Thursday, February 23, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Victoria Loeb, unedited




Today’s conversation with artist Victoria Loeb talks about her life as an artist, the benefits of finding a mentor and her current body of work. Victoria is hosting an open studio on Saturday, March 4, 5-8 p.m., at Strange Lofts on Darrow & Church, #1711 in Evanston. You can also see her work online at victorialoeb.com/eng/bio.html
 

About Victoria Loeb

Born in 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Victoria Loeb had a bilingual German and Spanish education. In 1992 she met Argentine artist Alicia Maffei and began studying with her. She continued working with Maffei throughout the ’90s, during which she was accepted at the Fine Arts Institute Prilidiano Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires, where she studied from 1998 through 2002. She also studied painting under Argentine artist Miguel Angel Bengochea and spent time in Germany furthering her education. She later attended the studio of contemporary artist Eduardo Medici, in Buenos Aires. She met her husband on a trip to Chicago in 2002, where they now live with their daughter. Since her move to the United States, she’s been working intensely on her paintings at her studio in Evanston.



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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted at https://thelisadshow.blogspot.com


This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com


Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Donovan Mixon




Donovan Mixon is a musician and first-time young adult novelist, debuting his book Ahgottahandleonit published by Cinco Puntos Press of El Paso, Texas. This interview features Mixon reading a passage from his new book and playing an original song. On Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., Mixon will do a reading at the Evanston Public Library in the Small Meeting Room, 1st floor. 

Bio:


For decades Mixon enjoyed international success as a jazz musician. In 1988, as a full-time faculty member at Berklee College of Music, you won an NEA grant for jazz composition. Moved to Europe for professional and artistic development, turned out to be a 17-year sojourn living as a freelance performing artist, clinician and college professor (Istanbul Bilgi University, University of Bologna), performing at major jazz festivals (Umbria, Monticello, Istanbul, Ankara) and as a clinician at educational institutions in Istanbul, Budapest, Shanghai and Singapore.


During these years, Donovan released four recordings featuring prominent musicians from Boston to Milan to Istanbul. The apex of his recording career was the recording Free With Lee with the great alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. (More information can be found at donmixon.com).


Donovan lives and works in Evanston with his wife Diana and son Ozan.




Ahgottahandleonit


Ahgottahandleonit is Donovan Mixon’s first novel. Audio renditions of Tim’s poems (main character)  from Ahgottahandleonit can be found at donovanmixonwriter.com


It has been said that he has an ear for dialogue like August Wilson, the African-American playwright who wrote a play for every decade of the century. Wilson wrote Fences, now a movie in theaters Starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis,. August Wilson's dialogue is stunning and so is Donovon Mixon's dialogue.


Tim, already two years behind in a Newark inner-city high school, will be a sophomore again if he doesn’t pass the English proficiency exam. He’s got good street creds, riffing strange rap-rhymes and running like the wind. Marie, a girl in his class, catches his eye, but he’s still thinking about his ex, Rene.


At home, he’s packed into a 3-flat with his mom, sister and Uncle Gentrale. His father, a drunk, recently walked out on the family, wanting some “freedom.” He tells Tim, “Ahgottahandleonit.” He doesn’t. Nor does Tim. The last day of school before summer, in front of his classmates, Tim insults Mr. Jones, the one teacher who has wanted to help. Tim doesn’t know why he did this. It was just always there, a rage born of some dark history, one his dad cannot explain.


His uncle tries though––it’s about some crazy shit going down when he and Tim’s dad were young, living on the farm. In a fight with some gangbangers, Tim’s rage boils over. He ends up slamming Chucky’s head with a rock. He steals his phone and carries it, like an albatross, throughout the summer. He wants to run, to hide, to get revenge, to be free. Maybe Mr. Jones will understand?


Tim wants his life to matter.


How autobiographical is this book, was this your youth?


Why are you writing a young adult novel? Why that audience, who will read this book?


The Kirkus review mentioned the dialogue in this book is almost physical, spit and food flying with the raw and colloquial words. How did you create such authentic dialogue, talk about your process or technique.


In the author's note, you make the point that racism robs a black kid of the ability of being ordinary. Talk about the plight of young black men in America, which is what this book is really about.


What elements of Tim’s life could have pointed him in a different direction and do we leave Tim in a hopeful place at the end of the book?


Social Justice warrior Bryan Stevenson says we are still dealing with the aftershocks of slavery.


