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Arts & Life
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center’s Restore Project features printmaking - drypoint etching with artist Nicholas Hay this Saturday, Feb. 2, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Adults and children age 11 and up of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals, are invited to attend this inspiring class for just $5.
“We’ll use a drypoint technique to draw into a plastic plate with a metal etching pen,” explained Hay. “Participants will be able to make changes and refinements to their image and run their plate through the press several times during class. The process of printmaking is quite magical, and anyone who likes to draw can create compelling images.”
Please register in advance for all Restore classes at http://www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email
MAC encourages folks to come to several classes, to hone skills, learn new ones, and develop a body of work. Participants may also work on monotypes during this class. Printmaking and writers workshop participants are invited to submit work for inclusion in MAC’s second chapbook.
The first, Resilience, a community reframes disaster through art features the work of 22 poets and 17 printmakers who participated in the Resilience project last year, and is available at MAC and on the MAC website. You can preview the book at www.middletownartcenter.org/resilience-chapbook-excerpt.
In the coming weeks Restore participants will begin to collaboratively plan a new Art Trail on Rabbit Hill. A guided tour with naturalist Ed Dearing, and planning meeting are scheduled for Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. to inform an Art Trail design that responds to this specific site and its recovering environment.
This project is part of a partnership with the Lake County Land Trust, stewards of Rabbit Hill. MAC welcomes anyone interested in joining this enriching community project to join the guided walk on Feb. 16 and one or many Restore classes.
The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques. Classes take place most Saturdays or Sundays through May 2019 and include monthly writers workshop, printmaking, sculpture and mixed-media classes.
Restore offers a writers workshop with Lake County Poet Laureate Richard Schmidt on Feb. 9, from 1 to 5 p.m. On Sunday, Feb. 10, also from 1 to 5 p.m., Emily Scheibal will guide participants through creating waste molds for plaster casting. A woodworking workshop with Marcus Maria Jung will be offered on Sunday, Feb. 17, also from 1 to 5 p.m. at MAC.
The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses, and individuals. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s work in communities and schools throughout California.
Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in classes, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events at MAC.
Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up to date with what’s happening at MAC.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The regular monthly Fiddlers’ Jam at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum will be held on Sunday, Feb. 3, from noon to 2 p.m. in the museum’s barn.
Food and beverages will be available for sale.
This month’s raffle basket is a hearts and flowers theme complete with fresh flowers from Flowers by Traci and a Gift Certificate from Woody’s, both of whom are located in Kelseyville.
The Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum is located at 9921 Soda Bay Road, between Kit’s Corner, Kelseyville and Lower Lake. Look for the museum flag.
Visit www.elystagestop.org or www.facebook.com/elystagestop, or call 707-533-9990 for more information.
Food and beverages will be available for sale.
This month’s raffle basket is a hearts and flowers theme complete with fresh flowers from Flowers by Traci and a Gift Certificate from Woody’s, both of whom are located in Kelseyville.
The Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum is located at 9921 Soda Bay Road, between Kit’s Corner, Kelseyville and Lower Lake. Look for the museum flag.
Visit www.elystagestop.org or www.facebook.com/elystagestop, or call 707-533-9990 for more information.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
There are so many fine poems in Richard Robbins' new and selected poems, “Body Turn to Rain,” published by LynxHouse Press, that I had a difficult time choosing one to show you.
This one, though, with its tablecloth trick, is one of my favorites.
Robbins lives in Mankato, Minnesota, and teaches at Minnesota State.
Old Country Portraits
My lost sister used to try the trick
with the tablecloth, waiting until
the wine had been poured, the gravy boat filled,
before snapping the linen her way
smug as a matador, staring down
silver and crystal that would dare move,
paying no mind to the ancestor gloom
gliding across the wallpaper like clouds
of a disapproving front—no hutch
or bureau spared, no lost sister sure
the trick would work this time, all those she loved
in another room, nibbling saltines,
or in the kitchen, plating the last
of the roast beef. How amazed they would be
to be called to the mahogany room
for supper, to find something missing,
something beautiful, finally, they could
never explain, the wine twittering
in its half-globes, candles aflutter, each
thing in its place, or so it seemed then,
even though their lives had changed for good.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by Richard Robbins, "Old Country Portraits," from Body Turn to Rain, (LynxHouse Press, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Richard Robbins and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A special Saturday Night Jazz Club show featuring the songs and legends of Billie Holiday will be performed by the Stella Heath Sextet on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m., at the Soper Reese Theatre.
Tickets are now on sale for $20 with open seating.
Featuring some of the Bay Area’s finest jazz musicians, this show brings back the electric and intimate feeling of seeing Lady Day live in a 1930’s Jazz Club.
Drawing from some of Holiday’s most recorded tunes such as, Blue Moon, Billie’s Blues, God Bless the Child, and Strange Fruit, to name a few, the sextet also revives some of the earlier and lesser known tunes she interpreted.
The concert will feature lead singer, Stella Heath, invoking the vocal stylings of Billie Holiday; Neil Fontano, piano virtuoso from Sonoma County; Jason Bellenkes, rich and inventive on tenor saxophone and clarinet; Trevor Kinsel, interchanging between upright bass and cornet; and percussion legend Pete Lind on the drum kit.
Tickets are available at www.soperreesetheatre.com; at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; or at the theater box office two hours before show time.
The theater telephone is 707-263-0577; Travel Center phone is 707-263-3095.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson