Girl Power

What is feminist art? Who is a feminist artist? Must the artist knowingly make feminist art? Must the artist be a woman?

These are just a few of the questions raised in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s latest exhibition, Girls 

and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection.

The show, which opened in May and runs through July 20, explores the legacy of feminism in art through a collection of roughly twenty paintings, photographs and prints from the 1960s through ’90s.

Artists represented in Girls and Company include Diane Arbus, Joan Brown, Ilona Granet, Jenny Holzer, Mary Laird, Jin Lee, Marisol, Lev T. Mills, Nancy Mladenoff, Frances Myers, Christina Ramberg, Miriam Schapiro and Hollis Sigler.

Photography in the exhibition is particularly striking, from Cindy Sherman’s untitled image of a woman—herself posing as an abused wife—with a bruised face and a look of shock to Anne Noggle’s scenes of an elderly woman in her small Santa Fe kitchen and two nude women sitting at desks in a small office smoking cigarettes.

Nicholas Nixon—one of two men in the show—also presents a thought-provoking photograph in St. Petersburg, Florida, in which a group of teen girls directly confront his camera as well as those who encounter the image. It’s a good example of much of the art in this show—in that it raises questions for viewers but doesn’t offer up easy answers.

Noteworthy, too, are prints by the Guerrilla Girls, a collaborative activist group that formed in the 1980s and raised awareness about discrimination in the art world and other realms. In one poster-style screenprint from 1989, the group comments that with the $17.7 million one could spend on a single Jasper Johns painting, he or she could instead purchase at least one work from each of the over sixty-five women artists and artists of color that they list. It’s a powerful statement made in a powerful work.

Jane Simon, curator of exhibitions at MMoCA, recently offered some insight into how the exhibition came together, what feminist art means today and what she hopes viewers take way from the show.

How did Girls and Company come about? Why did you decide to hold this exhibition? 

Exhibitions are sometimes planned years in advance. This one was planned about a year ago. And I think it happened because I was thinking about the changing role of feminism and because I knew we owned these works by the Guerrilla Girls. I’ve wanted to show them since I started working here four years ago. I’ve been intrigued by practices that involve performance and masquerade, two approaches that often revolve around feminism.

What were the challenges for you in putting the show together?

I think I associate with a second or third generation of feminism, and I think that is not always in line with some of the older generations of feminism.

Why does the museum have a large collection of “feminist” art?

How do you define feminist art? I think it all depends on how it is defined. Certainly, when you start looking you can find new ideas.

How has the definition of feminist art changed over the years? What is it today?

I am not even sure feminism occurred to artists like Marisol, but for artists like Joan Brown and Cindy Sherman, it was a constant reminder and a label that came up time and time again. I think they were probably delighted with the label, but their art addressed many issues and concerns.

What piece in the show resonates most with you?

I am very fond of the GG [Guerrilla Girls] pieces as well as the painting by Joan Brown. I’m also very fond of the photographs by Anne Noggle. The museum owns several of her pieces.

What has the reaction to Girls and Company been so far?

Very positive, especially with women viewers.

What is your goal for the exhibition?

To raise awareness and spark discussion.


Images, courtesy of MMoCA, are Untitled Head (#12) by Jin Lee, The Martyrdom by Frances Myers and St. Petersburg, Florida by Nicholas Nixon.


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

University Theatre opens its summer production, The Musicals of Musicals: The Musical, on Friday. Also that day, Artisan Gallery in Paoli unveils two shows: ceramics by Rick Hintze and the group show Contemporary Animal Imagery.

The Spring Green Arts Fair, featuring the work of over two hundred artists, runs Saturday and Sunday in downtown Spring Green, while the Madison Early Music Festival offers a Preview Concert Sunday afternoon.

And Tuesday sees the start of Butterfly Encounters, featuring photographs of local butterflies by Ann Thering at the UW–Madison Arboretum Steinhauer Trust Gallery.

July Artist: A Natural Progression

Tom Sargeant’s acrylic paintings have a subdued, meditative quality that one doesn’t always find in abstract art. Look closely and you’ll tune into aspects of the natural world and the effects of time—their colors, textures, compositions.

New work by Sargeant is featured July 11 through August 2 at Grace Chosy Gallery on Monroe Street.

The former doctor recently took time out to answer a few questions about his path to painting, artistic choices and his hopes for those who see his work.

You were a doctor for forty years. How, when and why did you make the switch into art?

As long as I can remember I knew someday I would take up art, so with retirement in 1995 I finally got the chance. Though I never had time for a formal art education, I did take several short courses at MATC, UW and the Peninsula Art School in Door County.

How has your experience as a doctor impacted or influenced your artwork?

As far as I can tell my interests in art and medicine developed at the same time but independently with neither one influencing the other.

How would you describe your style? Why do you use acrylic paints and why do you work in the abstract?

Style? Abstract for sure. Minimalistic usually. Expressionistic? Jacob Stockinger referred to my work as Zen-like: Muted colors, balanced asymmetry, textural, subdued, etc.

Why acrylics? I never even tried oils because my first studio had no ventilation, and now I wouldn't use anything other than acrylics. The best thing about them is that they dry so fast, and the only thing wrong with them is that they dry so fast.

Why abstraction? Tried realism first, became bored with it, and then struggled to break the habit. Nature has always been the greatest influence on my work. Not the objects in nature but rather the effects of nature and time on our surroundings and the resulting textures and colors: rusty metal, weathered wood, etc., etc.

What role does nature play in your work?

I believe making art forces one to become keenly observant.

What do you hope viewers get from seeing your paintings?

Your last question is a tough one. Viewers will find no political statement, no social commentary, no narrative and no recognizable subject matter in my paintings. So there is no need for them to ask, “What’s that supposed to be?” because that’s what I’m asking them. Someone said that abstract artists don’t paint answers, they paint questions. I hope viewers will look at my work and ask themselves, “How does that make me feel on a scale of happy to disgusted?”


IN THE MAGAZINE: The July issue of Madison Magazine comes out tomorrow. Here’s some of the the arts content you’ll find within the pages.

• An Overtones profile on Karlos Moser, a retired UW music professor who recently brought several musical gifts to the town in Brazil where he was raised.
• A Your Town tidbit on how artists are joining the environmental movement in a new program at this year’s Art Fair on the Square.
• The Fabulous Finds page devoted to Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandest projects around Madison.
• The annual Best of Madison readers’ poll results featuring the city’s top art galleries, bookstores, DJs, theater companies, performance and music venues, bands, performers, photographers, cinemas, music store, radio stations and hosts, and more.
• The monthly Overtones events calendar with picks on the can’t-miss performances, concerts, exhibitions and festivals taking place in July.


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

It’s a busy week for special events. The Attic Angel Association Attic Sale takes place Thursday, while the group’s annual House & Garden Tour, this year on Monona’s Tonyawatha Trail, is on Monday. Children and adults alike may enjoy Feast with the Beasts at Henry Vilas Zoo on Saturday. And Olbrich Botanical Gardens’ Rhapsody in Bloom benefit, Madison’s largest garden party, also is this Saturday.

The Alliant Energy Center welcomes the National Women’s Music Festival Thursday through Sunday. And the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society moves into its second week of Same Carriage, Fresh Horses with the programs Scaramouche and Souvenirs Friday through Sunday.

American Players Theatre begins its third play of the summer with Henry IV: The Making of the King on Friday. Also on Friday, Broom Street Theater kicks off For What It’s Worth and Verona Area Community Theater starts Brigadoon.

And in the visual arts realm, on Friday UW’s Design Gallery opens the MFA exhibition Harue Shimomoto and the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters unveils Amy Arntson and Bruce Severson’s side-by-side shows of landscapes. Saturday brings the opening of three exhibitions—Fabricated Realms, Cornucopia: Crazy and The Watergate Collective: New Order—at Overture Galleries.

