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(10/30/03 5:43am)
The functional ceramics of Scott Cooper and the mixed media work of John Ford will be exhibited at The Gallery, 109 E. Sixth St., until Friday. \nIn the front of The Gallery, the boutique shelves show some of Cooper's celadon and tea dust ceramics. In the upstairs loft, where the ceiling fans over the open area of the first floor are just above eye level, hang some of Ford's mixed media pieces. Each piece in The Gallery is well-lit either by natural lighting or by individual spotlights. \nCooper's ceramics have been a staple at the gallery for the past three years. His work is a mix of luminous celadon glazes, soda-fires etched with emphatically hand-drawn lines and thatched handles, black tea dust pieces with gold freckles and ash-scarred wood-fired pieces. \n"I try to focus on each piece being unique. It's more a quest than a product line," Cooper said. "I work more like a fine artist works. I don't go in assuming I know all the answers."\nThough he comes from a fine arts background, he is not preoccupied with classifying ceramics as a fine art.\n"There's been an awful lot of debate on differences between crafts and fine art, too much debate," Cooper said. "We have classifications like 'fine crafts.' It often comes down to a person trying to preserve their status."\nSome notables currently on display are a wood-fired vase ($50) on the side of the stairs and the tea dust teapot ($94) at the front.\nThis is the second two-man show at The Gallery for John Ford, a Nigerian-born, rural American-raised sculptor and print-maker. On display are some of Ford's flat graphic works. Covered in targets, squares and patterns, the work is "very interpretive, personalized," Ford said. \nHe said he believes in creating works where his personal feelings toward a piece meet somewhere with the perspective of the viewer.\nFrom a distance, his pieces turn into indiscernible patterns of square, colorized photographs, except for "The Flight of Black and Blue Jays" ($1,600), which arranges several photos into a J-shape. Up close, his work acts as a post-modern narrative. Historical and family photos are juxtaposed, moving the eye across scattered patterns and broken-up lines. His backgrounds resemble two-dimensional archaeological digs and blueprints, guiding the viewer's attention to the center of a target or from hash mark to hash mark. The lines of movement are, like all of Ford's work, very personalized and can start anywhere for any person.\nThe red, pink and blue filters on his photographs stand out from the canvas like a new $20 bill lying next to an old one, especially because Ford's print-making process creates colorization similar to European currency. The mind is often so used to seeing flat, conventional blueprints and graphs that the presence of non-parabolic patterns and off-beat colors puts perceived distance between Ford's pictures and his backdrop, like characters on a stage. The interpretive nature of Ford's work has his upbringing at heart.\n"What's been really formative has been the visual influences from my upbringing in rural America -- a lot of the handmade things like quilts and furniture," Ford said. "And in Nigeria, non-Western art and utilitarian objects."\nSome of notable pieces are the linear "Lament of the Waterboy" ($850) and the black-and-white "Boys and Girls" ($2,000), one of his most directive titles which guides the viewer's thought process across the criss-crossed pictures of men and women. \nAs seen with these two artists, The Gallery's, owner Rosemary Fraser, said she does not isolate The Gallery to any particular genre of work. Instead she has developed its style by working with the same artists over the course of many years.\n"If you come to this gallery to see so-and-so's work, we try to keep it," Fraser said. "We try to keep a stable of artists."\nFraser's exhibition openings tend to be large for a small gallery, with 60 to 100 people attending, and are well-stocked with Fraser's cooking.\n"I'm notably a wonderful cook," Fraser said.\nThe Ford and Cooper exhibition was garnished with salmon mousse, chicken liver pate, tarama salata (Greek salad) and roasted pepper with anchovies. Fraser has one employee who helps her run The Gallery, but she does all the cooking. The next opening is at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 7, and will feature Richard Aerni's "Pots et al" and Robert Kingsley's "Still Life etc." Normal gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.\nFor more information on Scott Cooper see www.negentropic.com/clay.\n-- Contact staff writer Mike Carey at mecarey@indiana.edu.
