Among other friends I bumped into Robert Powell (executive director of the Portfolio Gallery and Education Center), and Freida Wheaton (woman of the arts and owner of Salon 53). Every time I meet her Freida has joined another board. In a chock-a-block crowd inside the tent, I stood by her and watched the St. Louis art world roll by.

The groundbreaking ceremony itself came a little earlier with gold shovels. Inside our party tent servers wearing hard hats circulated as best they could bearing trays revealing nuts & bolts or architectural plans under glass.

In less than three years there will be an underground parking garage and more breathing space for all the collections.

Last year we gathered to celebrate the victory and promise of Barack Obama's new administration. This year we gathered again to remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy as it continues to grow in our lifetimes.

A woman who attended the inauguration last year told stories about crowds so dense that it moved as one body. The struggle not to drink so as not to pee. Such a strong sense of unity! An older white woman in an elevator adjusted P. Diddy's tie and patted him on the shoulder without knowing who he was.

Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, told about donating his papers and correspondence to Southern Illinois University. As a poet, playwright, critic, editor, educator, and important figure in the 1960s black arts movement, you can imagine the wealth of African American art history Eugene Redmond's collection will reveal.

Any Salon 53 gathering stars the art in the gallery. Among other artists represented was the father-daughter team of Najjar Abdul-Musawwir and Mekka Abul-Musawwir. Najjar teaches painting, drawing, and art history at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His work has been exhibited throughout the world. Mekka, his 14-year-old daughterhad her first exhibit at six. Just think of the promise ahead of her!

Underneath Najjar Abdul-Musawwir's painting of Obama in history a black and white cake was frosted with the same decoration.

Freida Wheaton and Salon 53 are favorite guests on Riehlife since I moved to St. Louis in 2007. Here is an archive.

September 3, 2007 Salon 53 opens. Home is where the art is.

December 22, 2007 Savoring a holiday party home.

March 11, 2008 John Rozelle's Sanga Series

April 14, 2008 Freida Wheaton's bonus poem during National Poetry Month

April 26th, 2008 Alvin Aily at the American Dance Theater & Dance St. Louis Ballet Ball.

October 25th, 2008 Dance St. Louis Dracula
January 19, 2009 www.riehlife.com/2009/01/19/happy-happy-martin-luther-king-jr-day/

September 7, 2009 Mavis Thompson feted

JGR: "I'm going to a party!" and swirled to show off my coral silk dress.

Tanner: "What kind of party is it?"

JGR: "The kind where you enjoy good hugs, good talk, and good food." And, wiggling my fingers, off I went.

Freida Wheaton gives the best parties ever! There's always a lively group of painters, photographers, writers, dancers, arts organization honchos, social workers, and just good folk.

At last night's celebration Freida's place was jammed with esteemed members of the legal profession in all its guises. We were there to wish Mavis T. Thompson well in her new post as President of the National Bar Association.

David A. N. Jackson, a multi-talented creative, was there to serenade us with all manner of percussion rhythms. David also designs jewelry, and tells motivational stories for children and adults. We chatted forever about our love and reverence for Ghana's Adinkra symbols.

Photographers abounded. Lois Ingrum, Katrina Shannon, and Ros Crenshaw, all talented and fascinating guests provided spirited documentation for the event.

Sandy, a lawyer who has worked at state and national levels for policy, and now heads a development company focused on building small communities around housing, shared her similar experiences in caring for our mothers.

Lester Bunton was the featured artist presenting two kinds of work: stylized masks and abstract work reminiscent of Robert Delaunay [French Cubist Painter, 1885-1941] work. (Cf: Homage to Blériot, c. 1914).

I felt that these two types of work could be paired. The mask paintings could be seen not as shielding a persona, but rather looking in x-ray as an inner life as shown on a face. The abstract paintings then could be a rendition of this person's inner life. I'd love to see Lester B. offer this as a service to make soul portraits...and to display these works as pairs. This is Lester's soul work, and it shows.

Thanks, Freida for another rich evening with old and new friends all around.

Yesterday I attended a magnificent brunch celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. and the upcoming historic inauguration of Barack Obama.

Freida Wheaton's home art gallery named "Studio 53" was a fitting backdrop for this salon--a gathering of the most prominent African Americans in St. Louis and its expanded metro area...reaching as far as East St. Louis and Carbondale, Illinois.

Edna Patterson-Petty, whose gorgeous quilting work is renowned, had been commissioned to make a quilt for the inauguration. She is indeed making a series of seven pieces, and these, as if inspired by the Master Quilter Himself/Herself are coming out from under her hand in record time. Anyone who has ever done any kind of hand work on fabric can well appreciate the degree of her effort and the extent of her mastery. An image from one of Edna's quilt's festooned the centerpiece chocolate cake (next to the ever-popular Red Velvet cake!).

Representatives from the Eugene Redmond Writing Club attended to read their Kwansabas---a poetic form invented by the club. One of Edna's panels featured a grouping of Kwansabas on cloth.

