Sculptor Karla Matzke of Camano Island helped national author E. Ashley Rooney write the recently released coffee table book “100 Artists of the Northwest.”
Rooney has written other books highlighting regional artists in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest and the South.
Beginning March 1, the Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park features 25 of the 100 artists featured in the Northwest book. A book signing, opening party and potluck goes from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday. The gallery and park are at 2345 Blanche Way on Camano Island.
People can see the show on weekends through April 13.
The 25 artists showing represent the artistic vibrancy of the Northwest region, Matzke said.
“Using paint, sculpture, glass, oil, clay, wood and other contemporary mediums, these 21st century artists combine, redesign, and transform their materials into pieces of works that change the way we perceive art in the Northwest,” Matzke said.
The artists, including Matzke, are Sabah Al-Dhaher of Seattle, Liana Bennett of Bothell, Brian Berman of Bainbridge Island, Lance Carleton of Lake Stevens, Shirley Erickson of Bellingham, Kathleen Faulkner of Anacortes, Aaron Haba of Camano Island, Karen Hackenberg of Port Townsend, Phillip Levine of Burien, James Madison of Tulalip, Lin McJunkin of Conway, Merrilee Moore of Seattle, Richard Nash of Oak Harbor, Peregrine O’Gormley of La Conner, Doug Randall of Portland, Debbi Rhodes of Camano Island, David Ridgway of Bellingham, Sue Roberts of Guemes Island, Ethan Stern of Seattle, Donna Watson of Camano Island and Bill Wentworth of Poulsbo.
The book, which includes a guide to galleries, sculpture parks, museums and schools, is available for sale for $38 at the gallery.
On April 25, 26 and 27, Matzke will host her Stone Carving Workshop and Retreat for beginning carvers and more experienced sculptors.
Instruction by master carver Alexandra Morosco will cover history, concepts, processes, techniques, materials and tools associated with the creation of three dimensional forms in stone.
Register by March 1 at www.matzkefineart.com or call 360-387-2759.
Photo by Andre Wirsig, source: oingfest.com An outdoor film screening at the 2013 Karl May Festival in Radebeul, Germany.
Oneida Indian Nation, 2/24/14
The Oneida Indian Nation is again proud to announce this year’s participation with the Karl May Festival in Radebeul, Germany. The Karl May Festival is one of the most celebrated cultural festivals in Germany honoring famed German author Karl May. This year’s Karl May Festival will take place from May 30 to June 1 in Radebeul near Dresden, Germany.
The festival regularly attracts over 30,000 visitors and will include lecture, dance and song from the traditional and modern everyday life of the Oneida Indian Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It will also include film exhibitions each evening. Each film presentation includes a short and feature length film about American Indians.
G-Fest (OING-Fest) was founded by the Oneidas: “Our mission is to promote a world-wide cultural understanding and to bridge creative development and thought regarding American Indians and in particular, the Oneida Indian Nation. We hope to bring the finest new works from International filmmakers on the subject of American Indians fostering the vision that film and storytelling is engaging, and can alter the accepted wisdom of all members of a community.”
In addition to the cultural presentations which include dance, song and storytelling presented by the Oneidas at the fest, films made by and about American Indians will be exhibited. OING-Fest takes pride in honoring great work both in front of and behind the camera. Certificate awards will be presented to the Director, Producer, Screenplay, Cinematography and Actor & Actress of the films selected to be exhibited at the festival. Helmut Reader, Karl May Festival Executive Director says, “the film portion of the OING-Fest presentation is new to our festival, and was an immediate standing-room-only success. We look forward to the films of 2014.”
Those seeking more information are encouraged to visit the OING-Fest site at OINGFest.com or contact Festival Director Jim Loperfido by e-mail at jgl@jglmanagement.com or by phone at 315-335-3541.
The UPCOMING DEADLINE for submission is March 15, 2014.
OING-Fest Theme/Niche: American Indians
Film Type: Feature, Short, Animation, Documentary
OING-Fest welcomes a wide range of American Indian stories that reflect personal triumph, diversity, curiosity, and independence. If your film fits the bill, this is the festival for you. Submit your work today!
Please call if you have any questions. Festival Director, Jim Loperfido, 315-335-3541
Sundance’s ambitious drama has fine acting and a sense of place, but it can’t crack the big leagues when the writing lags.
