news – carlisle studio

Well ba-low me down, as Popeye used to say. It certainly has been a while since I posted a blog entry.

Dang, does anyone even know who Popeye is anymore? Ug,ug,ug,ug,ug…

Popeye the Sailor is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre.

But yes. I haven’t posted anything because I’ve been very, very busy making art for two exhibitions at the Sidetracked Gallery at Artspace in Loveland, CO., beginning back in early October of 2023. One opened in Dec. the next immediately following in January.

The Artspace campus in Loveland showing some of the Sidetracked Gallery space in the lower left

I also conceived and coordinated a large exhibition (and 3 events) for Artworks Center for Contemporary Art, (where I have my studio), also in Loveland, CO., that the board of directors asked me to have ready for a March 1 opening.

Artworks Center for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Loveland CO

And I have been continuing, as always, to work on the pinkStardust installation.

But, since I am wanting to finish blogging about the making of The pinkStardust Blues music video, I am going to create two separate blog postings about the exhibitions at the Sidetracked Gallery and create another posting about the exhibition and events at ACCA, and publish both at a later date.

So please watch for postings on: The Road to Guadalupe with my mini installation Moonlight in the Age of Aquarius, The Every Day, and The Artworks Artist Invitational and events.

In the meantime, where was I? Oh yes. Back in January I posted the following: “Next posting will include more discussion about RatWorks Productions, the company who’s filming of The pinkSardust Blues music video and I am proud to say is their inaugural project. I will also include some images of some toss cards that I made in 2012, comparing them to what I created and used in 2023/24, and some more stills of the making of…”

First of all I got the video production company’s name wrong. It is Ratworks Studios out of Fort Collins Colorado. Here is their logo (below). As they are such a new company they don’t have a social media presence – yet. They are busy though, and soon will have a large enough portfolio to be out there spreading the news about their talents and capabilities. And, as I mentioned back in January, I am privileged to have The pinkStardust Blues music video be their first project.

Ratworks Studios – Joey Arebelos and TJ Lesmeister. Watch for them, because they are going to be important players in the creative business of film making very soon.

Working with Joey and TJ was really special. Collaboration is the term I would use to describe the experience. Yes, I had a concept and a vision for the music video when we began but they talked with me about ways to expand that vision and the resulting video is fantastic. I couldn’t be happier. I think it accomplishes exactly what I wanted it to – a 3 minute over view of the pinkStardust project / installation. And that is a challenge as the project can entail a very complex discussion.

TJ on the left by the camera, Joey talking with me, and Caryn, our director of photography, in the background (holding the pink “fallout” umbrella) and chatting with Zoe (our Edie Sedgwick reference) and Steve (our Bob Neuwrith reference).

Though not part of Ratworks Studios Production Company, Caryn Sanchez also worked on our video. A documentary film maker in her own right, Caryn was on our team as our Director of Photography and her input, insights and experience were invaluable.

Caryn actually helped me with another aspect of making the video when she was discussing how one pitches an idea for a film. “Can you get it down to one or two sentences?” she asked me. After much discussion before any filming even started (or recording of the music for that matter) this is what we came up with. “Is it me or was this nuts!?”, referring to our atomic testing times, which is the theme and focus of the pinkStardust installation.

I have only shown the finished music video to family and some friends – mostly those who have been taking this journey with me for a long time (remember, I started working on pinkStardust in earnest back in 2012). I will post the link to the music video once my exhibition proposal has hit the desk of my intended – not a romantic intended. I mean the curator I hope to collaborate with on this project. I’m visualizing packing up a UHAUL with the work, unpacking it at the museum’s dock (or whatever way they take in exhibition work) and bringing pinkStardust to life in their gallery.

I also have some ideas for collaboration highlighting their collections, and events that we could present during the run of the exhibition. But we’ll see.

Well, this turned into a longer posting than I intended. And I was going to show you those toss cards and more stills from when we made the video. So I guess I’ll go ahead and publish this blog entry and go right into making the next one. It’s helping, as I’m working intently on the exhibition proposal for pinkStardust right now and creating the blog postings are clarifying some things for me.

