Modern Day Expressionism....

.....That is the name of the exhibit currently showing at the ARTery located at the LAB in Costa Mesa, which for those of you who don't know, the ARTery is a series of reclaimed metal storage units refashioned into a small art gallery. Maria and I went to the opening reception for the show this past Saturday and got to see some really great artwork. There was an exceptional turnout of art patrons, students as well as artists, which was great because the show is for a good cause. The artwork in the exhibit is all for sale and a portion of the proceeds will be given to UNICEF. Aside from getting to have a good time taking pictures, eating, drinking, and enjoying the art we got to meet some really talented artists. One of which was a guest on our show today: John Bunney.

It was really great talking to John in the studio today because he has been a working artist for about 10 years now and grew up here in Orange County. We're all about supporting the local art community just as the ARTery does so we're were happy to hear what John had to say. He talked about working with acrylic paint and how working with that type of fast-drying medium contributed to the expressionism theme but also how his style kept it contemporary. John also discussed a series he painted of west coast city skylines that he did after doing some traveling, two of which are being shown.


John Bunney
Seattle, Orange



John Bunney
Vancouver, Green

If you can tell John likes to embrace color in his pieces as well as geometric shapes to create these abstracted cityscapes. Having confessed to being a fan of the decorative arts, much of his work reflects that. He even told us that these paintings were hanging in his place for a while and that parting with them is kind of bittersweet. I also got to catch a glimpse of the work he's doing now and I was pretty impressed. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of him in the future so you guys keep your eyes peeled for him.

Here are some more pictures of the rest of the show with some shots of some of the artwork... but there's nothing like going to see them in person! Go check it out! The show runs until May 2nd, so don't wait too long.




























Always a pleasure.
-K

serious case of the 'mondays'

Mondays are just the worst. We get it. Even as disembodied voices coming over your speakers, we are not immune. So, in order to combat the universal foe that is 'Monday' we had our friend Amanda co-host with us again, our metaphoric "spoonful of sugar" to help the "Monday medicine" go down. We always love having Amanda in-studio with us because she definitely brings a level of class and intellect that is just not achieved between me and Maria alone.
For today we chose a topic that was fitting for having our friend help us out on the show: "Collaboration". I know we've been doing a lot of music stuff for you guys recently but I've been dying to share some of these new albums with you guys. So today we talked about Broken Bells and their new, self-titled album. Nothing felt better than spinning their tracks on the air --- really. As we mentioned on the show, Broken Bells is a collaboration with The Shins' lead singer James Mercer and producer Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse.



We are loving this folk/indie, electronic hybrid. I'm a big fan of The Shins, but you don't have to be a fan of The Shins to appreciate this all new band. James Mercer's pure vocals are only highlighted by Danger Mouse's contribution of synthesizers and other digital noise. This album is really a great representation of successful collaboration because it takes two music makers from different genres to create a really cool, unique sound. It has a somewhat familiar sound to The Shins in James Mercer's voice, but it's just the little hints of futuristic synthesizers that take this band in another direction. If you loved Wincing the Night Away you're really going to enjoy Broken Bells. Regardless, this is a great album and I expect to be hearing loads from Broken Bells in the near future.



Here's the link to their website where there are tons of really cool graphics and videos for you guys to check out :
http://www.brokenbells.com/home.html





Always a pleasure.
-K

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

You think that after all this time we would be able to successfully play a song on the radio, apparently this isn't true. Technology is a tricky mother... It can either make your life simple or it can screw you in the worst way possible. It wasn't a complete tragedy that we couldn't play some songs from She & Him's Volume Two, but I really think our listeners were deprived a really beautiful moment... driving in the car, windows down, with Zooey Deschanel's soulful voice whipping through the air and M. Ward's guitar chords keeping you grounded. But to make up for it, here's one of my favorite songs from the album Thieves.



Regardless, we had a great show. We talked about musicians and their ability to appeal to audiences visually via album artwork. Musicians don't always have the ability to express themselves outside their music. Many of them rely solely on their music and their lyrics to convey something to their listeners and so cover art is a great way to expand on certain sentiments that exist within their songs. Marketing and advertising aside, cover art is as important to an artist as a music video or a performance. Sometimes a song cannot reach its full potential without some assistance. This also allows for great collaborations between graphic artists and musicians.
Here's the website that Maria was talking about with some really great examples of album artwork:
http://inspiredology.com/99-best-designed-album-covers/

One of the examples we talked about was the album artwork for She & Him Volume Two. I think that the cover art is able to achieve a separation of the music from both Zooey Deschanel's and M. Ward's previous work. Zooey is an already established actress and rather than putting a photo of herself on the cover, they opted for more simplistic, childlike drawings, similar to Volume One. And the artwork created for the covers definitely reflect the playfulness of their music.






Also, we talked about the exhibitions that are going on on-campus right now, "Hang Fire" in the UAG (University Art Gallery) by the Cyber A Cafe and "Ornamented Exigencies" in the Room Gallery right around the corner. I really want to encourage you guys to go to these exhibitions because there are some really interesting works at both exhibits. I'm not going to tell you much... which means you'll have to go see for yourselves!