One of the most difficult challenges of ambitiously trying to make a drama that can play in the big leagues of established series is getting everything – absolutely everything – right. In The Red Road, the new six-part series from Sundance TV, one crucial element comes up lacking.
Television is a writer’s medium and Red Road has enough hiccups there to disrupt what is otherwise a very well-acted, well-shot and intriguing series.
That’s not at all to suggest that Red Road is bad or without merit – it’s just trying to get from start to finish with a pretty important blown spark plug making it more bumpy than it ought to be.
The Bottom Line:
A horrible accident and the need to keep secrets has two men on opposite sides of the law making a deal with consequences. Plus lots of other murky stuff and a woman who hears voices. It’s a series too ambitious for its writing.
Creator and writer Aaron Guzikowski sets up a story with a lot of potential. It focuses on conflict between the small Native American Lanape tribe in the mountains of New Jersey and the Walpole, N.J., police. Generations of tension expands dangerously when a young Indian boy is badly injured in a hit-and-run accident that the police are having trouble with. Witnesses believe it was Jean Jensen (Julianne Nicholson), wife of police officer Harold Jensen (Martin Henderson) and daughter of a state senator.
Jason Momoa in “The Red Road” on Sundance TV
That part is true – and the back story of how Jean got up into the mountains on a dark night is initially interesting, but then highlights some of the problems with the Red Road script.
The Jensens, who have two daughters, are having marital problems because of Jean’s drinking. While trying to sober up, she’s having difficulty keeping her emotions in check while dealing with 16-year-old Rachel (Allie Gonino), who is secretly seeing Junior (Kiowa Gordon), a Lanape. This is more than just a race or class issue, we find out, when Jean – prone to flying off the handle at Rachel – discloses that her twin brother drowned when some guy from the Lanape tribe gave him drugs and watched him drown.
Airdate:Thursday, 9 p.m., Sundance TVCreated and written by Aaron Guzikowski
Starring: Jason Momoa, Martin Henderson, Julianne Nicholson, Tom Sizemore
That – and her shaky battle with sobriety – are enough to set up the major hook of Red Road, which involves loving and dutiful husband Harold making the ill-fated decision to help protect his wife (in part to keep his teetering family from splintering). When Jean went off in panic and rage to find missing Rachel – who she rightly suspected was out doing God knows what with Junior — she brought Harold’s service revolver with her and then lost it. The gun is returned to Harold by the menacing (and charismatic) Phillip Kopus (Jason Momoa), an ex-con who has a history both with Jean and Harold (they went to high school together and Phillip dated Jean). In a remote meeting spot, Phillip tells Harold that he can make the issue disappear – promising that none of the witnesses will give a statement implicating his wife, in return for some unknown favor later. This is the “lines will cross” moment that Red Road boasts as its tag-line.
But it’s also part of the trouble. With Momoa and Henderson – and most everyone else – acting the hell out of their material, the story lets them down. While it’s not impossible that a good cop would make a bad decision, it comes too quickly and neatly for maximum believability. And then Red Road veers off by planting the notion that Jean is hearing voices – and seeing things. The voices sometimes control her and the images help viewers see the chaos in her mind – but the tone shift is too drastic and undercuts the gravitas that Red Road was building up.
Beyond that, there a number of instances where characters have dubious motivation changes that don’t seem to suit them. And while Red Road piles on the plot – there are a lot of other plates spinning as Guzikowski unspools the story – it begins to buckle under the weight. For instance, Harold and the rest of the police department are searching for a missing college student in the mountains around the Lanape tribe. They keep coming back to find what they might have missed and yet, in the first three hours, don’t think to check the lake (yep, he’s in there).
Red Road has more ambition than it can keep in check – the story of Phillips drug-dealing, drug-using criminal father (played by Tom Sizemore) doesn’t click and Phillip’s relationship with his mother (played by Tamara Tunie) is also needlessly complicated. While the actors do fine work with what they’re given, those storylines just bog down the movement.
If The Red Road had stronger writing, then the series would have been significantly more compelling. It’s exciting to watch Momoa and Henderson give riveting performances, so it’s not like there’s nothing to recommend here. It’s just that in watching them do it, you wish the story was giving them more fodder and not bogging itself down in side arcs.
