RezaRitesRi.com

By Reza Corinne Clifton

(This article appeared in the October 12 edition of The Providence American newspaper)

Filmmaker Michelle Le Brun

PROVIDENCE, RI - Michelle Le Brun is not an amateur filmmaker. LeBrun, president of Harken Productions, is a filmmaker in every sense of the word. She is and has been a producer, creative director, editor, writer, cinematographer and more, and she has earned awards and honors from several different film festivals including the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival and the San Francisco Film Festival.

She began in front of the camera, so to speak, and is well-versed in acting and performing; her theatre, television, and film credits include a supporting role alongside Harvey Keitel and Rosie Perez in Somebody to Love. She made the switch to behind the scenes in 1999:

“I decided to become a filmmaker after my husband died and I was encouraged to take all the video we had shot together and make it into a documentary about sitting with a loved one as they pass. This film, Death: A Love Story, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999 [where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize].”

Le Brun also teaches at the school from which she earned her Master of Arts degree, Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works with teenagers through the Harken! Youth Media Program.

As a woman who not only attended Graduate School in Massachusetts, but who also spent much of her adolescence there, Le Brun is a self-described New England lover—and not a Los Angeles girl. This is one of the reasons Le Brun has recently made the Mount Hope/Eastside section of Providence, Rhode Island her home and headquarters to Harken Productions.

“I moved to RI to leave the vacuous, materialistic, life of LA. Even though I lived in Cambridge for 8 years, I didn’t want to return to a place I know so well, yet [I] love New England. So, when I came here for a faculty development for Lesley U. – for whom I’ve taught since the late 80’ s– I fell in love with Providence.

“I met Bert Crenca [artistic director and founder of AS220] at that time and we talked about my doing a documentary with the kids from the RI Training School. I came in March of ’05 to do same. It was a great project that received lots of press and we toured the film and the kids who made it around RI having panel discussions. [It was a] very rewarding experience wherein I also decided to move here.”

Do not for one minute imagine Le Brun’s relocation from the “vacuous, materialistic, life of LA” and arrival in RI as a casual walk down the red carpet. A recent abbreviated tour through her multistory home reveals artistic and innovative design, craftsmanship and restructuring done by hand as well as a few areas still left to be done.

Yet for those who won’t go on the tour, Thursday September 28 provides a different opportunity to see how Le Brun faired or, more accurately, what she did in her first months here. At 9:55 PM, the local Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) Southern New England channel 36 will air a seven-minute documentary produced and directed by Le Brun entitled Gone Fishin’.

Le Brun and owner of Ocean State Tackle, David Henault; Henault’s wife and partner, Nina Memi

Gone Fishin’ is about the Providence location of Ocean State Tackle, one of two stores owned by husband and wife David Henault and Nina Memi, and a place in Providence where “all religious, economic and racial backgrounds converge to share their joy for the adventure of fishing.” The seven-minute film is part of a joint initiative of PBS and the RI Council for the Humanities (RICH) called “On Common Ground: What Unites Us? What Divides Us?” According to their website, RICH has given “small awards to local filmmakers to produce short films reflecting on these themes [of unity and division] and what they mean in Rhode Island.” Gone Fishin’ will air right before a long form documentary called Fish Stories.

Impressed with her ability to navigate through RI’s resources, I wondered which came first, the chicken or the egg? That is, did Gone Fishin’ begin after hearing about the grant or after hearing about or visiting the store?

“This project came together when RI Council on the Humanities had a call for proposals for their initiative “What Unites Us, What Divides Us?” I put in a proposal to do something on Ocean State Tackle as I had heard it was a great place where lots of different kinds of people go. So, my idea was – What Unites Us? – Fish! I had also heard that Dave and Nina were very cool and interesting people. It all turned out to be true.”

Check out the documentary, Gone Fishin’, tonight at 9:55 on PBS channel 36 by another cool and interesting person, new RI resident, Michelle Le Brun. Check out www.HarkenProdus.com for more information about Le Brun and her production company. For more information about the film the RICH-PBS film initiative, visit www.rihumanities.org/programs.htm or www.rihumanities.org/filmseries_unites.html.

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer who is regularly published in several RI-area publications. Her articles can be seen at www.RezaRitesRi.com and she can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com.

Greetings,

I want to thank you for your help and support; whether it’s getting the word out about my website, dropping me a line about what you liked, or letting me know about other opportunities for me to write about, it’s all been great. And if I haven’t heard from you, I know that you’re out there channeling good vibes and creative energy my way, and that’s just as good. I’m having a good time with this whole writing thing—learning about and sharing places and themes that deserve attention. I hope you’ll keep supporting me on this journey, which is truly a trip for us all.

Below are the latest articles and photos I’ve produced and posted on my website. One of them is about a long-awaited jazz concert happening this Sunday from 4:00-7:00 at the Providence Black Repertory Company. You’ll want to keep reading to learn about the challenges and victories of amazing, RI jazz singer, Maya Breuer. There’s also one about a great communtity organization and a recent project they just completed, and an article about a recent visit to RI by Hip Hop pioneer and educator, Chuck D.

