2011 Special Events - 10th Annual Ravenswood ArtWalk
October 1st & 2nd
Ravenswood ArtWalk is two days event dedicated to honoring and celebrating artists and industry in the Ravenswood Corridor. The event 300 artists and local businesses! For the 10th RAW, the Tai Chi Center of Chicago (TC3) featured several artists in conjunction with various performances made by the instructors and the student body at large.
This year the theme of our show is The Small... No matter the size, shape, or prominence of the person, place or thing, this show asks you to consider that joy and happiness can often be discovered by looking at the small.
Some small ideas to ponder
A single honeybee produces 1/2 a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. [projected video] Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. [painting] Music in the soul can be heard by the universe. [The Bullfrogs Community Choir, and nature soundscapes] A small fist can delivered one heck of a punch [forms, weapons and application] No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. [The Hug - performance art] It is health that is real wealth and not small pieces of gold and silver. [tai chi, qigong, yoga]
The journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step or from a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.
...a concept applicable to all forms of mastery
Demonstrating Master Instructors of the Tai Chi Center of Chicago:
Elizabeth Wenscott - Forms, Weapons, Application
Chris Zalek - Forms, Weapons, Application
Sas Stark - Forms, Weapons, Application
Don Tomei & Sharon Fierro - Wellness Qigong
Tracy Von Kaenel - Yoga and Aerial Yoga
Qi Zhou - Tai Chi Fan
Exhibiting artist:
Christine Wallers (Artist in Residence) - Drawings, Projected Video, and Installation Prototype
Steven Leavitt - Painting
The Bullfrogs Community Choir - Musical Guest
Paul Dickinson - Nature Soundscapes
Sara Zalek and Aurora Tabar - Performance Art
This years schedule of events.
Saturday - 9:30am - 6:00pm
9:30am - 10:30am - Qigong Introductory with Sharon Fierro (Participation welcome and FREE)
11:00am - 12:00pm - Tai Chi Introductory with Chris Zalek - (Participation welcome and FREE)
12:30pm - 1:30pm - Demonstrations lead by master instructors, along with members of the TC3
1:30pm - 2:15pm - Qigong with Don Tomei and Sharon Fierro - (Participation welcome and FREE)
2:15pm - 3:00pm - The Bullfrogs Community Choir
3:00pm - 6:00pm - School Open House - Art Viewing
Sunday - 11:00am - 6:00pm
11:00am - 12:00pm - School Open House - Art Viewing
12:00pm - 1:00pm - Yoga & Aerial Yoga Performance by program director and instructor Tracy Von Kaenel and her students
1:00pm - 2:00pm - The Hug - Performance (Participation welcome and FREE)
2:00pm - 6:00pm - School Open House - Art Viewing
The Artists
Christine Wallers (Artist in Residence) Drawings, Projected Video, and a Installation Prototype
Christine Wallers will present a new series of dense and tightly knit drawings that emphasis structure, repetition and random patterning. Using different values of graphite line Wallers builds a scaffold that holds an ethereal, yet pulsating mass together.
Also on view will be a projected video of a work in progress called the Luminous / Shadow Project.
Christine Wallers is originally from the Chicago area but has lived, exhibited and curated shows in Seattle, New Mexico, France and Germany. Her work has referenced her interest in natural phenomena, most notably light and water phenomena in the Northwest, the Southwest and the Midwest. She is a cross-disciplinary artist whose work uses formal procedures of minimal and post-minimal art to craft installations that are site-specific, experientially-based and often fleeting. Within this she attempts to create an experience of the ephemeral, the just emerging and the barely visible from the interplay between object and space. Time and its shifts are key to understanding her process. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, featured in Dwell magazine and she has been a visiting artist at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. In collaboration with sound artist Steve Peters, she will be showing a new work, Hover, opening September 16 at Audible Gallery in Chicago.
Steven Leavitt
Blue
44" x 44"
Vinyl paint on canvas
About Steven Leavitt
My work involves listening. When my mind is quiet and still, listening
becomes more profound. I exercise everyday before I begin to work.
Tai Chi and Yoga help me to clear and quiet my mind.
Because the execution of tasks is not necessarily a physically
therapeutic act, it is absolutely necessary to carefully care for my
body and mind. Some tasks may take several months to complete. If I
did not take proper care of myself, it would be impossible to complete
these tasks. Warming up and proper conditioning are an integral part
of my process.
Since the mid 1980's Steven's work has been non-representational. His work has been developed both in miniature drawing and oil painting. His work has been strongly influenced by ethnic art and crafts from around
the world both past and present.
Steven's art education started in grammar school, by the fourth grade he could identify all the impressionists and create Mondrian design. Steven received a BFA from the school of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981.
The Bullfrogs Community Choir
Saturday October 1st. 2011
2:15pm - 3:00pm
The Bullfrogs Community Choir was born in 1998, an outgrowth of
Riverbank Neighbors work to restore the east bank of the Chicago River
between Montrose and Berteau. It is a choir for "normal" human voices,
welcoming all levels of skill and ability. It repertoire is eclectic
including classical, gospel, pop and original pieces. The Bullfrogs
mostly perform for their own community at solstice and equinox events,
but also at weddings, funerals, celebrations and demonstrations. They
occasionally accept invitations to sing for worthy (usually
environmental) causes farther afield. Natalie Leki-Albano is the choir
conductor and Jamal Leki is the pianist.
Paul Dickinson
Nature Soundscapes
Soundscape compiled from recordings collected in
Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,
Wisconsin Kickapoo Nature Reserve
Crex Meadows, and Michigan Seney National Wildlife Refuge
Hiawatha National Forest
Brighton Woods, recorded during May 2009 - June 2011
Paul Dickinson is a sound artist and Zen Shiatsu practitioner. He is particularly interested in the physical and psychic spaces where these two diverse practices overlap: how the body 'listens' to environments both immediate and reconstructed, and how that act of listening can affect the healing process. His recent sound activities are acoustical investigations of wild natural spaces in a variety of habitats, primarily in the midwest. His previous works have included "Sleep Talk", a collection of his sleep talk utterances collected over 20 years; and "Music for Worms and Compost", a sound installation based on amplified sounds from worm composting bins. Paul's work has been presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and many galleries and institutions in the US and Europe. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and has been awarded artist's fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council and Artadia. He studied Shiatsu at Zen Shiatsu in Evanston, where he practices.
Sara Zalek and Aurora Tabar
Sunday October 2nd, 1-2pm
The HUG PROJECT is an ongoing project by Aurora Tabar and Sara Zalek that encourages love and healing through touch. Every week we hug continuously for an hour in downtown Chicago, usually during the lunch hour. We wear yellow. We have a sign. It says "HUG". And there are flyers hanging from in on each side saying, "please take one." The flyer is 2-sided and says:
HUG!
Reaching out to touch someone is a lasting symbol of what it means to be human and a universal sign of healing.
So take a moment, today, any day, to stop, to breathe, to reach out, to hug someone!
by doing so you will cultivate compassion, peace, joy, friendliness, and happiness in yourself and all around!
Every week we hug in a different location downtown. While we hug we converse with people about what we are doing and why. Sometimes people hug one another and sometimes they hug us. Some people are intrigued and excited while others are confused or put-off. We stand in peace and love, offering ourselves and others this respite, this reminder, this feeling.
Our hugs thus far have been edifying and inspirational. This blog is an attempt to record and share our experiences as well as our interactions with passersby through writing, drawings, and photographs. Most importantly, this is just one more way for us to spread the word about the power of hugging.
