Art Not Hate Seen in Tampa

Illuminating the Spirit

Art speaks to us of spirit. This is a major theme of Bob Barancik’s Art Not Hate, a multimedia exhibit at the Carrollwood Cultural Center in November and December, 2010. In the photo, Adrienne Hutelmyer and Paul Berg, Executive Director, examine a portrait of Raoul Wallenberg from the exhibit.

Some individuals, like Wallenberg, live forever as examples of the greatness of the human spirit. Wallenberg was a Swedish architect and businessman, recruited in 1944 for a rescue mission to help the Hungarian Jews. He was given a minor diplomatic post in Budapest, and used it to pass out fake passports—even to people already in detention—and provide refuge in buildings that he declared to be Swedish property. He saved the lives of about 15,000 people.

Wallenberg’s own fate remains a mystery. He was detained by the Russians in 1945 and is believed to have died in Lubyanka prison in 1947.

Spirit Figures

The figures in Barancik’s paintings are stripped down to their essence—they are glowing energy fields, standing against a background of darkness and chaos. These works amplify the difference between life and an environment that seeks to deny it. Mary Ellen Bitner (left) and Evelyn Bless examine two of these spirit works, each depicting three figures that draw strength from each other against the emptiness around them.

Integrity

We all need examples of how to live life with integrity. In the photo, artist Bob Barancik and Mary Ellen Bitner, Art Curator, look at two portraits of people who spoke out about the human condition: Jan Karski and Andrei Sakharov.

Jan Karski, a Polish Catholic, was a resistance leader who entered the Jewish ghettos to observe first-hand what was taking place. In 1942, he was the first person to report to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the slaughter of Jews in Poland. He continued to urge heads of state to act; at the time, no one would listen to him.

Andrei Sakharov, known as the father of the Russian atomic bomb, became a spokesperson for human rights and against development of atomic weapons. Despite official Soviet opposition, Sakharov spoke out about the dangers of totalitarianism. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

For more information on the Carrollwood Cultural Center, see www.carrollwoodcenter.org. For information on upcoming art shows at the Center, see www.carrollwoodcenter.org/art-exhibits.html.

Creative St. Pete 2011: An Emerging Picture by Bob Barancik

I hope that you will enjoy this short video that presents a decidedly incomplete and personal celebration of our rapidly evolving creative community.

2010 has been a year of significant creative accomplishment for St. Pete, and 2011 portends more good things ahead.

I would like to divide this blog entry into two parts. First, a list of highpoints that caught my eye and, then, a list of immediate challenges facing our cultural community.

Highpoints in a completely arbitrary order:

• The new Dali Museum and the Chihuly Collection/Morean Arts Center. These institutions might be game-changers for the city.


• The Saturday Morning Market. Wow & Yummmm!
  


• The Grand Central Arts District. The creative economy in action.
  


• New Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts + New Director for the MFA. Best of the old and the new.
  


• Crisplip Arcade & 600 Block of Central Avenue. This urban real estate project continues the creative redevelopment of our Central Avenue creative corridor.
  


• The Palladium Theater. An architectural and cultural gem of the first order.
  


• The St. Pete Opera. High European musical culture with plenty of local talent.
  


• American Stage. An intimate, state-of-the-art performance venue and catalyst for the restoration of Williams Park.
  


• Creative Clay & Cakewalk Artist Coop. Helping and promoting artists of all abilities.


• Florida Craftsmen Gallery. A continuing cornerstone of the St. Pete creative scene.
  


• The Studio 620. Perhaps my favorite creative venue anywhere in the country.
  


• The Florida Holocaust Museum. One of the largest and most dynamic museums of its kind in the world—and the only Holocaust Museum to feature living artists on a regular basis.
  


• Sunscreen Film Festival. They hit the ground running five years ago and are still going strong.
  
  
• Salt Creek Artworks. Where real artists create real art.

Challenges facing the creative community that need to be addressed in 2011:

• A creative, engaging, and sustainable vision for The Pier.


• A comprehensive branding and marketing plan for “Creative St. Pete.”


• Permanent safeguards for the preservation of our precious public waterfront.


• Reviving the moribund Baywalk shopping, dining, and entertainment complex.


• The humane and sensible management of homeless people and aggressive panhandlers; and restoration of Williams Park and the sidewalks outside City Hall as safe venues for law abiding, tax paying citizens.

I hope to start an informal, informed, and open digital dialogue on these items in the new year. Perhaps you’ll consider participating!

When Art Foretells the Future…of oil spills

Iconoclastic artists and intellectuals often have their ears to the ground, nostrils sniffing the wind, and eyes scanning the horizon…or sidewalk for pennies. It is often an uncomfortable lifestyle. But it does serve a useful societal function. Image-makers in a digital age can readily communicate their unease, anxieties, speculations to a global audience through the internet. It is a truism that highly creative people often view the world through childlike eyes and are prone to state the obvious. In the classic childhood fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” it was a little boy (not the prosperous and serious courtiers) who yelled “the emperor is naked!” Perhaps truth telling is connected to arrested social development and not knowing when to shut up. Nearly four years ago, I was at a wonderful concert at the Palladium Theater in St. Pete featuring pianist Paul Wilborn and his sizzling songstress. Their rendition of “You Give Me Fever” just about burnt the house down. It certainly got me to thinking about sex…and the burning of fossil fuels…and perhaps doing a slightly titillating video on the subject of global warming. The legal complications and expenses of trying to use Peggy Lee’s hit standard of “Fever” put it out of bounds for an indie artist/producer like myself. It was easier and a lot more fun to hire my longtime music mavens Phyllis Chapell and Dan Kleiman in Philly to make some new music. I chose a hot Latin sound and name (Mundo Caliente: It’s a Hot World!) for the project. My video-magician in Rochester Dave Puls and digital print guru Brad Erickson in St. Pete also jumped into this hot creative world. We created an award-winning video that was screened at numerous international film festivals over the last several years, as well as a series of 30 striking digital prints. In the print series, I never liked nine of the images and refrained from exhibiting them. They made me genuinely uncomfortable. There was a hellish quality to them. Likewise, there is a hellish quality to our national addiction to Gulf of Mexico deepwater rigs and despotic Middle East oil. The out-of-control spills and fires, resource wars, episodes of epic corporate and governmental incompetence, and the global reality of smog-choked cities together create a devilishly depressing vision. I look at the images at the side of this blog and am genuinely surprised what my unconscious mind painted years ago. These images are evocative warnings of today’s predicament. As the great cartoonist, Walt Kelly, said through his alter-ego Pogo character over 40 years ago: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Below are links to key articles and imagery about the BP gusher-oil slick: Top Florida Marine Biologist does Q&A (Florida Thinks website) Controlled burn of BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (YouTube) View of oil slick from low flying airplane (YouTube) Is Climate Change Worth Tackling? A Reply To Jim Manzi (The Atlantic magazine) Deepwater Explosion and key photo (Wikipedia) Action is the Antidote to Despair: A photographer confronts the BP oil disaster (YES! Magazine)

Infinite Creative Games: Why simply playing is winning

What is an infinite game?

And why should you, as a creative professional, care?

Let’s begin with “finite games,” because that is what our commercial culture is all about.

There are a few exalted winners and vast hordes of losers/strivers. Here are just a few obvious examples of our national finite games:

The Super Bowl, World Series, the NBA playoffs, flipping condos, stock speculation, consumer marketing, the Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, Obies, Golden Globes, Nobel Prizes, Indie 500 and Nascar, Pulitzer Prizes, Wimbledon, MacArthur Genius Grants, Sundance Indie Film Awards and Hollywood deals, Olympic gold medalists, Project Runway, American Idol, Congressional filabusters, offshore drilling, and strip development…

Conversely Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine and digital guru, defines Infinite Games this way:

“The game is to keep changing the nature of change. And that infinite game is my view of holiness. You play the game not to win, but to continue to play to make room for all expressions of truth, good, and the beautiful. You are opening up the world to possibility.”

This was slammed home to me just a few weeks ago. My longtime music guru, Dan Kleiman, unexpectedly died of a massive stroke from out of the blue. He was just 55. Dan seemed in good health and in reasonably good spirits when I saw him last October in Philly.

He composed, performed, and handled the post-production of twelve of my award-winning experimental videos over a period of a dozen years:

http://artnothate.com/friends/dan-kleiman.php
http://creativeshare.org/video/

One of the things we talked about (perhaps the one thing that we always talked about) was the apparent unfairness and arbitrary harshness of life in the creative economy. As middle-aged working creative professionals, we were both experiencing the frustration of always being on the edge of big things. As the saying goes, always a bridesmaid and never a bride. With the collapse of both the stock and housing markets, we saw a lot of our savings and net worth evaporate and the prospect of easy money disappear.

Dan was vexed by the possibility of many more years of creative struggle and the uncertainty of any financial reward. I was less worried about things and more sanguine about the future (at least at that moment) and tried to cheer him up with my usual philosophizing. In my circle of friends and colleagues, I am often the resident skeptical optimist. I adopted this cast of mind when dealing both with a serious chronic illness for nearly twenty years and a life-threatening colon lesion. For the most part, my health situation was not talked about, but was always the 800-pound gorilla in the studio. Consequently, I am genuinely grateful for the good days when there is energy and creative flow.

Recently, Dan and his longtime creative partner and singer, Phyllis Chapell, finished a magnificent CD titled “Vision of the Dry Bones.” It combined their virtuosity with Jewish, Latin, and world culture into a delicious and fully realized whole.

http://artnothate.com/friends/phyllis-chapell.php

It had a genuine artistic integrity that can only be achieved by decades of practice, experimentation, and committed creative collaboration. Here is a link to some clips from the album:

http://artnothate.com/friends/projects/dry-bones.php

One of the things that I mentioned to Dan last fall was that the web might provide artists (particularly musicians and performers) a modicum of immortality. One might yet be discovered posthumously on the Internet and find an enthusiastic audience that could span generations.

This did not give my gifted friend much succor or solace. He was still playing the finite games of the mercurial creative marketplace at our last meeting, trying to figure out how to get fame, fortune, security, and unconditional love through one’s art.

Now he is part of eternity…as we all shall be…sooner or later.

But let me leave you with images from a favorite infinite game—Nantucket Sailboats!

It was one of the very first videos that Dan and I worked on together.

http://creativeshare.org/video/mainely-creative/nantucket-sailboats.php

Six Mistakes Mankind Keeps Making Century After Century

1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

– Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman, lawyer, philosopher, 106 BC to 43 BC

These clear-eyed and crystalline words were written over 2,000 years ago by one of ancient Rome’s most revered and influential legislators. I often muse on these six points and try to embellish his simple litany of human blindness and stupidity…to no avail. The “Art Not Hate” project is a response to point five— it attempts to refine and develop our perception of both others and ourselves in the mix and mayhem of life. But, ironically, creative people can be as prejudiced and spiteful as those who do the world’s more mundane work (think Michael Richards [aka Kramer] on African Americans, and Mel Gibson on Jews). Nonetheless, when we create with others who are different from ourselves, there are inexplicable moments of empathy when we know that the person next to us shares our feelings and fate…and we are changed for the better.

Mundo Caliente: It’s a hot world — and it may be getting hotter!

Some scientists believe that our planet is entering another cycle of dramatic climate change. We could be facing a protracted period of sweltering summers, raging hurricanes, and erratic weather patterns. Many people also believe that this dire situation will be intensified by the industrial world’s addiction to fossil fuels.

Whether or not the bad news about the weather is true remains to be seen. But our precious world remains a place of changing beauty. Mountains rise up and erode; islands emerge and submerge; rivers flood and go dry…

The Mundo Caliente print series and video explore the aesthetics of global warming through paint, pixel, and hot latin music. I hope that my media stimulates your thinking about this global conundrum.

We are proud to be part of the www.blogactionday.org experience.

Click on the links below for some surprising sights and sounds —

http://www.creativeshare.org/video/mundo-caliente.php

http://www.bobcreates.com/artwork/prints/

Confessions of a Creative Economy Conference Groupie: Connecting the Dots at the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit 2009 in Philadelphia

I enjoy big picture creativity conferences that promote art, design, and broad themes of personal and social transformation…it is so much better than the gritty and grubby grind of real life. Clever, accomplished, and basically well-meaning people have center stage rather than the peripheral roles of wise/fool, crazy/genius, or expendable expert.

