John Simon, known for having produced records for The Band. Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, and others, is a songwriter whose music has been described as “witty, charming, wonderful, intelligent, unique, original, fresh, funny, and eccentric.” C. C. Loveheart was raised in Las Vegas, and her career has led her to acting for stage, screen and television. She is a long-time member of the Actors’ Studio, a torch-song singer, and an award-winning playwright. As the second act in this new series, the husband-wife duo will serve up a louche yet sophisticated program on Sunday, March 7 at 8 pm.

“We did our show in many cabaret venues in New York City, in Hollywood, in lots of places for lots of years. Then, life circumstances had us put it away for awhile,” says Loveheart. “So the second use of the word ‘again’ refers to the fact that we’ve dusted some of the old act off, written some new material and are pleased as punch to be performing it again.”

“A lot of what we do is about discovery, opening doors, finding new creative experiences,” said Eric Holowacz, executive director of TSKW.  “John and C.C. have been producing and making music for decades and they have also been frequent visitors to Key West.  As performers in our new Cabaret Series, the audience will get a chance to meet them and get to know them…for the first time…again!”

Tickets for Loveheart and Simon’s show are $15 and are available at www.keystix.ticketforce.com or at The Studios of Key West, 600 White St.  Call (305) 296-0458 or visit www.tskw.org for more information.

Rodgers, whose work is included in many private collections and who has had one woman exhibitions at New York’s Sculpture Center, Key West’s Lucky Street Gallery, and a handful of other Northeast galleries, spent a great deal of time planning this latest work.

“It took me quite awhile to come up with the right concept for the site,” says Rodgers, who conducted many ‘thinking visits’ to the Armory and environs in late 2009. “I got to see what an active and vital place it has become…artists at work, vistiing exhibitions, children learning about art, lectures, concerts. It was inspiring to me.”

Working closely with technician Daniel Siefort and logistics helper George Cooper, the artist planned a monumental new work involving steel support extended from the adjoining buildings, and hundreds of strands of colored rope woven from ground to sky. The result is a powerful new environment inside the sculpture garden, and a

new way to look at the Historic Armory itself.

“What Susan does is reckon with a place, a site, a feeling based in nature,” says Eric Holowacz, director of The Studios. “Then she carefully constructs an abstract effect with her materials, with a goal of creating a new form of representation.”

For The Studios of Key West, her Sun and Rain is both integrated into the environment while also offering entirely new visual experiences about the place. Her installation is open to the public during normal business hours and when there are after hour and weekend events. Sun and Rain will continue to grace the Armory garden through the end of May.
The TSKW Sculpture Sarden is generously supported by Sandra and Lee McMannis and Family.

LIST OF EXHIBITORS:

Lois Giffen
Laurie Margolin
Donna Vaughan
Kathleen Husted
Sandy Mezinis
Lynn Sherman
Dale Dapkins
Nichola DeBiaso
Christine Cordone Smith
Priscilla Coote
Mary Kay Clapp
Michele Brunschvig Dariele
Wanda Simmen
Katharine Doughty

James Johnson
Fran Decker
Neva Townsend
Bryan Buckley
Bob Wilson
Karen Beauprie
William Welch
A. Glenn Wilson
Sonia Robinson
Annamarie Giordano
Marilyn Miller

Mike Rooney
Joan Cox
Ruben Concepcion
Marta White
Peggy Keay
Lois Steele
Marc Caren

Thank you to our volunteer guardians who assisted with the smooth operations of the evening and who always make a TSKW event a fun and family affair: Donna, DeeDee & Dave Vaughan, Hildy Itkin, and Nichola DeBiasco. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Potluck, and most especially to the artists – both emerging and award winning- who donated to TSKW for the privilege of participation in the group show- you have raised the bar.  Mediums range from watercolor, to acrylic, oil, and mixed media, even a photograph is in the mix. Sales are encouraged and several works were sold at the reception.

From our staff, our board of directors, and our entire member organization- congratulations to all!

Images courtesy of Deb Kik

John Simon is known for having produced records for The Band. Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, andC. C. Loveheart was raised in Las Vegas where Elvis once laid his head on her 13-year old lap and the acme of family entertainment was watching the A-Bomb tests in the desert. Since then her checkered career has led her to acting for stage, screen and television.

