Recognize who you are and Go with the Flow

I adore vintage leaded and stained glass windows. My latest painting was inspired by them. Additional ideas came from a fabric design incorporating yellow and blue. These are Swedish colors from my mother’s heritage and cemented my vision. I’m currently working on the composition and will share it with you in my next blog.

This week, the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4 was commemorated. Because of this, my featured artist is Kevin Cole, a recognized African American abstractionist who uses symbolism and color to convey his message.

Imagine using all of your anger and your pain to create something meaningful and beautiful. Using the bright colors of Africa and the symbolic representation of a noose in the form of a man’s necktie, Cole expresses the anguish he felt when he stood beneath a large tree where slaves were once hanged in great numbers when they tried to exercise their newfound right to vote. Dressed to honor the occasion, the ties they wore were used to hang them.

In many of Cole’s works, the symbolism deepens in what Kevin calls “mapping.” Slave families were split apart and sent to other plantations. Cole maps their travels in three-D shapes and symbols using the same colorful ties, tools and weapons they were beaten with if they tried to escape.

Some of Kevin's stories end up as paintings done in broad swathes of emotion and detail. Cole’s work sizzles. According to The Artist’s Magazine where Cole was featured in the September 2013 issue, “Cole’s work has a musicality born from the background of popular music, jazz, and blues that keeps Cole moving around his studio.”

Cole credits his rise and success to a former “high school teacher (Terrance Corbin) who spotted his nascent talent, and many others who encouraged him along the way, first in college and then in graduate school in Illinois.

“Art professor and mixed media artist Kevin E. Cole was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on January 19, 1960 to Jessie and Sam Cole, Jr. He received his B.S. degree in art education from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1982; his M.A. degree in art education a year later, and his M.F.A degree in drawing from Northern Illinois University in 1984.

“Cole began his art career as an art teacher at Camp Creek Middle School in College Park, Georgia in 1985. At the same time, he also became an adjunct professor at Georgia State University’s School of Art and Design where he remained until 1998. In 1990, Cole was chairperson of the visual and performing arts magnet program of Tri-Cities High School in East Point, Georgia until 1994. Later, in 2003, he became the chairman of the Fine Arts Department at Westlake High School where he created the school's first arts program.

“Cole’s artwork is well known for including imagery of neckties as symbols of power and emphasizes the relationship between color and music, particularly jazz, blues, hip-hop, and gospel. He incorporates patterns and textures from traditional African cloths to speak to human conditions and behaviors.

“In 1994, Cole was commissioned by the Coca-Cola Company to create a fifteen story mural celebrating the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The mural took two years to create and was a little over 800 square feet. He has been featured in Who’s Who in Education and received the Award of Excellence for Public Art by the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.”  http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/kevin-cole-41 

Below Cole tells his own story and shares the inspiration for his collective works:

Kevin Cole’s personal online web portal follows if you would like to see and hear more: http://artistkcole.com 

Puppetry is Living Artistry that Moves and Breathes Under the Master’s Touch

Long before Jim Henson came on the scene with his Muppets, I was putting on puppet shows for my parents. I used a box for a stage with fold down curtains so there was an “opening curtain” and the “closing finale.” A flashlight served as my stage light.

My colorful characters were drawn and colored on paper and then glued onto Popsicle sticks. I could remain hidden below the stage and pop-up my characters for their lines, which I spoke by distorting my voice when needed.

My indulgent parents listened to my made up stories and the retelling of fairy tales and applauded enthusiastically at the end. Years later, when my own daughter asked for a puppet theater, I was delighted. Ironically, today we’re both artists; she the graduate and me a self-taught tutored student learning by the seat of my pants.

Little did I know then that the things I did as a child foreshadowed my interest in the arts and my creative bent for writing script and creating character? Painting came later out of necessity and my abundant passion and imagination.

Today I am honoring the magnificent puppet master, the late Jim Henson, for the joy he brought to so many during his lifetime and his continued legacy. His career spanned several generations and his joy in creating unique and humorous characters made us all laugh.

JIM HENSON
 A Biography

Jim Henson— a television pioneer, an innovator in puppetry, technology and visual arts, and a performer—literally brought to life some of the most memorable characters ever—including the world’s most famous frog, Kermit. Henson’s impact on entertainment, education and culture continues to this day.

Born September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi, Henson spent his early years in Leland, Miss. Throughout his youth, Jim had an interest in art and, later, television. When he was in the fifth grade, the Henson family moved to Maryland. There he, often with his older brother Paul, experimented with a variety of artistic techniques—experiments which eventually led Henson to the very latest visual media, television.

In 1954, while still in high school, Henson began his television career performing puppets on a local Washington, DC Saturday morning program on WTOP-TV. The following year, as a freshman at the University of Maryland, he was given his own twice-daily, five-minute show, Sam and Friends, on the local NBC affiliate, WRC-TV. Henson along with his assistant, fellow University of Maryland student and future wife, Jane Nebel, introduced many Muppet mainstays—music, humor and innovative technical tricks (such as eliminating the puppet stage and using the television itself as the proscenium).

Perhaps most memorably, the show featured an early version of Kermit the Frog. The success of Sam and Friends led to guest appearances on such national network programs as The Steve Allen Show, The Jack Paar Show and The Today Show. Henson also began making hundreds of humorous commercials for sponsors throughout the country.

Having established a group of talented collaborators, he continued to pursue his career in puppetry and film making. Between 1964 and 1969, Jim produced several experimental films including the award-winning Time Piece, Youth ‘68, and The Cube. In 1969, Henson unveiled a family of characters to populate Sesame Street, the groundbreaking children’s show made for public television. These characters—Ernie and Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster and Big Bird among them—continue to entertain and educate today.

Sesame Street demonstrated the Muppets’ undeniable appeal to children, but Henson strongly believed these characters could entertain a much wider family audience. After years of trying to sell the idea for The Muppet Show in the U.S., Henson finally received backing from a London-based television producer, Lord Lew Grade. In 1975 production began, and in 1976 the world was introduced to a new family of unforgettable characters, such as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, The Great Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat, among others.

Hosted by Kermit the Frog, and accompanied by the musical meanderings of Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band, the Muppets were joined each week by an international pantheon of guest stars, from Gene Kelly and Rudolph Nureyev to Steve Martin and John Cleese. The success of The Muppet Show led to Hollywood, where the Muppets starred in six feature films: The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets From Space.

During the 1980s, in addition to making Muppet movies, Henson brought two remarkably original fantasy films to the big screen, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. These films challenged Henson to create new kinds of three-dimensional characters with advanced movement abilities. The multi-talented staff that helped create these two films formed the basis for what is now known as Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, and it continues to set industry standards in animatronics, performance and performance technology. His accomplishments don’t end there, but my words must.

On May 16, 1990, after a brief illness, Jim Henson died in New York City. With his keen ability for drawing together a strong team of performers, artists, and collaborators who shared his vision and creativity, Henson ensured that his work and unique creative vision would continue. Through The Jim Henson Company, his work continues to captivate and entertain a global audience.

My teenage sons idolized Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Here is the Muppet’s version. Fantastic!