“Where God Likes to Be” is a film that captures both the hope and the hardship of life on the reservation.
Filmed over the course of a single summer, “Where God Likes to Be” is a documentary filmed and produced by Nicolas and Anna Hudak. The movie premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula this past week, but its genesis stretches back 10 years ago to when the Hudaks found themselves stranded in Browning by a late winter snowstorm.
Growing up in Kalispell, Nicolas had heard all the stereotypes about Browning: The reservation was dangerous and the last place a white person would want to spend the night. But what he and his wife experienced was altogether different. They were greeted with generosity and hospitality.
“That changed my perspective on all those ideas that I had growing up,” Nicolas Hudak said of his stay in Browning. “Yes, there’s definitely a lot of hardships going on — as there has been for the last 100 years or more. It’s a pretty tough spot to make a living. But there are a lot of good people doing good stuff and just trying to get by.”
In 2009, the Hudaks returned to Browning to document the lives of three young people: Andi Running Wolf, graduating from Heart Butte High School and preparing to go to college at the University of Montana; Doug Fitzgerald, a Blackfeet cowboy from Babb working to support his young family; and Edward Tailfeathers, a young man from Browning debating whether to stay on the reservation or leave in search of greater opportunity elsewhere.
The stories of these three people could easily be transposed to nearly any community in the United States. Running Wolf struggles with homesickness and fitting in at college. Fitzgerald comments that becoming a husband and father came sooner than he was expecting. Tailfeathers worries about finding a job and passes the time singing in a band with his friends.
“Where God Likes to Be” emphasizes the similarities its three characters share with young people throughout the United States, viewed through the lens of life in a community where hope and opportunity are frequently in short supply.
“What’s important here in our film is the deep connection that people have,” Hudak said. “We didn’t set out to make a film about ‘the Indians.’ We were going to make a film about these young people growing up here and what’s important to them.”
However, each of the three characters is deeply aware that the choices they make have the potential to lead them away from the reservation. Each voices concerns about the risks of leaving, and possibly weakening their sense of identity as Blackfeet.
“Everyone I know is here. Everything I have had is here,” Tailfeathers says as he contemplates moving away from Browning. “It’s part of the connection of who you are.”
“Here we are at this cusp of change, and there are two ways this could go,” Hudak said of the decisions his characters face. “One is that everybody just becomes culturally homogenized and there’s really no difference between Blackfeet and anybody else. Or, they can try to hold on to what’s left. This is basically the last generation that has any kind of chance of saving those things that make the culture unique.”
“Then again, they are just American kids growing up in America,” he adds.
Within the first few scenes of “Where God Likes to Be” the viewer is introduced to the film’s fourth main character: the landscape of Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Hudak’s cinematography intersperses sweeping vistas of the Rocky Mountain Front with intimate glimpses of life in Browning and Heart Butte.
“Andi, Doug and Eddie are the heroes of the story, but certainly the landscape is the overseer of everything,” he said. “Part of the reason we wanted to make this film about the Blackfeet in particular is because that area is just so spectacular. There is just something so dramatic and so poetic about the way Browning looks in contrast with Glacier Park. I feel that beauty lies not just in fabulous sunsets, but also in those heavier human elements.”
“If we didn’t teach or learn all these old ways — religion, culture, language — then what are we?” Fitzgerald asks toward the end of the film. “Just a name. This will be a story in a book someone will pick up here and there. I always want to be. Be here. I want to be here where it started and never die, so that my kids will have a good place and be proud of where they’re from.”
Fitzgerald’s words could have just as easily been spoken by any of the young people featured in the film.
As a small budget film, “Where God Likes to Be” is not likely to show at a local multiplex cinema any time soon. To keep track of where the movie is playing, log on to the movie’s website at http://www.wheregodlikestobe.com.
Steve Madison will be at the Hibulb Cultural Center on Saturday, February 22, at 1 p.m. for our Culture Series event. He will demonstrate Pacific Northwest Native Design.
Mike Benbow / For The Herald The Port Susan Snow Goose and Birding Festival is this weekend.
Source: The Herald
Birds on parade: The Port Susan Snow Goose and Birding Festival is Saturday and Sunday in and around Stanwood and Camano Island with free talks, walks, bus tours and activities for kids. Head to the headquarters, 27130 102nd Ave. NW, Stanwood. Get more info in our story here.