ALONE TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME AGAIN…AGAIN!
has been called “brilliant, deeply moving, outstanding adult entertainment.”
Don’t miss it on Sunday, March 7, at 8 pm at The Studios of Key West

Buy your tickets now at www.keystix.com

or by stopping by or calling the Armory office

Q. So…you’ve come down here to KW from up North?
A:  Yes, from Big Pine Key.
Actually, we came from upstate New York, near Woodstock.

Q:  That’s where the Woodstock Festival was held, right?
A:  No, that was held in China.The last Olympic games were held in Woodstock.  We may have that wrong—but, there were some pretty big crowds in town.

Q:  You’re both married, right?
A:  …to each other … for 36 years.

Q:  Can you tell us how that happened?
A:  We both said, “Yes.”

Q:  How would you characterize your cabaret act?
A:   Carefully.

Q:  OK.  Well, C.C., Rex Reed in his glowing review of your act refers to your “Audrey Hepburn neck”.  Did you ever meet Ms. Hepburn?
A:  No, but I know her neck personally.

Q:  John, you’ve had some career as a record producer, including such luminaries as Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Mama Cass and The Band.  You’ve worked with Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Taj Mahal, Joni Mitchell, David Sanborn and Gil Evans.  Would you be able to tell us what Janis Joplin was really like?
A:   No.

Q:  No?
A:  No, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what I’m really like.

Q:  C.C. in reading your PR blurbs, it refers to your checkered career leading to a “louche” life.  What does “louche” even mean?
A:  Webster tells us it means, “disreputable, yet seductive.”  Louche often is used in referring to the theatre.

Q:  Are you comfortable with that harsh depiction of the theatre?
A:  Oh yes.  You really can’t say that “louche” refers to being….say, a plumber.

Q:  Have you ever been a plumber?
A:  I have plumbed men’s souls.

Q:  You were raised in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Did that make for a unique childhood?
A:  I do count differently than most….,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10…jack queen, king, ace.

Q:  Anything else?
A:  I always left a tip on the table for my mom after meals.  But, I’m sure everyone does that.

Q:  And?
A:  When I was born the doctor started yelling, “New shooter comin’ out, Place your bets, ladies and gents, new shooter comin’ out.”

Q:  And John, what was the most exciting thing from your childhood?
A: Coco Puffs.

Q:  Well, we’re all looking forward to your performance of “Alone Together For The First Time Again … Again!”  On Sunday, March 7th, 8PM at TSKW.  May I ask why you repeat that last word?
A: What what last last word word?

Q: “Again”.  The name of your show is “Alone Together For The First Time Again … Again!”

A: It is?  Oh, yeah, right.  Well, we did our show in many cabaret venues in NYC, in Hollywood, St. Pete, lots of places for lots of years.  Then, life circumstances had us put it away for awhile.  So the second use of the word  “Again” refers to the fact that we’ve dusted some of the old act off, written some new material and are pleased as punch to be performing it again…again.

Q: My last question is, do you have any other thoughts to share with us about this upcoming cabaret act of yours?
A:  Yes.  You don’t need to wear 3D glasses.

Q:  This isn’t a question.
It’s a statement.  Thank you, John Simon and C.C. Loveheart.  We’re looking forward to 8 PM on Sunday, March 7th and “Alone Together For The First Time Again … Again!”

www.pcoote.com

9 am -  Meet at TSKW for an introduction and materials review. Soon afterward, “head out into the field” of the wonderful variety of palms surrounding the Armory building. First stop is just across the street. Priscilla will complete a watercolor sketch of the first example, and the students will follow suit under individual guidance from the instructor. As time allows, between one and three more watercolor sketches will follow.

12 noon The class heads back to the Armory.

Supply List

Artist ’s  Statement

Growing up in Senegal, on the west coast of Africa, life and art shared the same space. They were indistinguishable. As a young boy in Dakar I learned that art is the tool I have for a direct and honest conversation with my own heart.

Art always has been my rescuer, my liberator – creatively, emotionally, spiritually. I’m a self-taught painter, able to create in any media, always painting work that is straightforward and personal, work coming from a place within me that is constantly loud and growing.

My work has been called naïve: I fill my canvases with intense and basic colors, crisply painted shapes, and meticulous detail; I make work without conventional representational techniques; my work is free of metaphor, irony, and paradox. I paint straightforward narratives, stories of my journey and memories of everyday experiences.