Below, I’ve also included some information about a few other events you might be interested in attending, but may not have heard about yet. Again, thank you for your support.

-Reza

Next week, September 25-29, is Diversity Week at URI. For more information, visit www.uri.edu/mcc.

Tuesday night the 26th at 7:30 in Edward’s Auditorium at the URI Kingston campus, part of the URI Honor’s Colloquium: “Hip Hop: Contesting Meaning and En-gendering Movement in the Postindustrial City.” For more information, visit www.uri.edu/hc. Plus, I’m introducing one of the speakers! She is professor, author, and authority on Black culture and music, gender, American cultural politics and more, Dr. Tricia Rose.

On Thursday the 28th at the URI Alumni Center in Kingston, RI, the URI Alumni Association sponsors a URI Alumni Professionals of Color Forum from 4:00-6:00. The event is designed to help URI students of color network with University alumni. For more information, call 401-874-4853.

On Thursday night at 9:55 PM, local PBS Southern New England channel 36 premieres a short documentary entitled “Gone Fishin’” by award-winning, film industry professional—and recent RI newcomer—Michelle Le Brun, president of Harken Productions. For more information about LeBrun and Harken Productions visit www.HarkenProds.com.

Legendary reggae act, Steel Pulse, stops in Providence on Wednesday October 4 for a concert at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, located within Club Diesel on Washington Street in Providence. Local reggae band, Soulshot, opens along with Leni Stern. For more information, visit www.lupos.com or call 331-5876.

By Reza Corinne Clifton

(This article appeared in the September 14 edition of The Providence American newspaper and in the early October edition of the online RI Roads Magazine)

(Jazz vocalist and yoga instructor, Maya Breuer)

PROVIDENCE, RI - Practicing yoga and singing jazz. For many of us, these two activities have nothing to do with each other. They are east versus west; relaxation versus exultation; health choice versus career choice. But for highly acclaimed, area vocalist, Maya Breuer, it would take a spiritual journey punctuated by the practice and teaching of yoga to ensure a return to the art and expression of song.

On Sunday afternoon September 24 from 4:00-7:00, the potential of yoga materializes and after almost ten years, Breuer’s path will take a new but familiar turn with “The spectacular return of Jazz Artists Maya Breuer and Bill Jiacovelli,” and Bebop Poetry Readings by Anne Edmonds Clanton. It will be an afternoon of live jazz downtown at the Providence Black Repertory Company, 297 Westminster Street.

***

In the early 1970’s, when Breuer began pursuing a singing career in jazz music, Jiacovelli on guitar was her accompanying musician, and as a duo, they played through out New England. With a voice that has been compared to classic jazz vocalists, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Breuer found herself touring professionally, throughout New York and various parts of New England and with an array of talented and recognized jazz musicians from RI and all over.

Breuer’s exposure afforded her incredible opportunities, like meeting Fitzgerald at the Jackie Robinson Jazz Festival and building a loyal fan base of jazz enthusiasts like Clanton.

But it also ushered in the venomous yet normal work hazards associated with musicians’ lives—“all the late nights, drinking and drugs,” reflects Breuer on a late Saturday morning recently. “I started singing pretty young,” she explains further, and “I realized that I didn’t have a foundation to stand on.”

In 1997, Breuer did a final performance in the famed Sing! Sister, Sing!, a “dynamic” show created by Clanton and Jeree Wade and part of RI’s now dissolved Langston Hughes Center for the Arts, before going on hiatus from singing.

***

It was twenty-five years ago when Breuer began doing yoga. “I was the first person to do yoga in my family,” she explains coolly yet proudly.

“At this point everyone in my family does yoga; my mother my grandmother, my husband…well not everyone. And I should clarify. Not everyone may be as active [as she is] about it, but I can talk about it with my mother or any one or them. And one of my [two] sons doesn’t do yoga, but he does do the breathing. And he has to go to India for his corporate job; I told him the yoga bug is calling. My first cousin comes to my classes. She’s very quiet and I never fancied that she would do this…”

Even I was invited by Breuer to participate in—though I was ultimately kept from—an introduction to her instruction of the ancient spiritual practice. Given the centrality of yoga in her life, it should come as no surprise that a significant part of Breuer’s hiatus from singing was devoted to strengthening her dedication to its practice. This dedication included traveling to India to study yoga, and becoming a certified yoga instructor, which she’s spent the last ten years doing.

“I was on a spiritual journey. I had to find myself to get myself stronger before I could come back.”

***

“I want to start a Yoga Revolution. I want to get 10,000 women of color per year starting the Revolution.” It wouldn’t just be words: “You’d have to commit to a certain list of musts, like relaxing everyday for a certain amount of time, and breathing every day…”

This is one of the first things Breuer says to me when I meet her after one of her classes has adjourned. Most of the women look at ease, yes. But there is also a look of self-satisfaction and spiritual enlightenment that glimmers in some of their eyes, while even the simplest goodbyes are noticeably warm and marked with a sense of graciousness. I also notice that like Breuer, yet unlike the mainstream conception, there are Black women who take her class in the Wickenden Street studio of Providence Healing Arts.

