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Arts & Entertainment

Artists Encourage Audience: Dare To Believe In Your Possibilities

Six Santa Cruzans received the coveted Gail Rich award for extending their crafts and demonstrating "possibility" as a Santa Cruz maxim.

Six local artists whose vision pushes the boundaries of art and community, were honored at a live ceremony Tuesday at the Rio Theatre.

This year’s Gail Rich Award went to Jim Greiner, musician; Steve Hosmer, commercial artist; Elizabeth McKenzie, writer; Judy Stabile, painter/sculptor; Rhan Wilson, musician; and John Larry Granger, conductor.

Gail Rich, for whom the award is named, was a big benefactor to Santa Cruz arts for many years.

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Jim Greiner Serves The Groove

Presenter Rick Walker, also a Gail Rich winner, recounted Greiner’s start with “LSD,” Laurel Street Drummers, one of the first musical groups to kick off ethnic music in a town that has become a center for such music. Walker praised Greiner’s 2,000 interactive drum concerts, his inclusiveness, compassion, warm smile and just plain niceness, “which counts for a lot in the world of music,” said Walker, who added, “Many artists in Santa Cruz reach out to the world, and Greiner is one of them.”

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Greiner has been a Reader’s Poll winner in Drum Magazine five times, and currently teaches his “Three C’s” to corporations: Communication, cooperation and celebration. Jim Greiner has the best arms in Santa Cruz, though not from the gym.

Greiner came onstage with the boldness you’d expect of a man who turned the audience into a rhythm orchestra he directed with a chekere (shaker drum) at the end of the evening. He literally danced with the chekere while the audience clapped and hooted in a fairly complex rhythm.

Promised a post in Africa once he attended the Navy Defense Language Institute, he stayed in Africa 18 months after his enlistment was up, traveling around with a small conga, looking for communities that were thriving in spite of hardship. He got to the essentials and developed the Three C’s, which curriculum is playing well in corporate America.

Years ago Greiner learned how to create a calm inner pulse by drumming with an elder of the Chumash. “The tribal drum was six feet in diameter and a lot of us young men were seated around it. Grandfather led the rhythm. We started at sunset and stopped, at his unspoken command, when the moon was high in the sky. He said, ‘All my young drummers want to play the traditional songs, but much too fast’.”

Greiner waited for the punch line.

“It’s that damn rock and roll,” said the Chumash elder.

Greiner’s mission is to teach that we can calm our inner pulse through music, breathing, meditation, martial arts, painting, many ways. “Of course drumming is the best,” he said.

Santa Cruz Ranks

Before Baine introduced the next presenter, he said that Santa Cruz is ranked fifth among the most artistic communities in the U.S., just behind the biggies—New York, San Francisco, L. A. and Santa Fe. He filled us in on other top rankings in our town: We’re #3 in per capita smug recumbent bicyclists, #2 in dolphin-safe taquerias, #4 in Occupy protesters who don’t get out of their cars and #1 in creative strategies to avoid signing petitions.

Dalai Lama Is Stoked

Emcee Baine declared that there is a unique visual print of Santa Cruz, and Steve Hosmer gave it to us. Most of us have seen Be Stoked  stickers – the surf lingo from a smiling Dalai Lama is a signature piece of award winner Stephen Hosmer.

At Stokes Signs Hosmer designs, fabricates and installs neon signs, reverse gold work “and everything in between,” and has for 35 years. Neighbor Harry Stokes provided Hosmer with a computer-generated lettering machine for finished paintings, signs and posters. When Stokes retired, Hosmer inherited his name and moved into the 1300 square foot Sash Mill studio.

Carl Rohrs gave a tongue-in-cheek, rapid-fire intro of Hosmer ("He’s not Steve Stokes") that set the audience up for Hosmer's wild ride.

Hosmer’s first utterance was “Stoked!” Then, “My mom and dad are here, so I gotta be real, real good.

“I’m the middle child of seven – why would anyone have seven children? You have to be frugal. My mom is like Jesus with a ham. Nine people can eat three weeks of one ham. Then we subsist on the fumes.

