New Beginnings...and More

Monday I spent two hours at New Beginnings, a barber shop, with my husband and neither of us got a haircut or a shave. We didn't need one at the time but, although New Beginnings provides haircuts and shaves, it's much more than just a barber shop. It's an experience.

When you walk in to New Beginnings, located at 1047 Hollins St. in Baltimore, you might mistake it at first for an art gallery. Then you notice the barber chairs. This barber shop appears to be the most unique in Baltimore—and maybe in the country.

Its windows are filled with three-dimensional art, walls are covered with paintings and photographs, good music plays in the background, Wi-Fi is available and books line a reading area below a spiral staircase. Oh, and did I say it offers haircuts? Even more than all these things, New Beginnings offers community.

In a time of Twitter, Facebook and hyper-connectivity, New Beginnings lets people find new connections in real time. The time and space is relaxed and friendly.

And you might even learn something too. For instance, customer William Gunn, who is usually called Skip, gave advice on cooking beets. “You wrap them individually in aluminum foil and bake for about an hour. Then soak them in vinegar and sugar.” He adds that beets from the local farmer’s market will beat what you find in a can.

Troy Staton, one of the owners and an art lover, has several goals in showing art in his barber shop. Besides adding class to the ambiance, he says, “I hope it will be a gateway [to art experience].” He mentions a client who was motivated to go to the National Gallery and take his son because of the art he liked on the barber shop walls.

Troy claims that New Beginnings should not be unique. “We’re doing what barber shops have always done in the past but today the standard has been lowered.”

 Besides providing an environment for interesting conversation, Troy and his partners are committed to community. As I sit and soak up the ambiance, Troy is constantly waving back to people in the community who pass by his window. Many of the clients have returned to this barber shop for 20 years, despite changes in location.

“It’s an everyday man’s social club,” Troy says. Add an occasional woman or two also.

 “It’s fun to come here. If I didn’t, I’d miss talk about sports and women,” Skip adds.

The commitment of this neighborhood barber shop goes beyond a friendly environment. Last year, they collected and donated more than 1100 pounds of food for the Food Bank. Troy talks about customer appreciation day during the holidays with free food and raffle prizes which include a free haircut, movie tickets and dinner for two at a good Baltimore restaurant.

Community participation also extends to the Baltimore Youth Work program by providing summer jobs for teens six hours a day.

Although decor and ambiance of New Beginnings provide a feel-good setting, Skip reminds us,  "It would be nothing without the people.” I think he's right.

You can learn more about New Beginnings here:
http://nbbs2.com











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Baltimore, the City That Creates and Loves

Photo © Bonnie J. Schupp

As the day ended in Baltimore on May 22, 2010,

Innovate Love was just beginning.

A guest at Innovate Love this past Saturday night studies "The Romancing of Malcolm Chang's Love (by handsome fox hunter)"
by Iowa artist Van Holmgren.

What is Innovate Love? Curious? Read Ibrahim Dabo's blog.

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Anne Boleyn

Hold on to your...head! On this date in 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded for adultery by her husband, King Henry VIII. Historians believe that the real reason might have been that Anne didn't produce a son for her husband. However, her daughter Elizabeth grew up to become one of the most influential queens in history.

Read more here at The Writer's Almanac.

(Image from The Historical Association.)
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Innovate Love

If you are a lover... especially an art lover... you might want to check out the first annual Innovate Love art auction to benefit Innovate Baltimore and the Baltimore Love Project.

It will be held May 22 in the penthouse of Silo Point 7 - 11 p.m. Experience original art from the U.S. and beyond, music by DJ Terry Thompson, appetizers from Chef Frederick "Mookie" Hicks, entertainment by Super Art Fight and more.

Find out more details here:
http://www.innovate-love.com/about

Hope to see you there!

Dogtooth

Often when the name of a movie is brought up in conversation, I have to ask my husband if I’ve seen it. There are two movies, however, that I won’t forget—Bergman’s Cries and Whispers and the more recent Greek film, Dogtooth, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Both are bizarre...surreal.

I don’t think they are the best films I’ve ever seen but rather they provoke thought and nudge me to look for answers to the questions they raise. I saw Cries and Whispers years ago and Dogtooth just a couple days ago at the Maryland Film Festival.

Briefly, Dogtooth is the story of a dysfunctional family with a father who puts his family into a gated property, far from the influences of the rest of the world. Both parents (the mother goes along with her husband), through a series of lies, warp reality for their three children who are in their late teens or early twenties but have the innocence of much younger children.

They teach their children that the world outside their gate is unsafe until their dogtooth, their canine incisor, falls out. And the children believe this, along with corrupted definitions of words. Sea is something you sit in and little yellow flowers are zombies. Their parents tell them that the airplanes which fly over their house are as small as the toy airplanes they play with.

This film is an allegory with a hint of classic Greek drama. It communicates how fear, as a way of life, warps truth and pushes reality out of reach.