As a matter of fact, Breuer played the lead role in holding The International Association of Black Yoga Teachers’s annual conference this year here in RI; next year it will be in the West African country, Ghana. On October 15, she will teach at a place called Yoga Hive in Atlanta, Georgia—“one of the first yoga centers in Atlanta open by a Black woman”—and in November she will do the annual Yoga [weekend] Retreat for Women of Color at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts. Later, she’ll co-teach at a retreat in Costa Rica with her daughter, who recently left her job as a mechanical engineer to open a yoga studio.

And all of these events? They will fall under her Yoga Revolution campaign, she explains.

Yet with this level of commitment to the ancient health and meditative practice—as a revolutionary movement to share and spread and as a craft to strengthen and improve—I wondered how it was that she was finding her way back to music.

“One thing that I started doing [during her hiatus] was chanting in Sanskrit. So even though I wasn’t singing, I was creating and hearing sounds from within. This kept me at a place where I could hear from within, and this is important because I couldn’t before.

“Going within gives us a language to express ourselves. The more I went within in my practice in meditation the more I was able to recognize and define things. It has broadened my ability to hear, see, and move more consciously through life. Now, when I’m talking about life’s ups and downs, it’s going to hit more people…My experiences are coming out of me now.”

***

Abandon the idea that Breuer is stuck in some kind of yoga comatose state. She cites contemporary, hip-hop-driven, R&B singer, Mary J. Blige as a singer she listens to who encouraged her to get back into singing. “She went through something big and is now standing in her strength,” explains Breuer. She also lists sophomore hip hop hit-maker, Kanye West as an artist who influences her music, lauding the language—“contemporary phrasing”—and “cadence” of the hip hop artist.

But for former followers and potential fans looking for the passion, pain, rhythm and melody of jazz music, Breuer has not abandoned you. “I’m doing [nearly] all jazz classics. I do do Angela Bofill, which is a more contemporary sound. I do some Marvin Gaye too for a more contemporary sound. But there’s a lot of Sarah [Vaughan], Ella [Fitzgerald], and Billie Holiday.”

And there’s rejoining guitarist, Jiacovelli, to perform as a duo. “Right around the time when I decided to get back into music, Bill’s mother, who was taking my class, told me that Bill was moving back to RI,” Breuer explains.

Breuer knew that Jiacovelli had gotten married, moved to New York, and taken a non-musical job. When she did meet with him, she explains, “I was reluctant to ask since I didn’t know where he was with things, so I just asked him, ‘hey, do you want to jam together sometime?’ Well the look on his face told me that he did, so we started. It was really great because I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know who to work with.’ But he came back to RI.

“When I listen to him, I can tell he’s been on a journey himself. I hear a maturity in him and a level of creativity so fresh and so funky. I enjoy listening to him and playing with him…and creating jazz with him.”

For more information about the duo of Jazz vocalist Maya Breuer and guitarist Bill Jiacovelli contact Anne Edmonds Clanton at anne511@cox.net or 258-1910. For more information about Breuer’s yoga instruction and movement, visit www.mayabreuer.com, email LILITHB@aol.com, or call Providence Healing Arts at 751-2050.

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer whose articles can be seen in The Providence American Newspaper, Motif Magazine, The Warwick Daily Times, The Kent County Daily Times, and at www.RezaRitesRi.com. She can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com

By Reza Corinne Clifton

RezaRitesRI EXCLUSIVE article
(some photos appeared in the Providence American Newspaper)

(Top row, left to right: Sonja Lee, Saata Jalah, Shirley Howie, Anita Hanson, Deanna Brown, Anna Lee. Bottom row, left to right: Lorenzo Gilbert Gadson, Darlena Diarra, Ghislaine Jean, Darshell Jackson, Jonathan Mahone, Abdul Mateen)

(In the first photo is Darshell Jackson, who did a biographical monologue with a little help from Anna Lee, who does not appear in the photo. In the second photo up close is Shirley Howie, who performed a song solo. In the background from left to right is Deanna Brown and Ghislaine Jean.)

(In the first photo from left to right is John Mahone, Saata Jalah, Anita Hanson, and Darlena Diarra. Mahone performed a piece entitled Ghetto Prophet, but was also at times narrator, inner voice, and transitioner between acts. Jalah danced to 911 Emergency by Sonya Lee, and Hanson and Diarra both presented highly personal monologues about injustices in their respective lives. In the second photo from left to right is Jackson, and collaborators Sonja Lee and Lorenzo Gilbert Gadson.)

PROVIDENCE, RI - Real talent and real emotions were demonstrated in Providence last Sunday, September 17. It was during “Mindz Speaking” a performance at the Providence Black Repertory Company presented by Breaking the Chains Community Theater, a program of the People’s School.