Both exhibitions go until the 16th of April so go check it out! You can find more info on the UAG website:
http://ucigallery.com

Thanks for checking in everyone! xoxo
-K

Same Show, New Time, Clean Slate

Alright guys, we're back! Still on the air! And we're both very excited about our new time on Mondays from 4:30-5:00! Since we previously had an hour long segment, we now want to make sure to give you guys the best show possible in the short amount of time that we have. And we are going to do that by better preparing interesting topics that you want to hear about and getting great guests in the studio. I also want to keep you guys better updated on the goings-on of our show more consistently here on our blog.
So today on our show we had our friend Amanda Ghattas (look her up on Facebook, I'm sure she would love some friend requests) on, and the topic up for discussion was "inspiration". As we all know, inspiration can come from anywhere and the strangest things as we saw in the example we discussed on our show, Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest album IRM.



Gainsbourg, a French actress and singer known for her roles in films such as The Science of Sleep, I'm Not There and more recently Lars von Trier's Antichrist, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 2007 and needed to have an operation to repair the damage and then six months of MRI scanning of her brain. It would be the rhythmic sounds of the MRI machine that would inspire Gainsbourg's newest album and song IRM, which represents the French translation of MRI, "imageries par resonances magnetiqués". And who better to help Gainsbourg produce an album inspired by technology and digital sounds than recording artist Beck, who even lent his vocals to one of the songs on the album, Heaven Can Wait.



The discussion then turned to technology in general and how its inspiring a whole new generation of art. Our guest Amanda introduced us to interactive-media artist, Scott Snibbe who utilizes technology to allow museum goers to become parts of his artwork, like in the example Amanda talked about where the movement of museum patrons is tracked throughout the gallery in order to create an image of all the pathways in museum. We also talked about some sculptures by Wet Design that are interactive and very much grounded in new technology and engineering.
[Check out http://www.snibbeinteractive.com/ and wetdesign.com]

An important thing we discovered while talking about these art forms on the show is that it is just as important to embrace new technologies and new art forms as it is to hold on to the dying art forms. Embracing the "new" will give rise to new creativity and new innovations. And although people may argue that the internet and technology is overstimulating and desensitizing the youth of America, you cannot deny that new technology and the internet can ultimately lead to an entire new generation of engineered artwork and the spread of creativity and knowledge faster. In art there is a grand sense of community and camaraderie and the internet plays a large role in uniting the art community across vast distances.
Thanks so much for tuning in and logging on. Catcha later.
-K

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

We had an awesome photographer come talk to us last week named Melissa Lee, also known as Melly.

Visit her website to check out some of her amazing photography!

mellylee.com

Big Kids

Last week we had our friend Brenda on the show and we had a good time! We got to just hang out and talk shop about her artwork, her writing and the things that inspire her most. Much of Brenda's artwork centers on childhood and adolescent themes. We discussed how a lot of her pieces represent a specific longing for her youth and how a lot of people can relate to that same universal desire for an escape. In addition to being a painter and a sculptor, Brenda likes to write as well, allowing her to truly express her unique voice. What it really cool and unique is that Brenda often times combines the two-- her art and her writing-- by including text in her images.
We really had fun with Brenda and so we'll hopefully have her back sometime in the future!


Kyle, Brenda and Maria at KUCI

-M+K

BLKGLD

This last week on All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go we had some special guests on our show, Christopher Singam and Christian Lorenzini from BLKGLD. Everyone better keep a look out for BLKGLD because we have a feeling that these guys are going places. Completely self-taught, Singam and Lorenzini are artists out of Long Beach who are currently designing and producing their own t-shirt line. Let me tell tell you now, having seen some of the finished products up close, they've really got some talent. These two 19-year-olds are determined to get their names and their brand out there and with their poise and professionalism, they've got what it takes! Not only are they designers and graphic artists, Singam and Lorenzini are currently looking to expand their company and branch out into photography and film. Seems like the sky is the limit for these ambitious, college students, but they are well on their way to making things happen for themselves.



To stay updated on all things BLKGLD visit Christopher Singam's blog:
ayerealtalk.blogspot.com

or look him up on facebook:
facebook.com/csingam

And lookout for their upcoming website:
BLKGLD.com

If you want to hear from the guys them self and our interview please visit:
http://www.kuci.org/podcasts/?ShowID=950

Unto the Breach

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go has finally made its debut on KUCI and to be honest we're so relieved! Both Maria and I were nervous wrecks pushing through today's show but now that its over we're looking forward to many, many more and to getting better on the air live! Just to recap, on today's show we simply introduced ourselves, gave listeners an idea of who we are as well as introduced the main objective of our show: to delve into the world of art, discuss the many different forms of art and creating, and to promote artists in the community as they share their perspective and their creative process.
We also discussed our own definitions of art --- although different we both seemed to agree that art can be anything! Also that the many different forms of art can be made for so many different reasons including political commentary, commercial purposes, personal self-expression, and public statements. Some of the examples we talked about were Post Secret (a good example of both private and public art) and Starbucks art (a salient example of commercial art). Then we transitioned to talking about the accessibility of art and where it can be found aside from galleries and museums, the internet being a very accessible portal to the art world. People are able to share their paintings, photographs, designs, music, etc. by merely posting it on the internet through the many art collective websites and social networks.
Art is always changing and evolving, which is why we are so excited to devote our show to it! Tune in next Wednesday at 10am to hear more from us!
-Kyle and Maria

Music on played on All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go:
Human by Carpark North
Untrust Us by Crystal Castles
Hardcore Days and Softcore Nights by Aqueduct
Feeling Better by The Teenagers
Fountain of Youth by The New Amsterdams



Photo courtesy of Marc Johns Has a Blog. (draw.vox.com)