Summer Traditions—with a Few New Twists

When you think of summer around Madison, a few favorite events likely come to mind. Concerts on the Square. Art Fair on the Square. American Players Theatre.

All three get their start this month and the next, with a combination of what’s made the events perpetually popular and some new twists on the traditions.

American Players Theatre

American Players Theatre offers five shows this summer, one of which started last week.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is APT’s signature production, says communications director Sara Young. The company used to do it annually, starting in its debut year of 1980, but hasn’t taken it on since 2000.

“It’s the quintessential APT experience,” Young says. “Part of it takes place in the woods and we’re in the woods. The magic people expect out of APT is heightened in it.”

And while many theater-goers know the Shakespearean comedy well, Young assures that this production is worth a watch. “You haven’t seen this Midsummer,” she says. “It’s gorgeous and fun.”

Ah, Wilderness! kicks off this week and Young promises the play by Eugene O'Neill will push the envelope further than an

y other play APT has performed has yet. Next week sees the start of Shakespeare’s Henry IV: The Making of a King, which Young describes as a coming-of-age story. In fact, she says, the entire season could be similarly characterized.

APT’s fourth and fifth shows—Widowers’ Houses by George Bernard Shaw and The Belle’s Strategem by Hannah Cowley—start in August and represent a mix of old and new. “We do a lot of Shaw out here,” Young says. And she adds that The Belle’s Strategem is the first play written by a woman that the company will perform.

Concerts on the Square

Concerts on the Square celebrates its twenty-fifth season this year, with the first of six Wednesday-evening performances taking place June 25.

Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra music director and maestro Andrew Sewell says he planned the season to be memorable and special, and one that longtime Concerts lovers would enjoy. “We really wanted something that would bring everyone together,” he says.

In the Concerts on the Square tradition, a Fourth of July concert (held July 2) will be a patriotic salute to America and feature Hong-En Chen, the pianist who won the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s 2008 Young Artist Concerto Competition.

Guest artists are highlights of the season, and several are newcomers to Concerts on the Square, says Sewell. Trumpeter Ryan Anthony will be featured in July 9’s Sound the Trumpet concert, while Philadelphia violin and bass trio Time for Three performs at the String Fusion concert on July 23.

Sewell says the final concert of the season, July 30’s Our Town, will serve as the ultimate anniversary celebration. The concert will feature mezzo soprano Kitt Foss, soprano Alli Foss, Tracy Silverman on electric violin and the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.

Art Fair on the Square

Art Fair on the Square also celebrates an anniversary this summer: Fifty years of being the ultimate downtown outdoor arts festival, attracting roughly 500 artists and countless art lovers to the Capitol Square.

Art Fair coordinator Katie Hunter says her goal in putting on the event is to make it seem fresh each year. There are surely some changes in store this season.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art made the Art Fair application process almost entirely digital this year. That attracted not only more applicants—more than 1,500 as compared to 1,300 in 2007—but also new ones. Hunter estimates that one-third of artists who will participate in Art Fair on the Square July 12 and 13 are newcomers.

The digital process also contributed to the Art Fair’s effort to go green. Hunter says the event is ramping up its recycling and focusing on biodegradable products. She also posed a Go Green Challenge to participating artists, asking them to create at least one work of art using recycled of biodegradable materials. A jury will view all the eco artwork and choose a winner, who will earn free entry into next year’s fair.

“We’re trying to connect the environment and the arts,” Hunte says. “Art can be used to facilitate a lot of environmental practices.”

Art Fair also has partnered with EnAct, asking artists to decorate rain barrels that will be showcased around the Square and later auctioned off. And they’re working with the Chicago-based Working Bikes Cooperative, which takes donated bicycles and refurbishes them to be used as a power source in developing countries. The group will have a sixteen-foot bicycle-powered fountain on display.