The mission of People’s School is “[t]o heal and educate families through culturally based artforms by connecting community, culture and commerce.” Breaking the Chains Community Theater is a component of it which “aims to validate the voices of the oppressed to build the confidence necessary for community advocacy and individual development.”

Sunday’s event was a mini-variety show; a series of performances as personal as they were artistic and as moving as they were original. One woman’s fearlessness in talking about childhood abuse matched a younger woman’s determined cry that she is the “it girl” despite not physically matching MTV or BET’s predetermined definition of one. One woman’s fine-tuned, soprano vocals at times paralleled the talents of a more known Faith Evans, while another woman’s deliberate and graceful dance moves would have made a choreographer like Debbie Allen proud.

This was the last event of the People’s School before founders, collaborators, and supporters like Deanna Brown, Ghislaine Jean, and Andrea Carvahlo take a break from programming to “re-focus, regroup, and bring stronger programming to our communities.” For more information on People’s School and how you can help, please contact Deanna Brown at ddotd@msn.com or 401-230-0060.

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer who is regularly published in several RI-area publications. Her articles can be seen at www.RezaRitesRi.com and she can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com.

by Reza Corinne Clifton

RezaRitesRi.com EXCLUSIVE

KINGSTON, RI - Chuck D from world famous rap group Public Enemy was in RI recently, stopping in to be part of URI’s Honor’s Colloquium.

As URI’s website describes, “[E]ach fall, the Honors Program sponsors a colloquium featuring special speakers and events. The lectures, art exhibits, concerts, films, and plays are open to the general public and provide the core for a parallel honors course. This colloquium features activist musicians who will discuss and perform their music, emphasizing the power of music to shape political and social experience.”

I attended last Tuesday, September 12, alongside students, artists, and (URI and general) community members like Kalyana Champlain, Frank Smith, Abu Bakr and Desiree Nash. It was an engaging several hours, spent soaking in the philosophies, opinions, anecdotes, and visions of the prolific artist and teacher.

I took no notes that night, save Chuck D’s definition of “rap”; he differentiates and culls it from “hip hop”, a term that in actuality describes the amalgamation of several art forms - visual (graffiti), dance (breakdancing), and musical (rapping, dj-ing). A couple days later, though, I went back and recorded what I remembered. Below I have shared his definition and my recollections. Am I missing something?

“Rap is a vocal on top of music. It is a vocal application that exists somewhere between talking and singing.”

Chuck D asserts that Hip Hop has grown into a global movement. The elements that came together to create hip hop came from Black youth in New York City, but it can be traced back to the daily experiences and musical innovations of Africans in New Orleans, Jamaica, Chicago, and elsewhere. He describes Hip Hop as the primary vehicle of Black culture since its inception in the late 1970’s early 1980’s, but clarifies that it is not the ONLY form or representation of Black culture.

It is now an art and social movement listened to AND created on an international scale. New, American players in the hip hop and rap game are competing against artists who speak 3 or more languages. In France last year, he conjectures, the riots and rioters that swept through a number of immigrant communities were likely inspired by the themes of resistance and social justice that run through hip hop culture.

Nevertheless, he is concerned about some of the imagery being projected by many contemporary rap artists. The exaltation of the thug and the romanticism of prisons…what’s really good about constantly being controlled, watched and confined exclusively with other men (or women), he asks the audience to consider.

Chuck D also told a story about a man who had been victimized by a mugging. The man reported it, but when the police presented the victim with a lineup that included the thief, the man refused to identify him – not wanting to be a “snitch.”

He told of experiences at different conferences and gatherings where artists and purveyors of hip hop praise its direction and development. On the contrary, Chuck D feels it is a false or misguided sense of accomplishment due to a palpable absence of women artists.

Chuck D further cites the fact - and even proves thanks to the response of an audience member - that when asking individuals to name a female hip hop group, few can name any after the 80’s and 90’s hit making, Salt-n-Pepa. He is incredulous about how people can see success in the face of the marginalization of half of society, but he is hopeful due to female artists he has been encountering lately.

For more information about Chuck D and Public enemy, visit www.publicenemy.com. For more about last year’s riots in France, go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4413964.stm.

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer whose articles can be seen in The Providence American Newspaper, Motif Magazine, The Warwick Daily Times, The Kent County Daily Times, and at www.RezaRitesRi.com. She can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com.

By Reza Corinne Clifton

(This article appeared in the September 15, 2006 edition of Kent County Daily Times and Warwick Daily Times)

(**Artwork by Michael Montanaro, artist and co-owner of Montanaro Gallery)

NEWPORT, RI-When I mention that “THE BIGGEST SURF ART show that has ever been featured in New England,” is happening here in RI, I find more often than not that I am met with a quizzical look and the muttering of a disbelief-dipped ‘really?’ But if you’ve met Michael and Elizabeth Montanaro, been to their gallery, or visited their website, that disbelief would easily start to dissipate.