There were five things that distinguished this conference from the other more glamorous gatherings like TED and PopTech:

1. No over-hyped celebrity presenters repeating their pet cosmic theories ad nauseum. (Even the keynote talk delivery by best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert was punctuated by gentle self-deprecating humor, and stories of her life as a diner waitress in Philly and under-achieving and least favorite child in a family of Connecticut uber-achievers)


2. Limited to two days at a highly accessible location.


3. No-frills registration for $75 that is nearly identical in experience to the full $225 registration — minus two mediocre lunches.


4. Focused on practice rather than just blue-sky possibilities.


5. Was in a city that was genuinely on the ropes for decades but has transformed itself into America’s #1 creative economy metro area. (I say this because Philly has very affordable housing, a considerable number of well-paying creative jobs, stellar academic, cultural, and nonprofit sectors, and a $10 Bolt bus ride to NYC.)

The following items are my personal highlights from the summit. They include intriguing web links and some of the more memorable ideas that went in one ear and did not go out the other.

• Civic Innovation Lab in Cleveland
  Their creative ventures start-up funding model is astounding!


• Jane McGonigal (director of game R&D at the Institute for the Future)
  The institute has been key creative player in Silicon Valley for over 35 years. The presentation was made via Skype from California. Although Jane was sick, she made a marvelous impression.
  
  Institute slide shows:
  Epic Win (Why Gaming is the Future of Learning)
  http://www.slideshare.net/avantgame


• Favorite thinkers and designers and communities for learning more about happiness hacking, alternate realities, and game design:
  
  Nicole Lazzaro
  
  Clay Shirky – "Cognitive Surplus"
  
  Edward Castranova – Synthetic Worlds & Exodus from Reality
  
  Tara Hunt
  
  BJ Fogg
  
  Gamasutra
  
  Alternate Reality Gaming Network
  
  DIGMA (Design Industry Group of Mass)
  Promoting the Massachusetts design economy
  The Design Industry Group of Massachusetts (DIGMA) is an initiative of the statewide design industries to organize and promote the Massachusetts design cluster as integral to the state's economy. DIGMA enables diverse design industries – including advertising, architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, landscape design, and specialized design services such as fashion, textiles and lighting design – to speak with one powerful and influential voice.
  
  Piedmont Triad Partnership
  Marketing our region to the world
  These tar heels have a lot to teach us about integrating and scaling up creative economy programs.

Miscellaneous musings and factoids:

No one believes advertisements anymore — that is the power of social media — but we tend to believe our friends and relatives.

There is creativity without drama and reward — in fact, it is the norm, not the exception.

Celebrate the creative spirit, not the creators.

Entrepreneurship equals prosperity for a region.

You don’t need to outdo your every achievement.

To break a writer’s block, take an acting or drawing class.

Follow your curiosity — not your passions or bliss.

Beware your pitch/robot mode of talking to another human being. Everyone wants to be a person, not a client.

Money for any start-up venture is as much a burden as it is a blessing.

Never give away free food or booze to attract potential members to a group.

Yes, there can be double bottom lines — one for profit/loss and the other for social good.

Ancient Greek dice games were created by the ruling class to distract the starving masses from their hunger in times of famine.

All games have well defined rules and boundaries; a cooperative community; a shared space for competition; time to play and experiment.

It is okay to screw up, but don’t lie about it online — you’ll get caught.

Grammar, spelling, and syntax still matter.

Make something that is genuinely hard to copy.

Attention span is 2.7 seconds for a young person, which translates into a 140 character text message.

People who take digital photographs for fun are more likely to visit a museum than the average citizen.

Senior corporate management extols the virtues of creativity but does not like to hire people with fine art backgrounds for staff positions.

If you only listen to your own voice, you’ll drown.

Privacy died 30 or 40 years ago.

Be a niche marketer/producer/provider to get rich — the generalist is seldom missed.