Visit publisher Cinco Puntos Press to purchase Ahgottahandleonit


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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted at https://thelisadshow.blogspot.com


This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com


Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Jason Brown



Our guest Jason Brown (aka The Zip Code Kid) talks about the upcoming WinterHeARTh event Rocks & Rolls on Feb. 18 at Ridgeville Parks District, Collective Cartography and how our places make us and we make our places and embellishment and happenstance.

Jason has worked as a community arts advocate and organizer in the Evanston community since 2013. Jason initiated the annual Winter HeARTh public community art series in 2013, while co-chairing the Public Art Committee. He has also helped produce community and public art works and programming through Art Encounter, The Big Draw Evanston, Downtown Evanston, Evanston Made, the Evanston Community Foundation and the City of Evanston. Jason promises you that he leaves Evanston, occasionally.   
As an independent artist, Jason, also under the alias “The Zip Code Kid,” runs the brand Geocommunetrics, a multidisciplinary design practice that seeks to explore the ideas of space, place, home and belonging using abstract, minimal design. Check out the work of TZCK at geocommunetrics.com or on Instagram @thezipcodekid.

Rocks & Rolls
Saturday, February 18 at 1 PM - 5 PM
Ridgeville Parks District, 908 Seward Street

Warm the winter blues by sharing bread and soup with neighbors, and brighten your Saturday by painting with friends!

Rocks & Rolls will bring us around Evanston-made bread and tasty soup from Lucky Platter and Cross Rhodes, while we hang out and paint hopeful flowers on rocks and "plant" them outside. A craft and a snack for artists and non-artists alike, this Winter HeARTH event hopes to warm you up and keep life colorful.

All ages and families welcome. Share bread and soup with us, and bring your own bread and soup recipes to share! (Don't worry, this snack's on us, so leave the real stuff at home.) Bring a few rocks from home to paint, or paint some ours. Paint and brushes supplied.

Painted rocks can be brought home, or added to the installation in the Ridgeville Garden, right off Ridge Avenue.

Not familiar with Evanston's Winter HeARTh series? Check out our past events online here: http://www.cityofevanston.org/arts-culture/public-art/winter-hearth-series/


Geocommunetrics pieces are experimental explorations, visualizing places as data and design, to provided backdrops for life and lenses for learning.
With Geocommunetrics pieces, The Zip Code Kid (TZCK) imagines how we see "home" and "Self" as a work of place and time, art and science, and, well, a bit of magical thinking.

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted at https://thelisadshow.blogspot.com

This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Thursday, February 9, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Shannon Downey, unedited



Shannon Downey is a Marketing Strategist, Educator, Digital Trainer, Mentor and Fiber Artist, but mostly she’s a Badass Woman Craftivist. (I am new to this word too!)


Depending on the online circles you hang in, you might recognize Shannon for the massive cross stitch protest sign she made “I’m so angry I stitched this just so I could stab something 3,000 times” for the Chicago Women’s March. Shannon’s sign went viral appearing in news outlets around the world.


But Shannon is more than just an angry white girl marching, she’s an organizer who gets IT done. In 2016, Shannon and  group of volunteers raised more than $5,000 as part of a Community Craftivism Project - #EndGunViolence. You can learn more at
www.badasscrossstitch.com. “I create art to inspire other people to create art.


Also the creator of the proejct Seriously Badass Women, a website featuring photographs and interviews with women Shannon finds seriously badass. See more at www.seriouslybadasswomen.com


In this interview we talk about how Shannon became a crafitivist, how you can join her and create free patterns to support causes or just help you lead a craftier life.


“I create art to inspire other people to create art.” Shannon Downey


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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted on this blog and on Soundcloud.com



This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com


Friday, February 3, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Kristine Aono, unedited



Artist Kristine Aono (b. 1960)is participating in a show at the Block Museum, If You Remember, I’ll Remember. The show is an invitation to reflect on the past while contemplating the present through works of art exploring themes of love, mourning, war, relocation, internment, resistance, and civil rights in 19th and 20th century North America.

Feb. 4, the public is invited to an Artist Conversation at  2p.m. The contemporary artists in the exhibition use poetic strategies to address issues of war, racism, and xenophobia in American history. Exhibition curator Janet Dees and participating artists Kristine Aono, Samantha Hill, Dario Robleto, and Marie Watt will take part in a presentation and panel discussion on the show’s crucial themes.