The Montanaros “are Newport residents who have been active artists in the New England area and abroad” who opened Montanaro Gallery at 518 Thames Street in Newport this past March. Both graduated from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, where they were able to study their respective interests in art–including history, paintings, and photography–while Michael additionally studied at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy and at his Connecticut hometown’s Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

Though Michael recalls being involved creatively and persistently at art at an early age, he developed an avid interest in snowboarding as well. As a matter of fact, he was a professional snowboarder throughout his educational career, while his surfing and skateboarding hobbies have been documented in national and international trade magazines.

In fact, the Montanaros interests outside of the visual arts have opened many doors, evident in the diverse work each reproduces and in their repertoire of curious artists, buyers, and friends. Take how I first met the Montanaros: at a reggae festival two or three years ago in Charlestown, RI when my partner and I were walking to our cars at the same time as Michael and Elizabeth. After a friendly conversation, presumably about reggae music and different places to hear it, we parted ways; not before I was handed a stack of custom-designed stickers with prints that, unbeknownst to me at the time, were becoming trademarks of Michael’s.

It was only fitting to this first introduction, then, that five months after opening the gallery, my motivation to finally go was an exhibit entitled “Musical Sessions.” They even featured some of Michael’s sketches of famous reggae artists like Lee Scratch Perry! Other works in the August to early September exhibit were the colorfully kinetic paintings depicting jazz performances by Kansas City artist Harold Smith; action photographs of sweaty, energetic musicians by Andrew Kraus; and aesthetically flawless, hand-crafted, player-ready guitars by Connecticut’s Roger Wakeman. Other works, by each of the Montanaros and other artists and not exclusively fitting the musical theme, lined the walls floors, shelves, windows, and ceilings.

(**Artwork by Michael Montanaro)

Yet one’s eye could not move from one work to another for too long without being pleasantly caught by a print, painting, sketch or other work of art depicting or referencing the ocean or its mighty waves–many created by Michael.

The work of Michael–and Elizabeth–may speak to the music of their hearts and minds, but unquestionably they have found and wooed a market of New England’s surfer communities including Newport and Narragansett here in RI. But as the committed, talented and curious artists I saw reflected in their work, and as the open-minded, music-loving people I remembered them to be, I sought to find out a little more about this extraordinary couple and their current venture. Here are some of the facts as brandished by Michael in an emailed reply to some questions.

Michael, Michael and Elizabeth
I grew up on the shores of Connecticut in a town known for its art history. The town is called Old Lyme. I experimented and had a lot of interest in creating art from an early age. I used to draw dinosaurs and aliens and star wars characters, etc… I stayed with it all through college and traveled a lot. I decided to really try to make a living at it after studying in Florence, Italy. I had a show and sold some works and it felt good. It made me appreciate and want to get better at creating.

I met Elizabeth in my final year of college at St. Michael’s. The day I met her I was having my senior seminar art show at McCarthy Arts Center and [I] invited her and her roommates. She came and enjoyed the works. I later invited her on a date to a play in which I had painted a 40 foot backdrop. We had many similar interests. After that we began painting together in my barn/studio out in Charlotte, VT. That was close to seven years ago.

We both have been involved in numerous group shows which have shown and traveled through New York to California. I also have had solo exhibitions in Vermont, Connecticut, R.I, and New Jersey. My largest customer base has been through the internet [;] I have spread my prints and originals all across the country and abroad through E-bay and through my websites.

Waves, Music, and other Themes
I started depicting water scenes into my works after I began surfing and experiencing the unique feelings, thoughts, and visions involved with it. Surfing is a big part of my life. Incorporating surfing and the ocean into my works feels natural. I can travel to an imaginary surf destination through a painting, woodblock, or sketch. I can also tweak colors around and experiment with paints while using surf or waves as a starting point. Like when you drop into a wave you sort of draw your line as it comes to you, you can’t pre-plan what you are going to do. Art is similar in that each action causes a reaction. Put some color here and balance it with color over there…

I usually come up with themes based on what is in my studio or which direction my art is going in. I will decide on a theme when Elizabeth wants to show certain groups of works we’ve created. If we have many abstract works, we’ll do an abstract show and select other abstract artists, like David [Pereira, working at the gallery the day I visited]. I will often select a theme and then have a few months to produce my body of work for that show, such as for this ‘Musical Sessions’ show. I like it because it feels like a homework assignment which you can later get paid for. Lots of works by many artists have been created for Montanaro Gallery since we opened based on themes. I also have fun with titles for shows as our first show was called ‘This is a Takeover’ which is a line from the reggae movie, Rockers. ‘Same as it ever Was’ (Talking Heads song) was the title of an art auction benefiting Norman Bird Sanctuary

(**Artwork by Michael Montanaro)

Opening a Gallery…in Newport
It was my idea to start the Montanaro Gallery as a place to showcase both my works and my talented friends’. There are many galleries in Newport already, but none that I felt can represent me and the directions we are all going in. I started it after seeing or deciding that there is so much great art out there and Newport wasn’t showing the cutting edge genres and newest contemporary styles. Plus now when I create new works I can display them the next day and contact my clients who might be interested. I can also bypass all the slide sending and prep work involved with getting other galleries to show my works. In fact since opening Montanaro Gallery there have been many galleries contacting me about my work, my wife’s, and the other artists we represent [like artist Pereira, whose work is currently being displayed in a Newport bank, post-Montanaro].

