Author Archive: Emily Gindlesparger

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Falora Opens

March 1, 2013 |

Ari Shapiro is a busy man. Despite his successes with Sparkroot and Xoom, Shapiro dreamt of owning a “cozy, hole-in-a-beaut-wall authentic pizza joint.” When a space opened up in the Broadway Village, a historic Josias Joesler shopping center with tile floors and arched windows, Shapiro saw the perfect space. “I had to move my vision up a few years,” he joked. And now,  Falora is set to open March 2nd.

“We knew the space had tremendous potential, but after years of multiple remodels, it needed to be stripped to its core to reveal the rustic beauty, which we are letting speak for itself.” The “we” in this instance is Shapiro’s partnership with Repp Design, who worked with him to create a specific atmosphere at Sparkroot. “They have a wonderful ability to coalesce my vision into a fully-formed space,” he said. And this project’s goal can be described with three words: rustic, historic, and authentic. “I adore the historic architecture of Josias Joesler, who built the entire shopping center in 1939. We want people to feel like they’re eating in an authentic neighborhood pizzeria. Most of the seating is at one long community farm table. The lighting will be dim, music from a vintage stereo. We want folks to hear the crackling oven, get to know one another, truly enjoy the entire experience,” he elaborates. “I think a place can be bustling and comforting at the same time; my favorites in other cities always capture that essence.”

Shapiro’s vision is partly inspired by his trips to Italy, where a sense of community is paired with simple, inspired food. In a nod to the operation of many Italian restaurants, Falora will be a different kind of place in the morning, where homemade breads, jams, and locally roasted coffee from Caffe Luce will grace the table. In the evenings, it will be laden with some ingredients imported from Italy, and others farmed locally. Shapiro provided me with a list that sounds like geographical poetry: “San Marzano tomatoes which grow on volcanic plains near Mount Vesuvius; Mozzarella di Bufala from Italian water buffalo; and Caputo flour, a finely ground flour that has a lower gluten content” will all join local produce from Sleeping Frog Farms in Cochise for seasonal pizzas and salads. “We focus on balancing tradition with a sharply creative angle,” Shapiro wrote, adding that an influence from the “diverse phenom” of New York pizza will make its way onto the menu. After all, Shapiro says, “I am a native New Yorker, so I have a tremendous appreciation and love of pizza, growing up with giant slices from Famous Ray’s. New York truly took the Naples invention to the next level.” The drink selection will be similarly matched, with Italian wines and European beers (“obviously Peroni,” Shapiro added) alongside noteworthy Tucson brews. And for dessert: homemade panna cotta, a magical simmered cream custard traditional to northern Italy.

The name, Falora, is a lyrical invented word meant to sound a little Italian, a little like “flora”, and a little like “flour,” evoking an old world pizzeria atmosphere. The Stefano Ferrera wood fired oven certainly contributes to the character. Hand-built by a third generation maker in Naples, the brick oven is fueled entirely by wood – most use natural gas to supplement – and cranks up to 800 degrees. This oven is the centerpiece that will make Falora’s simple and authentic Napoli pizza possible. If you read Eat, Pray, Love and remember the scene where the author and her friend go crazy over their simple cheese pizzas in Naples, pizzas with crust that’s magically thin and chewy, topped with a sliding layer of buffalo mozzarella and a sprig of basil – if you remember their happy delirium, then you’ll be as expectant for Falora as I am.

 

Up In Flames

February 1, 2013 |

The Sonoran Glass School’s Flame Off Competition

The Flame Off had fairly simple beginnings, explains Tom Philabaum. It was during the 1997 Glass Arts Society Conference – the same year the society became an international organization – when the Philabaum Gallery showed over 30 artists’ work. “Since we had so many great artists in town, it occurred to me that we had to do something fun to further promote the Flame Arts. So, I issued a challenge to everyone, bought five cases of beer, and from six to ten on a Friday night we made collaborative stuff.” It was a spark to an event that not only continued through the years, but also spread a wildfire of similar exhibitions to cities across the world.