Treasure hunt: While you’re in the Stanwood area go hunting for a “clue ball” at the Great Northwest Glass Quest on Saturday and Sunday. Pick up a brochure at A Guilded Gallery, 8700 271st NW, Stanwood, and head out to hunt. If you find one of the plastic balls return it to the location found inside the ball and you’ll receive a limited edition glass art ball. For more info, go here.
A sweet show: “I Love to Dance: A studio performance of original and solo works” will be performed at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at The Dance School of Everett in the former Betty Spooner ballet studio, upstairs at 2821 Rockefeller Ave. You can see the hourlong performances for a suggested donation of $5 that includes dessert. Call 425-259-6861 to reserve a seat. Get more info in our story here.
Films: The Everett Film Festival is Friday and Saturday at the Everett Performing Arts Center. The festival initially was considered a women’s festival. Though it continues to celebrate the strength, humor and diversity of women through film, it now has a wider view and welcomes men and women to submit their films. Get the details in our story here.
Author: Hear Maria Semple, author of “Where’d You Go Bernadette,” speak at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave. The book is an Everett Reads book pick.
Got a clue? Get one in Langley for the 30th annual Mystery Weekend on Saturday and Sunday. The plot? A handsome stranger turns up dead after claiming to be the long-lost heir to a Whidbey estate. Pick up a map and ticket at the Langley Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center at 208 Anthes St. The Coroner’s Report will be given at 1 p.m. Saturday and the solution will be announced and prizes awarded at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Langley Middle School’s auditorium. Get more info here.
Symphony for kids: The Cascade Symphony Orchestra’s annual children’s concert, “Paddington Bear’s First Concert,” is at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N. Call 425-275-9595 for tickets. Cellist Stephen Leou, 11, will perform the 1st movement of Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto. Children also can enjoy the “instrument petting zoo” in the lobby beginning at 2 p.m., where they can test out various instruments.
Author: Bill Dietrich, an author who focuses on environmental issues, will speak about forest concerns at 10 a.m. Saturday at Rockport State Park, 51095 Highway 20, Rockport. The talk will be followed by a guided tour of the park’s trails.
Kids snowboarding: Kids between 3 and 6 years old can try out snowboarding on Saturday and Sunday at Stevens Pass. The boards and the terrain are designed for young kids. Get more info here.
Zeros: The Flying Heritage Collection in Everett will officially open a new display to the public Friday. The collection will have three Japanese Zeros on display. One is in flying condition while two are still undergoing restoration. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Get more info here.
More planes: Learn about the aviation history of Troy, Ohio, and the Waco Aircraft Company and its history of producing excellent wood and fabric aircraft parts. The talk is from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Flying Heritage Collection. Get more info here.
Gardening: Learn pruning tips, with a focus on fruit plants and flowering shrubs, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Coldwell Banker Bain’s meeting room, 108 Fifth Ave., Edmonds. The event is presented by the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club. Everyone is invited to attend the event. It’s free, although donations are welcome. Call 425-774-4991 with questions.
Service: Historian and actress Tames Alan will appear in a free program at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Everett Public Library, 2702 Hoyt Ave. Alan will reveal the colorful culture of servants at Edwardian estates like Downton Abbey. Get more info here.
(Survival International-Associated Press) – This July 2013 photo released courtesy of Survival International shows Hopi tribal elder Lawrence Keevama, left speaking with French attorney, Pierre Servan-Schreiber, center and Sam Tenakhongva, Hopi Kachina Society leader, at the Hopi tribal offices in Flagstaff, Ariz.
By Associated Press, Thursday, February 20, 2014
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Two dozen ceremonial items bought last year at auction in France are set to return to Arizona in a way that pays reverence to the beliefs of American Indian tribes.
The masks and hoods invoke the ancestral spirits of the Hopi and Apache Tribes — who consider them living beings in keeping with tradition — and the expectation is they will be treated as such. That means shipping the sacred items free of plastics, bubble wrap or other synthetic material that would be suffocating. The items also should face the direction of the rising sun, have space to breathe, and be spoken to during their journey.
The shipping reflects the deeply sensitive nature of the items that the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation quietly bought for $530,000 at a contested Paris auction two months ago with the goal of sending them back to their tribal homes in eastern Arizona.