We have shown artists from South Africa, Hawaii, California, Costa Rica, entire East Coast of US, including many from New York, and will be showcasing Asian artists for the 2007 ‘Zen Art’ show.

We hope people can enter our gallery and not feel pressured to buy something. It’s frustrating going to NY galleries and having the people behind the desk size you up and say nothing when they determine you’re not a buyer. Our business plan was written based on how our gallery will differ from others for reasons such as that. We try to educate customers with artist bios and history if they’re interested, answer questions and take time to know them.

About the ‘Surf Art Extravaganza’
‘Surf Art Extravaganza’ opens on September 9th [with a reception from] 7-10pm and [it will] feature 20 leading artists whose works are all inspired by ’surfing’. Surf Art is a quickly growing genre much as surfing the sport is one of the quickest growing pastimes. We are featuring many known as well as up and coming talents. We’ve selected unique styles which we feel work well together and offer an array of what is out there. The artist list is groundbreaking, we feel, and includes some heavyweights in the surfing world including Surfer Magazine’s founding father, John Severson. This show is timed to coexist with East Coasts Hurricane Season and is the largest ‘Surf Art’ exhibition to ever hit New England. Plus we have an after hours party planned at a local pub which includes bands, raffles, drink specials, all the artists, etc.

Luke Lundren’s 8 x 7 foot photo-realist oil painting of a goofy-footer getting barreled at Pipeline will be a highlight for this show. His custom framers even built a storage vault for its’ delivery and safekeeping. Also, the painted re-fillable beer kegs will be a crowd pleaser as all keg purchases come with a complimentary refill !!! We host really fun events!

For more information about the exhibit, Montanaro Gallery, or the Saturday September 9 Surf Art opening reception, visit www.montanarogallery.com. To read the full interview with Michael Montanaro, or to read notes and observations from a conversation with Montanaro Gallery featured painter, Dave Pereira, visit www.RezaRitesRi.com.

**All images copyright of Montanaro Gallery, 2006 **

Reza Corinne Clifton is a community organizer for high school reform at RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education. She is also a freelance writer whose articles can be seen in The Kent County Daily Times, The Warwick Daily Times, The Providence American Newspaper, Motif Magazine, and at www.RezaRitesRi.com. She can be reached by emailing rezaclif@aol.com.

by Reza Corinne Clifton

RezaRitesRi EXCLUSIVE

(**Artwork by Michael Montanaro. The painted keg was part of an event held this past May in which Montanaro Gallery paired up with Newport Storm Beer. Gallery artists painted twenty kegs. )

(RCC) Where are you from or where did you grow up? When did you start experimenting with art, or when did it become clear that it was beyond experimenting?

(MM)I grew up on the shores of Connecticut in a town known for its art history. The town is called Old Lyme. I experimented and had a lot of interest in creating art from an early age. I used to draw dinosaurs and aliens and star wars characters, etc… I stayed with it all through college and traveled a lot. I decided to really try to make a living at it after studying in Italy. Florence. I had a show and sold some works and it felt good. It made me appreciate and want to get better at creating.

(RCC)Has art always been tied to water for you?

(MM)I started depicting water scenes into my works after I began surfing and experiencing the unique feelings, thoughts, and visions involved with it. Surfing is a big part of my life. Incorporating surfing and the ocean into my works feels natural. I can travel to an imaginary surf destination through a painting, woodblock, or sketch. I can also tweak colors around and experiment with paints while using surf or waves as a starting point. Like when you drop into a wave you sort of draw your line as it comes to you, you can’t pre-plan what you are going to do. Art is similar in that each action causes a reaction. Put some color here and balance it with color over there…

(RCC) How did you meet your wife? Did you envision having a gallery before your met her or was that a dream borne of your marriage?

(MM) I met Elizabeth in my final year of college at St. Michael’s. The day I met her I was having my senior seminar art show at McCarthy Arts Center and invited her and her roommates. She came and enjoyed the works. I later invited her on a date to a play in which I had painted a 40′ backdrop. We had many similar interests. After that we began painting together in my barn/studio out in Charlotte, VT. That was close to seven years ago. It was my goal to open a gallery. She is a free-lance graphic designer so she was all for it. She can work on her projects now at the gallery.

(RCC) Why did you open the gallery?

