Day 249 Climbing the Bus

August 15, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

Mara Neimanis and Mark Harding outside the Creative Alliance

A pleasant August night in Baltimore, visitors from Belarus and Japan, and a clown duet in praise of pizza—this was a good combination at 10 p.m. And to make things even better, our friends Stacy, Rayned and poodle Ace showed up. We waited in the street across from a BUS sculpture for Mara Neimanis and Mark Harding to appear somewhere on the roof of the Creative Alliance. Fake grass mats with lawn chairs awaited a crowd of spectators who kept looking up in anticipation. (The sculpture is actually an art piece created for a real bus stop just outside the Creative Alliance where empty pizza boxes are often left by people waiting for a bus.)

Soon we heard a bold, raucous voice and saw Mara and Mark on the roof near the marquee. That was the beginning of a whimsical performance based on craving for pizza. The performers wound up on the huge BUS sculpture, bantering with the audience and each other while pretending great awkwardness as they climbed on the sculpture letters. Exaggerated body language reached out and tickled the audience.

Slapstick clowning appeals to everyone, regardless of age or verbal understanding. Belarusian Rehina, who sat next to me on a bench, does not speak English but she laughed and clapped enthusiastically at the antics throughout the performance. Words did not matter. Body language ruled tonight and craving for pizza was satisfied with free pizza for everyone.

Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection.” ~ Yakov Smirnoff

My gift today is pizza laughter.

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You can read more about the BUS sculpture and last night's performance here:


http://www.creativealliance.org/blog/2014/07/bus-sculpture-unveiling
http://www.creativealliance.org/events/2015/unexpected-places-4for-unexpected-aerials-east-eastern-clown-duet-praise-pizza

> Day 250 Maps and Names

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 200 Rewind

June 27, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

Art installation by African-American artist Paul Rucker forces us to"lean into" an uncomfortable conversation. He is a resident artist at Baltimore's Creative Alliance and recipient of the 2015 Baker Artist Award.

I am a member of the Creative Alliance and always put in one of my pieces for the annual Big Show. Tonight we went to the exhibit opening and the dance party that followed, but before the dancing started, we heard a cello solo by Paul Rucker that was unlike any cello music I have ever heard.

Rucker is an African American multi-disciplinary resident artist at the Creative Alliance. When we met him in his studio a little later, I was startled and uncomfortable because I was confronted with an array of KKK hooded garments on mannequins, which had been part of his Rewind gallery exhibit earlier this year. One grouping had robes of red, white and blue and small child figures wearing white robes.  I didn’t have to go far until I saw a throw rug with a lynching image on it. Rucker also took us to his loft where dozens of violin cases wrapped in the American flag were lying on the floor simulating caskets of enslaved children. This artist believes that we have to rewind and face the reality of social problems of this century in order to have an open dialogue. That means “leaning into the sharp edges.” 

I started following these stories of abuse by police, and their outcomes. And I started drawing parallels with lynchings. The same with the prison system—I started drawing a parallel between the prison system and slavery. There are all these parallels of old systems with new systems. That's what Rewind is about, connecting the past and the present, and asking how we got here.”

He says the problem is not about race but about power. I thought about Susan Brownmiller’s book Against Our Will where she paralleled this concept in saying that rape is not about sex but about power. 

I believe that it is not politicians who will solve our social problems but artists like Paul Rucker who help us make connections so we can understand and begin a dialog that will help us move forward. We have to step into our discomfort before change can evolve.

 My gift today is new understanding of a needed conversation.

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For more in-depth information on Paul Rucker, please check out these links:

https://news.artnet.com/people/paul-rucker-baltimore-racisms-legacy-295287

http://bmoreart.com/2015/02/hidden-in-plain-sight.html

> Day 201: Where Gnome One Has Gone Before

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Love in Baltimore

Catch the love at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, Thursday, August 23, 2012.

• Bonnie Schupp has been recognized for her work by Kodak, Women in Photography International, the Kinsey Institute, among others. She has shown one-woman exhibits in the Baltimore-Washington area, and her photos and  articles have appeared in publications including Petersen’s Photographic, Darkroom Photography, the Baltimore Sun newspapers, the Baltimore Business Journal and the Photographic Society of America. The Love Effect is a play on the concept of The Butterfly Effect where a small change in one place can result in changes elsewhere, a concept that is at the heart of the Baltimore Love Project.  http://bonnieschupp.com

Learn more about the Baltimore Love Project and see photos of the walls completed so far:

http://www.baltimoreloveproject.com/news/one-love-art-show/

Freedom, Football, Photography and Music

Today is March 16. On this day in 1827, the first newspaper owned and edited by and for African-Americans, Freedom's Journal, was published in New York City. It appeared the same year slavery was abolished in New York state. On this day in 1972, librarian Zoia Horn went to jail, protesting that libraries should not become places for spying and infiltration. And on this day in 2003 a 23-year-old American college student, Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza as she protested Israeli action there. She was run over by a bulldozer while trying to stop Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home. She was the first nonviolent western protester to die in the occupied territories. See here for more information.

In case you were wondering what we did this weekend...

Friday night, we saw a screening of the documentary movie, Darius Goes West. Darius Weems has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and travels across the country with eleven friends on a mission. Watch this video. It explains everything. We met Darius at The Windup Space where the movie was shown. The movie is uplifting and creates awareness of Duchenne multiple sclerosis. It's one I highly recommend especially for students.




Saturday morning, I photographed the Baltimore Burn women's football team during their practice. Women between the ages of 19 and 49, from diverse backgrounds, turned out for a grueling practice on Saturday morning. I'm not all that interested in football but had a great time shooting the pictures. They are a diversified, talented, friendly...and tough group of women.

Saturday afternoon was the opening of Connie Imboden's photography exhibit. If you are unfamiliar with her work, you should check out her Web site. Her photos, some taken in a swimming pool, others taken with mirrors, are dark literally and figuratively and reach out to those hidden corners within us. You cannot remain unmoved by her images. The image here is from the cover of her new book, Reflections, 25 Years of Photography. In his essay in the book, Julian Cox describes Imboden's work as "passionate, haunting, beautiful and terrifying."

Saturday night we had tickets for the late performance of O'Malley's March, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's band. The occasion was the release of their new CD. I'd never heard the group before but I'd seen O'Malley in an impromptu Blues Traveler performance at Art Scape. I enjoyed this Saturday night performance. This performance was high energy celtic music played with the pureness of musicians who love what they're doing. Their enthusiasm generates a joy in the audience that creates a hangover of the best kind.

Finally, we were able to catch the last set of Kevin Robinson's group, LA&the Unusual Suspects, at the Fireside Inn in Glen Burnie. The talented group plays a mix of motown rock and soul. They inspire listeners to move and move some more. Friday night was no exception.

I first heard Kevin at the Baltimore Museum of Art at a special event where artists were invited to respond to paintings in the museum's collection. Kevin played an original composition inspired by Matisse's Blue Nude. The depth and texture of his music and performance drew me in.

Next weekend? 333 Coffee House and Iranian New Year celebration.