certain advertisements and celebrity gossip - LDL lard - versus artful fashion and smart articles - HDL healthy.

Good Friend, contemplate with me Marilyn Monroe - setting aside any comparisons to individuals in the present day, .  Monroe's curves were delectable and to them I could sing appreciative praise - all day - and couldn't you too?

Has the internet - along with its gadget companions of plastic - caused you to dwindle, diminish,  and suffer?  If that is the case, I find it ironic - because the Plastic Box has broadened my horizons - in more ways than one.

Though the internet has offered to me an omnispective scope into the Great Wide, viewing it has required a lot of sitting and standing-still languor... creating a bigger (but still healthy) version of my self.  However, I realize you are of a different body-type and constitution.  Be you ectomorph, mesomorph, or endomorph - I know you rely on a bit more advertising fat.

Heaven forbid I might have contributed to your extreme weight-loss.  Purchasing you frequently from retail shelves, you were unable to rely on my steady subscription.  A fair-weather-friend I have been - it seems - and for that I say, forgive me. 

Let's agree to enjoy a happy medium my dear Vogue: Not too thick, not too thin - healthy, bodacious, bellissima, boom-chicka-boom.

Please Plump-Up Dear Vogue.

Your Friend and Blogger,
Toile La La at Art Fashion Creation

Postscript:  Please realize I speak to you of this out of genuine care, not fur-flying-claws-out-hissing-spitting-you-are-thinner-than-me-jealousy, but adoration-of-oomph and intelligent beauty.

Colorful Character: Lily Elsie.

Made the acquaintance of Edwardian actress Lily Elsie via the pages of Mila Contini's all-I-could-want-in-a-book Fashion: From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day.  Quick-witted, informative, briskly-paced - the words read so smoothly, I'm at Page 290 of 319 Pages-to-Read.  Lily Elsie though, made her appearance at Page 288... only through description, no photo of her was there - but what an appearance it was.  Photo found, beauty noted, the image cannot parallel Contini's description of Lily Elsie's colorful character:

"Lily Elsie, a star of musical comedy, shaded her eyelids in purple and grey for the stage, and darkened her nostrils with red and purple and her cheeks in different shades of red, from coral to wood-rose.  She applied ochre-coloured powder to her chin with a rabbit's paw, and coloured the tip of her nose and the lobes of her ears with salmon-coloured paste.  Her face thus acquired the immobility of a Chinese doll."

Edwardian actress Lily Elsie:  Colorful Character.

Contini's Lily Elsie description is an image just asking for paint - a to-do for my art list, but here's a quick color exercise - to be considered an artistic launch or jumpstart... courtesy of Lily Elsie.

• Eyelids Eyelids
• Nostril Nostril
• Tip of Nose, Ear Lobes
• Cheek Cheek
• Chin

A Painted Lady in the Best Sense, an Artist, A Creative Individual with a Colorful Character... Lily Elsie.

Future Chic of the Past: Sculptress Princess Pignatelli d'Aragon Cortes. Manana.

Read more at this dressesandhats link - which will lead you to even more information from Rocaille.