Dances with Films Offers an Actor’s Inspiring Swan Song for Opening Night

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Dances with Films opened it’s 22nd year of independent cinema with the theme “Limitless.” The opening night film, Apple Seed, is a good example of just that – what you can do with limitless love for a project.

Written for the late Rance Howard (father of Ron and Clint Howard, yes, that Ron Howard), writer/director/co-star Michael Worth took 15 years to realize the project, a beautifully shot, poetic labor of love and tribute to the elder Howard.

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On a cross country road trip following a misguided plan to rob his hometown bank, Prince McCoy  – reeling from the death of his father and the foreclosure of a hotel rehab project the pair were working on —ends up traveling with ex-con Carl Robbins, a philosophizing, sometimes-preaching ex-con trying to make amends, and open to building friendships and offering Zen-like wisdom.

It’s an odd couple/buddy picture with great original music, two terrific star performances, and the kind of scruffy, banged-up, but lovable characters that you don’t see nearly enough of in mainstream cinema. Not that the film doesn’t have mainstream appeal and plenty of heart, just like DWF itself.

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Worth says “I did a film with Rance in Flagstaff, Arizona and I knew I had to do a film for him. It was just one of those things I wanted to get made. We completed the project just before Rance passed away.”

Casting Clint with father Rance as a father and son in the film was serendipity for Worth. “It was the best day directing ever,” he asserts.

The younger Howard relates “It was such a blessing. Dad could always shine as a character actor, and he always came prepared, always rehearsed everything.”

Dasha Chadwick, who plays the role of, and sings the music of, a talented musician named Dallas in the film, says “Rance reminded me of a magical fairy tale creature. He made you feel you were magic, but I also felt lazy as hell. He was always on point, always grateful. He said this was his 301st film.”

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Above, Worth with Clint Howard

The shoot took 15 days and was split between Arizona and Vermont. The completion of the film was a bittersweet milestone with Rance’s passing, Worth says. “The most fun part was coming up with the things Rance said. I’d always hoped the film would be made while Rance was alive, and we did it.”

Clint Howard adds “He dreamed of it, he did it, he did all the looping, and then he passed away.”

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The film makes a fitting elegy for Rance Howard, and a great start for what appears to be a stellar year at Dances with Films.

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DWF screens at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Individual tickets are $20,  Festival passes are $375 for ten days of programming.

Visit www.danceswithfilms.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Jack Burke

Nagisa Kamae: Adorable and Poignant Creatures Reach Out at Gabba Gallery

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Japan-based artist Nagisa Kamae creates adorable, touching images of small creatures. Rabbits, kittens, puppies, squirrels – Kamae realizes her images perfectly, touching them with a delicate brush of the whimsical. Both magical and moving, her lovely little beings are, she says, “very personal…every piece has a story behind it and a deeper meaning. They come from my experiences and things I observe in everyday life.”   

The richness of her work is on view at Gabba Gallery through June 22nd, in a delightful exhibition titled Sharing is Caring.

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Kamae started working as an artist full-time in 2017, when she moved from the U.S. back to Japan. “I used to paint on tiny canvases, but I slowly worked my way up to bigger pieces. But then and now, I have always painted cute fluffy animals with food.”

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While that description is true as far as it goes, these cute animals are more than she describes. They’re eminently alive, beautifully detailed, and exude the artist’s passion for her subjects.

Her inspiration comes from small animals she finds them at the zoo, pet stores, and even in vintage animal picture books, she says; her accompanying food images are as likely to come from packaging as from vintage cook book illustrations.

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“My favorite animal to paint is a rabbit, because I have fond memories of my pet Moko, a grey bunny I had when I was little,” she says. But each of her creations exudes an inherent love and respect, which is part of the attraction of her work. As to the candy images, she swears she doesn’t particularly enjoy the taste of American candies and snacks, but she loves the packaging.

“I used to decorate my room with American items when I was in high school,” she laughs. “I even taped M&M chocolate and gummy worms packages on my wall – I was just obsessed.”

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Kamae lived in the U.S. for ten years, and says she never got tired of living here. Among the activities she most enjoyed, “Going to American chain grocery stores, the 99 Cent Store, looking at interesting items in the cereal aisle, and unhealthy looking Jello in the fridge sections – that was one of my guilty pleasures.”

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Kamae’s current solo show at Gabba is exciting for her. The gallery has showcased Kamae’s work before, and she has a wide range of American fans, but this is her first solo.

Her  heart-meltingly appealing work includes pieces larger than those she’s presented in the past.

“It was intimidating to paint on bigger panels at first, but it gave me the opportunity to explore more complex narratives and new concepts. I feel proud that I could get out of my comfort zone with the bigger pieces.” Kamae’s modesty aside, her charming works are a pure pleasure to take in.

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The prolific artist is now planning an illustrated book directed at children of all ages – and art loving readers regardless of age. Her proposed title matches this exhibition: Sharing is Caring.

