Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida Sings at Community Call to Prayer at the Sunshine Cathedral, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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I continue not to report on my art, Art in General, and/or the philosophy of Art.

I've just had the single most impressive musical experience of a lifetime singing in the March Concert, "To Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful" with the Chorus under the direction of Maestro Gordon Roberts and the Symphony of the Americas under the Baton of Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese.  Regrettably singing at the Community Call to Prayer last night was the last time I will sing with this phenomenal group of men until next Christmas because my husband and I will return to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware before the June concert, “Lights, Camera, Action”.  Never the less, I can not leave the group without an extremely heartfelt thank you to all those who make this chorus possible, Maestro Gordon Roberts, Assistant Director Harold Dioquino, the Board of Directors, Leadership Team, Section Leaders and Administrators, Team Leaders, all those who buy tickets and attend our concerts, but most especially from my position, the chorus members themselves.  This has been the friendliest group of talented men it has been my pleasure to be with.  There is not a hint of the prima donna among them.  Instead, there is only passion for our common goals, love and friendship.

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As part of that vision, last evening we sang The Awakening, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the Community Call to Prayer.  That service at the MCC Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale was part of the extended nationwide Call to Prayer on the eve of the Supreme Court of the United States hearing of marriage equality cases.  Last night I was moved to tears during the service knowing the greater cause we are part of, and because I will be leaving the chorus until our return to south Florida next November.

* Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida Website, http://www.gaymenschorusofsouthflorida.org/index.html, viewed 11:30 AM EDT, Tuesday, March 26, 2013

©Copyright 2013 Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida All Rights Reserved - - - Photography By Ginny Dixon GinnyDixon.com

Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida Singing with the Symphony of the Americas!

Rehearsal at Amaturo Theater, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Monday, March 18, 2013

Thank you Symphony of the Americas for inviting us to sing with you. I was over joyed to sing with the orchestra and chorus Tuesday evening.  And, I am so excited to be singing with the GMCSF under the artistic direction of Maestro Gordon Roberts and the orchestra under the direction of Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese Friday and Saturday nights, March 22nd and 23rd at Sunshine Cathedral, and again Sunday, March 24th at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts! Thank you everyone (Chorus and Orchestra members) for one of the top 10 musical experiences of a lifetime.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Symphony-of-the-Americas/157240151020892?fref=ts

Wonderful

Once Again I interrupt this visual art blog. This time I'm interjecting an entry about 
the musical arts

To Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful

Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida Performs with the Symphony of the Americas

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I’m so excited to tell all my friends about our upcoming concert, under the baton of both Maestros, James Brooks-Bruzzese, artistic director of the Symphony of the Americas, and our own Gordon Roberts, artistic director of The Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida.  Last evening was our first rehearsal with Maestro Bruzzese who conducted us in Beethoven’s Hallelujah Chorus from the Mount of Olives, What a Wonderful World, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and America the Beautiful.  And, what a (wonderful) experience!  He has a (wonderful) presence, unassuming, calm and humorous, but forceful.  We had been practicing the Beethoven at half the speed, and I have to go back and work on the piece again because I had trouble keeping up, not because he is difficult to follow - he is not - but, because of my lack of voice training. 

I count myself as extremely fortunate to be singing with this marvelous (wonderful) chorus for my second season.  One hundred fifty voices strong, the music we make together is amazing, and this performance with the Symphony of the Americas will be doubly so. Two of the performances will be at our venue, The Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale and they will benefit the chorus.  The other two performances will be at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra’s venue, and those will benefit the orchestra.  I understand that a few of the seats at the cathedral have just become available again.  If you live anywhere along the Florida Gold Coast, may I suggest you consider attending one of these concerts, March 19 and 24, Broward Center, and March 22 and 23, Sunshine Cathedral.  All our friends who have attended Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida concerts in the past have been thrilled, and I’m putting that mildly.  However, it would be best to contact a member of the chorus to obtain seats because the Website purchasing page is sold out.   I believe there are also a few more seats to be had at the Broward Center.

I have to emphasize it again, these performances will be wonderful!

* The above images were taken of the Home pages for both the Symphony of the Americas at http://symphonyoftheamericas.org/, and The Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida at http://www.gaymenschorusofsouthflorida.org/ for educational one time use, on Wednesday, March 13 at 11:45 AM EDT.

A-Gay

"A-Gay, A List Gay, noun" (8" x 8") Jaunuary 2013

A-Gay, A List Gay, noun

 I’m not as satisfied with this painting as with most of the “Gay Dictionary Series.” A-Gay refers to those gay men and lesbian women who have money and social standing. Some of them are movers and shakers. Others just have money and/or social standing. At the same time the TV series, “A-gay” portrayed the tiresome lives of a group of male model types with episodes mostly made up of sophomoric squabbling A.K.A. as bitchiness. As part of the center of the painting I used a publicity photo from the "A-Gay" TV series, repeated it in different sizes, stacked, cut apart, and partially buried in paint, then subsumed within the contents of the rest of the painting. As such I contend that the photograph is so altered as to become just another part of my painting, “A-Gay, A List Gay, noun.”