(MM) It was my idea to start the Montanaro Gallery as a place to showcase both my works and my talented friends’. There are many galleries in Newport already, but none that I felt can represent me and the directions we are all going in. I started it after seeing or deciding that there is so much great art out there and Newport wasn’t showing the cutting edge genres and newest contemporary styles. Plus now when I create new works I can display them the next day and contact my clients who might be interested. I can also bypass all the slide sending and prep work involved with getting other galleries to show my works. In fact since opening Montanaro Gallery there have been many galleries contacting me about my work, my wife’s, and the other artists we represent. My newest project which I just finished was creating the artwork for 5 Burton Snowboards. The line is called ‘Malolo’ series, which is Hawaiian for fish. Just goes to show that to every action there is a reaction.

(RCC) Where had you (and your wife’s) work been displayed prior to the gallery opening?

(MM) We both have been involved in numerous group shows which have shown and traveled through New York to California. I also have had solo exhibitions in Vermont, Connecticut, R.I, and New Jersey. My largest customer base has been through the internet. I have spread my prints and originals all across the country and abroad through E-bay and through my websites.

(RCC) I heard about how Dave met and introduced his art to you guys. How do you find other artists for the gallery’s exhibits? And how are exhibit themes chosen?

(MM) Most of the artists we show we have either exhibited with or are familiar with. We try to select artists with exhibition histories as well because we want to help advance serious artists careers. We will showcase new artists as well as we take pride in making artist discoveries and showing their phenomenal works for the very first time. We also feature many artists works exclusively, meaning that you can not find their works anywhere else in the world, which is exciting! We receive many emails and walk-ins with artists who hope to show in our space. Many are very talented and we will make arrangements to get them involved. It is often much later as we plan our exhibitions six months in advance. The best way to submit work is through emails. We can view works online and archive artists portfolios for future reference. Being an art collector myself I have contacted many of the established artists I respect and collect and have grateful to work with them in being a part of our shows.

As for themes, I usually come up with them based on what is in my studio or which direction my art is going in.I will decide on a theme when Elizabeth want to show certain groups of works we’ve created. If we have many abstract works, we’ll do an abstract show and select other abstract artists, like David. I will often select a theme and then have a few months to produce my body of work for that show, such as for this ‘Musical Sessions’ show. I like it because it feels like a homework assignment which you can later get paid for. Lots of works by many artists have been created for Montanaro Gallery since we opened based on themes. I also have fun with titles for shows as our first show was called ‘This is a Takeover’ which is a line from the reggae movie, Rockers. ‘Same as it ever Was’ (Talking Heads song) was the title of an art auction benefiting Norman Bird Sanctuary

(RCC) Where have some of the artists been from, or where else have some of the artists been displayed? Do you put any intentionality around displaying local artists/talent?

(MM) We have shown artists from South Africa, Hawaii, California, Costa Rica, entire East Coast of US, including many from New York, and will be showcasing Asian artists for the 2007 ‘Zen Art’ show.

(RCC) What is your take on the accessibility of the art scene to artists AND to observers in Newport and in RI in general? And what makes your gallery, or you and Elizabeth as gallery owners, different from others?

(MM)We hope people can enter our gallery and not feel pressured to buy something. It’s frustrating going to NY galleries and having the people behind the desk size you up and say nothing when they determine you’re not a buyer. Our business plan was written based on how our gallery will differ from others for reasons such as that. We try to educate customers with artist bios and history if they’re interested, answer questions and take time to know them. We even pour wine and get into interesting discussions with people who just came in for the first time. Many have since become great friends and/or repeat customers based on our friendliness and customer service.

(RCC) What should I and others know about the September 9 reception?
(MM) ‘Surf Art Extravaganza’ opens on September 9th, 2006 7-10pm and features 20 leading artists whose works are all inspired by ’surfing’. Surf Art is a quickly growing genre much as surfing the sport is one of the quickest growing pastimes. We are featuring many known as well as up and coming talents. We’ve selecting unique styles which we feel work well together and offer an array of what is out there. The artist list is groundbreaking, we feel, and includes some heavyweights in the surfing world including Surfer Magazine’s founding father, John Severson. This show is timed to coexist with East Coasts Hurricane Season and is the largest ‘Surf Art’ exhibition to ever hit New England. Surely not one to miss. Plus we have an after hours party planned at a local pub which includes bands, raffles, drink specials, all the artists, etc… We host really fun events!

(RCC) What might shock someone who has been coming to your events?

(MM) I’d have to say Luke Lundren’s 8 x 7 foot photo-realist oil painting of a goofy-footer getting barreled at Pipeline will be a highlight for this show. His custom framers even built a storage vault for its’ delivery and safekeeping. Also, the painted re-fillable beer kegs will be a crowd pleaser as all keg purchases come with a complimentary refill!!!

**All images copyright of Montanaro Gallery, 2006 **

by Reza Corinne Clifton

RezaRitesRI EXCLUSIVE

(My visit to Montanaro Gallery and conversation with Dave Pereira happened at the end of the month-long exhibit, on Saturday, August 26)

(**Artwork by Dave Pereira)

[Dave Pereira talking about Harold Smith’s work. It was very soon after Corey and I arrived]:
The colors just flow. Even though the painting is saturated with so much color it still flows.