Mr. Caston, the director of Caston's Ballet Academie, the official school of the Caston Chamber Ballet, and still a beautiful dancer himself, was there as well...still looking as calm and elegant as ever.

Freida had put out the call for art about Obama, and her community of artists had responded lavishly...some bringing a painting just for that day, before taking their pieces off the wall to which them to other exhibitions.

Happiness is the best cosmetic, after all, and everyone in attendence---representing 3 generations---radiated happiness and the beauty it brings.

This dance work in two acts, inspired by Bram Stoker's novel published in 1897, and choreographed by David Nixon 10 years ago, is a story ballet. But, you don't have to have read the book, seen the multitude of spin-offs on this classic story, or even read the detailed program notes, to understand the story.
The story is told eloquently by the movement of the bodies on stage because these superior dancers have also sunk deeply into their characters. Sitting almost in the dancers laps in the orchestra section, we could see the faces of the dances and it was as good as attending a play. Even during the hard dancing and partnering that Nixon's dance score demands, all seems easy and fluid with the story line moving forward.

All this virtuosity is supported be the set, costumes, and musical score. It's like opera in motion. Or, as Dance St. Louis' current slogan puts it: "The most beautiful sport in the world."

Ruminating over the psychological and mythological underpinnings of the story, I can see many applications to normal human life. It's not hard to understand the appeal of "Dracula" (which means "son of the dragon" in Romanian) has lasted and grown over 100 years.

Reception and dinner at the Spiering Room at the Sheldon Concert Hall launched a memorable evening. We walked over to the Fabulous Fox where we entered a VIP stage door and slipped into our good seats. The performance began with a retrospective film of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (founded by Alvin Ailey and then turned over to Judith Jamison as artistic director and Masazumi Chaya as associate artistic director).

Then, ah! the performance of: Firebird (1970), The Golden Section (1983), and Revelations (1960). Revelations [watch video here] is considered to be Ailey's signature piece, and consists of these three movements: Pilgrim of Sorrow, Take Me to the Water, and Move, Members, Move.

Michael Uthoff, artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis (housed at the Centene Center for Arts & Education) hosted the evening.

The champagne dessert reception with dancing to the Ralph Butler Band capped the evening. For me, the highlight was sharing the parquet floor with a four-year-old nymph who pirouetted as I taught her how to go in and out of "the basket" in the jitterbug move. What fun!

NOTE ON THE VENUE: The Space is a modern 2,000 square foot "living" art and performance studio that is home to JPEK Productions, founded by playwright/actor, Joel King (a most charming impressario whose hosting made us feel right at home) and business partner Christiaan Cofield. Located at Vandeventer and Lindell (off Grand) The Space sits in the midst of St. Louis University and is walking distance from Grand Center. Learn more about The Space by clicking here.

View images of John Rozelle's work at his website by the same name and also at Sanaa Productions where you'll find marvelous collages for sale.
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QUOTES

"Well, its like jazz: you do this and then you improvise."---Romare Bearden

Rozelle has long lived by the slogan "Every symbol tells a story," and he's become quite an accomplished practitioner of that philosophy. On the whole, “Sanga” finds the artist successfully continuing his quest for new and intriguing examples of a cryptic language.
(Jeff Daniels, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, Sunday, October 15, 2000)
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ROZELLE AT THE ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM

Rozelle says that a de Kooning show at Washington University showed him a language...and now it is an honor to be on the same floor at the St. Louis Art Museum.

How does it feel to see the work again? In graduate school when he worked, he let it all go. Now, he is hoping to get back to that place of freedom again.

Lessons come from everywhere. Through a chance meeting with Oliver Jackson...a conversation lasting perhaps 25 minutes...changed the course of his work.

Artist John Rozelle works with color, shape, materials, and tells the story of what comes from the Mali tradition. John Rozelle and Phillip Hampton cheerfully admit they "stole" from each other, grinning that when it comes to color and dealing with light they are co-students of each other's work. My feeling is that Rozelle was affected by the light in Africa, where he journeyed three times.

Coming out of graduate school at Fontbonne, Rozelle went to Lagos, Nigeria, in search of West African cultural translations. But, because of a visa slip, he missed the midnight train to Bamako. "This series is the next best thing."

"My work lends itself to a continuum of common African object-making practices. I share this mixed media experience with many other artists, but find it in abundance among African American artists. I try to find spiritual connections in object-making. My African sensibilities...[merge with]... contemporary social/political concerns...[just as] objects in use in African societies [do] where traditional practices exist today."

View images from the Sanga Series by clicking here.

Rozelle's Sanga Series Statement says:

Sanga is a term that means "ornament."

The Sanga region is geographically located in Mali, West Africa, above and below the Bandiagara Cliffs in the Séno Plain. It is the home of the Dogon people and also the location of this work. Often when artists respond to external stimuli the corresponding internal vision reflects various components of the stimuli. Whether the physical manifestations record facts or flights of fancy, they are in direct relation to the responding vision.