While Art Fair could have used its anniversary season to reflect on past festivals, Hunter says the desire was to look toward the future. She hopes to make the event as environmentally friendly as possible in the years to come.

“We’re not a green event but we’re a greener event,” she says. “It will take a few years.”

Hunter encourages festival-goers to bike, bus or walk to Art Fair. Those who come in on two wheels may park their bicycles at a new bike corral on King Street.

Other changes to this year’s fair include a revamped kids area, which will include art projects led by MFA students. And a strong lineup of food vendors and live entertainment should assure Hunter’s other goal for Art Fair: that anyone, art lover or not, can attend the event and have a great time.

Photos top to bottom are courtesy of American Players Theatre, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Tomorrow, Stage Q begins its annual two-week playfest, Queer Shorts 3, which celebrates LGBT theater and its actors, directors and playwrights at the Bartell Theatre. The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society starts its summer program, Same Carriage, Fresh Horses, on Friday. Performances change weekly and take place at venues throughout the Madison area.

Saturday marks the annual Juneteenth Day Celebration honoring the African American emancipation. The event is held in Penn Park.

And on Monday is Concert on the Green, the Madison Symphony Orchestra outdoor summer concert and picnic at Bishops Bay Country Club in Middleton.

Familiar Images

I always find it intriguing when artists take on plants and animals as their subject matter. Such imagery may seem benign initially, but on so many levels they are chock full of history and symbolism.

Do all artists think of the Garden of Eden or fertility when they paint a scene of flowers? Does a depiction a horse or bear always call to mind the countless cultures that have painted them for thousands of years? Probably not. But for me, these histories become part of the subjects’ contexts.

This month, two separate shows in two different galleries take on these themes.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens presents paintings featuring flowers and other botanical imagery in Five Painters in the Gardens. The five local artists—C.K. Chang, Bonnie Johnson, Donna Miller, David Scheifel and Mary Diman—all have a penchant for color and nature, as well as painting in the realist tradition. They met up more than two decades ago and have exhibited together for the past six years. Yet each shares his or her own impression of flowers, through individual uses of color, medium and style.

The show begins June 8 and continues through September 21. It’s open on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

At Artisan Gallery in Paoli, a group show called Contemporary Animal Imagery tackles animal subject matter in surprising, beautiful, fun and extremely varied ways. It’s an exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photography and ceramics, but all of the fifteen-plus artists involved explore animal imagery as used in contemporary art.

There’s Randy Richmond’s collection of digital prints combining animals and manmade objects: a swan on a seesaw, a cow approaching a piano; both in moody, almost eerie nighttime settings. Or Audrey Christie’s vibrantly hued hand-colored woodcut of a rooster. Both of those are stark contrasts to Laura Zindel’s ceramic bottles, upon which she presents scientifically precise depictions of snakes, insects and spiders. The show offers so many thought-provoking ways of looking at beings we see almost daily.

The exhibition runs June 27 to August 3, and hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Artwork top to bottom is by Mary Diman, Donna Miller, Randy Richmond and Laura Zindel. 

COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Sheryl Crow makes a stop in Madison tonight at the Alliant Energy Center as part of her summer Detours tour, while Ingrid Michaelson plays the Barrymore on Saturday. Also that night, The Kissers offer their final show at the High Noon Saloon.

And festival season is in full swing this weekend, starting with the Isthmus Jazz Festival running Thursday through Sunday at the Memorial Union Terrace. There you can enjoy a century’s worth of jazz styles.

Saturday brings the Clean Lakes Festival at Olin Turville Park, as well as Folk on State, the annual folk music concert series held Saturday afternoons on State Street. And Parade of Homes offers its yearly showcase Saturday through June 22 in four Madison-area neighborhoods.

Also on Saturday, American Players Theatre in Spring Green kicks off its outdoor theater season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which runs through October 5.

