University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 22, 1988
11
Arts & Entertainment
Nature enthusiasts' artwork displayed Spencer exhibits collection
By Debbie Bengtson
Kansan staff writer
The Prairie Print Makers first got together on December 28, 1930, when 10 artists and one art enthusiast gathered at Birger Sanden's studio in Lindsborg to group together and create enthusiasm for the arts among the general public.
The group had two types of members: active members: the artists; and associate members: art enthusiasts. The associate members received a gift print, usually of a landscape or a person, made by an active member each year from 1931 to 1965 for a membership fee of five dollars, except 1963 because no gift was made.
The Prairie Print Makers exhibit is on loan from Bud and Ruby Jennings of Lawrence at the Spencer Museum of Art through Aug. 7.
Bud Jennings said he got involved in collecting prints from the Prairie Print Makers through his appreciation for the art of printing.
"Drugs, tobacco and alcohol are not the only things that are addictive," he said at a gallery talk Saturday at the museum.
The exhibit is special because it is the first time the 34 gift prints have been presented together. Also on exhibit are ten prints presented by the museum which were made before the group was formed.
Stephen Goddard, curator of prints and drawings at the museum, said the group didn't produce a print in 1963 because of their lack of enthusiasm.
"It's a group that started out with enthusiasm and vigor in the 1930s; as time went on, enthusiasm waned," said Goddard. "I assume they couldn't find artists to make a gift print."
1.
It's a group that started out with enthusiasm and vigor in the 1930s; as time went on, enthusiasm waned. '
Stephen Goddard
Curator of prints and drawings
Spencer Museum of Art
Goddard said the group collapsed in 1965 because of the changing times.
"Like any art movement, they maybe ran out of steam," he said. "The world was changing, and so was their outlook."
Goddard said the group was heavily influenced by nature.
"There isn't any non-objective art in this show," he said. "It's fair to say their interest is dominantly landscape and figure."
Ruby Jennings said she and her husband had been collecting the prints for 10 years. They have found 96 of 100 other prints made by the 100-member group, one of them in Montreal.
Bob Jennings said he collected the prints because they had sentimental value for him. The actual value of the prints ranges from $25 to $2,000.
"It's art of the times, like a lady hanging out wash to dry," he said.
"It's understandable art. It depicts things you don't see anymore."
Ruby Jennings said the exhibit embodies enthusiasm for the art of painting.
"What this show really captures is the enjoyment the artists had making and working with prints," she said.
Lawrence orchestra to play Liberty Hall
Ron Simonian, Overland Park senior, playing Melvin in "Melvin Loses Weight," jumps over Tim DePaeper, Emporia senior, while DePaeper films a scene for the movie.
By a Kansan reporter
The Summer Festival Orchestra's first concert will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St. The orchestra, composed of KU students and Lawrence residents, will perform Moart Symphony No. 40 and Teikovsky's Violin Concerto.
The orchestra will feature Zilian Xu as its conductor. Ben Sayevel, assistant professor of violin, will perform a violin solo.
Xu studied conducting in China before coming to the United States in 1984. He is conducting the Lawrence Youth Orchestra and is
Students produce, direct film
The Summer Festival Orchestra will begin its season 3:30 p.m. Sunday with a concert at Liberty Hall. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for KU students.
assistant conductor for the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra
Sayevich studied violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
By Debbie Bengtson
Kansan staff writer
Martha, jogging around the pond, spies a young man lying on his back. From his brightly colored sweatpants, she concludes he is yet another victim of the jogging craze. He is breathing but doesn't look good. She asks if he is all right.
"Yea." Melvin says, as he lies on the ground, weak from the workout. "Why, don't I look all right?"
It's not the new Meryl Streep film being directed by Mike Nichols. It's 'Melvin Loses Weight,' an 11-minute film made by University of Kansas students, filmed Saturday on campus.
"Cutt!" yells the director. "This is all wrong, Jenny. Martha has just stopped jogging. You've got to be out of breath when you deliver your lines."
The film is about Melvin, a love-struck guy desperately trying to lose weight at the command of his overly righteous girlfriend.
