Moments: The Resurfacing of DJ Struntz
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Head into the arts in the Triad this November through these events
The chief marketing officer for The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County stopped by the Local Vibe to give a preview of November to put in your calendar!
Toon Joosen Splices Snapshots of ’60s Life into Tongue-in-Cheek Collages
“Oh, island in the sun.” All images © Toon Joosen, shared with permission
Artist Toon Joosen (previously) continues his retro mashups, splicing two distinct images into ironic and amusing juxtapositions. Having amassed an enormous archive of magazines and newspapers from the 1960s, Joosen tends to identify a pair of clippings “that together strengthen or alienate the whole,” he says. Through warped perspectives and exaggerated scales, the resulting collages reveal the artist’s signature wit as they depict people lounging on massive lilypads, a young boy spraying whipped cream on a beach, and a fisherman reeling in love.
Joosen sells his collages as prints, cards, and more on Etsy, and you can follow his latest creations on Instagram.
“Let’s take the stairs”
“Let’s make a story of our own!”
“It’s the same boy who puts snow on mountaintops”
“True love that’s a wonder these days …”
“Hold on, I’m coming …”
“I still haven’t found what i’m looking for…”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Toon Joosen Splices Snapshots of ’60s Life into Tongue-in-Cheek Collages appeared first on Colossal.
DMTV Milkshake: Creating “Brutally Handmade” Work With The Long Confidence
Rafi Ajl makes beautiful objects through laborious methods: Just get a look at the mold he uses to craft stunning glass vessels. “I knew that I wanted to have this way of working a little bit more freely,” says Ajl, the owner of design brand The Long Confidence in Berkeley, California, and the star of this week’s Milkshake. “We had always worked with glass with our kind of tabletop collection, which are mold blown glass pieces, but I wanted to kind of deconstruct that idea – so I took a traditional wooden mold, and made it so there’s chaos and chance possible every time we use the mold.”
Watch this week’s Milkshake video, and you’ll see the mold itself – the very definition of a chaotic agent and not at all what might come to mind with the idea of a static mold, meant to achieve the same results over time. “[The molds] are kind of beautiful objects in their own right,” he says. “Every time you use the mold, even if you’re blowing [glass] into the mold over and over again, because it’s not a rigid structure and also because it’s wood and it tends to burn away, the results are going to be different, and kind of chaotic, each time.”
This is what Ajl means by “brutally handmade” when he uses the phrase to describe his work, which continues to evolve from its current iteration of, as he puts it, primarily “a lot of wooden furniture, tables, chairs – a lot of seating and things like that.” The restrictions with that brief are self-evident, he says: “That [sort of work] demands a very focused approach – it’s very meticulous,” he says. “When you’re dealing with wood and joinery, the tolerances are very, very small, and it’s not a material – wood – that lends itself to being particularly gestural or plastic.” So he’s increasingly turning to other materials, like glass or ceramic, as he moves to more sculptural ambitions – “Things that you can really kind of use your body to impact and manipulate.” With that change in materials has come an evolution in how he considers his work: still focused on form, but maybe less preoccupied with function. “I knew that I wanted to have this way of working a little bit more freely,” he says. To see the fruits of that investigation, tune in!
Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.
Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.
He refuses to take photos of a gay wedding. Virginia says he’s allowed.
A Virginia photographer can refuse to take pictures of same-sex weddings and say so on his website after the settlement of a federal lawsuit that challenged the state’s ban on discrimination against gay and transgender people.
The state committed in a filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to not require Bob Updegrove “to offer or provide photography celebrating same-sex weddings” or prevent him from expressing that position in promotional materials. The settlement specifically cited the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the case of Colorado web design company 303 Creative, in which the six conservatives on the court ruled that the First Amendment allows some businesses to refuse to work for same-sex couples.
Updegrove’s case shows how the high court’s ruling on free speech will affect anti-discrimination laws throughout the country and how Virginia continues to be a hub for conservative pushback to progressive policies. In both Updegrove’s and the 303 Creative case, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative nonprofit, argued that the work involved was not just a service offered to the public but personal expression.