June Artists: Water Worlds

Many of us, it seems, have a strong connection to water but one that’s constantly in flux. We’re drawn to water, inspired by it, rejuvenated by it, sometimes frightened by it. 

So it’s not surprising that artists are attracted to it—and that their depictions of water are greatly diverse. 

The James Watrous Gallery at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters plays with this idea in an exhibition opening in June. Works by two artists are shown alongside one another to show how each observes and interprets the water and its surrounding landscape.

The Things We Know (formerly Verismo/Verita) by Lake Mills artist Amy Arntson is a series of hypnotic, crisply realistic watercolors. Most of her paintings include no land as reference; the viewer is left only to focus on the waves and their colors, textures, patterns and rhythms.

In Lake Superior Blues, Madison architectural-model builder Bruce Severson showcases pastel drawings and acrylic paintings that express the moods and feelings he encounters in the landscape of Lake Superior.

Taking a cue from the side-by-side format of the exhibition, I’m posing together Arntson and Severson’s individual responses to a shared set of questions.

Why take on water as your subject matter?

Amy Arntson: Growing up in the Great Lakes region, water has always been a powerful symbol for me. It is intimately connected with the passage of time … of stability and change. It is both fragile and seemingly eternal. Most of my current paintings do not reference the surrounding land. Instead, they focus on light, texture, shape and movement of water. There is no place to stand, only a place to be. Without a horizon line, the implied physical presence of the viewer diminishes. Viewers are encouraged to meditate on the water, projecting themselves into the painting.

Bruce Severson: I lived by Lake Superior a couple years in the late seventies and was really quite taken by the whole lake and its large features—the large boats, the large bluffs. It was quite a magical thing.

In what kind of style do you choose to represent water—and why this style?

Amy Arntson: Influences on my work range from wash drawings of the seventeenth

-century illuminists who addressed the relationship between landscape and the expression of feeling, to an array of twentieth century abstract artwork. Abstract color, shape and texture are an underpinning to all my realistic paintings, as are a sense of place and time and related emotions. The work is created from sketches and photographs of locations I visit in the Great Lakes and other areas.

Bruce Severson: I think it’s probably some sort of impressionistic style but I do think I go back and forth between abstract and realistic. Sometimes it’s both things: Sometimes the details are quite abstract but when you back up its hyper-realistic.

How is your medium of choice suited to rendering water?

Amy Arntson: Throughout my career, I’ve found it 

important to be familiar with a variety of media, so that any choice made comes from a strong knowledge base. I’ve examined a wide variety of concepts in painting, photography and electronic art. Consistently line and wash and watercolor seem most beautiful to my eye, and this is the medium used in my current paintings.

Bruce Severson: I can capture the nuances of colors easier with pastels. However, in a large way, paintings allow another kind of looseness I try to work with. I use quite a range of application techniques; not just brushes, but I make certain implements for applying paint.

What do you hope to express in your work?

Amy Arntson: The title of this exhibition at the Watrous is taken from Aldo Leopold’s statement that “We only mourn the things we know.” I have started to think of my water paintings in the context of global change and potential loss.

Bruce Severson: I try to capture atmosphere as much as the objects. There’s an ethereal quality to a lot of my work. And I also like to work with colors. My show I’m calling Lake Superior Blues, partly because I miss the lake and partly because whenever I observe the water it seems to be a different shade of blue.

What do you hope people get from seeing your work—and side by side with that of another artist?

Amy Arntson: I don't know the other artist or his work but I look forward to seeing his paintings. It is always good to see another artist with a similar interest. Viewers will benefit from two viewpoints.

Bruce Severson: It’s my own landscape, my own eye on it. To me, it’s sort of a language that words can’t describe … Each person will come away with their own feeling. It’s more about that, about sharing a feeling, than anything else.

Verismo/Verita and Lake Superior Blues run June 20 to July 27. For more information, visit wisconsinacademy.org.

