NCECA 2011

Last week I went to my first NCECA ever. This year it was in Tampa, and we made our long journey to Florida via university transportation, which was a huge van that unfortunately had no storage compartments. After the very long drive, we arrived in Tampa at about 4:00 PM and we had an hour to set our booth up and everything worked out great. Now it was time to enjoy being social with other artists like us.

The 1st day, Wednesday, was really humid and some of us used the morning to travel around to some of the different NCECA exhibitions, and then I managed the booth, talked with students interested in our programs, and met a lot of people. Later in the afternoon, my friends and former professor from undergrad arrived and I was able to meet up and talk with them for a while.

On Thursday we saw some terrible weather. I mean, torrential downpours and fierce lightning that caused a bit of damage across Florida. I ran around a bit exploring with Tiffany and Symon (friends from undergrad), and we stopped by the cup sale, which was amazing.

Friday's weather was perfect. Walked around the exhibitions some more and a couple of lectures. The first one called "The Art of Drinking" which I was pleased to find out included raku, and then a talk about how to make the most out of promotional media. After that, Tiffany, Symon, and I sat on a floating dock outside the conference center so we could enjoy the weather until Tiffany had to go to her scheduled critique. Later, we three, our friend Patty, and Doug Gray (my former professor and now friend) all went to Ybor City, which was just a 10 minute trolly ride away.

Click for Photo Gallery on Flickr.

Despite the bad weather that blew through, I thoroughly enjoyed NCECA and would love to go to next year's. It's all the way in Seattle, so we shall see if I can manage to get out there.

Music You Should Get [of the Week]

In the recent few months, I have become a huge fan of electronic music with tribal elements. This started with Fever Ray (the solo project of The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson), and I have ever since been addicted ever since.

Fast forward to the most recent artist I discovered that fits in this ethereal category: Glasser.



Cameron Mesirow, AKA Glasser creates her primeval sounding music with many electronic synths and other modded instruments, thus blending the futuristic into her primitive, tribal sound.

You can see a bit of her process here:



Her debut album Ring leads you on a celestial journey. She incorporates gossamer melodies with deep, earthy drums, and creates a beautiful otherworldly sound. I highly recommend the album, and I consider her one of the best new artists to emerge last year.

Incredible Art [of the Week]

My fellow ceramics grads and BFA's visited the Mint Museum of Craft and Design a couple of weeks ago to view their exhibition, Contemporary British Studio Ceramics: The Grainer Collection. Unfortunately, we were only able to to take photographs in their permanent collection. The Ceramics exhibition was pretty amazing to look at and I'm glad we were able to make the trip up to see it.

In the permanent collection of contemporary art, they have a large and amazing glass section. Immediately my attention was grabbed by a giant installation by Danny Lane and I wandered up to the fascinating glass wave.

If all goes as planned, I will hopefully be able to share art that I find and inspires me each week, as well as updates on my current work.

Adele - 21 - Review

Perhaps one of the most talked about albums of the year thus far is Adele's new album entitled 21. The London-born singer/songwriter's music can best be described as a heart-wrenching variety of jazz and soul.


The songs on 21 cover various situations on the common theme of heartbreak, but do so in such a headstrong style with powerhouse vocals to match. Adele possesses the raw and rare talent to capture pure emotion within her vocals, a skill that is sorely lacking in most popular music artists today. This particular genre of music is unfamiliar territory for me, so I'm not sure what it could possibly be comparable to. However, I do know that Adele is a very welcome talent to the popular music industry.

It's her timeless sound that has drawn me to her music. The thick, jazzy drumbeats of the first track ("Rolling in the Deep") hooks in the listener somewhere in between the tambourine, her effortlessly climbing vocals, and the layered chorus. This powerful intro is quickly followed by the saucy "Rumour Has It", definitely one of the highlights on the album. The jazzy percussion and vocals speak about that all too familiar notion of gossip in a vengeful, sassy flavor.

Perhaps one of Adele's best features on this album is creating heart-wrenching ballads of loves lost, but keeping one's head up in hope and remaining dignified. It's done in a beautiful way, whether it be accompanied by a lonesome piano, soaring bluesy vocals, a sorrowful and exposed ballad, or the most heart-wrenching song on the album, "Someone Like You", a song of love lost to another, but wishing them a happy life.

Adele creates amazing up-beat melodies as well, such as the incredible, and my current favorite, "Set Fire To the Rain". Her voice swirls with her music and lyrics, creating a fiery atmospheric experience. This kind of effect is difficult to achieve, and is something that makes true music such a powerful force.

The album is a cohesive whole - a gorgeous showcase of true talent. I highly recommend this album no matter what your preferred taste may be. Adele's voice and unique compositions make this album a must listen.

Welcome

I had been wanting to change the title of my blog for some time, so I moved it here. Named for one of the most beautiful songs, A Noise Severe (The Gathering), I feel like it's a better choice, especially since I adore music so. The blog will also be featuring art, fashion, or anything else I find visually interesting and I hope to post a lot more than I did on my old blog.

If you wish to view my former blog and the old entries, you can do so here.