The Hopi and two Apache tribes believe the return of the objects, kept largely out of public view, will put tribal members on a healing path and help restore harmony not only in their communities but among humanity.
“The elders have told us the reason we have the ills of society, suicides, murders, domestic violence, all these things, is we’re suffering because these things are gone and the harmony is gone,” said Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation.
The tribes say the items — 21 pieces are headed to the Hopi, two to the San Carlos Apache and one to the White Mountain Apache — were taken from their reservations in the late 19th and 20th centuries at a time when collectors and museums competed for sensitive items from Western tribes. Tribal archaeologists say the objects also could have been traded for food and water, or unrightfully sold.
In Hopi belief, the Kachina friends emerge from the earth and sky to connect people to the spiritual world and to their ancestors. Caretakers, who mostly are men, nurture the masks as if they are the living dead. Visitors to the Hopi reservation won’t see the masks displayed on shelves or in museums, and the ritual associated with them is a lifelong learning process.
The San Carlos Apache recount a story of ceremonial items being wrenched from the hands of tribal members who were imprisoned by the U.S. military at Fort Apache. Journal entries from the time showed that hoods, as well as medicine bundles and other prayer items akin to crosses and holy water were taken, said Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
“Of course you’re going to be emotional, and of course it’s going to have an effect on your health, the welfare of your people,” she said. “It kills them, it killed us emotionally. Those items were taken care of until those times came. We were forced to hand them over so we could get what? A box of rations, a blanket?”
For the San Carlos Apache, the hoods represent the mountain spirits reincarnated in men who make and wear them in ceremonial dances for healing or when girls reach puberty. Each is fashioned by a tribal member endowed with a gift of being a spiritual leader. Once the hoods have been used, they are put away in an undisclosed location in the mountains, known only to the spiritual leader through a revelation from the “ruler of life,” or God.
If they are disturbed or removed, a curse of sorts can be placed upon humanity, Randall said.
Although the Apaches are among the most successful tribes in getting items within the United States returned to the tribes, they could do little to stop the sale in France.
The auction house argued that the items rightfully were in private collectors’ hands. A judge hearing the Hopi’s plea to block the sale said that unlike the U.S., France has no laws to protect indigenous peoples.
In a similar dispute in April, a Paris court ruled that such sales are legal. Around 70 masks were sold for some $1.2 million, despite protests and criticism from the U.S. government.
The Annenberg Foundation took note of the Hopi Tribe’s heartbreaking loss and in December employed a well-orchestrated, secretive plan to successfully bid on most of the items at auction.
The plan involved foundation employees placing bids by phone and keeping its plan private to save the tribes from potential disappointment. A French lawyer working for the Hopis and Survival International, Pierre Servan-Schreiber, said he spoke with the foundation using a discreet earpiece to keep the objects’ prices from skyrocketing as he bid on behalf of a U.S. benefactor.
“This is how we achieved this brilliant result,” Servan-Schreiber said in an email.
The foundation said it has complied with the tribes’ shipping requests to ensure the items are treated with care and respect. Those requests include shipping the items in specially designed, individual crates, turning them in a clockwise direction and entrusting them to the hands of men.
Should the items be handled contrary to Hopi and Apache practices, the tribes asked the foundation to apologize to the spirits and explain that it’s not intentional.
Two of the Hopi items, which have golden eagle and cooper’s hawk feathers, will require import permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because the birds are protected under federal law. The sacred “Crow Mother,” which sold for twice its expected value at $171,000, requires an export permit from the French government, the foundation said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it also would comply to the extent possible as the items enter the United States.
“It gives me immense satisfaction to know that they will be returned home to their rightful owners, the Native Americans,” said the foundation’s director and vice president, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten.
When the items reach the tribes after traveling overseas from France and to Los Angeles, there will be no extravagant celebrations — just quiet exaltation in knowing that their ancestral spirits will return to the mountainous areas of the San Carlos Apache reservation and to the hands of caretakers in Hopi villages.
“We understand their purpose for us. It’s not to be put up in the old circus shows of the bearded lady or the two-headed man,” said Sam Tenakhongva, the Kachina Society leader from the Hopi village of Walpi. “What it’s here for is to bring life, both for humanity and all living things.”
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