"I grew up in a house where things were being made all the time: Food, babies . . . . It will be impossible for us to distribute all the hand-made stuff (“It’s too expensive!” said Dad. “I can make it for half of that!”) when the time comes.

“My parents taught me I could pretty much do anything I want if I have enough perseverence and ham.”

Hosmer’s daughter is now the Executive Chef at Shadowbrook, one son is a Civil Engineer with Barry Swenson, another daughter is in nursing school and baby Drew is his right-hand man at Stokes Signs.

Hosmer’s bicycle-girl-with-a-surfboard design of 2009 was the motif of the Santa Cruz stage of the Tour of California and achieves Hosmer’s goal: “I try to say as much as I can using as little as possible," Steve said. "I want immediate emotional impact. It's like, if you look at the sun and then close your eyes, you still see the sun,” he told Grace Voss.

You’ll recognize Hosmer’s posters capturing unique features of Santa Cruz. Hosmer’s bold palette shows his ability to visually summarize the essence of a place or event in a single image: Boardwalk Ferris Wheel and Merry-Go-Round, Bonny Doon, Capitola Begonia Festival, Cypress Point Surfing Club, Davenport Landing, Elkhorn Slough, Lighthouse Point, Natural Bridges, Neary Lagoon, Pacific Garden Mall, Pasatiempo, Santa Cruz Harbor, Santa Cruz Mountains Wine, Sash Mill, Seabright Beach, Steamer Lane, The Jetty, Town Clock, Wilder Ranch.

“People say, ‘Dude! You are so lucky!” said Hosmer, the only winner to use the F-word. Twice.

Hosmer’s favorite quote is, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

Perfectly happy to not know something, to learn as he goes, Hosmer encouraged us with “We’ve got ideas we haven’t even thought of yet!”

Writer Elizabeth McKenzie has a framed Salman Rushdie quote above her desk from the time she met him in 2008: “If you’re writing a novel, every day is a failure.” While McKenzie let us know that writing can be grueling, she also presented her source material as the stuff of everyday childhood, youth and adulthood.

"McKenzie is a cheerleader of both student and professional writers," said presenter Micah Perks, who was tickled that her friend stole the nozzle of Bob Dylan’s water hose as a souvenir. "Lisa makes the world brighter and we’re lucky she chose to live here with us.”

The Atlantic’s special Fiction 2011 issue features Someone I’d Like You to Meet by UCSC ’81 alum McKenzie, best known for Stop That Girl, a collection of short stories published in 2006 by Random House. Short-listed for The Story Prize, the book was a Newsday and Library Journal Best Book of the Year. NPR called the stories “anti-fairy tales.” Several are based on her experiences at UCSC.

Giving Santa Cruz A Good Name

“I met my husband here and had my two children here,” McKenzie told the Gail Rich audience. “So Santa Cruz comes through in my writing.”

McKenzie read from the last story in Stop That Girl. The heroine walks along the wharf, admiring the woodies that have been waxed so lovingly. She then puts her feet in the surf, fantasizing that she and her son are the last two members of an indigenous tribe, pushed to the edge of the continent, and in danger of being put on display in some university museum.

The author was a Kresge lecturer on The Art of Comedy from 2008 to 2010, is the winner of a Pushcart Prize and is senior editor of the Chicago Quarterly Review. She teaches at De Anza and has just edited an anthology of contemporary Japanese writing.

McKenzie told UCSC’s Scott Rappaport, “I’m really interested in writing about self-deception—people with huge blindspots. I’m also interested in underdogs and outsiders—people who are angry and misunderstood. I was surrounded by people like that growing up.”

Her first novel, MacGregor Tells The World, Random House, is a coming-of-age tale about a young man’s first love. Someone I’d Like You To Meet is excerpted from her upcoming second novel that touches on social controversy, including veterans’ medical issues and pharmaceutical companies.

Pete Shanks was in the audience to celebrate McKenzie’s win. “I was in a writing group with her for some years. Lisa is not only an excellent writer, she’s a great critic. She’s a superb teacher and a very sympathetic reader.”