“Like any other artist, I want to create photography that I believe in,” Updegrove wrote in 2020 Washington Post op-ed after filing his lawsuit. “I believe that marriage is meant to be a unique and sacrificial relationship between one man and one woman that points people to Jesus Christ’s sacrificial covenant with the church.”
The decision is a blow to the Virginia Values Act, a landmark 2020 law that made Virginia the first state in the South to enact wide-ranging protections for LGBTQ people. The bill was signed by then Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and was one of the signature bills after Democrats took control of the state legislature in 2019. Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who introduced that legislation, said Tuesday that in settling the case, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares gave “a sweetheart deal” to “the ultra-right.”
In 2021 Northam was replaced by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has rolled back protections for trans students in ways civil rights advocates said violate the legislation.
“Miyares has complained about prosecutors allegedly picking and choosing which laws they enforce, then he made a deal refusing to respect the law he swore to uphold,” Ebbin said. The attorney general has criticized local prosecutors he considers insufficiently tough on criminal defendants and tried to give his office the power to prosecute some violent crimes.
Miyares said in a statement that the settlement was simply respecting the U.S. Supreme Court decision. “The Supreme Court made clear … that the government cannot compel people like Mr. Updegrove to speak contrary to their conscience,” Miyares said. “As Attorney General, my highest duty is to the federal Constitution.” A spokesperson added that Miyares has not given up his authority to enforce the Virginia Values Act generally.
But Ebbin argued there was no reason to concede this case when a federal judge had already dismissed Updegrove’s lawsuit as lacking evidence that he needed protection from the law. That decision had been on appeal.
Updegrove “has never been approached by anyone seeking his photography services for a same-sex wedding,” Judge Claude M. Hilton wrote in 2021, and “never previously engaged in the type of speech that he claims is currently being chilled.”
These are “made-up lawsuits” that “divide Virginians,” Ebbin said.
In the U.S. Supreme Court case, there was also no indication that the plaintiff had been asked to do work for a same-sex couple. These and other cases brought by the group were pre-enforcement challenges, arguing anti-discrimination laws have a coercive effect on businesses that involve expressive, creative work. The U.S. Supreme Court said it was “more than enough” to raise First Amendment concerns that the website designer could face sanctions under Colorado’s anti-discrimination law.
But the decision was also rooted in the details of that case, in which the plaintiff said each website would be customized to express her personal views and a lower court accepted that the websites were “pure speech.” Unlike Virginia’s law, Colorado’s anti-discrimination law that had been enforced, in another case that ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“303 Creative relied heavily on factual stipulations — agreements between the parties — that were specific to the case,” said Nelson Tebbe, a professor at Cornell Law School who studies religion and free speech. For that reason, it’s “a matter of debate among scholars” how broadly lower courts will apply the ruling.
“My own judgment is that 303 Creative will be enforced in cases concerning wedding photographers and other vendors as well,” he said.
Along with sexual orientation and gender identity, the Virginia Values Act bars discrimination “on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran.” Violators can be fined $50,000, or twice that for repeated acts of discrimination.
A Post investigation found that several vendors represented by ADF had done little or no wedding work before or after their suits for the right to refuse same-sex couples. Updegrove has photographed weddings for many years, along with conservative political events; he said in court filings he attends the same church as an ADF founder. When the group began representing him, it dropped a similar case involving a man who had incorporated a photography business less than a month earlier. That plaintiff has since moved to a different state and works for a tech company.
“We commend Attorney General Miyares and his office for agreeing that state officials cannot punish Bob for exercising his First Amendment rights,” ADF Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said.
Learning the art of printmaking — using a steamroller
PrintHouston’s “Rockin’ Rollin’ Prints” at The Orange Show offers an insider’s view of how large-scale prints are made.
Winter Park Resort, CO, Partners with Native Skiers and Artists to Honor our Connection to Snow, Water, and Land
Winter Park Resort in Colorado has unveiled a new art installation in partnership with Native and Indigenous artists, skiers, riders, and outdoor stewards. The project was developed after four years of discussions, designs, and collaboration on ways to raise awareness of Winter Park’s sense of place, original Native and Indigenous heritage, and snow’s vital importance that extends far beyond recreation.