Isolation and lack of normal human identity prevails. We hear no sound track or specific names of people and places, with the exception of Christina who is from the outside world. The characters conjure up visions of robots with their sometimes unnatural movement and speech and their restrained emotions. Even when the father beats his daughter with a video cartridge or when he brutally kills his son’s prostitute, Christina, with a video player, it is anger with robotic control.

Some movie elements suggest symbolic intent rather than literal. The children are referred to not by their names but by their positions within the family, such as “eldest.” Throughout the movie, planes periodically fly overhead with their chorus drone reminding us of the juxtaposition between the outside world and the inside, the truth and the lies.

The children are raised on fear...fear of the outside and fear of their parents. The film shows us what happens when people live in a fear-mongering environment where the truth is twisted. It demonstrates what happens when people are isolated from reality.

The family story is one fabricated by the father of them against us. With the introduction of Christina, a woman from the outside, to sexually pleasure their son, and who, unknown to the parents, also pleasures the eldest daughter, the children begin to gain knowledge that goes beyond the one book they have been allowed to read.

The movie raises questions. What are the dangers of isolation? Twisted trust and ignorance result, along with incestuous and unhealthy connections. What happens when we begin to know “them,” those who are different from us? We become less afraid and then begin to adjust our own definitions of who we are. The eldest daughter begins to form her own identity and call herself Bruce.

Dogtooth reminds us of some parallels in politics with attempts by our leaders to control through fear-mongering. How many people voted for George W. Bush because of the fear he and the Republican party instilled? How about the infractions on our civil liberties, all in the name of fear of outside forces? And how about the way political spindoctors twist definitions? Think about Glenn Beck’s followers who are eager to accept his strange version of truth and who accept the fear he instills about socialism in the U.S.

I doubt that Dogtooth will ever hit the mainstream theaters where movie-goers would most likely dwell on the sex and violence rather than its message. But to some of us who saw it at the Maryland Film Festival this weekend, we will remember this unsettling eccentric film and will continue to connect the dots for years to come.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

I just listened to a 2005 Stanford University commencement speech by Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar. It is a 15-minute thought-provoking message worth listening to. If you do, you will understand the title of this blog.



You can hear more fascinating speeches on Ted.

Spreading Love in Baltimore

Artist Michael Owen with friends Scott Burkholder and Jae Jin are spreading love--literally with paint--on walls in Baltimore.



Video © by Bonnie Schupp

Can love murals in an urban environment make a difference? They say that what we eat is what we are. Does what we see also affect who we are?

There is evidence that what our eyes take in does affect us. Cognitive and affective studies demonstrate how colors affect us. Green is supposed to be calming. There are court cases that have addressed the influence of video games on the human psyche. Advertisers seem to believe/hope that what we see will influence our actions and we'll buy their product. The movie rating system seems to back this up too when children are banned from R and X-rated films.

© Edward Weston estate

I know from personal experience that looking at the work of other photographers affects how I see things. Have you ever seen Edward Weston's still life of a pepper? After seeing this photograph, I never saw a pepper--or food for that matter-- in the same way again. I'm always aware of the role light and shadow play in our perception and sometimes, thanks to Weston, I see body parts in fruit and vegetables.

The Family of Man photography exhibit, curated by Edward Steichen, also changed the way I see. At one time I thought of people in other countries as exotic and different from me. After seeing this collection, I began to realize that we are more alike than different.

So, the question is... will Michael Owens's love paintings make a difference in Baltimore? I don't think it will change crime and drug statistics. However, it will probably change the way people see a particular space. Or the way people see possibilities such as how we can make love with our hands. (Oops! That didn't come out right but you get the idea.)

Hands and how we use them are important. Gandhi reminded us that you can't shake hands with a clenched fist.

I'm a believer in the bottom-up approach. For instance, we're far from attaining world peace. Our leaders have failed miserably. Why? Because in order to make change on a grand scale, it must first begin in a small way. "Let peace begin and let it begin with me."

Servas, an international peace organization understands the potential of building peace from the bottom-up. As Servas hosts, my husband David and I open our home to visitors from around the world. And as Servas travelers, we stay in other hosts' homes. We begin as strangers and, after two days, say goodbye to new friends. The Servas site reminds us of how small things build: "With every true friendship, we build the basis for world peace."

Back to the Baltimore question and love murals...

In the past, Baltimore has tried slogan campaigns that didn't work. Remember "Believe" and "Baltimore, the city that reads"? These were top-down projects. The Baltimore Love Project is different. It is from the bottom-up, beginning with one artist's vision.

The cynics are right though. These love walls won't change the statistics that adults love to quote. The Little Prince understood the problem with statistics:

"Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: 'What does his voice sound like? What games does he like best? Does he collect butterflies?' They ask: 'How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?' Only then do they think they know him."