Aono's "sculpture and installations are narrative in nature, reflecting my identity as a Sansei, a third generation Japanese-American. I examine my hybrid cultural identity through topics such as acculturation, racial and sexual stereotyping, the WWII internment camps, and the history of my family in America."

This interview talks about her installation: Deru Kugi Wa Utareru: The Nail That Sticks Up The Farthest Takes The Most Pounding, 120,313 Nails, documents, wood, styrofoam, burlap sacks on display through June.

Deru Kugi Wa Utareru is a Japanese proverb which can be translated as "The nail that sticks up the farthest takes the most pounding." When I came across this saying, it helped to explain how 120,313 people of Japanese ancestry, 2/3 of whom were American citizens, could so obediently submit to being incarcerated during WWII. The proverb and its translation wrap around the room. The walls are wallpapered with copies of letters from my maternal grandfather and documents of testimony by former internees given before congress. Stippled into the walls is a grid of 120,313 holes, one for each person interned. Rusted nails are pounded into the grid, forming a large American flag on the main wall. The remaining nails would fill the walls. Visitors are encouraged to add nails to the wall in memory of or to honor those who were incarcerated. By the end of the show's run, thousands of nails were added.


The public is also invited to Day of Remembrance 75th Anniversary on Saturday, February 18, 2 p.m.

February 19, 2017, marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the executive order which called for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Join us to commemorate this historic occasion through an interactive, intergenerational program. The afternoon will be spent sharing stories of internment, and commemorating this historically relevant anniversary.

See more of Aono's work at kristineaono.com





The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted on this blog and on Soundcloud.com


This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

The Lisa D Show with Jill Birschbach, unedited



Jill Birschbach is the president of the Midwest Clay Guild and a working artist living in Evanston. She has a show at the Evanston Art Center, with an opening reception Feb 5, 1-4 p.m. The show (up thru March 4) features pieces from her Small Monuments Series, a collection of ceramics with photos from Birschbach’s personal collection. They capture the people and atmosphere of her childhood stomping grounds and when combined with ceramics, she explains, further immortalize lifetime memories.

Jill Birschbach’s work explores ideas about time, memory and loss. She originally used photographic images to convey these themes and more recently has been creating ceramic sculpture. With her discovery of ceramic photographic decals she was able to bring together her two interests.


In this interview we talk about several riveting and sexy topics; Jill’s use of her family as the subject in her photography, the emergence of digital photography, the Evanston Art Center and the merit of revisiting ideas many, many years later.

Jill graduated with a BFA from UW-Oshkosh in 1992, and has an MFA in photography from the University of Nebraska. She exhibits her work nationally and has been included in shows at AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Baltimore Clayworks, Bradley University, Lillstreet Art Center, and Texas Tech University among others (www.jillbirschbach.com). She is a research editor for Getty Images in Chicago and has her studio at the Midwest Clay Guild in Evanston, IL (midwestclayguild.org).

See her work at www.jillbirschbach.com



The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted on this blog and on Soundcloud.com


This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The Lisa D Show with Cara Dawn, unedited



Cara Dawn is a Chicago native who has been singing since she was a child. After touring the United States, including an overseas USO tour, she returned to the states and began performing locally. She was a rising voice in the Chicago music scene when she stepped off stage to focus her time on raising her son. In 2011 Cara realized that she could no longer go without music in her life.

Her return to the stage has been well received, performing at various venues and events around the city. Cara has been working with a core group of musicians regularly for the last year and performs with them when not doing her solo projects or guest spots. She has been honing her songwriting skills and is currently working on her first solo album due out by the end of this year. Cara Dawn sings from her soul in every performance crafting a truly unique experience for the listener. 


This conversation follows Cara through the various stages of her singing career, examining how singing played a critical role in moments of personal “failure”, lifting her and giving her focus. And how the time off stage informed who she was as a singer in this new phase. 

I am grateful to Cara for sharing her journey with such openness and authenticity, so that others further down the ladder can she how truly you must climb the ladder rung by rung, no one starts on top.

Listen to Cara’s music online at  soundcloud.com/cara-dawn-3

Upcoming live performances in Chicago; 
  • February 15,  6-8 p.m. at House of Blues
  • March 1,  Chop Shop
  • March 20, Promontory in Hyde Park





The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted on this blog and on Soundcloud.com


This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com