"In the end, Melvin loses the weight," said David Yonally, Overland Park senior, who wrote and directed the film. "But it is physical weight he loses, it's mental weight. He gets out of a destructive relationship."
Melvin jogs to lose weight and meets Martha, also jogging to lose weight for her boyfriend.
"Everyone can identify with trying to lose weight," Yonally said, "and also being in a destructive relationship. That's what makes this film good."
Tim DePape, Emporia senior,
produced the film. He said "Melvin Loses Weight" was originally
produced on video. The response was so good that he and Yonally
decided to make it a film.
The film is made independently of the University by DePapee and Yonally.
Yonally said the film was a huge step technically and dramatically. They used a 16mm double system. The 16mm film is smaller than that of feature films, but the sound quality is the same. Yonally said.
DePaepe and Yonally have worked on five other projects together, including a fake commercial, "The Eject Alarm." They met while working on the set of "Fairy Tale," which was filmed in Lawrence two years ago. But they said this project was their best.
"I am so confident about how this will turn out that we could enter it in any festival," said Yonally. "And we couldn't have a better cast."
Ron Simonian, Overland Park senior, plays the overwrought Melvin. He said he had a lot of experience on stage but not with film.
Yonally and DePaepe. "This is first time I can honestly say that brown-nosing is for real," he said.
He said he enjoyed working with
Shannon Broderick, Leawood senior, plays the nagging girlfriend, Michelle. She said she enjoyed playing the role because Michelle was so much different from herself.
"I don't worry about my weight, and Michelle was blinded by this losing-weight obsession," she said.
Broderick said that the University didn't allow a lot of experience in film, yet in the past two years it had started to change.
"Any experience for a college student is great," she said. "Getting your feet wet in film is a valuable experience."
Martha, the young woman Melvin falls in love with, is played by Jenny Barrick of Overland Park. She plans to attend the University
of Arizona or a university in California, where she plans to major in theater. This is her first time working with DePape and Vyn
"Melvin Loses Weight" will premiere late next month, DePaepe said.
"We have been so busy with filming and planning that we haven't looked for a place to premiere the film," he said.
In/Form, a performance art troupe from San Francisco, presents its audio-visual program. The troupe performed Monday night at the Transmission Gallery at 11 E. Eighth St.
Andrew Morrison/KANSAN
Art troupe has loud message
By Monica Hayde
Kansan staff writer
The message was clear, the photographs were moving, the illustrations were disturbing and the music was loud.
Review
In/Form, a performance art troupe from San Francisco, presented a powerful audio-visual message about perception and information to about 50 people Monday night at the Transmission Gallery, at 11 E. 8th St.
Hilary Binder, Chris Ranken and Candace Batycki used recorded and live music, illustrations, photographs and the spoken word to call for a decentralization of information sources and the need to question everything from advertisements to government ideology.
inner 45-minute, rather preachy, performance, called "The Bottom Line," focused on homelessness, poverty, drugs and the AIDS crisis.
The performance was thrown together in about a month, Battyki said. The piece was conceived for an anarchist convention in Ontario, Canada. The group plans to take its show to about 20 more cities in the United
States and then go to Canada.
While Ranken played the bass guitar and Binder gave her heart and soul to her drum set, Batycki, at first, assumed the role of a homeless person. She spoke the words and conveyed the misery of a person who was the victim of corrupt and inhumane government policies. But the driving music, although it was instrumental in creating an environment, often overpowered Batycki's words.
Later, In/Form explained its version of the origin of the AIDS epidemic. Batycki told about biological warfare laboratories and prisoners who volunteered to be used as guinea pigs in exchange for their freedom, while Ranken and Binder let out wailing screams in the background. Yes, they created an atmosphere that forced the audience to think, but we have to wonder whether what In/Form has to say is any more believable than the "centralized voices of information."
"Were drugs created to combat disease, or were diseases created to sell drugs?" Butycki asked the audience. It's an interesting question to ponder, but once again, cynicism can lead to a closed mind as easily as anything else.
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