Although the murals may not change numbers, the love walls might remind us that we can use our hands to spell love instead of throwing rocks or giving Rockefellers. They might make us see a space in a new way so we understand that an ordinary space can become something special. We might want to take our pictures in front of a love wall and share that picture with others, spreading the love even more.

Maybe we will begin to think about a word that has been missing in our conversations, actions and hearts lately.

If the love walls change what we see or feel, even for just a few seconds, then it's worth it because big things always start out small. Maybe it's time we feast our eyes on something positive. Afterall, we are what we eat.



Read more:

2015 Update
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/Baltimore-artist-makes-waves-in-LA/32131972

2014 Update
http://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2014/summer/baltimore-love-project

Baltimore Sun article

Baltimore Sun photos

Michael Owen's Website

Baltimore Love Project

Facebook

My earlier posts on this project:

December 18, 2009

April 21, 2010

More Love

They've done it again! Artist Michael Owen with friends Scott Burkholder and Jae Jin have spread a little more love around Baltimore. Read about the Baltimore Love Project in my earlier blog post.

© Bonnie J. Schupp

© Bonnie J. Schupp

© Bonnie J. Schupp

Immediately after the mural was completed last night, a Kurdish family from Iraq posed in front of the love wall.

This newest mural can be seen at 3429 Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown on a wall of Mirza Yalcin's property. A generous donation from Highlandtown visionary and developer Joseph Schultz of Schultz Development provided the funding.

Optimism and idealism are not dead. More love is coming.

2014 Update
http://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2014/summer/baltimore-love-project 

2015 Update
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/Baltimore-artist-makes-waves-in-LA/32131972

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Collaboration

Portrait of Connie Imboden

© Bonnie J. Schupp

The third showing of my Defining Ourselves photography exhibit closed at the Light Gallery in Baltimore. This exhibit has grown into something larger than I had foreseen and it has evolved in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Yes, I am the photographer but it is not just my exhibit. The words of the participants are as important as the portraits I took of them. In fact, the portraits, in most cases, are collaborative.

I met with the subjects and we worked together to come up with a portrait that illustrated their self-definitions. It was difficult for me because I’m used to photographing to please myself and now there were two of us to consider.

For these portraits, I had to think of the words and get feedback from the people I photographed. Obviously, some people had more input than others. Some people said, “Tell me how you want me to pose.” Others said, “Let’s try something like this.” In one case, the subject said, “This is the way I want to illustrate my definition.” For the portrait above, I used Connie Imboden's studio and method to photograph her. Not so easy to step into somebody else's vision!

If you’d like to see a slideshow of just the portraits, without the definitions, check it out here. (Turn on your speaker to hear music by Kevin Robinson.) Next showing of Defining Ourselves will be this summer in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Today, I just read a blog that David Byrne wrote about his musical collaboration. He talks about the benefits of collaboration and makes some thoughtful points. I’m including part of his writing below. If you want to read more, click here.

"Why collaborate at all? One could conceivably make more money not sharing the profits — if there are any — so why collaborate if one doesn’t have to? If one can write alone, why reach out? (Some of the most financially successful songs I’ve ever written were not collaborations, for example.) And besides, isn’t it risky? Suppose you don’t get along? Suppose the other person decides to take the thing in some ugly direction?

"Well, as I said earlier, one big reason is to restrict one’s own freedom in the writing process. There’s a joy and relief in being limited, restrained. For starters, to let someone else make half the decisions, or some big part of them, absolves one of the need to explore endless musical possibilities. The result is fewer agonizing decisions in the writing process, and sometimes, faster results.

"Another reason to risk it is that others often have ideas outside and beyond what one would come up with oneself. To have one’s work responded to by another mind, or to have to stretch one’s own creative muscles to accommodate someone else’s muse, is a satisfying exercise. It gets us outside of our self-created boxes. When it works, the surprising result produces some kind of endorphin equivalent that is a kind of creative high. Collaborators sometimes rein in one’s more obnoxious tendencies too, which is yet another plus........

....... "But one might also ask: Is writing ever NOT collaboration? Doesn’t one collaborate with oneself, in a sense? Don’t we access different aspects of ourselves, different characters and attitudes and then, when they’ve had their say, switch hats and take a more distanced and critical view — editing and structuring our other half’s outpourings? Isn’t the end product sort of the result of two sides collaborating? Surely I’m not the only one who does this?"

http://journal.davidbyrne.com

Winter 2010

Bonnie's Knee

January 21, 2010, I got a new right knee.

I'm home from the hospital now. My blog postings have slowed down and my photos have been a little out of focus. (No wonder!) However, David managed to get a few photos in the hospital.












































If you're not grossed out by it, you might be interested in this video:

http://www.orlive.com/unitedhospital/videos/total-knee-replacement-surgery

Meanwhile, here in Pasadena, Maryland, we are snowed in with about 30" of snow and in the middle of our second blizzard. I hear more snow is predicted for this Saturday but not as much.

Today is our anniversary. David and I have been married for 30 years.