The Dogon people of Mali, is perhaps the most studied cultural group on the African continent. Members of an outcast group in the village work as blacksmiths, wood and leather craftsmen. Artist types on the outside.

The Dogon ontology myths are both complex and rich. Their symbolic interpretation of the universe in which all persons are described as both male and female in body and in psyche. In some of their ancestral worship, representations in wooden masks include manifestations as vertical adornments in cruciform. This is the Kanaga mask, which is danced in re-creation of the origins of the world. In the dance the vertical shafts are touched to the ground, symbolizing terra reaffirmation.

For the Dogon, the creation of the world is a long myth, seems that a cosmic egg was hatched to release spirits called Nommo who created mankind. The cosmic egg originally contained twins who were to become perfect androgynous beings. Because one of the twins broke out of the egg prematurely, this plan did not hatch so to speak. Humans are forced to live with the imperfection of two sexes; males and females come together in sexual union in imitation of the archetype perfection of the original creation. The Nommo descended from the sky at the beginning of time. Eight pairs of opposites represent the Nommo. Black and white squares on the Kanaga mask.

I have been interested in the Dogon for a long time. My introduction came from an artists group called BAG (Black Artist Group), in STL back in the late sixties and early seventies. You may be well aware of them. Oliver Jackson was one of the visual artists. Some of the musicians became know as the World Saxophone Quartet. Jackson has used Nommo symbols in many paintings. One of his cohorts, Julius Hemphill recorded an LP, call Dogon AD. Their primary supporter Donald Suggs, was an African art dealer and collector. He perhaps, initiated the group to more meaningful understandings of traditional African objects and spiritual connections.

Using the black and white squares as a symbol of life strategies, I formed a loose connection with the Dogon. Life in general, with its complexity of decisions is equated to one or the other choices. Each decision results in a foreseeable/unforeseeable future. I began to work on numerous visual equivalents of eight pairs of opposites in dark and light some time ago. Mixed media/collage, in this work is considered from African usage, value added, it is a perfect vehicle. The process orientation of this work is a place for spiritual connections.

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Important note for a more intimate viewing opportunity: John Rozelle's work is also on view at Salon 53 in St. Louis, Missouri. Interested viewers may reply to me through my contact form. I pledge to send this information on to Freida Wheaton so she can make an appointment for you at Salon 53. Please provide your full name, complete address and phone number. Freida will contact then contact you.

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Where he's been and where he's going to

"Duende," a Spanish term that speaks of one's ability to transmit profoundly felt emotions with a minimum of fuss and maximum of restraint, is the pivotal point of John Rozelle's work.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, John Rozelle holds a B.F.A. with major emphasis in painting and minor concentration in sculpture from Washington University and a M.F.A. in the same media from Fontbonne College. John Rozelle is currently tenured Associate Professor in the Drawing and Painting Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to joining the Art Institute faculty he taught drawing, design, painting, and sculpture as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Fontbonne College. Rozelle has served on numerous occasions as curator, juror, and artist-in-residence for several exhibitions. His twenty five years of solo and group shows have included those in New York City, Memphis, Philadelphia, Washington D. C., Fort Worth Texas, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, Memphis and Los Angeles.

A prolific painter and collagist, Rozelle has been awarded top honors and his work is housed among various corporate and public collections. In 1990, he was recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His other awards include an international travel grant and Artist in Residency for research in West Africa by the Chicago Artist International Program of the Department of Fine Arts, City of Chicago. In 1989, he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem . He was awarded a Creative Artists Project Grant in 1988 by the Missouri Arts Council; he won "First Prize/Painting" and "First Prize/Best of Show" for his exhibits at the "Black Creativity" exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, in 1987 and 1985. In 1998, Rozelle was commissioned to install the Middle Passage Project at the 'Dred Scott Courthouse' in St Louis, MO. Since joining the faculty at the School of the Art Institute, he has been awarded four Faculty Enrichment Grants, (1995, 1998, 1999, and 2000) along with a RAP Grant, 1992, Regional Artists Projects and a CAP Grant, 1996, Chicago Artists Projects. In 2005 Rozelle was Artist in Residence at the Roger Brown Facility of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Corporate collectors include: Barnes/Jewish Hospital, Anheuser Busch, Citibank Corp., AT&T/SBC, Borg-Warner, Price Waterhouse, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Seven-Up Company, Ralston Purina, the Renaissance Radisson and Westin Hotels and ARCO. Museum collections include the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Margaret Harwell Museum, Spertus Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, California Afro-American Museum and The Museum of African American Art, Philadelphia and Tampa. John Rozelle's work joined Ambassador Pamella Bridgewater in Cotonou, Benin for the duration of her foreign tour 2000 - 2003. Rozelle had a temporary site-specific installation under the historical Eads Bridge for the Bi-State Development Agency in 1996.

John Rozelle continues on a large body of work the uses the concept of the 'blues' as a fundamental guide for constructing two and three dimensional objects. His studio work includes other objects for group and solo exhibitions.