Dynamo Judy Stabile A Collaborator, Promoter And Wide-Spectrum Artist

Stabile was presented by figurative artist and friend of many years, Carol Bowie, who praised Stabile’s infectious laugh and her ability to “magically manifest what is needed to make her vision real.” Bowie listed a few of the media that have been exciting for Stabile to work in: Jewelry, sculpture, glass, stone, bronze, acrylic and printmaking before discovering encaustic.

Judy Stabile teaches encaustic techniques at Wax Works West in Corralitos. She's studied in Italy, France, New York and Oregon. "A pillar of the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, where she has curated 15 shows, Stabile is also a member of the County Arts Commission," said Bowie. "She has participated in 50 exhibits of diverse media."

Stabile discovered art in 1986 and took classes with Angelo Grova. “I came in carrying a legal pad dressed in my business suit. Everyone else was ten years younger, in jeans and holey t-shirts. But when I picked up a hammer and chisel, I was hooked.”

Stabile said she fell in love with art all over again in New York at an encaustic class in 2005. Stabile told Patch that encaustic can encompass almost any technique and medium she's learned, including collage, painting and sculpture. “The process of using heated beeswax is exciting—constant experimentation. Wax or pigments aren't predictable like oil or acrylic. There's always an element of surprise, somewhat like printmaking.”

Most of Stabile's work is figurative but not necessarily realistic. “I try to capture an emotion. Not a face but a feeling.”

The most meaningful piece she's done was in collaboration with her sister. They created a section of a living room at the art gallery on Sudden Street in Watsonville with wax-covered furniture and candelabras in neutral tones. The only color was in the couch pillows bearing motherly admonitions: Don't put your feet on the coffee table, do this, don't do that. “Waxy Build-Up” was an edgy piece. Between the couch cushions could be seen dolls, condoms, pennies, popcorn, toys, the kinds of things that fall in and are forgotten. The show was later installed at the East Bay Bedford Gallery, where it won a Juror's Award.

“It's really an honor to be given a Gail Rich award,” said Stabile. “I believe a factor in my selection is my volunteer work with the Arts Council since the 90s, promoting arts in South County. I'm all about community collaboration. I help others see their vision through art, which they and the public get to view at the gallery.”

Artist of Sophisticated Vision

These were the words presenter Rick “Ukulele Dick” McKee, also a Gail Rich winner, used to introduce musician Rhan Wilson. “Rhan grew up around Branciforte Creek. His first band was The Paisley Pudding when he was in fifth grade.” McKee said he could only speculate about the balance of nature and nurture in Wilson’s development.

When Wilson was 20, his reporter-father Don Wilson went to the County Registrar, looked up an address and then asked Rhan to go on a drive with him. Dad Wilson knew his son had a burning desire to meet a certain famous performer who used to own a house in Aptos. The Wilsons received a warm welcome at Carlos Santana’s door, Rhan’s favorite rock ‘n roll musician. Wilson was on the roster of stars who played at Jerry Garcia’s memorial service in San Francisco. He got his first guitar lesson from Rick McKee over 30 years ago.

At the podium, Wilson thanked his parents and his partner, Rick Zeek. “Wallace said I was chosen because I’d done so much for the community, but I didn’t know that. I was doing it for me!”

While one of his dreams is to levitate bodily and eventually fly, Wilson’s concerts already lift audiences up, up and away. “A minor key is just beautiful. It's emotional,” he said about An Altared Christmas, the annual concert where 20 well-known musicians perform well-known carols, all in minor keys. The eighth annual concert will play to a full house at the Rio this December, 2012.

Wilson told Patch that An Altared Christmas is a holiday greeting put together for people who don't like Christmas, whose experience does not jibe with the Hallmark images. “It's nice to know you're not alone.” The concert is also a treat for ears that tuned out carols long ago. The minor keys, and the acting and dancing, “really let people feel what the holiday songs mean,” he told Patch.

An Altared Christmas is like a vaccine for the holiday season, said Wilson. “If your family ends up in an argument on Christmas Day, you can just take it in stride.” He's proud that the concert is disturbing, a kind of group therapy before the day lots of people dread.