“The fire, the flame, the manipulation of molten glass has always kept audiences’ attention, and inspired many to try it themselves,” Philabaum writes about the draw for the Flame Off. “It’s dangerous, scary, and demanding, commanding complete focus. And, through the nature of flameworking, one can create a complete sculpture in one two hour session.” Which is what 24 artists will do on the Rialto stage Friday, February 8th, in an event that has become a highlight of the Gem and Mineral Show.

The Rialto is in its second year hosting the event, which has moved venues several times since its inception. As the audience grew, they attempted to match it. From its humble start in the Philabaum Gallery, the Flame-Off had a few successful years in the Sonoran Glass School when it opened in 2001. Then it took place in a warehouse (too flat), Barrio Brewery (too small), and finally found its home with a crowd to fill the Rialto. “The ‘Flame-Off’ has taken on a life of its own, appearing all over America, and even in some other countries,” Philabaum writes. “Since that time the Flame Arts have flourished and expanded their influence throughout the Glass World.”

And the pressure is on, notes William Justiniano, the Facilities Director of Sonoran Glass School. “At any moment one false move could destroy their art work,” he clarifies, describing the intensity of creating work – which most artists do in the solitude of their studios – under the heat of stage lights and with the acclaim of a crowd at least 500 strong. “The competition is very climactic because the pieces of glass art get more involved as the night goes on,” Justiniano adds. “We have seen glass roller coasters, three-foot-tall vases, giant marbles, glass fairy wings, goblets with winged horse stems, and other wild creations made at these events.” Artists work solo or in tandem with partners, creating spontaneous collaborations that can be viewed both up close and personal and on video. For an art form that hinges on the details, several high definition screens will be mounted around the auditorium to give the audience a look at the growing facets of the work.

As the clock ticks on the artists’ creations, patrons will nosh on barbecue from Mr. K’s, swig from the cash bar, and bid on the pieces taking shape onstage. At intermission, onlookers have a chance to mingle with the artists. Live music from the Satellite Freakout will rock out the night. And when the clock stops and the night is over, artists will have an opportunity to put finishing touches on their work, such as a kiln firing, before they’re shipped off to the Best Bead Show at the Kino Center – where the pieces will feature in competition judging and a silent auction, beginning at 11:30 a.m. that will continue through 4:30 p.m. The pieces are donated by the artists to Sonoran Glass School, and in past years the proceeds have raised over $6,000, a sum that funds the school’s youth development program and its outreach to the community for education in the glass arts. And it just sounds like a flamin’ good time.

 

The Flame Off, February 8th, 6:30 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. at the Rialto Theater, 318 E. Congress St.Tickets $10/pre-event, $15/door. To purchase tickets by phone, call 740-1000. Silent auction for Flame Off pieces continues at the Best Bead Show in the Kino Center, 2805 E. Ajo Way, on February 9th. SonoranGlass.org, 520-884-7814

 

Singing Across the Divide: Border Songs compilation captures the emotions of border politics

January 23, 2013 |

After his first field trip with his students to the Arizona-Mexico border, lined now with a metal fence ripping across the desert, Robert Neustadt wrote a song. The Northern Arizona University professor took his class on Latino Theater, Film, and the US/Mexico Border to the site of their studies to see it first hand, and when Neustadt sat down with a guitar later, the stories came forward. “I wrote that song because I had to write that song,” he explained. “It just sort of came out of me.” He had met undocumented migrants who had been deported – a sterile word for being split from families they’d built in the U.S., or even families they’d left in Mexico – and dropped off in Nogales with no resources to move or mend the divide. The title of the song is an even more sterile term for this separation: “Voluntary Return.”

The song has now joined 30 other tracks from musicians, poets and storytellers in a new album that tackles the emotion on both sides of the fence. “Border Songs” is available on CD Baby and since October has sold over 800 copies; the proceeds amounting to $16,000 are being donated to No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to migrants in the desert and at repatriation centers in northern Mexico.