Photos from top to bottom are: Arntson’s Fall Wind, Severson’s Ice Waves, Arntson’s Under Tom’s Pier and Severson’s Thin Ice.


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Some major events take place this week—and long Memorial Day weekend—around Madison.

Get a jump start the holiday weekend this evening at Tunes at Monona Terrace with music by The Reptile Palace Orchestra Balkan Dance Groove.

Friday through Monday, take your pick—or, better yet, check out both—of the World’s Largest Brat Fest at the Alliant Energy Center and the WisCon Feminist Science Fiction Convention at the Concourse Hotel.

On Saturday, Girls and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection, a collection of feminist art from the 1960s to ’90s, opens at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

And on Sunday, join or cheer on runners in the Madison Marathon.

A Winning Night

The past year’s been a rough one for Madison musician Robert J. He’d been writing, recording and producing songs for two CDs—A Beautiful Blur and The Revenge of the Rowdy Prairie Dogs—and had release plans in the works when he suffered a heart attack in November.

Fortunately, he’s feeling better now with renewed energy for life and music.

And he’s feeling really good following Saturday night’s Madison Area Music Awards, from which he took home six awards for himself and his rock-country-Americana group The Rowdy Prairie Dogs.

Robert J won Pop Song of the Year, Rock Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year while The Rowdy Prairie Dogs garnered the Country/Bluegrass Song of the Year, Country/Bluegrass Album of the Year and Folk/Americana Song of the Year awards/

The local rocker took some time out earlier this week to talk about his winning night.

You've had a lot of things happen to you over the past year. How were you feeling going into the MAMAs?

Health-wise I've been feeling pretty good. Musically, I was excited to have these new CDs and songs heard by my peers here in Madison.

How well did you think your two albums would do at the awards?

Honestly, I looked at each category that I was nominated in and thought, I could easily not win any of these awards. I thought there were a lot of artists and songs that were deserving of the MAMA.

What was your reaction when you found out you had won an award? What about when you kept winning?

After winning the award at the beginning of the show for the Male Vocalist of the year, I thought, alright, I got one. That’s good enough for me. Then it was really great to win the country awards and when they kept on coming I got more and more overwhelmed. After winning the sixth award of the night, I walked offstage, went downstairs to a dressing room and wept.

What award are you most proud to have won?

I would have to say the songwriting awards. Being a songwriter is what I'm most passionate about.

Given all that you’ve been through lately, how does it feel to receive this recognition?

It feels wonderful! To be given a second chance at life and then to have such a show of support from the Madison Music Community, I feel truly blessed and honored and loved. It is definitely a night I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

What's next for you?

We’ll be releasing The Revenge of the Rowdy Prairie Dogs to Americana Radio (300 stations) in North America and Europe in June. Developing my new band, The RPDs. We’re playing some cool shows including Summerfest, The Steel Bridge Festival, a show with The New Riders of the Purple Sage. And I’ve got the next CD written and ready to go, so hopefully we’ll be back in the studio in the fall. I’m also working on a children’s book/song with Glenn Fuller who did such a fine job illustrating the RPD CD.

For more info on Robert J and The Rowdy Prairie Dogs, visit robertj.com, myspace.com/robertjmusic and myspace.com/therowdyprairiedogs. To find out more about the MAMAs, visit themamas.org.