“If you need permission to be incredible, I'll give it to you. I needed someone to give it to me. It's like at the end of The Wizard of Oz, when Glinda tells Dorothy, ‘You’ve always had the power’.” His quest is to “help people realize the things they think aren't possible actually are” was heard directly or between the lines of all six of the 2012 award winners. 

Wilson welcomed cellist Barry Phillips and singer Pipa Piñon to the stage, where they performed I Wish I Had A River by Joni Mitchell. Phillips opened with Jingle Bells in a minor key and then the trio segued into a powerfully moving treatment of the song. Phillips’ cello literally trembled and Piñon sang with unabashed sincerity and emotion, her voice and gestures blending with Wilson’s guitar and Phillips’ cello. The performance was received in total silence by a rapt audience.

At the end of his extemporaneous acceptance speech, Wilson reiterated his message of freedom. “My contribution is to give others permission, so if I have to wear a funny hat or fluffy shirt, you may think you can do what you want. Keep trying new things!”

My Imaginary Friend

John Larry Granger is the conductor of the Santa Cruz Symphony, and the Santa Cruz and Monterey Youth Orchestras. Santa Cruz says farewell this year, said presenter Nancy Myeberg, who met Granger when he was a candidate for the conductorship 21 years ago. He was selected for “his repertoire and artistic vision. He plunged forward with excellence.”

Baine said only a super-hero can follow Granger’s leadership. In fact, “Granger is twins. That’s the only way we can account for the prodigious work he accomplishes. One twin is John, the other is Larry. You’ll meet both tonight.”

Myeberg gave us the lowdown: Granger loves and plays the oboe. He was a middle school teacher, “which has helped him at Symphony Board meetings,” she laughed. He is a gigantic Motown fan and has been known to boogie onto the stage for family concerts.

Granger came on stage, thanked Myeberg and said, “I hope you all have your tickets for the concert this weekend.” See Patch article about “Certified Organic” playing the Civic Saturday and the Mello on Sunday.

Maestro Granger read a comprehensive list of Staff, Board, League, guest performers, orchestra members and other influential members of the music community whom he thanked by name.

He became a conductor “because as a little kid I had to wear those black, horn-rimmed glasses you saw in my childhood photo. Conductors don’t have to face the audience.

“Music became my imaginary friend,” he said, because having to move so many times made it hard to find friends among kids he barely knew. “Music was there when other people couldn’t be, and the oboe became my voice.

“But it was my audition with Herbert Blomstedt that changed the course of my career.” Formidable conductor of many European orchestras, Blomstedt’s pinnacle was at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony, where he is Conductor Laureate, and Honorary Conductor of five European orchestras.

 

“He told us to be honest with music, to serve the music and not ourselves and to give back to young people.” Symphony patrons and musicians will attest that Maestro Granger has lived his mentor’s principles.

The prestigious California Arts Council gave its highest ranking to the Santa Cruz Symphony under Granger’s direction. Many other awards have accrued to the local Symphony in its two decades with the Maestro.

Granger told Patch that the funniest gaffe during a concert was the night they forgot to turn off the screen where sponsors' names are displayed. It's customary to project the names before the concert begins and at intermission on a big screen above and behind the orchestra. Someone was asleep at the wheel because Waste Management appeared in big letters throughout the first movement of Brahm's #1. “It was disastrous at the time, but it's humorous now.”

When asked what might be the key to a renaissance of classical music in this country, he had a ready answer: “Education and exposure,” said Granger. “We know that learning music develops the brain and should be required curriculum. Our Santa Cruz Youth Orchestra grads attend top universities. The question is, how can we progress in the computer age without losing our humanity?

“A friend said, 'I can hear Beethoven by ten different orchestras anytime on my iPad. Why go to a live concert?' My answer was, 'Why go to a live football game or rock concert'?

“A few years back a trombonist broke his leg and couldn't march anymore, so he gave up the trombone. One day he came in the building and tripped over a cello case. In four months he had become my best cellist.

“My job is to throw cello cases for people to trip over.”

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