Neustadt was haunted by what he’d seen across the border: the makeshift camps, the Border Patrol attitudes, the shrines to people who’d died in the heat. He wasn’t the only one. And when his friend and collaborator Chuck Cheesman shared a song he’d also written about the complicated tangle of border politics, the two realized there might be a whole album’s worth of songs like this across the state, maybe even the whole country. “I thought it was such a beautiful idea that I jumped on it and wouldn’t let go until we did it,” Neustadt professed. An album was born.

The sounds of the border songs are as diverse as the people in them. Sweet Honey in the Rock’s strong harmonies lead into the Latino beats of Lilo Gonzalez into the soft dulcet of Amos Lee in the first three tracks. The pieces swing from story and spoken word to ballads, rock, and Spanish-language rap, with appearances from Calexico, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Pete Seeger, Joel Rafael and Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta. Everywhere in between, locally known songwriters contribute tracks. The artists talk about coyotes and Border Patrol and SB1070 and death and love torn away.

Concerts are popping up around Arizona, and Tucson will see one on January 5th at Southside Presbyterian Church. Among the performers is Glenn Weyant, a sound sculptor whose track on the album blends Margaret Randall reading a poem over Weyant playing the actual border wall itself, with violin bows, sticks and brushes. Perhaps above all, “Border Songs” seeks to create an experience of immigration like Weyant’s sound: tactile, tormented, and immediate.

“Border Songs” is available for purchase at CDBaby.com; all of the $20 pricetag benefits No More Deaths.

Border Songs in Concert will be at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St., on Sat.,  Jan. 5 at 7pm.  There is a $5 suggested donation, or admission with purchase of a “Border Songs” CD.  For more information, visit BorderSongs.com or find No More Deaths on Facebook.

Posh Petals: Arranged to Flourish

December 14, 2012 |

For Katie Treat, owner of Posh Petals, setting up her new shop in the historic Tophy Building has brought her into the fold of 4th Avenue. Posh Petals specializes in custom flowers for events, so the retail space is a bit of a blank canvas. It’s a comfortable shop that she’s filled with funky antiques, artful glass vases, flower boxes, pots, and votives.

“Katie collects the best antiques,” says Christina Fey, her assistant, and Katie quips back, “this is everything I can’t fit in my house!” But the collection creates an organic sense of style that nestles nicely into 4th Avenue; with everything pretty and everything for sale. There’s a stage and plentiful room on the walls, so Katie envisions a space for the whole community. “I love being a part of what’s going on down here so much that if somebody wanted to do an open mic night, or somebody wanted to put their art on the walls, I’d be totally open to that,” she says. And with a joking tone, she adds, “I mean, we’re just sitting here.”

The duo is relaxing after the whirlwind of wedding season, which often includes five weddings in a single weekend or even a single day. “Katie really cares about the brides or whomever it is we’re working with,” Christina says. “If for some reason something is missing, or the bride needs an extra boutonniere or anything else, Katie will come back, create it, and take it; because she wants their day to be perfect.” Katie responds simply, “It’s their wedding day. That’s important stuff. That’s stuff that is never going to go away, and part of it is that I’m not going to be that person that they’re mad at 20 years later,” she adds, laughing.

“It’s a dying business to do the job right. I think that a lot of people on 4th Avenue share that idea and it’s part of the camaraderie. People are down here doing what they’re good at; they care about what they do. And I don’t think there are a lot of places like that. It’s great to be part of like-minded people who try really hard.  It really makes this a fun place to be.”

 Posh Petals is located at 224 N. 4th Ave.  408-0101.  Visit PetalsPetalsPetals.com for more information. 

Atelier de LaFleur

December 6, 2012 |

Left to right, Dale Rush, Darci Hazelbaker, Colleen LaFleur, and Jason Gallo. photos Purple Nickel Studio, courtesy LaFleur Plantscapes

A Workspace for Beauty and Sustainability

Stepping onto the broad tiled floors of the new Atelier de LaFleur, visitors are greeted with the scent of flower arrangements displayed across a wall of thin steel shelves, and in the center of the room a 16 foot work table awaits new creations.

