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arts & culture
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KANSAN.COM | MONDAY, FEB. 6, 2017
Aries
(March 21-April 19) Writing, communications and networking go well. No emotional spending, okay? Don't get all the bells and whistles. Keep written records, as communication glitches may
Taurus
(April 20-May 20) Review budget and spending to make a beneficial discovery. Balance physical work with social demands. Find efficiencies to increase your profits. Don't fund a fantasy.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Your energy surges... make a push and recharge after. Focus on personal matters. Consider what you want next, and make your move. Imagine an exciting future.
Cancer
(June 21-July 22)
Complete tasks and clear space for what's next.
Consider and plan before taking action or spending.
Think over your options.
Keep a low profile.
Keep a low profile.
Leo
Teamwork makes a difference. Invent ways to crowdsource solutions. Your friends really come through for you. Let people know what you're up to, and invite participation.
(July 23-Aug. 22)
Virgo
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Advance your career by saying yes to an opportunity. Accept responsibility and leadership. You don't need to know how. One step leads to the next.
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
You're yearning to get out and explore. Travel exposes you to new vistas and horizons... check traffic before dashing off. Get reservations in advance.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Don't lose what you've got to get more. Nebulous opportunities may not materialize. Review accounts and budget for shared goals. Handle administrative details.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Partnership helps you navigate uncertain waters. Stick to practical objectives, and wait on a purchase. Compromise for a solution you can both live with
Dan Stewart on set. Stewart's film "No Gods, No Managers," recently played at a professional film festival in London
Capricorn
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan.19) Physical effort may be required to get the results you want. Quicken the pace, and step lively. Balance action with peace ful rest and something delicious
Aauarius
Aquatics (Jan. 20-Feb.18) Enjoy time with family, friends and your sweetheart. Relax and practice your creative talents. It doesn't need to get expensive... play together. Share your love
Pisces
(Feb. 19-March 20)
Don't be distracted by old fears. Make a change you've been wanting at home. Talk to family and housemates... they provide the support you need.
the support you need.
Student Dan Stewart's experimental film featured in London-based film festival
▶ GUS HUNNINGHAKE
@gushunninghake
W when junior film studies studies student Dan
Stewart started shooting a film for his expanded media class project, he didn't have a set plan or idea of what he wanted his work to entail.
Contributed photo
That film played a professional film festival two weeks ago in London.
"I rounded up a bunch of people, said, 'Let's go film some stuff,' and then by the end I had figured out exactly what I wanted it to be," said Stewart, a St. Charles, Missouri, native. "So I said, 'Okay, let's do this specifically,' but it came out of sort of an improvised nature."
Stewart's film, now titled "No Gods, No Managers," takes place in the Midwest, and examines teenagers in the suburbs and how they deal with the dark and mysterious situation of living in a dystopian society.
While shooting, Stewart found out that the content he was getting from his filming sessions were dark and expressive.
"My first seed of an idea was to create something very chaotic," Stewart said. "Like an expression of anger...the rest of the pieces kind of fell in after that."
Once Stewart decided that anger was something he wanted to focus on, he sat down with two friends who served as his main actors and started to figure out what specifically they wanted to express in the film.
"We kind of figured out what it is about being here in this place that makes us angry," Stewart said. "What things make us angry? And we kind of made these characters off of those things."
After finishing the film, Stewart decided to enter the film into local and international festivals. Two weeks ago, his project was screened at "Underneath the Floorboards," a festival based in London that examines and celebrates the best in experimental film.
Although the festival screens less traditional
films, Stewart stressed that this film isn't just subject to abstract thinking.
"I think when something becomes too abstract you can't really engage with it as well," Stewart said. "While [my film] is strange and abnormal, I wouldn't say that the layman couldn't watch it and find something to enjoy. I like to strike a balance between some kind of experimental and some kind of regular narrative."
Because Stewart has submitted his project to more than 30 festivals, the film itself remains unlisted on YouTube until he can make it public.
"Usually festivals don't like when something is already available," Stewart said. "So I just keep it under that [listing]. If somebody wants to see it, they can ask me, and I'll send it to them."
Stewart's hard work on this film has seen recognition from the festivals he's submitted it to and from Benjamin Rosenthal, an associate professor of expanded media at the University.
It was in Rosenthal's class where Stewart was assigned the project that eventually led to the production of "No Gods, No Managers."
