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AADL Productions Podcast: Shary Brown
In this interview, AADL spoke with the outgoing Ann Arbor Street Art Fair executive director, Shary Brown. Shary talks about the challenges of pulling off the Fair during difficult times, some of the innovations and changes that occurred under her guidance, and her personal memories of attending the art fairs while growing up in Ann Arbor.
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AADL Productions Podcast: J. T. Abernathy & Stan Baker
In celebration of the 50th Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, AADL brings you an interview with the only artist whose art has appeared in every fair, J. T. Abernathy. Fresh off a recent successful show at the Clay Gallery, J. T. sat down with us and Stan Baker, another Ann Arbor pottery great and former student of J. T.'s, to talk about his career and how pottery is different from half a century ago. Stan and J. T. give us a good look at how they think about their work and how their 30-year relationship has shaped them as artists.
To learn more about the history of the event that defines Ann Arbor in the summertime, visit the new online exhibit 50 Years of Originality: A History of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.
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A Visit To The Grand Canyon With Artist-in-Residence Nancy McKay
This May, local artist Nancy McKay served as artist-in-residence on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, helping visitors experience and express a deeper connection with nature's wonders through art. During this residency she focused on color - how colors change throughout the day and how colors represent layers of geologic time. She also taught park visitors to mix the canyon's colors into a palette.Nancy will share a photographic overview of the North Rim as well as an overview of key geologic features as they relate to earth's history. She will also discuss how she used the theme of color to help park visitors more deeply connect with this amazing National Park.Nancy McKay earned a Master's degree from Eastern Michigan University in textile arts. Her medium, Digital Silk, combines watercolor-style painting on silk, digital printed imagery, and stitching.
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Motawi Tileworks 20th Anniversary with Nawal Motawi
Motawi Tileworks is a 20-year-old Ann Arbor-based artisan tile manufacturer and retailer that has won local and national awards for both its tile and its workplace culture. Owner and founder Nawal Motawi started out in 1992 with a dream and a booth at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. Today, she presides over a 30-person staff in a 12,000 square foot studio that produces over $2 million in annual sales. Nawal will discuss the history of Motawi Tileworks and the design process. This event is held in conjunction with the Downtown AADL exhibit, Motawi in the Making: The History and Science Behind The Art, on display July 25 - September 5.
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Artist Discussion: The Creation of Amococo With Representatives From Architects of Air
From the Guggenheim in Spain to the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the enormous, interactive sculptures of the UK's Architects of Air have astounded audiences across the globe. Join Architects of Air exhibition manager James Stephenson for an in-depth discussion on the design, fabrication and installation process used by the renowned British company for its inflatable, walk-in sculptures. The company's Amococo luminarium is on exhibit at Palmer Field from June 23-June 25.Making its Ann Arbor debut on Palmer Field near Top of the Park, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival presents the renowned company's biggest luminarium, Amococo, a walk-through inflatable sculpture featuring a dazzling maze of winding paths filled with radiant light and color. Linking 86 three-sided domes in a monumental labyrinth, designer Alan Parkinson creates an architectural marvel in which visitors are encouraged to wander, relax, meditate and enjoy the magical ambiance of Amococo. More information about the hours and location of this outdoor exhibit may be found on the Summer Festival website at annarborsummerfestival.org.Join us and find out more about the fascinating work of the Architects of Air.
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Art History Expert Walter Spink Discusses His Exploration and Preservation Work In The Ajanta Caves of India
Join us as Professor Walter Spink, internationally known art history expert will speak and show slides from his exploration and preservation work of the Ajanta Caves in India. The Ajanta Caves are rock-cut cave monuments dating from the second century B.C. containing paintings and sculpture considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art and universal pictorial art. They were used by Buddhist monks as prayer halls (chaitya grihas) and monasteries (viharas) for about nine centuries, and then were abruptly abandoned. They fell into oblivion until they were rediscovered in 1819.Walter M. Spink, Ph.D. (1954), Harvard, is Professor Emeritus, History of Art, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published widely on Indian Art in general, and Ajanta and related sites in particular and continues to travel, lecture, and work at the Ajanta Cave site.
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The Art of Tribal Tattoo with Leo Zulueta
Do not miss this opportunity to meet one of the masters of the tribal tattoo! Known as the father of modern tribal tattooing, Leo is the owner of tattoo studio Spiral Tattoo in Ann Arbor. He'll show us some of his work, share his expertise, and talk about the process of getting a tattoo. Leo began tattooing in 1981 in San Francisco, under the direction of Don Ed Hardy, who encouraged Leo's collecting of imagery relating to traditional tattooing from around the world. After designing many neo-tribal tattoos in the 1990's and becoming a world-wide phenomenon overnight, Leo has now opened the eyes of many people to the intrinsic art of the tribal tattoo.
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UM Assistant Professor David Doris Discusses Art of Southwestern Nigeria: Faces and Fragments - The Moral Image in Yoruba Culture
In honor of Black History Month, David T. Doris will explore the stunning art of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria who have produced some of Africa's most graceful works of art, objects, and images. In Yoruba, an image, like a proverb, is a trigger of conscience, calling the viewer to interpret and identify with the powerful legacies of the past. This presentation will examine the mechanics of such visual engagement by introducing Yoruba conceptions of the person, and of the image as "that which we look at and remember."?David T. Doris, PhD, UM Asst. Prof., Dept. of the History of Art and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria, and has held fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Getty Research Institute. His book, Vigilant Things: The Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria, is forthcoming from the University of Washington Press.
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The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: How The 2006 Artists Were Selected
Each year the Street Art Fair (the Original art fair in Ann Arbor) receives a thousand or more applications from artists across the country. How are these entries winnowed down to fill the 175 spaces at the Fair? Find out at this special event with Festival Executive Director Shary Brown and jurors Julia Gleich, Jill Ault, and Tom Venner. They will discuss and demonstrate a new technology process, zapplication, used to select this year's artists. Through the keen eye of excellent jurors, and with the help of AADL's techno-experts, the artists' works were viewed earlier this year and selected for the upcoming 2006 Art Fair. See a mock jury and get a sneak peek at the work of some of the artists who will be participating in the 2006 Street Art Fair, cosponsors of this event.The Fair uses the newest process, zapplication, which allows artists to register on-line and send digital images of their artwork to the jury instead of the previous method--old 35mm slides. The Street Art Fair partners with the Library for this process (AADL techno-staff equip jurors with the necessary computers to access the images) and the several-day jurying process results in a spectacular selection of award-winning artists from across the country.