“The work table is the essence of the Atelier,” explained Darci Hazelbaker of HA | RU, the design firm that created this space in the historic train depot on 410 N. Toole to house a combined downtown flower market and workshop for LaFleur Plantscapes. “In the morning Colleen may use it to assemble arrangements for walk-in patrons, in the afternoon may use it as a work space for creating all the center pieces for a wedding, in the evening she may host a class for eight to ten people on orchid care, and on the weekend she may throw a farm-to-table dinner party for 15 or more close friends.” The worktable is symbolic of the visions and collaboration of Hazelbaker, Dale Rush, Jason Gallo and Colleen LaFleur, owner of the Atelier. The piece started with reclaimed oak beams found at a Tucson salvage yard, which were then milled locally at Picture Rocks Mesquite and built by the designers into an indispensable centerpiece. “We’re told these beams are close to 100 years old and I believe it,” Hazelbaker added. “It’s the densest wood we’ve ever worked with.”

“We see the ideas of sustainable design as the way architecture should be executed as standard protocol,” she wrote. “We regularly source local materials and craftsman as much as possible, reuse and reclaim materials when appropriate, use products made from recycled content or products that are easily recyclable, as well as employ passive energy strategies, and new green technology when the design and budget allow.” This philosophy is visible everywhere in the Atelier, from the slim steel shelves that can be recycled to the custom steel office desk and vintage rug and lamp purchased locally.

It’s a philosophy that rings true with LaFleur as well. Colleen’s plantscape designs revolve around native low-water flora and her floral arrangements always include a living plant “that can go from the event to the garden,” as she described it. “Our firm’s sustainable operations focus on re-purposing planters and containers, propagating and recycling native plants and succulents from prior event work, encouraging the use of live plants, supporting local artisans and farms and purchasing all of our landscape plants from local Tucson vendors.”

“The concept of an atelier grew out of the idea that if we offered classes and workshops on garden related topics we would provide the downtown urban gardener with a place to network and meet others who shared similar green interests,” LaFleur explained. A traditional atelier is an artist’s studio, where a master and assistants work together, and the idea has been decanted in the downtown Tucson space to a flower shop where customers can work in petals at the bar and learn from the professionals. Classes every week give apprentices an opportunity to learn something more about sustainable growing in the southwest, balcony gardening, or working with design elements of beautiful blooms. December brings workshops on holiday succulent arrangements and “homemade living gifts” that can be planted and enjoyed for years to come.

But perhaps the most important feature of the new flower shop is its beauty. “We wanted the space to have the feel of an old European artisan workshop but also showcase the natural beauty of the living plants and floral arrangements much like an art gallery,” LaFleur noted, and along one wall the squared-off shelves create dark, minimalist frames around splashes of color from the flowers. The two designs complement each other. Of HA | RU, LaFleur wrote, “They shared my passion for sustainability and delivered a space that uses hand crafted, beautiful natural materials.” But in this gallery, Hazelbaker added, “The art is Colleen’s living compositions.”

Atelier de LaFleur is offering  special December classes on Thursday evenings, 6-7pm:  12/6 Holiday Succulent Arrangement, $30 (includes an arrangement to take home) and 12/13 Forcing Bulbs & Homemade Living Gifts for the Holidays, $15.

Atelier de LaFleur, 410 N. Toole Ave., 548-1338.  Visit LaFleurPlantscapes.com for more information.



FOUND in Tucson

October 7, 2012 |

photo: Dan Busta

Every night begins with a stack of fragments: Davy Rothbart steps up to the mic with a fistful of paper scraps – found notes collected from cities all over the world – and Davy reads them, one at a time. There are passionate pleas from lovers, furious demands from neighbors, curious grocery lists. “I try to read them with the energy and emotion they were written with,” says Davy. “They’re hilarious, and heartbreaking, and I try to convey that.”