However, that mangled photo is not the part of the painting that I am dissatisfied with. First, I made the bottom two layers of slightly different hues of pink, one a rosy pink, and the other magenta pink, and evidently the two are so close in hue and shade as to read as one. Also, my large photos of fruit buried under one layer of paint seem to be anomalous to the meaning of “A-gay,” though it is possible to read them as social commentary on the Television series. I now realize that I should have done another layer of paint over them. I don’t feel as though the painting deals at all with the movers and shakers type of A-List-Gay. At the same time I am satisfied with the color scheme and composition of the painting, though I think some of the others in the series are better composed.

There are bound to be some works that are more successful than others, and I’ve found in the past that viewers often like works that I don’t. In fact sometimes viewers totally misunderstand the work, completely missing the meaning intended by the artist.* Be that as it may, I am done with “A-gay,” A List Gay, noun,” and have moved on to an entirely new batch of paintings for the series.



* I must do an entry sometime about my SUPER REAL Yellow Tulip painting made way back in 1979 that was seen by two viewers as a giant yellow oyster or frog.

Amphierotic

Also, Amphieroticsm

 Amphiertic, The Gay Dictionary Series (8" x 8") January 2013

I did not know or use “Amphierotic” either in writing or speech before doing the Gay Dictionary series, so when my search for gay related words found it, I jumped on it – yes, I know that is an unfortunate pun.  The word is synonymous with “androgynous” and almost to “bisexual” and is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “capacity of erotic reaction toward either sex.”  In the future I shall use it whenever the occasion allows.  I can find no extended definition with word origin, though “amphi” meaning “both sides” comes from the Latin by way of the ancient Greek tongue and is related to “ambi,” meaning either/or. The term was invented by the Hungarian Psychoanalyst, Sandor Ferenczi (Ferenczi Sandor in Hungarian usage).*

I’ve imbedded bits and pieces of historic amphieroticsm in the layers of the distressed painting including “The Right Honorable J. A. Plantagenet Stewart,” (a cross dresser) painting by Thomas Hazelhurst (circa 1800).  A photographic image of Sandor Ferenczi is partially buried in paint and paper near the center of the artwork.   I’ve also buried the definition of AC/DC as electric current as well as the vernacular form that is synonymous with amphierotic in the layers of distressed paint and torn paper.  There are other buried and lost historic images, and some purposefully left very visible.  These are not my images, nor do I own them.  They were found on the Website, “Homo History,”  a great site for images specific to gay and lesbian history.


*Ferenczi (1873-1933) was an associate of Sigmund Freud.  Ferenczi advocated for a more active role on the part of the psychoanalyst than Freud.  He believed that an active empathy was the foundation of interaction between patient and psychoanalyst during therapy.

Queen

Gay Dictionary Series, "Queen" (8" x8") January 20, 2012

Not the rock band – instead it’s another in the Gay Dictionary Series.  I used two nostalgic images of rather obviously partnered gay men from the Website, Homo History:  Reclaiming Our Past and Ruffling Some Feathers.  I also found a paperback book, Idylls of the Queens, Greenleaf Classics, Inc., first edition (1968), value, $124.00 at Amazon.  Yes, that was $124.00!  So, I do not own a copy, just used the image, buried in paint and repeated different sizes so as to telescope the image creating an illusion of hidden depth.  Hopefully that illusion at the center of this montage will help to lead the viewer into the painting.  The glittery orange-red band around the perimeter of the artwork is made from a photograph that I took of glittery cloth that I have processed in photoshop to be of many shades and hues.  There are other images hidden in the layers of paint.  Can you find them?  I don’t feel the artwork is as successful as most of the others in the series.  However, artists are notorious for being dissatisfied with their own finished work, and viewers may surprise.

Queen as a stereotype of a flamboyant gay male has been around since the 1930's.  There are many subtypes including  drag queen, bean queen, size queen, and many others.  A detailed history of queen in all its various permutations can be found in Wikipedia.

Fruit

Fruit, mixed media distressed painting (8" x 8") January 30, 2012

Number 16 in the Gay Dictionary Series is “Fruit.” Along with the terms “fruitcake” and “fruity” it is one of the more obvious pejoratives used over the years to denote persons of my ilk. These terms indicated the widely held belief that all gay men behaved in a manner that heterosexuals considered to be womanish or “effeminate.” The terms are, unfortunately still used by those who hold prejudice against gay men. In contemporary LGBT life the terms are used humorously,and/or as terms of endearment as in “I love fruit,” or “you’re a real fruit, sweetie.” Newer terms have appeared that combine fruit with other terms such as "fruit machine," used to describe LGBT (more specifically gay male) nightlife.

 In the artwork I play with “fruit,” pun literally, as well as look for historical references to behaviors that gay men purposefully used with one another and flaunted in front of their heterosexual brethren. These include a photo that I tore and painted over from a 1970’s San Francisco Pride Parade. Buried in the layers of paint and text are my own photographs of actual, apples, figs, and peaches. The red and gold borders are made with painted tape and metallic pen in that order.