(10/13/03 4:18am)
Flamenco, Stevie Wonder, Definitely Django Reinhardt, the B-52's and G-Love and the Special Sauce.\nSomewhere in this clamor of influences and band member favorites rings the sound of Paris Combo, which will play a free show at 8 p.m. tonight at the IU Auditorium. The "retro-cabaret" quintet, named in the mode of small French jazz "combinations," has been rocking the French world music scene since 1994.\n"They are always invited back, sometimes before the first set ends," said Paris Combo Manager Bill Smith of Eye for Talent, their American concert booking agent. "They have been very successful at bridging the cultural gap, even when the audiences have been accustomed to hearing music only in English."\nParis Combo's third trip to Bloomington comes in a sabbatical year for them -- no recording or tours except for two short American ones.\n"It's hard to evolve when you're on the road all the time," said Paris Combo trumpeter and pianist David Lewis. "You have to let changes happen naturally."\nLewis, an Australian who studied music in Sweden and then Paris and played trumpet in Cameroonian jazz legend Manu Dibango's band, met singer Belle du Berry while they were both performing at a theatrical, clown-filled cabaret show.\nThe guitarist Potzi emulates cripple-handed, gypsy, jazz guitarist innovator Reinhardt's look and musical style. Madagascaran bassist Mano and drummer Francois up the rhythm section. Since 1994, Paris Combo has put out three studio albums: Living Room, Paris Combo, and Attraction, and one live album, Live.\n"We always try to book Paris Combo," said Lee Williams, executive/artistic director of Lotus Fest. "They are sweet people to deal with, they would have been the most popular group at this year's Lotus Fest."\nUnfortunately for Lotus Fest, the group's October tour did not start until after the end of the festival. \n"At this point of the year, we're usually resting from the bigness of the festival," Williams said. \nYet, with the 10th anniversary of the festival and the opportunity to book a popular international act, Williams and Luanne Holladay, administrative director of Lotus Festival, contacted Dean Gwyn Richards of the IU School of Music who funded the use of the IU Auditorium for a one-night free show.\n"Dean Richards made this show possible," Williams said.\nConcert-goers do not need to reserve their seats, just show up early.\n-- Contact staff writer Mike Carey at mecarey@indiana.edu.
(09/26/03 5:40am)
An IU professor and two colleagues were recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency for their environmentally safe pest control model. \nThe Monroe Integrated Pest Management Model was developed by Marc Lame, an entomologist in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and his colleagues in the Monroe County Community School Corporation, John Carter and Jerry Jochim. Lame was one of four Hoosiers individually recognized and the MCCSC was the only school district.\nLame had the idea for an education and behavior management-based pest management model in schools while doing pest management for commercial cotton. He theorized that an educational based model would work well in a school setting. He had an opportunity to examine this possibility in 1994 at IU when, with cooperation from John Carter, he sent graduate students to research the way Monroe County schools handled pest prevention. They found that schools were not aware of basic solutions to pest problems and the model developed from there, focusing on education and communication about pests.\nThe EPA recognized the model for its promotion of alternatives to environmentally harmful pesticides. The program focuses on pest prevention and communication between integrated pest management experts and school districts. \nJerry Jochim, the IPM coordinator for the MCSSC, lauded the partnership and its success. Jochim began work in 1997 coordinating IPM projects for 20 schools in the MCCSC. \n"We have a good program and enjoy teaching it because we believe in it ourselves," Jochim said. "We really do enjoy working with each other."\nThe Monroe IPM Model, which currently affects around 1 million children in school districts in Arizona, California, Alabama, Indiana and Navajo Indian reservations, emphasizes common sense prevention. \n"The biggest change we make is to let schools know what they do that allows pests," Lame said. "(Schools) have been trained to look for two-legged invaders. We show them how to look for six or eight legged invaders."\nPest prevention is integrated into standard maintenance, cleaning and energy conservation, making the switch to the new program easy and inexpensive. \nCarter also notes the program's success is partially based on its versatility. \n"In Arizona, their biggest pest is a scorpion, but it doesn't matter if it's weeds or bugs, the approach is the same. As Marc Lame always says, 'It's people management'," he said.\nThe program in Arizona launched in 2000 in the 14,000-student Kyrene school district. Because of its success, school officials in the state are now discussing implementing the program in the 100,000-student Phoenix school district. \n-- Contact staff writer Mike Carey at mecarey@indiana.edu.