This is FOUND, a ten year collection of strangers’ discarded secret notes and photographs that have been printed as annual magazines and anthology books. FOUND’s 10th Anniversary tour will have two stops in Tucson this October. Davy is also debuting My Heart is an Idiot, his book of essays about love and relationships from childhood and every corner of the road. “They’re personal, raw stories. The people who come to the shows know me a lot better by the time I leave,” Davy jokes. “It’s been fun to share them, and people come up to me afterwards and share their own stories.” And for Rothbart everything – the essays, the found notes – is about making those real connections with other peoples’ lives. “It’s been really exciting to see that other people share the same fascination for these little scraps of paper. People are curious about who we share the world with.”

Sharing the stage is Peter Rothbart, an acoustic folk singer-songwriter with his own new album, You Are What You Dream. His inspiration is found, too: many of his songs are created from notes in his brother’s collection, and like the notes they run the gamut. The beautiful and haunting song “A Child to Call Our Own” came from a note found in a burnt out car in Hawaii, written by a woman who had just had a second miscarriage; another song came from the plainly labeled “Booty Tape” found on a street in Michigan, where Peter heard someone rapping “The Booty Don’t Stop” and decided to cover it on acoustic guitar.

The night ends, Davy says, with him pulling a stranger up on stage and asking them spontaneous questions about their life, “because so much about FOUND is about getting to know the strangers we share the world with.” In the end every FOUND edition is an art installation, “a community art project that requires the participation of so many people across the globe.” So come join in.
FOUND Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Tour with readings from My Heart is an Idiot by Davy Rothbart and musical performances by Peter Rothbart

October 20th, 7:30pm, Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., 622-8848. $6 in advance, $8 at the door. October 21st, 2:00pm, Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., 791-4010. Free. More info at FOUNDmagazine.com

Variety Show: Tanque Verde Swap Meet’s new Super Sundays

October 6, 2012 |

For nearly 40 years, the Tanque Verde Swap Meet has been a place people can come, peruse, and leave with something fabulous and unexpected. Passing by the space during the week, it looks like a wide dusty lot with a few small trees; but Thursday through Sunday the lot on South Palo Verde Avenue comes alive with people browsing and hawking just about anything that can fit into over 800 booths. On the first ever “Super Sunday,” premiering October 21, patrons will see even more of the fabulous and unexpected.

Flashes of gold costumes and streaks of turquoise feathers will decorate a main stage as Danza Azteca Calupulli Tonantzin perform, their feet following drums and their headdresses radiating like suns. The wide bright skirts of Ballet Folklorico Tapatio dancers will paint the air to mariachi. Jimmy and the Jitterbugs will light up the night with swoony Sinatra jazz swing. Meanwhile kids will get face painting and one free carnival ride along with jumping castles, pony rides, and bubble guns. A fleet of international food trucks will be there, alongside a full farmer’s market to seduce visitor’s appetites. With roving carts offering cold brews, the Super Sunday will be a wacky beer garden where you can browse local crafts and funky throwbacks. “We will have everything from the guy scooping Shea butter out of the shell to farm fresh eggs; basket weaving to vintage clothes; pony rides to Aztec dancing,” says Marie DeGain, Community Outreach Coordinator of Tanque Verde Swap Meet.

“Super Sunday came out of the desire to celebrate Tucson’s culture and landscape through food, entertainment and local offerings. It is a free event that cross-pollinates a local, farmer’s and international market in an outdoor festival atmosphere,” DeGain explains. Perhaps its most amazing factor is the same thing that makes it so unique: the diversity of folks who come to perform and sell. Every band taking the stage for Super Sunday will present something danceable and different. Anyone with fifteen bucks and a garage full of unneeded stuff can rent a space to show their offerings. DeGain calls it “local urban recycling”: hundreds of tons of items are saved from the landfill by bringing them here to sell. “The Tanque Verde Swap Meet represents a Tucson forerunner in green business as well as building a model for community, cultural and economic development.”