The following is the full list of MAMA 2008 winners:

Genre Awards

Blues Song of the Year
The Mud Angels

Blues Album of the Year
Westside Andy/Mel Ford Band

Blues Artist of the Year
The Mud Angels

Classical Song of the Year
Ben Johnston-Urey

Classical Album of the Year
Ben Johnston-Urey

Classical Artist of the Year
Randal Harrison

Country/Bluegrass Song of the Year
The Rowdy Prairie Dogs

Country/Bluegrass Album of the Year
The Rowdy Prairie Dogs

Country/Bluegrass Artist of the Year
Spare Time Bluegrass Band

Electronic Song of the Year
The Dorothy Heralds

Electronic Album of the Year
Null Device

Electronic Artist of the Year
Sensuous Enemy

Folk/Americana Song of the Year
The Rowdy Prairie Dogs

Folk/Americana Album of the Year
Dear August

Folk/Americana Artist of the Year
Sharp & Harkins Band

Jazz Song of the Year
Clear Blue Betty

Jazz Album of the Year
Harris Lemberg

Jazz Artist of the Year
Randal Harrison

Pop Song of the Year
Robert J

Pop Album of the Year
Mark Croft

Pop Artist of the Year
Mark Croft

Rock Song of the Year
The Lucas Cates Band

Rock Album of the Year
Robert J

Rock Artist of the Year
Clear Blue Betty

Unique Song of the Year
The Gomers

Unique Album of the Year
The Gomers

Unique Artist of the Year
Know Boundaries

Urban Song of the Year
dumate

Urban Album of the Year
Know Boundaries

Urban Artist of the Year
Felicia Alima

World Song of the Year
JAH Boogie’s Natty Nation

World Album of the Year
JAH Boogie’s Natty Nation

World Artist of the Year
JAH Boogie’s Natty Nation

DJ of the Year
DJ Fusion

Non-Genre Awards

Compilation Album of the Year
The Best of Urban Theatre, Vol. 1

Ensemble Vocalists of the Year
Madison County

Entertainer of the Year
JAH Boogie’s Natty Nation

Female Vocalist of the Year
Laura England
Jessi Lynn

Instrumentalist of the Year
Tracy Jane Comer

Male Vocalist of the Year
Robert J

New Artist of the Year
Blue Beyond

Studio of the Year
DNA Studios

Wish You Were Here Award
Joe Bainbridge

People’s Choice Awards

Cover Band of the Year
The Gomers

Live Music Venue of the Year
The High Noon Saloon

Local Music Radio Station of the Year
WORT

Local Music Record Store of the Year
B-Side Records & CDs
The Exclusive Company

Local Radio Personality of the Year
Lee Rayburn

Youth Awards

Youth Vocalist of the Year
Felicia Alima

Youth Ensemble of the Year
Alton Kelly

Youth Instrumentalist of the Year
Jesse Banks

Student of the Year
Joel Weng

Teacher of the Year
Jim Kyle

Special Awards

Meritorious Achievement Award
John Urban

Michael St. John Lifetime Achievement Award
Richard Davis

Launchpad Awards
Village Idiot
Alton Kelly
Pillbox 49


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Tonight, Strollers Theatre kicks off The Miss Firecracker Contest, a Little Miss Sunshine-esque tale featuring a beauty pageant and zany relatives. Audience members are invited—but not required—to take part in the action. And at Barnes & Noble West, Tom Farley presents his book The Chris Farley Show.

Madison Ballet offers Pure Ballet!, an exploration of the dance form through six original works, Friday and Saturday. Also starting Friday, and continuing through Sunday, the annual Syttende Mai Norwegian festival gets underway in Stoughton.

On Saturday, the Alliant Energy Center becomes a meeting place for Madisonians interested in alternative and natural living with the Alternative Health & Natural Living Expo. And the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra offer a Side-by-Side Concert at Overture Center.

Also, several new art exhibitions open this week: A two person show of ceramics and fiber work by Rachelle Miller and Pat Kroth takes place at Artisan Gallery in Paoli, as do a group show of works on paper and a display of ceramics by Ruth Hansen. All open on Friday. And on Saturday, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art reveals T.L. Solien: Myths and Monsters, a midcareer retrospective of the UW–Madison art professor and internationally acclaimed artist.

A Photo a Day

Many artists will tell you the key to being good at their craft is practice, practice, practice. And consistency is also a crucial part of the equation. 