Oh. By the way. Here is the wonderful logo that Joey A. created for me based on the 2012 poster image I made for pinkStardust. You know, the one I talked about in an earlier posting, that Andy helped me finish (one of my first experiences of what it’s like to work with a muse). Ain’t it great? Thanks Joey!

I’m so grateful.

Thanks. And cheers!

The music video. Part II. Choices

Making a music video implies one has music in the first place, no? And I didn’t yet, at least not recorded (turns out music in one’s head doesn’t count). So as I began to search out the help I would need to create the music video for The pinkStardust Blues, I began to ask around about finding someone to sing and record The pinkStardust Blues.

Barbara, a friend I have worked with on many projects, suggested I contact one Saja Butler at Urban Monk Studios in Fort Collins. Best damn advice I could have gotten. And fortunately for me, when I pitched the project to her, she said yes!

Saja performing. Here is her website: http://www.sajabutler.com

Saja sings The pinkStardust Blues like she was born to. During our first meeting I was popping up to use the john when I heard Saja humming the tune in the kitchen. When I returned I said “That’s it! You’ve got it.” Just the sound I was hoping for. She rocks it.

Down to the basement recording studio we went. Saja singing and playing guitar, me voicing the call backs as I call them.

First chorus

Saja singing: “Atom splitting”
Me calling back: “Uranium”

The schematic of a uranium atom (R) printed on the back of Hiroshima Maiden from the Four Enola Geisha – the paintings that will be exhibited in the installation pinkStardust. The back of the painting has been skinned in aluminum foil (matte side out) – part of the nod to Warhol (and Billy Name from Warhol’s first Factory studio) that I give Andy in much of the installation. After all, he’s my main muse on this project.

Saja singing: “Atom splitting”
Me calling back: “Plutonium”

The schematic of a plutonium atom (above ) printed on the back of Nagasaki Maiden from The Four Enola Geisha, on aluminum foil. Images of the front of The Four Enola Geisha paintings will not be shared until exhibited in the pinkStardust installation.

Saja singing: “Atom splitting”
Me calling back: “Currie’s call”

Dr. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer. Or as I call him in the *pinkStardust* timeline ‘Daddy O’

Saja singing: “Atom splitting”

Me calling back: “Oppie’s fall”
OOoooooooo…

As the song The pinkStardust Blues continued to move from conception to existing in our phenomenological world, hearing Saja sing it, playing the guitar while sitting in her basement studio, my excitement grew. Hearing the song come to life has been amazing.

And, as with much of how this project has developed, when I was telling my friend Claire about it over a glass of wine, she mentioned that her hubby Matty plays stand up bass. I love stand up bass! Would he consider playing on the recording? Turns out he would, and did! Mix in my brother Cliff’s playing harp (sent to Saja from Ohio) and oh man am I a happy gal.

Saja’s mixing is perfect. Not fussy, or over produced, it sounds like we are all sitting on the back porch singing the blues about “…our atomic history and where we might be bound” (from the last verse of The pinkStardust Blues).
Thanks Saja!

In the meantime, and during my attending to the recording of the song, I again found the perfect people to create / produce the video. Enter the creative visual folk – Caryn, Joey and TJ.

And, I found the perfect people to join me in ‘acting’ in the video. My daughter Zoe (channeling Edie Sedgwick, thanks to hair and makeup by my sister Robin – yes, it’s a family affair and I am blessed with a very creative family) and her friend Steve (the two referencing Ginsberg and Neuwrith in the Dylan video).

Steve and Zoe relaxing after the shoot. Yeah, there’s a light streak across my darling Zoe’s face, but I like this pic – so there ya go.

Next posting, I continue to chat about choices made – how they are sometimes informed by both synchronicity and timing and how though one’s creative vision must be maintained, one must not cling so tightly to it that one loses out on the chance to expand, increase, enhance…
Cheers!

Tag Archives: news

The pinkStardust Blues – post production

The pinkStardust Blues