Rosenthal said that Stewart has a strong work ethic, and his success is reflected in his ability to work hard, refine and constantly
submit his work to different places.
Rosenthal also said that he expects students to create works that show investment in their own vision, something that Stewart does well.
"Dan is an exemplary model of this ethic," Rosenthal said. "And I am sure we will continue to see the success of both his videos, and videos produced in class on the international, professional stage."
Edited by Ashley Hocking
Local sculptor draws inspiration from childhood
Sean Jesse/KANSAN
@sean_jesse
▶ SEAN JESSE
Jacob Burmood, pictured at his farm in Louisburg, earned his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from KU in 2013.
A dusty country road and U.S. 69 meet in Louisburg, Kansas, to form a corridor around Jacob Burmood's "sculpture farm," as he likes to call it.
Burmood, a sculptor and 2013 University graduate in ceramics, owns the 15 acre plot of land, symbolically situated at the intersection of nature and art.
This clash of the remoteness of the country and clamor of cars leaving the city illustrates the similar notion of finding modern art in such a natural place.
Burmood has had his art showcased all across the country, everywhere from the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri, to the streets of Los Angeles. Burmood's mediums include aluminum and bronze, resin sculpture, ceramic sculpture and most recently, drapery which explores the flow of fabric.
"It's a flexible field that illustrates the energy that flows through it, that otherwise we couldn't see," Burmood said of his drapery work.
Burmood recently received a grant from ArtsKC, a fund which makes grants to artists, arts organizations, and arts programs throughout the KC region, for his work with casting draped cloth into bronze. The grant gives him access to more of that bronze, a material that does not come cheap for
most sculptors.
"I think that my childhood and my upbringing had a big role in determining my interests as an adult," Burmood said. "This stream was constantly changing, and it was changing the landscape of the area that I would explore."
In his artist statement on his website, Burmood, now 36, recounts his childhood hobby of "walking along a creek that had carved its way through a wooded area" in his hometown of Springfield, Missouri.
The interconnectivity between the stream and surrounding ecosystem instilled a "sense of deep harmony and simplicity" that Burmood said he seeks to convey in the elements of his art."
"Form was something I was always very responsive to, and not just the form of an object, but the form of a landscape," he said.
The woods behind Burmoood's childhood home was also where he first started
crafting, starting with simple forts and bows and arrows. Even though he said he didn't always think it was something that could "earn [him] a living," sculpting was something Burmood always did.
Throughout high school, Burmood took art classes, before ending up at his hometown school of Missouri State University.
"I didn't immediately know what I wanted to study," Burmood said. "Once I did decide for sure that I was going to study sculpture, I didn't want to leave."
When Burmood spent time as an adjunct professor in design at Missouri State and making ceramic sculpture out of his home-turned-studio, Burmood also delivered pizza. Working part time jobs helped fund Burmood's creativity, and his eventual master's degree.
When recalling applying for graduate school, Burmood said that he, "applied to eight schools and got rejected from all of them." But, obstacles are something the sculptor has become used to.
"Rejection is one of those things that is a constant in the art world," Burmood said.
Four years after undergrad, and with encouragement from his father, Burmood decided to apply to graduate school again. This time, to the University of Kansas.
"I was told that they had a good program, and I knew that they had a foundry, so I was interested in studying bronze casting," Burmood said.
As fate would have it, Burmood was delivering a pizza when he learned of his acceptance to the University.
In his time at the University, Burmood was challer,ged by his professors, something he says helped evolve his work.
"They didn't let me rest on my laurels," Burmood said. "They didn't congratulate me for my successes. They criticized my weaknesses. It was basically like art boot camp."
John Hachmeister, an associate professor in visual arts, recalled Burmood's work ethic during the sculptor's time at the University.
"Jacob was very productive and effective in creating artwork," Hachmesiter said. "He had a singular vision for what he wanted to achieve and he just kept working and working with various materials until he succeeded."
The arts scene in Lawrence was also something that pushed Burmood through his years at the University. The sculptor described the community as "all Bohemia and no Babylon."
Since last fall, Burmood has been an adjunct professor of sculpture at Johnson County Community College. As an adjunct professor, he stresses to his students the importance of incorporating their own interests into their craft.
"Typically when you take a painting class, you're going to be dealing with paint," Burmood said. "If you take a ceramics class, you'll be dealing with clay. In sculpture, it can be anything, and there is literally nothing outside the scope of sculpture."
- Edited by Ashley
Hocking
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