Hot Dog Frank Rosaly!

I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I did not have a soundtrack for my memories and daily activities. My soundtrack consists of recorded music, trains, bird songs and passing cars. I am compelled to tap glass and metal, to create a rhythm of distraction and amusement. Last week I built a fire in the wood stove. I grabbed the spray bottle and sprayed the hot stove a few times. The water hit the stove on the top, at the sides, the door and the pipe, each spot producing a different kind of sound. I started creating a rhythm and soon the pattern I had created mimicked the sounds of an approaching locomotive. This brought me a great deal of afternoon entertainment.

I don’t often share these sorts of things with anyone. I suppose I think I will be judged as silly or strange for being obsessed with the sounds of a wood stove but after seeing the Frank Rosaly concert I feel justified in my strange past times.

Frank Rosaly performed at the Coconino Center for the Arts last Thursday night. From the moment he entered the building with the manic energy of a grasshopper bouncing from place to place, setting up and asking questions, I had the feeling I would not be disappointed despite my high expectations of the show.

He sat alone on the stage surrounded by a drum set and an open case containing a piece of sound equipment that he would later use to manipulate sounds and play recorded samples. His performance was never predictable. He removed a cymbal from the high hat and raked it across the snare drum, creating a sound that had me feeling simultaneously uncomfortable and intrigued. He did this for what seemed like 2 or 3 minutes until he moved onto something else. He pushed the sound to the limits of my tolerance and yet my ears weren’t ready to let go of the eerie tone resembling the playing of a poorly tuned cello. He did similar things with a fork on various drumheads and cymbals between skilled and energetic drum playing. The tempo would increase and drop off into awkward moments of silence. Frank would hesitate, making jerky, frantic movements toward different objects, before finding just the right tool for the sound he was searching for. A spotlight illuminated the space surrounding him and at one particularly captivating part of his performance, a moth fluttered up and down toward the drum set in time with his playing nearly landing on the high hat.

I leaned forward on the edge of my seat throughout the performance. I couldn’t sit still. I felt a connection to his intense preoccupation with sound and his need to explore the instrumental possibilities of his surroundings.

Between sets, Frank spoke for a few minutes expressing gratitude to the people of Flagstaff who had supported him at different points of his life before and after he moved to Chicago. He was full of humility and kindness and it was easy to approach him and thank for his performance. I bought his latest project: Milkwork, on vinyl which includes a free MP3 download of the album and headed home talking about the show for most of the ride.

Arriving home, I stood the album up on the dresser before going to bed. I fell asleep feeling inspired. I have added another soundtrack to my life, one that makes me feel okay about dragging the pots and pans out on a Sunday afternoon for an improvisational jam session in the kitchen.

Giclée: Using French makes you sound fancy!

Working in the field of Visual Arts, I’ve been asked many questions about art and artists. One of the questions I'm confronted with regularly is about the meaning of the term, “giclée”. Stamped on the tag of many a reproduction, it sneers at prospective art buyers, some of who have no idea what this fancy and intimidating word means. I hear them discussing it quietly with their friends so not to be overheard or embarrassed and often they become brave enough to ask, “What is a giclée?” Lately I’ve responded at first with a joke, telling them they are not allowed to say the word unless they are to use a condescending tone. This usually relaxes any uneasy feelings they may have about appearing ignorant. Their concern about appearing ignorant is what bothers me the most.

I like the concept of the arts as being accessible and inclusive. I’m not saying the word “giclée” will scare away potential art buyers without previous knowledge of the what the word means, but the more I read about the history and usage of the term, the more confused I became about how it is used to label the prints of today. I also started thinking about the way art is labeled and how it may be best to find a way to let folks in on the terminology in order to create a comfortable place for people to view and/or buy art.

