Here are my published articles from this week.
The Jersey City Independent:
News:
Art/Entertainment:
The Jersey Journal:
Here are my published articles from this week.
The Jersey City Independent:
News:
Art/Entertainment:
The Jersey Journal:
So a while ago I posted some pictures I took of the awesome Dusty Rhodes, a street musician who plays on Newark Avenue in Jersey City between Grove and Erie streets.
This week, my article featuring Rhodes and another busking saxophonist, Mike Hanley, who lives in Jersey City and plays in New York City, went online at The Jersey City Independent. Here it is.
Busking Saxophonists Bring Joy, Songs to City Streets
Life on the streets isn’t always rough. For busking saxophonist Dusty Rhodes, it’s a smooth, soulful road to joy.
People know him best as the street musician on Newark Avenue between Grove and Erie streets. At his spot, he makes about $80 to $100 a day playing what he calls “Black music.”
“Black music has consistently, from idiom to idiom, touched the world, whether it’s spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, or R&B, it has touched the globe. Hip-hop, house, disco, dance – all that shit. Look how it has truly impacted the world,” says the 44-year-old, who adds that Blacks were instrumental in the development of the currently White-dominated rock and roll. “White people stole it,” he says jokingly.
Rhodes started playing various wind instruments in school while growing up in Newark and picked up sax in his second year at Arts High School.
“I love the sound of the saxophone,” he says. “They say the violin and the sax are closest to the human voice.” He has a long history with his old saxophone which he’s outfitted with a complex system of rubber bands that holds everything in place and keeps it sounding like new. …
So when I went to speak at this year’s ceremony for the Governor’s Award in Arts Education, I got to meet some awesome people, including this woman, Kit Sailer. She’s a painter from Jersey City who received an award for her outstanding work as a teaching artist. I visited her studio to interview her to write an article for The Jersey City Independent.
Pictures by me. Mouse-over for full captions.
Kit Sailer, Winner of Governor’s Award in Arts Education
Jersey City’s Kit Sailer is many things – a carpenter, an educator, a fine artist, and most recently, a winner of the Governor’s Award in Arts Education for her work as a teaching artist.
As a fine artist, the 55-year-old works in periods.
She spent a decade painting, drawing and making prints of sea creatures – everything from seahorses and sea lilies to her favorite, octopuses. Then, after Sailer painted an oil landscape in preparation to teach a class on the medium, she got hooked and has been painting farms, fields and mountains for the past five years. Sailer’s work is a study of natural forms and rhythms.
“I’m very interested in the natural form, the patterns that the natural forms create and movement,” said the Syracuse University graduate. “I love moving, rolling and dramatic compositions like the trees, the farmland and then the fields that are flat and facing south – there’s a pattern and you can see how the land is used impacts the terrain.”
She saw the same appeal in the natural shape of one of her first loves, the octopus.
“There was a starburst shape I was using over and over [in my work] and I thought, ‘I should probably do an octopus,’ so I did. I’ve done hundreds of drawings, paintings, sketches and prints of the octopus…It’s about its rhythm and movement, not the burst. It’s the reaching out,” she says.
“From the octopus it went to the seahorse and then I got into the underwater world. Crinoids, gorgonians, coral forms…I opened up this energetic world that was a combination of the real and the fantastic wrapped into one,” she says.
She discovered the same magic in Montana when she tagged along with her husband Charlie Trowbridge on a business trip. In one week, Sailer produced five oil paintings, four watercolors and several drawings.
“I fell in love with the idea of seeing the landscape as a natural pattern, how it changes and what it meant to the land,” she says. “At the time I was doing coral landscapes and I loved how each coral grew in its own way – this was the exact same thing!” She gestures excitedly to one of several landscapes hanging on the wall of her New York Avenue studio, showing how each tree and hill has a shape and movement of its own.
Sitting down, Sailer says she’s learned to talk freely and enthusiastically about art through teaching. …
Read the full article here on The Jersey City Independent.
Check out photos from my visit to Kit’s studio in the Jersey City Heights neighborhood.
This was my first week news blogging for The Jersey City Independent, where I wrote several blog posts. I’m still trying to find my footing and blogging style for JCI and am also getting used to their style. So far, I’m really enjoying myself!
I also advanced the Everything Jersey City Festival for The Jersey Journal and was a guest blogger for the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival Blog. Overall, a pretty awesome week!
P.S. Some people have been confused – I am currently still freelancing arts articles for The Jersey Journal.
The Jersey City Independent
The Jersey Journal
Also, here is an excerpt from my blog post for the NJYPF blog: My name is Summer Dawn Hortillosa and I’m a 21-year-old playwright and journalist from Jersey City. In 2007, I won the New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest with my fractured fairy tale comedy, The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose. Recently, I directed a production of the latest play I’ve written, Secrets; Love, which was selected for the Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) in New York City. Simply winning the contest doesn’t necessarily launch you into the world of theater, but PTNJ offers valuable experience and inspiration for many young playwrights, including myself. There was something so magical about seeing my characters come to life, feeling the energy buzzing in the room because of my words and hearing the audience laugh at my jokes. I saw my idea completely realized – it grew in my brain, budded on the page and was born on the stage. Many young playwrights don’t ever get this chance; it’s something every festival selection’s writer should savor. After the festival, I decided I wanted to be involved in theater in any way I could and ended up being involved in six productions that year – writing, directing, producing, acting, whatever I could.
I visited one of my favorite places, the Lana Santorelli Gallery, 628 Washington St., Hoboken, today. Here are some shots from their current show “Rhythm and Movement,” which features art inspired by music and dance.
I wrote an article advancing the show’s opening for The Jersey Journal.
The show runs through June 24 and will be part of 3rd Sundays, a Hoboken gallery walk, this weekend. The gallery walk features 10 venues and features a guided tour which will cover half of the venues each Sunday and alternate each month. This Sunday, the west side of the city will be featured.
At LSG, Erik Sheets – one of the artists featured in “Rhythm and Movement” – will be live drawing and talking about his work this Sunday.
These were some of my favorites. Mouse-over for full captions.
So today was my first day doing my full duties at The Jersey City Independent and I put up a few blog posts. So far, I’m enjoying the lighter, more casual and intimate vibe of the whole publication. It still does, however, feature quality writing and some really good journalism and isn’t an alt talking down to the people or exploiting their biggest political concerns without any care for the community’s real needs.
Oh, in case you were wondering what my blog posts were, here they are:
I’m still getting the hang of it but I’m doing my best to learn about JCI’s style and tastes as quickly as possible. So far, my coworkers have been super supportive and helpful in getting me trained and ready for my job. Woohoo!
Also, I now have Twitter! To hear my random musings and get the latest on art, music, theater, writing (and maybe even some news), follow me @SummerHort!