Page 17 - the NOISE May 2013

Long Holiday by kody taylor exemplifies the artist’s capturing
of nostalgia, featured at Gallery one 13 this may.
Aspen, and will be part of the Flagstaff First Friday ArtWalk on May 3, from 6 to 9PM.
Galleryone13.com
THOUGHTS AS BIRDS
carolina benavidez is finishing up her last semester at Northern Arizona University, and is one of the 3 BFA students featured at beasley Gallery at northern arizona uni- versity through May 10.
Her show is a collection of monotype prints and paintings. The monotype print process is new and exciting discovery and she tells me about her monotype series,
‘Thoughts as Birds.”
“The one’s I have at the gallery I used relief
printmaking, and then I scraped the ink off. I really like that process. The images come out soft. It doesn’t have much definition; I really like that about it. The prints are all about a book I started reading, Bases of Yoga Sri Au- robindo. They talk about calming your mind, and your thoughts as birds. I visualized that and that is what the prints are about. I have figures, but they’re not representational, the birds are coming off of them, or they are holding them, or looking at them. I wanted to illustrate the principle of detaching your- self from thoughts and emotions so you can figure out which ones you want to accept. I want to keep reading that book and make more. I really like illustrating parts of human beings that I can’t touch.”
In the midst of a full school schedule, Ms. Benavidez has also been teaching private art lessons to children. “Giving art lessons to kids has been a great experience,” she says. “For example the last lesson with one of my students, before her ballet practice, I introduced her to Degas. We focused on his monotypes of dancers, and then she learned how to print her own monotypes of dancers.”
“The most important thing is that they have
fun and room to make creative decisions, so they will keep loving art,” Ms. Benavidez shares. “It is sad that so many people stop drawing at a young age, because of frustra- tion or being discouraged. Working with kids has encouraged me to keep making art. It is relieving to see someone make sponta- neous decisions and truly enjoy their time. The creation process can become stressful as an adult, when we become too concerned with the audience’s reaction. Seeing the kids work freely has been refreshing. Their feel- ings about art are genuine. When they get bored with a piece of art, they stop and start a new one, with no regrets or negativity. I hope I can inspire them to never lose their sense of wonder, and never stop doing what they love and makes them happy.”
20 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANCE
This May is the fourth annual flagstaff performance arts & film festival and the 20th anniversary of canyon movement company.
Gina darlington and Jayne lee have been friends and collaborators for over 20 years, and together are presenting a Gala Festival Concert featuring local and guest dance groups May 3 and 4 at 7:30PM at the clifford e. White theater on NAU Campus.
To celebrate two decades of dance, Can- yon Movement is bringing back some of their favourite dances from years gone by. Work as far back as 1996 is revived and alive on stage.
Ms. Lee tells me, “We were founding members with Kristen Widmer McBride, the three of us are doing a trio called Confluence, which brings all our work together; little bits of all our choreography.”
“Canyon Movement has always been a col- laborative choreographic group,” Gina dar- lington tells me. “So even though there’s
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thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • MAY 2013 • 17