Winter Park Resort partnered with NativesOutdoors, a Native-owned athletic and creative collective, to identify artists and Indigenous views to guide the project.
The project is named There Is Snow On The Ground, which is the English translation of the Arapaho word “heniiniini’ (pronounced hee nee nee neh).” Comprised of four separate elements, the multifaceted installation tells the story of snow and acts as a catalyst for critical conversations on water, recreation, and land. The four components are: 1. a focal piece installed in front of Sunspot Mountaintop Lodge, 2. a redesign of the Winter Park snow stake, 3. redesigns of Eagle Wind trail signs, and 4. the addition of Native and Indigenous perspectives to historical trail markers.
The focal piece showcases four mountain outlines – Longs Peak, Mount Blue Sky, Byers Peak, and Parry Peak – a nod to prominent peaks to the north, south, west, and east of Winter Park. Those peaks are part of the watersheds that collect melting snowpack each spring and provide life-sustaining resources to ecosystems and communities for hundreds of miles downstream. The piece also incorporates the outline of a river winding down from the peaks to nourish a garden bed that will house native plant species in the summer. The word “heniiniini’” is boldly displayed with a pattern created by artists Jordan Craig, Tesuque Pueblo/Diné/Southern Ute, and Vernan Kee, Diné/Navajo and visual art director for NativesOutdoors.
The structure exists to remind us of the role snow plays in our lives, cultures, and ecosystems. The use of the word “heniiniini’” embeds the Arapaho language into the project and serves to honor the longstanding relationships Indigenous peoples have had with the landscape long before it was called Winter Park. It is the hope of the artists and the resort that this installation sparks conversations about surrounding landscapes and the role we all play in them.
To complement the main piece, the Winter Park snow stake has been redesigned to include the same four mountain outlines as well as patterns created by Native artists. The purpose of the snow stake is to measure daily snow accumulation throughout the year. The other two components of the project, the trail signs and historical markers, are still works in progress.
“Snow on the ground here at Winter Park is important for much more than just fun and recreation. Snow on the ground creates a vital resource — water — for communities and millions of people downstream. There Is Snow On The Ground is a project that will hopefully make people stop and think about the intersection of snow, water, recreation, heritage and history, and sense-of-place here at Winter Park, and join in our collective effort to steward this amazing mountain community.”
– Sky Foulkes, president of Winter Park Resort
“Native nations and people have deep roots when it comes to connecting with the land and water and all the natural resources they provide. It’s been embedded in our culture for centuries and continues to this day. For Native people, skiing can be a space for that connection and to experience the joy with these elements that have always been a part of our cultures.”
– Connor Ryan, Lakota professional skier, filmmaker, and Winter Park ambassador
In 2021 Winter Park published a statement that acknowledged the resort was on historical and ancestral Native and Indigenous land. While the land acknowledgment was a foundational step toward recognizing the role Native and Indigenous people play in our past, present and future connection to the land and water, There Is Snow On The Ground builds on that and deepens the resort’s commitment to keeping access open to all people, regardless of gender, ancestral background, race, ethnicity, or religion.
Mike Arron obituary
My father, Mike Arron, who has died aged 94, was a Manchester-based press photographer. He spent most of his career as a freelance covering major news stories, some of them harrowing.
He covered the disasters at Aberfan (1966), Ibrox (1971), Manchester airport (1985) and Lockerbie (1988), as well as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He rarely spoke of such experiences but was determined to show the world what had happened.
Mike was born in the Levenshulme area of Manchester to Joan (nee Ford), who was employed in service in Cheshire houses, and Morris, a master tailor; he had fled a pogrom of Jews in Lithuania in the late 1880s.
Brought up in Hale, Cheshire, where he attended Bradbury boys school, Mike started experimenting with photography as a young teenager. His parents let him have a darkroom in their back bedroom but banned him from trying out flashgun powder in the house after various dangerous incidents.