Everything I create and paint comes through my relationship with the world around me, my direct response to my fantasies, my wonder and my spiritual growth. No journey in my life remains as straightforward as painting.

Sponsored by Bad Boy Burrito

Courtesy of Lucky Street Gallery

“I have a need to tell students my story,” Marks says. “I hope they can gain some insights themselves about the struggles of an artist; the needs of an artist. The courage it takes to stand before a blank canvas.”

Marks challenges her students to look inside themselves to define their own philosophy of art and to be as proficient in the written word as well as the painted word. In the end though she instills, it is not about platitudes and introspection, it is about producing artwork to enrich our world.

Her very specific weekly assignments help students achieve this end. She is an intense and focused teacher and as a Buddhist, she encourages students to get rid of excess in their work and look for simplicity.

View works by instructor and artist Roberta Marks at www.robertabmarks.com

Sponsored by Doubletree Grand Key Resort

Read full story here

Sponsored by Doug Mayberry Real Estate

Courtesy of Lucky Street Gallery

The Studios of Key West will open its next exhibition, Space Defined, on March 4. Local artist and designer Debra Yates has created a new series of mixed-media wall hangings and installation pieces, which will take over the Historic Armory’s main hall through March 15. The public is invited to an opening reception with the artist from 6 to 8pm on March 4. Visitors to the exhibition will discover the historic interior as a whole new world, meticulously designed as a bespoke installation.

“The goal of this installation of painting is to create bold visual impact, and to define the space in a slightly different way,” explains Yates, who has been creating the new works in her upstairs space at The Studios of Key West. “These large new paintings have a vibrant but simple color pallette with emphasis on black and white. Many have been made larger than my usual work, to create a visual impact in the vast space of the Armory hall.”

Debra Yates is one of Key West’s leading designers and visual artists. On her eighth birthday, she received the gift of oil paints and canvas. When she ran out of canvas, she painted on driftwood. By the time Yates won a statewide scholastic high school art competition, her family home was already a gallery of her work.

Yates may have island roots, but she is also well traveled. After graduating from Florida State University with a degree in advertising design, she studied art history in Florence, Italy. She began her career in New York as an ad agency art director, moved into magazines—first working in design development for Hearst Publications—and then as art director for Miami Magazine and the Miami Herald’s Tropic magazine. Yates served as art director for Florida Home & Garden for 10 years before it ceased publication.

As an artist, she is known for the abstract nature of her striking mixed media paintings and mosaics. Her large-scale commissions have included two paintings she did for Neiman Marcus at Millennium Mall in Orlando, Florida; the 135-foot by eight-foot mosaic-tile semicircular wall at the North Beach Transit Shelter at Collins Avenue and 73rd Street, which she created for the city of Miami Beach; and the 100-foot by 10-foot multimedia barricade wall she composed at Miami International Airport. Yates’s mosaics, paintings and design work have been published in books and magazines. And she was honored with the 2000 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship and the 2002 Rodel Foundation Fellowship to Vermont Studio Center.

Yates cites the work of her friend, renowned Brazilian landscape designer, Roberto Burle Marx, as a key inspiration for many of her her creative endeavors. For 15 years, Yates made an annual trek to visit Marx in Brazil, which resulted in diverse third-world influences in her works. She also credits her studio space above the main hall, and her long-time affiliation with The Studios of Key West, as a driver for this latest exhibition.

“The bright bold and joyful feel of this body of work in part comes from my studio space at the Armory. The large and sunny studio inspires me. The surroundings inspire me. I feel free to come and go, leave the work, lock the door, try new things.”

For Space Defined, Yates brings an artist’s sense of color, a graphic designer’s love of white space, a sculptor’s feel for texture, an architect’s eye for detail, a landscaper’s appreciation for earthy elements and an inherent understanding of the importance of light. The public is invited to view her latest large-scale installation at The Studios of Key West from March 4 to 15. The Armory main hall is located at 600 White Street, and is open during normal business hours. For information, contact 296-0458.

A working holiday in Paradise, I thought. Okay, Key West is a little louche to fit the Judeo-Christian image of Paradise, but then that’s why I like it. I was also getting to come with my wife, Elizabeth Spires, who is as fond of the place as I am, in part because of Elizabeth’s Bishop’s connection to it.