What is a giclée? The term was invented in 1991, by a printmaker by the name of Jack Duganne. Jack needed a word to distinguish the inkjet-based digital fine art prints from the industrial prints or “Iris proofs” of his time. Searching for a word generic enough to cover the wide array of inkjet technologies of the present and hopefully into the future, he first found the French word for nozzle, which most inkjet printers use. The word: le gicleur then led him to look up the French word for “to spray” or gicler. In the end he settled for the feminine noun version of gicler which gave us a name for the fine art print some of us now know as giclée, (pronounced “zhee-clay”) or “that which is sprayed or squirted.”

Although the name was originally applied to the fine art prints created on Iris printers in the early 1990s, many artists and businesses of today are producing ink jet prints of their work and labeling the reproductions as a giclée. Of course there is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of the word and there have been attempts to set standards for what qualifies and what doesn’t.

The idea of art creating controversy usually gets me laughing, and this is no exception. I’ve overheard many serious discussions about what is and what is not a giclée. It has also been suggested in these discussions that making prints of original artwork is in itself something to be avoided. For many of the people I meet, buying art in our local galleries, the contents of the label are secondary to the work. The subject matter, the color and composition appear to be the focus. Often, like me, they are unable to afford the original and are pleased with the affordability of the reproduction.

I enjoy art, in all forms, reproductions and originals. I’m not certain I understand the controversy surrounding the definitions of things in general. I try my best to stray from too much intellectualizing when it comes to art and yet I can relate to the curiosity surrounding the basic terminology that defines it. I also understand the desire for quality when it comes to buying art. Too keep it simple, I recommend people look at a piece of art before buying it. If you like what you see, if you find it appealing, inspiring, and meaningful, my guess would be, you have made a quality investment.

The Personal

An artist recently approached me to thank us for featuring a photograph of her work in a promotional piece we sent out into the community. We used the picture in an email to promote an event in which the artist was participating – so the gesture was not intended to promote that particular artist. And yet, with the message of thanks, I’m assuming the artist felt gratified by our use of the image to the point of validation of her art work.

This may sound strange, considering her gratitude, but it wasn’t personal.

Flagstaff Cultural Partners is the Arts Council for Flagstaff. We are regularly seeking to build, support and promote the arts in our community. We are here to represent everyone in the arts – from the experienced, world-reknowned artist who happens to live in Flagstaff to the first-time-with-a-paint-brush newbie. And for that matter, we also aim to give equal promotion to non-profit arts organizations, galleries, arts businesses, schools and others in the world of the arts.

Just about everyday, we work to promote the arts. We are sending out promotional materials for the next big upcoming event, whether its here at the Coconino Center for the Arts, or at another location in town. Promotion is a big part of who we are. And so we have to choose compelling images to represent those events – to inspire interest in arts and culture in Flagstaff. It’s a daily – nay, hourly – focus for us.

Choosing an image from a single artist to represent a specific event is much more challenging than it sounds. First of all, we want to choose an image that fits with the media in question, whether it be a printed postcard, brochure, email or webpage. It has to fit in thematically with the color scheme and overall ‘feel’ of the piece in question. We also have to choose something compelling that will catch the eye of our audience and give them reason to read more about the event or promotion. And lastly, we have to consider that we are the Arts Council and here to represent everyone – thereby giving equal consideration to all art work and images that we have to work with.

Most of all, we have to be sure that our mindset is never focused on choosing art or artists that we, personally, like over others. It’s a real trick to pull off, honestly.

You can be certain of this: when we use a photo in a promotion, it’s not about our own personal preference for that artwork – but rather our professional opinion about what will best serve that promotion.

In this blog, you’ll get to hear from each of the five staff members at Flagstaff Cultural Partners, and you’ll get some indication of our personal likes and even dislikes. We all have individual tastes, of course, and art work that we are draw to. We have soft spots for some artists whose work we think is just awesome … and sometimes we have soft spots for artists – and staff of arts agencies – who we just like to hang out with.

But we are always – always – conscious of working our way back out of that mentality in order to be as objective as possible in the way that we represent the arts in Flagstaff. We do this despite the fact that, in my own personal view, objectivity is darn near impossible. Still, it’s what we must strive for day in and day out.