He left school at 15 to work at the Northern Press photographic agency in Hale, where, during the second world war, his first commission was to photograph German and Italian prisoners being held at a local camp. Cycling there with a large, old-fashioned Thornton Pickard reflex camera and glass plates balanced on his handle bars, he became friendly with the prisoners and would have tea with them.
In 1947 he signed up with the RAF for his two years of national service, and asked to go into the photographic unit. The officer in charge refused to write down his request on the relevant form, so when he had to leave the room for a short while, Mike liked to tell the tale of how he nipped round to the other side of the desk and wrote it in himself.
He got the posting he wanted, and was sent to Germany, where he was tasked with cataloguing photographs from the Nuremberg trials and of Belsen concentration camp. Despite the disturbing circumstances he developed a love of Germany, and indeed of continental Europe, which remained with him for the rest of his life.
After the RAF Mike gradually established himself as a freelance photographer. He was away from home a lot, but outside work, family and friends were very much his focus. He finally hung up his cameras at the age of 72, when he came home from a job complaining that a PR person had annoyed him so much that he was calling it a day.
Mike married Shirley Newton in 1959 after they had met at a dance in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. At their wedding she refused to wear a white dress because he refused to wear top hat and tails – and that was pretty much how they carried on for 58 years; very different but very together.
For many years Shirley ran the business side of Mike’s activities from home, and in retirement they became regular crown green bowlers. He also enjoyed fly fishing in the remotest parts of Caithness and Sutherland.
Shirley died in 2017. He is survived by me and his three grandchildren, Tom, Lucy and Neil. A son, Simon, died in 2022.
DDW23: The Perpetual Motion that Drives Kiki Van Eijk and Joost Van Bleiswijk
Kiki Van Eijk and Joost Van Bleiswijk, otherwise known as Kiki and Joost, opened up their workshop during Dutch Design Week 2023 for an exhibition entitled Perpetuum Mobile, Latin for “perpetual motion.” It’s a nod to the prolific, dynamic, and ever-evolving output from the design duo – separately, as a team, and in collaboration with others. Work from the past two decades was showcased in the expansive space that lies at the heart of their creative expression – a voluminous space that they had purpose-built entirely from wood, without the use of any glues, nails, or screws.
Handmade from 100% felted wool, this rug was inspired by the strange proportions seen within 19th-century dolls’ houses. Kiki developed the technique herself to mimic a giant embroidery stitch, and the giant rose is a nod to the archetypical image of 19th-century English doll house carpets. This piece was part of Kiki’s graduate collection “We’re Living in a Doll’s House,” and marked the rehabilitation of 100% wool felt carpets into the Dutch design scene, which until then, had been written off as old-fashioned.
Kiki x Ikonic Toys: Kiki’s Dollhouse, Prototype, 2023
23 years after developing the Carpet Special, inspired by the proportions of a dolls’ house, Kiki has designed the house they might furnish – a modern update to the traditional Victorian model and prototype for Ikonic, a Dutch designer toy brand.
Joost x Ice Carpet: Sketch Carpet, 2014, Sketch Carpet, 2020, Sketch Stool, 2019 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Joost’s Sketch Collection, pictured above on the Sketch Carpet, was inspired by his knowledge and passion for abstract expressionist paintings. Made using a spontaneous and expressive approach to cutting, bending, shaping, and welding in the workshop, this gestural way of working lends itself to powerful shapes.
Kiki x Spectrum: PUK SZ 19 2019, Raku Knit Fragments, 2022 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Designed in collaboration with Borre Akkersdijk, the co-founder of the Dutch textile innovation studio of clothing brand Byborre, Raku Knit Fragments is a wall hanging inspired by the Japanese technique of raku, in which ceramics are fired; removed from the kiln resulting in cracks in the glaze; and then submerged in smoke. Kiki wanted to translate this ancient ceramic process into sensory textile pieces which emulate the spontaneity of raku in a softer medium.