Angela Richardson is learning this firsthand—in an entirely new way—through her latest artistic endeavor.

The Madison visual artist and performer is known in a lot of circles around town (she’s a founding member and performer at Cherry Pop Burlesque, runs Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School Madison and is often known by the stage name “Olive Talique”).

Yet Richardson is returning to an early love of photography by participating in Project 365 on the photo-sharing website Flickr. The premise of Project 365 is simple: Participating artists must post a photo every day for a year.

Of course, actually doing this isn’t so simplistic. Richardson has found the daily practice of taking and sharing a photograph has had profound and sometimes surprising impacts.

Richardson started her own Project 365 site on January 22 and has since captured such varied subject matter as a bird silh

ouetted in a tree, a piece of chocolate cake, doodles on a notebook page, a pair of legs (hers) in fishnet stockings and hot-pink stilettos, local architecture and myriad faces.

“I don’t have any preconceived notions,” she says of what scenes catch her attention. “I really do approach every day as, ‘OK, I’m going out into the world.’”

But over time—she’s now only about a third of the way into the project—she’s learned to spot a good shot.

“As I go along, my eye becomes more finely tuned,” she says. “When I see a picture, I know to 

stop and take it.”

When Richardson posts a photo, she also offers a written entry “to provide context, share info, vent, crack a joke, tell a story,” she explains on her site. In her words as well as her images, she typically presents a mix of humor, optimism, thoughtfulness and beauty.

When viewed together on Richardson’s site, the photos appear to have been chosen as a collective, not a piecemeal accumulation. That the images complement one another is testament to the strength of each person’s individual vantage point, she says.

“The fact that they look neat together is because it’s seeing the world through one person’s eyes,” she says. “I tend to be optimistic. I try to see the beautiful. I have faith in the world and I look for images that reinforce that.”

Taking the time to capture an image every day, as opposed to breaking out a camera only for special occasions, has had a slowing, almost meditative, effect on Richardson.

“It’s also taught me to look really carefully and pay hyper-attention to things,” she says. “I’ve been really moved by the fact that there’s absolute abundant beauty everywhere. It’s been very joyful in that way.”

Over the past few months, Richardson also has learned to trust the process, that she will get a photo every day, even if it comes later than she’d like. “Images are absolutely everywhere,” she says. “I can’t even escape them—and I mean that in the best way.”

She reached her one-hundredth-photo milestone just before Gallery Night last Thursday, and showcased her images at Winnebago Studios. She also hopes to have a show next year after she wraps the project.

Richardson isn’t sure what she’ll photograph before then or what her feelings on the project will be at that point. But she’s grateful for the chance to be “forced” into working on her photography on such a regular basis and adopting a daily practice.

“I didn’t really question the wisdom of that before, but I didn’t understand what that meant,” she says.

For more information on Angela Richardson—or to see her photography or purchase a print—visit her Flickr page or artist site, or email her at angela-art@charter.net.

Richardson’s photos shown above are Sometimes…, This is the beginning of a new story, Contrast and Ha ha ha!

COMING UP: A few events to check out this week

Jazz lovers should check out Tunes at Monona Terrace this evening when MadiSalsa Latin Jazz performs.

Madison Opera offers its first production of tragic opera Lucia Di Lammermoor on Friday and Sunday. Meanwhile Encore! Studio for the Performing Arts debuts its first full musical, Found Money, on Saturday; the production runs through May 24.

The Chazen Museum of Art transforms into a big top on Saturday with circus performers, entertainment and, of course, art. Also on Saturday is the Madison Area Music Awards at the Barrymore Theatre.

Don’t forget Mom this weekend. Olbrich Botanical Gardens presents a Mother’s Day Concert Sunday afternoon, while the UW Arboretum offers a Birding before Brunch walk, Mother’s Day Brunch and Mother’s Day Walk.

And next Tuesday through Sunday, Overture Center presents the musical comedy Monty Python’s Spamalot.