Saturday, April 19, 2014

Salon Lounge at Dixon Place - April 19th 2014





Dixon Place presents...

"Salon Lounge at Dixon Place"

a monthly showcase of performance/literature/film-video by women

an International Women Artists’ Salon series



Saturday, 19 April 2014 ~ Host: Heidi Russell



Historical Woman Artist Honoree: Maya Deren (1917 – 1961), born Eleanora Derenkowskaia (Russian: Элеоно́ра Деренко́вская)

Maya Deren was one of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer and photographer, and collaborated with many artists and disciplines.

Deren was a key figure in the creation of a New American Cinema, highlighting personal, experimental, underground film. In 1986, the American Film Institute created the Maya Deren Award to honor independent filmmakers. Learn more about her life and work on the internet.




Video: Bridget Riversmith

Animation Reel 2007-2012, QuickTime movie 2 min 7 sec

Stories, vivid colors, archetypes and characters from the collective unconscious expressed in water-base pigments have helped find meaning and to untangle the rats’ nest of post-traumatic stress and reclaim a life disjointed by violence, institutionalization, and stigma.

Bridget Riversmith is a self-taught multimedia artist with a disability who lives in Duluth, Minnesota. She began showing her artwork publicly in 2002, and has since gone from rewiring lamps at Goodwill to exhibiting her award-winning art and animation around the world. She says, “I seek to inspire people in combining art and science to explore the world within and around them, to find solutions to all kinds of problems.” www.riversmithart.wordpress.com




Theater: Teresa Lotz

She Calls Me Firefly, excerpt – performed by Autumn Kioti, Michael Bauer, Kevin Hoffman


She Calls Me Firefly is a psychological drama that explores the effects our past traumas have on our present relationships by weaving together the lives of three characters who are all connected to the play's protagonist, Ken. Ken is a troubled young man who attempts to escape his life by running away from everything and everyone he knows -- finally having to face everything that he has been avoiding. Over the course of one night far from home in a random bar in Kentucky, Ken meets Freddie, a bartender, who watches Ken’s past unravel drink by drink. The ever-present memory of Ken’s mother Veronica impedes his ability to find joy and peace in his present, specifically with his new found love, Levi, a young artist. The play tackles addiction, childhood trauma, and mental illness!

Teresa Lotz is playwright, composer and lyricist/book-writer whose work includes She Calls Me Firefly, The Toucan Man (words), The Birds and the Bees: Unabridged (music), Smoke, Dick Whittington: an XMAS Panto for NYC, Grounded; an original One Act Musical. Bowling Green State University, B.M. Music Composition. New York University, M.F.A Musical Theatre Writing. www.teresalotz.com




Literature: Linda Gnat-Mullin

Kisses Out of the Blue


Kisses Out of the Blue offers 22 true stories that demonstrate the subtle nature of communication from various realities into our everyday lives. Here you will meet contentious poultry, star brothers, British aristocracy and more. Most of all, you will meet yourself in a new and exciting way!

Linda Gnat-Mullin is a Reiki Master and founder, Energetic Empowerment(R). In practice since 2001, she has helped many hundreds of clients discover their authentic selves and change their lives. Previously, she spent years in advertising, until a crisis jolted her into cleaning up massive karma. Kisses is part of this process! www.energeticempowerment.org




Performance Art - Autumn Kioti

Work-in-Progress


This work-in-progress is part of a new collaboration between interdisciplinary performance artist Autumn Kioti, playwright Teresa Lotz, and poet/author Misha Nogha

Autumn Kioti’s interdisciplinary practice combines found object mask and puppet building, painting and illustration, etching and print-based work, folk arts, kinetic aerial art and performance, theatre, photography and written works.

Autumn has been a performer since childhood, and continues to appear on stage and screen as an actor and aerialist, often combining the two. She has performed in aerial/theatrical movement-based works throughout the world, from Jakarta, Indonesia to Madison Square Garden and New York Foundation for the Arts. www.autumnkioti.com





International Women Artists’ Salon is a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural global organization of women making art in the world today.

Music+Dance+Video+Film+Comedy+Theater+Writing+Visual Arts+Fashion+Architecture+Design+et al



Twitter: @womenartsalon
Facebook Fan Page: International Women Artists’ Salon
For more information about membership, collaborations, sponsorships contact: heidi.womenartsalon@gmail.com




Thank you to Dixon Place and staff, Maggie Cousins (logo), Teresa Lotz (IWAS Theme Song)