Melissa Matson, Professional Dancer and Movement Artist

Melissa Matson is a professional dancer/educator and mentor recently transplanted from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Evanston, IL. Matson is a movement artist who works with people to bring out their inner radiance. Founder of Embodied Living, Matson uses the Alexander Technique to work with groups and individuals to increase physical and emotional well being as well as enhance creativity and stage presence. Learn more about her practice at melissamatsonmoves.com

This January Matson partners with musician Preston Klick to host Body High at Foster Dance Studios. For two hours Matson and Klik (longtime Chicago DJ + meditation leader) will guide attendees through this dance meditation journey. Sign up at melissamatsonmoves.com/body-high

The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, very low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Artist Linda Lewis Kramer at Miishkooki Gallery

Linda Lewis Kramer has been making art for decades, starting on her dining room table and now out of her artist studio in Evanston, IL. Currently her work is on display in the Cosmic Characters group show featuring Kramer, Wayne Lent and Julie Murphy, at Miishkooki Gallery, 4517 Oakton Ave., in Skokie, thru. Jan. 13.

 
The ten drawings on display at Miishkooki by Kramer are from the series Plate Boy Bunny, Kramer's reaction of how women presented themselves in the eyes of Hugh Hefner, which she found horrifying. See the works on her website under 1972: Colored Pencil on Paper at lindalewiskramer.com

Kramer goes on to talk about her stance on overpopulation, her collection of work and her prolific career including installations and ceramics.

She also mentions the project, 70 Plus - Chicago Visual Artist Oral History Archive, which you can here online here.

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, very low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

David Maurice of CocoDaco has exciting and immersive dance plans for 2018

Today on The Lisa D Show podcast we are talking with David Maurice, the interim artistic director at Foster Dance School’s CocoDaco Dance Project. Maurice is looking forward to immersive dance experiences, dance collaboration and more in 2018. Maurice’s debut show as performer, choreographer and director is “Soft Targets” in April 2018, featuring immersive experiences for audience and cast members.

Maurice has trained extensively with the former director Foster Dance School co-founder Ronn Stewart and is currently working in partnership with Sarah Goldstone, Ronn’s widow and co-founder of Foster Dance School.
David will be dancing in Evanston this weekend at “Keep Going (do it) With Love- A Tribute to Ronn Stewart”, Dec. 8-10 at Josephine Louis Theater on the Northwestern Campus. Tickets available at www.cocodaco.com.

Ronn Stewart was the founder of Cocodaco, creator of MoPeD (More People Dancing), a choreographer, brilliant dancer, teacher and inspiration. We are forever inspired by the 5 rules of MoPeD, Keep going, Suspend judgement, Listen, Remember and Do it with Love.

The tribute show will feature Ronn Stewart's work, "See Oh! Too SATURATION" created in 2007, "Garbage & Flowers" created in 2016 and new pieces by company members Ela Olarte and David Maurice.

David Maurice’s Background

David Maurice began training with César Degollado while attending the University of Arizona. In school, David performed works by Donald McKayle, Charles Weidman, George Balanchine, and Bob Fosse. As a dancer he has worked with Ronn Stewart’s Cocodaco Dance Project and Moving People Dance Santa Fe, Danielle Agami’s Ate9 Dance Company, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano’s Luna Negra Dance Theatre, Loni Landon Dance Project, Alex Ketley’s The Foundry, & Roderick George of the Forsythe Company. David serves as the resident choreographer of Condanza a San Francisco based dance company.

As a choreographer he has created work on Cocodaco Dance Project, Santa Barbara Dance Theater, and Ate9 Dance Company. He has assisted Barak Marshall’s creation The Castaways set on Ballet Rambert (London) and Loni Landon on Damon Cardasis’ award winning film Saturday Church. He has taught workshops at University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Irvine, Loyola Marymount


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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, very low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Diana Sudyka, Artist and Illustrator, Talks About Making a Creative Life

Diana Sudyka talks about creating a life as an artist and illustrator. Sudyka is known online as Tiny Aviary (@tinyaviary) and specializes in illustrative works that feature birds, animals and humans in intricate design. Her early career featured event posters promoting musicians like The Black Keys and Neko Case and is now exploring book illustration work. Her work and online store can be found at dianasudyka.com

She now lives in Evanston and works out of her basement studio, with her husband Jay Ryan (The Bird Machine) and child, and is contributing to the creative community that makes this town a unique and interesting place to live.

We mention the event poster she donated to the Nasty Women Evanston fundraiser for Planned Parenting in June 2017, see below, and is available for purchase online. Visit her website and online store at dianasudyka.com

Bio from dianasudyka.com

Diana Sudyka  (pronounced soo-dee-kah) is a Chicago based illustrator. She started out by designing and screen-printing posters for musicians including: Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, The Black Keys, Neko Case, and The Decemberists. Examples this early poster work can be seen in Gigposters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century (Quirk Books). Following, she began illustrating YA books, illustrating several volumes of the award winning and NYTimes bestselling series The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Secret Keepers also by Stewart, and Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley. She is currently illustrating the first of several upcoming children’s picture books to be released in 2018 and 2019. Working mainly in gouache, ink and watercolor, subject matter and aesthetic choices for her paintings are largely informed by a deep passion for the natural world, and inspired by a love of various folk art traditions. When not working or with her family, she volunteers in the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History bird lab. Her instagram feed sometimes has a disproportionate amount of pictures of lichens and moss.

Select Client List:
Andrew Bird, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Beach Lane Books, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, EMI Records, The Field Museum of Natural History, Folio Society, Harper Collins Publishers, Intercontinental Hotels, Habitat Skateboards, Little, Brown, and Company (Hachette Group USA), Penguin Random House, POETRY Foundation, Scholastic Books, Simon and Schuster, Spirituality & Health Magazine, The Washington Post, Whole Foods Market.

CONTACT:
For book related inquiries, please contact agents Andrea Morrison and Rebecca Sherman at Writers House: amorrison@writershouse.com & rsherman@writershouse.com.
For all other inquiries: diana@dianasudyka.com

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, very low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Hannah Litvan, Founder of Ice House Gallery Evanston

As a recent art school graduate, Hannah Litvan confronted the ugly fact that art jobs are really, really, really hard to get. She applied for literally hundreds of jobs across the globe and barely heard back from two. What was Hannah going to do with her degree and desire to work in the arts? Her mom had an idea, start an arts-related business. Smart mom!

Hannah recently opened Ice House Gallery on South Blvd. in Evanston, that features first floor gallery and event space and artist studios upstairs. Housed in a historical building (where ice used to be made and stored) Ice House Gallery gives Hannah the freedom to work in the arts, live in the Evanston community and eventually the space to create her own work (which has been on pause for the two years leading up to the opening).

Ice House Gallery will feature Chicagoland area artists, there are 17 showing now, with a monthly featured artist reception on the First Saturday of every month. This Saturday, Dec. 2, 6-9p, meet artists Jim Parks, showing paintings of flowers, “Bloomz”.

Check the calendar of events for upcoming mid-month music, poetry and theatre performances at icehousegalleryevanston.com/events.

Artists looking for studio and gallery space can reach out to the Hannah directly at hlitvan[at]icehousegalleryevanston.com.

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, very low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com