Recent Exhibitions at UNI

 "Troika in Cuba: Soul Deep" with photographer/author Julio Larramendi and artist Karen Graffeo.

"Mary Turner and the Lynching Rampage of 1918," graphic novel drawings by Rachel Williams.

Performers from the fall 2016 "Vertigo A-GoGo: A Night of Performance Art."

Election results... Phan sings Ives

Brilliant tenor Nicholas Phan sums up the 2016 presidential election results: grecchinois.blogspot.com.

Singing Charles Ives' setting of Robert Underwood Johnson's poem The Housatonic at Stockbridge, he says "The river of progress is, like the Housatonic of Johnson's poem, sometimes 'overshy' and sometimes 'masks its beauty from the eager eye'. But I do believe it will continue to carry us ever onward, and that this week's shocking result is just a 'restive ripple' which encourages a 'faster drift'".

Here him sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVrhuDcSAYU.

Looking at The Nobleman

(Image by Dr. Charles M. Adelman)

The charming Dr. Joanna Woodall of London's Courtauld Institute of Art schools us on 16-17th century portraiture via our one and only Renaissance painting from the UNI Permanent Art Collection. A lovely evening was had by all. Thank you Dr. Woodall, and thank you Dr. Sutton for arranging her visit to UNI!

Medieval Chant at UNI Gallery of Art

Dr. Alstatt's Lecture

Hear Cantorei perform: https://twitter.com/jdschraff/status/776570733405233152

Musicologist Dr. Alison Alstatt presented a lecture titled "Strangers in a Strange Land: Spanish Chant Manuscript Leaves in the UNI Permanent Art Collection." In addition, medieval chants from the manuscript leaves were performed by UNI's premiere vocal ensemble Cantorei. Magnificent!

Late Summer Festivals

 Me and Mark (Ace) at Cedar Valley Pride 2016

  Target: Cedar Valley Pride 2016

  Cedar Valley Pride 2016

  Cedar Valley Pride 2016

 North End Arts & Music Festival 2016

North End Arts & Music Festival 2016

Bob & Bev McCucker: 60th Anniversary

Wedding photo 1956.

Bob and Bev.

Sibs: Tom McCusker, Mark McCusker (Ace).

Sibs: Tom McCusker, Anne McCusker.

Mark and me - enormous beards.

Irish Fest 2016

Waterloo, Iowa

 Me and Mark (Ace).

Bev, you know who, Kris.

Lilies in High Bloom

A random selection of Phil Fass's latest blossoms.

 Phil leads master gardeners through one of his fields of hybridized lilies and their parents.

 Phil Fass

A lily I plan to purchase from him, "Shattered Glass," and a beautiful pollen/stigma/stamen chart he made.

Lilies on Adams Street, 2016.

"Orphée et Eurydice" in Des Moines

Stunning, chilling choreography and powerful choral precision. Orphée et Eurydice at Des Moines Metro Opera is gorgeously produced and lovingly sung by its principals. The Apprentice Artist program boasts some pretty impressive folks as well (see below).

July 3 posting on Barihunks.

David, Darrell, Dubuque

At the Dubuque Museum of Art with my friend David Schmitz (late June 2016).

Other Memories of Cincinnati

 The Genius of Water (or the Tyler Davidson) Fountain in Fountain Square, downtown Cincinnati.

An Arab Guard by Mariano Fortuny i Marsal (Spanish), oil on canvas, 1863. Luscious brushstrokes! A painting at the Taft Museum mansion.

A Patmore pasty in the Taft Museum restaurant garden.

Queer pride in Ohio.

"Passage," Do Ho Suh in Cincinnati

Just a handful of images from the brilliant Do Ho Suh survey titled "Passage" on view at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati until Sept. 11, 2016. There was so much to see. Much of it has to be experienced personally, so images don't really do the artworks justice. There were sculptures, of course, but also videos and drawings and prints and models. CAC has printed a beautiful brochure; in addition, John Stoughton has published a revealing critique titled Do Ho Suh's Ethereal Art at the Cincinnati CAC.

Christian Schmit in Cincinnati

Images from a fascinating exhibition I saw in Cincinnati last week, "Christian Schmit: Lost in the Making." It was on view at the Cincinnati Art Association's Weston Art Gallery. Beautiful, intricate, whimsical work!

Lost in the Making

"Fellow Travelers" Cincinnati

 At the Aronoff Center for the Arts looking toward Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati's Nam June Paik sculpture "Metrobot." Such wonderful collisions/meldings of culture here: a new opera about a same-sex couple during the lavendar scare; A Korean American artist's work displaying the gay flag; and all in the state that gave us John Arthur and Jim Obergefell. Exciting times!

A selfie with the poster for "Fellow Travelers," a beautiful new opera by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce and directed by Kevin Newbury. The cast is splendid, the music is rich, and the story is devastating.