Sunday, October 21 will be a great expression of that, bringing together food, music, dancing, people and stuff from all over Tucson. It’s the one place where, as DeGain elaborates, “you can get a tattoo and a custom airbrushed jacket, make your own rock video, ride some ponies, and eat hamburgers from the grill – the best people watching around.”

Tanque Verde Swap Meet’s “Super Sunday,” Sunday, October 21, 11am to 3pm. 4100 S. Palo Verde Rd. TanqueVerdeSwapMeet.com. 520-294-4252.

Come Discover The Avenue at The Screening Room

September 14, 2012 |

“I see the Screening Room as this gem that not everyone knows about,” says Karen Greene, one of the founders of Mind Our Own Businesses, a community group focused on getting people downtown and on 4th Avenue while the street construction fences are up. Her latest project: getting folks to come see The Avenue, a documentary on Tucson’s 4th Avenue and its attendant thriving, non-corporate arts district. The film is showing at the Screening Room on September 15th. The Avenue showed twice at the Arizona International Film Festival to sold-out crowds, and was awarded Best of Arizona in the show.

In an interview with Arizona Public Media, director Alan Williams described his film as an exploration of how this rich local culture survives outside the grips of corporate takeover. “There’s something to be said for what a motivated group of independent artists and business people can do under their own power, and without the help of the city, and sort of working on their own independently and out of absolute necessity, out of sheer survival and self-preservation,” Williams explained. In the film he makes the rounds of businesspeople, artists and regulars, letting them speak from their own experience contributing to the local scene.

“It’s always great to see places and people that you recognize on film,” Greene says of watching the film at the Arizona International Film Festival. “It’s great to see people that you don’t know but that you might see all the time, and to see them on film describing why they’re passionate about 4th Avenue; that really resonated. I thought, ‘Yes! That’s exactly it! You put that into words I can’t come up with.’”

But for Greene, the whole city plays a part in seeing the avenue thrive. “Everything that Mind Our Own Businesses is doing is all about a reminder to the entire city of Tucson that if you don’t support these businesses—if you don’t go out and spend some money at these businesses—they’re going to go away.” It’s a long shot, she explains, but if shops go out of business, what if the modern streetcar goes up and suddenly that looks like great space for national chains? It would change the whole funky local character of the area that this film, The Avenue, is trying to bring to light.

At the Screening Room, “they really like bringing in stuff that’s local and supporting the local filmmakers,” Greene says, “and when choosing a place to show the film, the Screening Room was a perfect downtown locale that, if we’re lucky, will be free of construction fencing by the premiere.”  But if not, Greene urges you to come support the theater and the show behind the chain link. “The things you see there, you’ll never see anywhere else,” she explains. It’s a statement that could apply equally well to our unique and beloved 4th Avenue.

The Avenue screens Saturday, September 15th at 7:30pm. Tickets $4 (to celebrate 4th Avenue). Q & A with director Alan Williams after the show. Location: The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., 882-0204.

 

For more information, check out Mind Our Own Businesses on Facebook, and find “The Avenue” in their events, or look at the film’s site, TheAvenueDocumentary.com


Dreams of Home

September 7, 2012 |

An ‘All-Souls’-inspired Puppets Amongus show goes to Kazakhstan

Matt Cotten, artistic director of the puppeteering troupe Puppets Amongus, has for a long time been deeply involved with the All Souls Procession. “For over a decade, I was part of a team of teachers (Tucson Puppet Works) that held free puppet and mask making workshops for individuals and families to mourn the loss of loved ones, and to honor their lives through celebration. It has been profoundly healing for many people,” he says. Three years ago he created a puppet show for the Procession, called “El Sueno de Frida” (“Frida’s Dream”), that fit right into the Tucson tradition. “I was inspired by a photo I found of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera standing next to giant papier-mache puppets they had made for a festival, brushes in hand. It felt very familiar to me.”