Kiki: Raku Knits, 2022 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Another piece in the same series, also created in collaboration with Borre Akkersdijk, expands on her extensive research into the 16th-century Japanese tradition and is inspired by the colors, shapes, and textures of her own raku-fired ceramic collection.
Joost: Beam Sketch Collection, 2023 Photo: Katie Treggiden
The construction of a new exhibition space – an addition to the current workshop, which had to be cleared for this show – inspired Joost to develop Beam Sketch – this new sculptural shelving unit. Wooden beams are often marked with neon pink spray paint during the construction process – Joost applied the idea of “form follows construction” to create this bold collection.
Joost: Tinkered Collection, 2023 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Tinkered is a series of sculptural pieces that Joost has created to explore and embrace the dynamics of a world that is becoming more abstract and unpredictable by the day, with “known social and political structures and systems giving way to spontaneous experiments and new archetypes.”
Kiki x Cor Unum: Soft Candy Bag, 2023 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Inspired by the soft lines of a bag of candy bag, these are actually ceramic vases. The idea came from childhood memories of visiting fairs in her hometown of Tegelen and Kiki began the conception of Soft Candy Bag with a carefully stitched textile, then cast it in clay, giving it the playful appearance that is her trademark.
Kiki x Weef: College Cushions, 2023 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Cutting, pasting, layering, and patching different elements created a vibrant and colorful composition in the Collage Cushions for Weeef. “As we expand this patchwork onto a larger canvas, we weave a series of playful, textured cushions that breathe life into the space,” says Kiki. “Each cushion tells a unique story, a fusion of diverse textiles that harmonize into a visual and tactile object.”
Kiki & Joost x Singer Laren: The Line of Beauty and Grace, 2022 Photo: Katie Treggiden
When the Dutch museum Singer-Laren commissioned Kiki and Joost to create an outdoor bench for its new extension, they reached for the 18th-century text The Analysis of Beauty by William Hogarth for inspiration. In it, he refers to a “serpentine” line – a wavy or winding line as opposed to one that is either straight or simply curved – as “the line of beauty” or “the line of grace.” “According to the theory, S-shaped curved lines indicate liveliness and activity as opposed to straight lines, parallel lines or right-angled intersecting lines, which signify stillness, death or inanimate objects,” say the designers. “The town of Lauren, in North Holland, is already known for a lively artist community, so The Line of Beauty and Grace is a homage to the artistic frenzy of the area and its unique museum.”
Kiki: Structuring Chaos Photo: Katie Treggiden
Structuring Chaos is Kiki’s exploration of the tension between order and chaos and the tension between them – sailing knots that are held together with raku-fired ceramic elements. “These ceramic elements symbolize anchoring ourselves in life and the ropes are meticulously crafted by hand – a process as time-consuming as it is meditative,” says Kiki. “These colorful ropes act as conductors of harmony, emerging from the friction – Structuring Chaos resonates with the human desire for control and order in an unpredictable world.”
Kiki: Ko Tinker Sculpture, 2023 Photo: Katie Treggiden
Inspired by the Friedrich Fröbel quote, “Play is not mere playfulness; it possesses a high seriousness and deep significance,” Kiki turned to her 6-year-old son Ko for inspiration for her Ko Tinker Sculpture – hence its name. Her aim was to capture the freedom children experience when they play without constraints, allowing their minds – and hers – to wander into previously unexplored territories. “This body of work celebrates the art of play, discovery, and following one’s emotions to create freely,” she says. “Fear has no place here. It is a world of openness and purity, characterized by a delightful flow.”
Joost: Brassbars Photo: Katie Treggiden
Exploring the creative potential of left-over brass components, Joost tapped into a wellspring of inspiration that evolved into the Brassbars series of wall lamps. “These lamps capture the reflections and treatments of this precious material,” he says. “A slender strip of light enhances the overall aesthetics, casting a gentle glow that accentuates the brass’s exquisite features, making these lamps both a source of illumination and works of art.”
Lansing’s ornament sculpture returns downtown for the holiday season
The official name of the sculpture is the Orbs of Winter, and it’s become a holiday staple for Lansing residents.