“The basis for the book, this current painting series, features a group of animals sharing food and a single animal having food by himself.  At the end of the book, the animal shares his food with others.”

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She adds “My favorite kind of book is a picture book with almost no words, because it leaves more to the imagination and you can create the story using your own interpretation. My favorite book from my childhood is Ennichi, which means Japanese summer festival.  This book has no words. but has super-detailed fun images, and the colors are beautiful.  I checked this book out over and over again from the local library. Thirty years later, I found it again, and had to buy it immediately.”

In short, she notes “Some people are affected by reading books, but powerful artwork and images have had a more lasting impression on me ever since I was little.”

It was perhaps the same sort of lasting impression her jewel-perfect little animals make on viewers now. One is never too old to take a long look at magic.

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Above, artist Kamae.

Gabba Gallery is located at 3126 Beverly Blvd. View Kamae’s work in Sharing is Caring through June 22nd. The gallery is also exhibiting solo shows from Morley, All Things Aspire Madly, and Jeremy Novy, A Queer Examination.

  • Genie Davis; photos courtesy of the artist

 

 

Forest Bathing Takes Root at Loft at Liz’s

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Memory Tree by Catherine Ruane, above

Through June 17th, take a walk in a forest of art with Forest Bathing, now at Loft at Liz’s. Curated by Betty Brown, the exhibition is a celebration of nature. Paying homage to the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, the exhibition takes the idea of mindful discovery and peace through nature and transforms it into an experience in the gallery through paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photography, as well as mixed media installations. 17 artists create their own depictions of nature, and it is worthy of a long, deep forest-bath.

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Above, artist Catherine Ruane.

Catherine Ruane’s brilliantly realistic graphite drawing, “Memory Tree,” draws viewers within its massive, comforting branches.

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Lyrical and wondrous, the work feels tactile, as if the branches were embracing the viewer.

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Bibi Davidson, in contrast, gives us brightly colored trees in a surreal world that leads viewers into a dream-like state. Viewing her work is a fabulous adventure.

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Linda Vallejo’s graceful paintings of the oak trees around Topanga Canyon exude peace.

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Hung Viet Nguyen’s richly textured tributes to the trees of the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest outside Big Pine, Calif., seem magical and beyond this world.

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His thick paint and vibrant palette add to the sensation of having entered a new realm.

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Speaking of a different world, Marthe Aponte takes over the Projects Room, with “Sacred Trees,” using drawing, embroidery, and paint and picote, a traditional, painstaking, and delicate form of French paper art.

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To enter the room is to step into a different dimension, a hushed and holy and strange place that glows. In the back of the room, a Joshua Tree of slightly different construction stands, as if watching over the viewers who enter the room, a guardian of a reverent place.

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Another mixed media work comes from Dave Lovejoy and Susan Feldman, who have created a contemporary grotto in one of the gallery’s stairwells, one made of wood and thread, shaping trees that are instantly recognizable as such, and yet deconstructing the shape of limbs and trunks. The use of lighting, the evocative green glow of this dimensional installation, make the work seem like a portal. It beckons, fecund.

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Also contemporary: Chenhung Chen’s 3-D tree constructed of electrical cords and wires: using this detritus of technology, she’s created a poetic and lovely reduction of the essence of “treeness.”

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Another true stunner is Samuelle Richardson’s white wood tree, occupied by cacophonus crows. You can almost hear them.

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Her fabric sculpture is evocative and haunting, but at the same time, she’s managed to convey a sense of whimsy in the work, as if one had entered a fairy tale.

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Above, glittering trees from Hermine Harman.

There are many other wonderful works taking root in the gallery forest as well. Exhibition artists include in all: Marthe Aponte, Chenhung Chen, Bibi Davidson, Barbara Edelstein, Susan Feldman & Dave Lovejoy, Renee Fox, Maria Greenshields-Ziman, Hermine Harman (whose glittering trees explode with color above), Joanne Julian, Sant Khalsa, Alberto Mesirca, Hung Viet Nguyen, Samuelle Richardson, Catherine Ruane, Jill Sykes and Linda Vallejo.

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Above, beautiful, elegatic photographic work from Sant Khlasa.

If the words dream, other worldly, mysterious, and haunting have come up in this review – and they have – it is because entering the gallery, one must give up a sense of the “real world:” the noise of the street, the crowds on the stairs at the opening, and instead embrace the sensory experience of stepping into a forest of art, one that is indeed all of those things.

From the most realistic to the most fantastical renderings, Brown has shaped a forest that embraces and explores natural beauty and our perception of it, soaking us in the shadows, serenity, and life force that is inherent in these artistic woods.  Emerge from this forest refreshed, yes, but also expanded: let these images of nature and wonder slip into your soul, and feel the better for it.

You’ll need to hurry in – but once you’re there, bask. Loft at Liz’s is located at 453 S. La Brea in mid-city. The exhibition closes June 17th.

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  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, Susan Feldman installation photo courtesy Cheryl Henderson.