At the end of September, the Puppets Amongus tribe, consisting of Cotten and his wife Sarah, with musician Jimmy Carr, will travel to Tucson’s sister city of Almaty, Kazakhstan to introduce this familiar and vital tradition to audiences at the World Puppet Carnival. “El Sueno de Frida” is a fitting representative of us as the story travels through a “surrealist patchwork” of dream, fear and memory. “I decided to bring the Frida show to the international stage to show how our community has been developing a rich tradition of honoring our past through the integration of multiple traditions, as well as through artistic invention,” Cotten adds.

Also on the trip will be life-size sheep and goose puppets, and a giant spectacle puppet with a puppet stage inside, for a street theater performance of “Tinker’s Wedding,” based on an Irish folktale. The Tucson troupe will join more than 60 troupes from across the globe, performing for eight days from September 23-30th. Come see their farewell show of “El Sueno de Frida” at the Movement Shala.

When they get back, the troupe will be opening a new theater and children’s playspace with a full season of performances on deck for the Puppets Amongus Playhouse. The new space is located on 657 W. St. Mary’s downtown, across from Davis Elementary, and will start shows November 10th with “Hatter’s Hollow.” Check out the November issue of Zócalo for more details on the opening.

“El Sueño de Frida” by Puppets Amongus, Saturday, September 8th 7:30pm, $10, The Movement Shala, 435 E. 9th St. PuppetsAmongus.com, 444-5538. 

photo: Jade Beall


Artists for Autism: a Collective with a Cause

September 7, 2012 |

Local artist Chris Leon’s paintings are bright graphic portraits, some in a pinwheel of colors, others in high-contrast monochrome.  They’re focused, with bold edges, in the highly relatable style of graphic novels.  Leon also gives art lessons to kids aged 5-15, and when he began working with a three-year-old autistic child, something clicked.  “I was blown away at how amazing these kids are and how they function,” Leon said.  “The thing that really impressed me about working with this autistic kid was how close artists are to autistic people.  When I get focused on something I zone in, I want to be left alone; I’m looking at this kid and he’s concentrating on spelling ‘xenophobe’ and he’s only three years old. It’s very, very cool.”  Leon wanted to do something, and when he related his experience to fellow artist Zombilly Ray (who himself has an autistic child) the pair decided to put on a benefit for autism.  “It started off as a little brainchild and it’s kind of blown up,” Leon says of the event that now involves dozens of artists, musicians and vendors.

Artists for Autism, which will take place on September 28th at the Surly Wench Pub, will showcase new work from twenty artists in one night of live bands, DJs, and a silent auction filled with artwork and donations from Razor’s Edge and Lindy’s on 4th.  All proceeds go to Autism Speaks, a nationwide organization dedicated to research, awareness and advocacy for autism.  Just a few days after putting up a Facebook page, Leon was flooded with artists asking to contribute.  “We have a ton of artists who either have a child with autism or know someone very close to them who does: Janeen Bode, Victoria Belle, Stephanie Lewis; I was really amazed at how close this show is to home for a lot of people.”

Zombilly Ray, like so many of the other artists involved, is creating a new body of work for the show focusing on his son and six other children he knows with autism.  “My son has a fixation with cars; he can’t survive without toy cars near him all the time,” Ray says. “I’m going to do colorful portraits, sketching them out, and they’re going to be in with what their world is.”

His son will be surrounded by cars.  On Friday night, September 28th, these artists hope to surround their audience with art and music, and bring about more awareness for children with autism.

 

Artists for Autism, gallery and silent auction

Presented by Chris Leon, Zombilly Ray and Stephanie Johnston
Friday, September 28th at Surly Wench Pub, 424 N. 4th Ave.
8pm-1am, $7

Featuring artists Robin Westenhiser, Janeen Bode, Victoria Belle, Mark Matlock, Ruben Moreno, Jessica Gonzales, Stephanie Lewis, and many more. Music and beats by Broken Arrow, Nate Way, Full Story At Midnight, and DJ Kindaphresh. All proceeds go to Autism Speaks. For more information, find Artists for Autism on Facebook.

Photo: artwork by Mark Matlock

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