There’s a lot coming up at the WKU Art Department but this one is this week so I’ll just get it out there real quick like. I won’t be able to make it but I highly encourage all to attend. Elissa Cox is coming for a double-whammy visit. First she’ll be the focus of an informal (open to students and others) Q&A during the Studio-Portfolio class. This should go from 3:30 to 4:30 in room 454 of the Fine Arts Center. Afterwards, from 5 – 6pm she’ll be providing an open lecture in room 156. All are welcome to it as well.

Regardless if you’re going to be there, be sure to visit Elissa’s website.

This is a gratuitous “arts and culture” post and horn tooting, your weekend chance to grab a cup of coffee or a Goose Island and do some art and music browsing.

I really should actually be getting ready for this show instead of writing about it, but hey, it’ll only take a few minutes, right? For those of you who live anywhere near Louisville, you owe it to yourself to go checkout the Unusual Animals exhibit at the 930 Art Center including two drawing by Yours Truly. I had the pleasure seeing the current exhibit when I took my own submission a few weeks ago. Very nice place. What made me respond to the call for entries was not just for the chance to respond to a cool theme, but also the fun knowing that the folks from Asthmatic Kitty were part of it, and, in fact, were part of the judging.

What I hadn’t realized is that Unusual Animals is also an ongoing project of Asthmatic Kitty compilations and events, the most recent of which is, you guessed it, in Louisville. Asthmatic Kitty is a Landers, Wyoming (I had to look, too) based label, but if I recall has strong roots around the country. They’re the home of some of my longtime favorite artists like Danielson (by way of Sounds Familyre and Tooth & Nail back in the day) Half-Handed Cloud, Liz Janes and Sufjan Stevens.

My sister and I freaked out over Danielson’s A Prayer for Every Hour way back when we must have been subconsciously craving sounds like that. That album became for me the standard with which I’d compare many musical first impressions for a number of years, and may actually still be something like an artistic reference point. Visually, as well. I can guarantee you that much of Daniel Smith’s artwork (he has often, if not always, done his own album art) has influenced my own.

So it is no surprise that I’m proud to be putting my two cents in on this exhibit. Go check it out. The show opens April 4th. There is more information at the 930 Art Center website.

Alan Lomax was “the song hunter.” He devoted his life to recording the world’s folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry. In “Lomax the Songhunter,” filmmaker Rogier Kappers seeks to tell Lomax’s story by interviewing friends such as Pete Seeger, combining it with archival recordings of music greats Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, and gathering footage of the cotton fields, rock quarries and prisons where Alan Lomax captured America’s quintessential music. Finally, Kappers followed the route that Lomax took so many years ago and traveled around Europe in an old Volkswagen to remote villages in Spain and Italy, hearing memories and music from the farmers, shepherds and weavers whose songs Lomax recorded decades earlier.

Kings of New England playing a show in a local garage

Twas a big night for BSB clients and friends at last night’s 11th Annual NAMAs (Northwest Arkansas Music Awards). The Kings of New England walked away with a Best Album of the Year and Best “Plugged” Album. Which all goes to show that if you break up, your chances of winning awards increase greatly.

Wooden Stares also gave a great performance at the show, didn’t win anything, unfortunately. They have not broken up yet and are actually going quite strong.

Moreover, Kelly Mulhollan was up for Best Male Singer/Songwriter and his amazing Never Ending Conversation was nominated for best “unplugged” album. He was denied both awards, indicating an overall decline in justice in the world.

Block, Street & Building had the extreme pleasure of creating the album art for all three of these great acts. And for that we’d like to thank God for pulling us through the hard times, our parents who never gave up on us and encouraged us to follow our dreams, even during hard times. To our Apple computers for remaining faithful even when we asked more than we should of them during hard times. To our friends who have always been there for us in hard times. Firewire for being so fast in hard times. Our vision for remaining something resembling 20/20 even in the hard times. And lastly rock and roll like Tel Aviv, old-timey music like Violet Hensley and underground hip-hop labels like Bru Records. And our producers. The NAMA limo driver. And fondue.

As soon as they become available, I plan on posting some of the photographs that were taken at the show. Twas a great evening.

Art Amiss was started a few years ago as a one-night-only event to showcase the scads of little-known Arkansas painters, writers, fashion designers, photographers, and musicians. The event quickly blossomed into an annual gathering and then into a website, which now promulgates 131 artists and 643 pieces of art, then a bi-annual show. Thus far, each event – four shows and two benefits – has been hosted at the Dickson Street Theater in Fayetteville (excluding the benefit shows which have been held at both JR’s Lightbulb Club and Teatro Scarpino,) which seems to be an ideal location for such a space-sensitive event.

There are many places across Arkansas to get your work in front of people and more than a handful of them are in Fayetteville. The significant bonus of showing your work at Art Amiss is their devotion to betraying those who have not had work shown in those places or have not been published to any significant degree elsewhere. The benefit of this being that one who attends the show is guaranteed fresh, original work, most often for sale. I have picked up on a “first dibs” friendly competition at times when one certain piece is particularly favored.

Every event so far has also featured several Arkansas bands and performers and each show is genre specific. Art Amiss 4 featured Little Rock’s 607 and Conduit Family and Big Jake with Lucio and Rasmey of Fayetteville. Art Amiss 3 was an all instrumental show. And so on. And then there are the chapbooks and compilation cd’s.

The next Art Amiss, I believe, is scheduled for sometime this next fall and may or may not be a two night event this time. For more information about Art Amiss check out their website at ArtAmiss.org.

Or you may email the folks at Art Amiss if you wish to ask a question or talk about all things concerning art in Arkansas.[tag]art, art amiss, arkansas, music, gallery, painting, sculpture, photography, Fayetteville, Little Rock, hip-hop[/tag]