One thing about Mike is that he does functional art. For example he had folks paint reusable kegs, and they were beautifully done by a few different artists. I might buy mine back.

One of the artists currently being featured by Mike is Roger Wakeman, who hand-crafts impeccable, good-looking functional guitars.

George Vranesh - an older artist (in his 80’s) whose been putting great work out for decades - now has his work being safeguarded and sold by Mike and Elizabeth.

They also sell their own work and the artists’ work. As an artist you either show them your work or they seek you out. In exchange for them selling your work, they receive a percentage. It benefits both the artist and Mike and Beth. Most artists aren’t sellers. Most artists can’t sell, and most artists don’t own their own store-front gallery.

Mike (and Liz) do the clothing themselves too. Even that is cool. Once he does, I don’t know the number but let’s say 40 of that logo on red, he’ll stop making them. That makes the shirt pretty unique; like a limited printing.

Mike is one of the most prolific artists. He’s here in the gallery; so is Beth. It’s only those two…and I guess me. I’m not here often, though. Beth is probably here most; Mike has a side business detailing boats.

***

[Pereira lived on the East Side (of Providence) temporarily. He now lives in the South Shore of Boston in Weymouth, his hometown. He is currently studying to take his firefighter’s exam. His exhibit/display at Montanaro was his first at an independent gallery. Before that he had been in larger artistic shows, like the Boston Printmakers Show and at UMASS Boston’s Harbor Gallery. Pereira earned his BFA there.]

***

(Pereira, standing in Montanaro gallery in front of several **paintings done by Michael Montanaro.)

I’ve been doing art for all my life. My younger brother is an artist too. He does screen painting for highly regarded artists and performers in New York City.

After the marines and some work experience, I went to school for the arts: printmaking, photographing, painting. I truly enjoy all these things; I don’t like to pigeon-hole myself. As an artist, I’m always an artist.

All of the paintings I had displayed here are now in the (big) Bank of America in Newport.

***

[How he met became associated with Montanaro Gallery]
I have friends who live in Newport and we were all at another friend’s surprise 30th birthday party. I had mentioned that I was “refocusing on art” and he said, my “friend Mike Montanaro just opened a gallery on Thames Street…”

I looked him up on the web, then called. I hadn’t heard back from him before I decided to just drive down to the gallery, and Beth was sitting here [at the desk where Pereira sat as we spoke] at the desk. I brought some prints, 3 by 3’s. I showed her the prints, and explained that I’m a painter as well. After she saw what was on paper, she said, ‘Mike is looking for an artist who does similar work to this to for a show in two weeks. If you email Mike pictures of the paintings, I’ll tell him about you and direct him to check the email from you right away. Then Mike saw the work and wanted it for his show.

[It was an exhibit of abstract works in May. He does still have a few works in the gallery, but most are at a Newport branch of Bank of America. What he shows me at the gallery on Saturday are some monoprints. I was not necessarily familiar with the technique. ‘For one, it took four different plates to achieve, and it can never be reprinted…at least not exactly.’ He also shows me a piece that took 3 plates. This style/technique is called Intaglio.]

It was very serendipitous. Had I not driven down and walked in, I wouldn’t have been in the show, and my work wouldn’t be hanging in Bank of America.

My paintings are like George Vranesh’s, or, well, akin to George Vranesh’s style, who Mike had really wanted in the show. That fell through, though, and I think that Mike thought I can’t have George, but I’ve got to have Dave.

Mike hadn’t even seen all my work, and some of my paintings came down the DAY of the hanging of the show. It was kind of like, ‘I want this one, not this one…’

But Mike and Elizabeth and me and my wife, we’re really good friends now. When I met Beth that day, [it was after] I had just moved from living in Burlington [Vermont], and Beth grew up one town over in Vermont. [Both Michael and Elizabeth graduated from St. Michael’s College in Vermont]. And my girlfriend’s from Vermont too, so immediately there was a good rapport. Even now, we’ll get together with them and just all paint and do art together. (Your wife is an artist too?!? Well no, but it’s fine and she’s comfortable.)

***
[Pereira and I spoke a little while longer, talking about different subjects. He showed me different corners and sections of the gallery where I might not have looked - like the bathroom where there are a number of different pieces; introduced me to the history and works of different artists - like George Vranesh; and even educated me on different techniques, like gicle - where a photograph is printed on canvass.]

[Artists whose work struck me that day were:
o Harold Smith, colorful, abstract jazz paintings.
o Andrew Kraus, photographs of live jazz performances.
o Mike Montanaro’s : 1) colorful instrumental series; 2) Sketches of different reggae artists, like Lee Scratch Perry, and other rastas.
o Josh De Hart had a painting displayed entitled Flowers. It looks like colorful trees that surround a path to the ocean or a body of water.
o Andrea Anderson displayed some paintings of what looks like Rastafarian musicians and one of a Djembe drum.]

**All images copyright of Montanaro Gallery, 2006 **