A few days before our departure, the earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region of Haiti. It upset my world a little bit also. One night I packed a bag for Haiti. The next day I unpacked it, reasoning that I don’t have the first response skills immediately needed, that if I went I would be consuming resources scarce enough for those already there, and that I might be able to be more useful for the Haitian cause by trying to get various words on the subject out and around the United States.

Key West, small as it is, does remind me of what Haiti could be (maybe now has another chance to become) with political stability, basic security, a functioning economy and a sound infrastructure. The two spots share a world’s end feel—and a sense that there is no other place on earth quite like this one. In front of the abandoned school on Southard & Margaret there is a magnificent ancient tree where last year I wanted to make a jete dlo, the Haitian water sacrifice. This year I did it.

Haitians consider old trees to be reposwa, resting places for ancestral spirits, and there are some magnificent trees like that in the back garden of Heritage House where we were put up, thanks to the kindness of her descendants, in Miss Jean Porter Poirier’s cottage. One of the best things about our stay was to inhabit for a little while the aura of her life, which must have been a very rich one, judging from all the wonderful art she made and collected, a library ranging from South Florida history to the implications of the Mayan long calendar and taking in a whole lot in between, a full-size rickshaw she must have ridden in, outside on the gallery, and a scale model of the same rickshaw inside on a bookshelf, complete in every detail down to the paint job. One of the books I brought was William Vollmann’s forthcoming book on Noh theater; lo, there was a Noh mask hanging among a thousand other artifacts on the cottage walls.

Thanks to the flexibility and generosity of TSKW I was able to keep getting words out on Haiti, tying up their land line to talk on the radio, and giving a talk at a benefit (around twenty-five thousand dollars were raised I am told) that they hosted at the Armory. I met some good people from the Key West Haitian community, especially those who congregate at Mo’s Restaurant (which furnished some excellent Haitian food to the benefit).

At first I intended to work on a novel in progress tentatively entitled Red Stick, about the Creek Wars of the early nineteenths century, in which Andrew Jackson participated, among many others. I had proposed that as a project to TSKW because it is describable, where as the other novel I’m working on, a thing called Behind the Moon, is thoroughly indescribable at this point. But the earthquake in Haiti scrambled my brain too much for me to call up the proper Red Stick state of mind, so I worked on Behind the Moon instead and made some decent progress.

I would like to thank people including but not limited to Elena Devers, Eric Holowacz, Martha Barnes, Lauren McAloon, Marc Hedden and Nan Klingener for doing huge amounts of work with an apparently effortless grace. Key West was a very good place for me to be at what was otherwise a very bad time. I hoped and prayed for a lot of people I know in the earthquake zone in Haiti, and quite a few of them came back out of the wreckage. There’s more than a little magic in Key West as well as in Haiti, in the movement of the water and the trembling of the leaves.

The last few words I finished on Behind the Moon are these.

She set her parking brake and got out. The small house sat half in, half out of a thicket of evergreen brush, at the bottom of a dish in the prairie, scattered with sharp white stones. It did not exactly look abandoned, but the door hung open in a way that dismayed her. She started to call to the house but did not. To the left of it the rusted carcass of an old Mustang stood on blocks and beside it a washing machine so ancient it had a wringer bolted on top. A dented aluminum saucepan lay upside down among the stones.

The sky darkened abruptly, though it could scarcely have been noon. Marissa looked up to see a black squall line hurrying from the west, dense inky cloud that blotted out the sun. She could no longer remember why she had come here. Out of the thicket to the right of the house came an old man with long white hair, wearing a green quilted vest with the stuffing coming out from its parted seams. He shook a rattle at the end of one bony arm and made a thin keening sound with his voice. Although he did not seem to see her he was coming toward her certainly, as if everything in this day, in her whole life, existed to carry her to this moment and him to her. When he had reached her, his free hand took hers.

Marissa said, Why?

You have a hollow in your heart, the shaman said. Or maybe he said hunger. The rattle shook in his other hand. Hunger. Hollow. Now Marissa was weeping, with no sound or sobbing. She only knew because the water from her eyes ran into the neck of her shirt and pooled in the shell of her collar bone.

Go to it now, the shaman said. Don’t hesitate.