The Yellow Door Poetry and Prose Reading

On Thursday evening I will be reading at the Yellow Door. For over forty years the Yellow Door coffehouse has been one of Montreal’s favorite acoustic music venues. It also features regular poetry and prose readings, hosted and produced by writer, Ilona Martonfi.

Performing at the Visual Arts Centre December 2008

When I was a McGill student in the early eighties, a fellow student took me to the Yellow Door’s basement café, not to eat, but to see the place and to point out the curious fact that clients washed their own dishes. I never ate or washed dishes at the Yellow Door but seven years ago, I started reading my fiction there. I have also performed my work at the Visual Arts Centre readings, also organized by Ilona.

I took my first creative writing workshop with Ilona. Shortly after that class I read a short piece one night at the Yellow Door during open mic. It was a heart-pounding, eye-opening experience. I discovered I enjoyed reading my work aloud in front of the public. There is a very particular atmosphere in that small, dim room, chock-a-block with lit fans, students, and writers. One night I read my work practically a foot away from none other than Booker Prize recipient, Yann Martel!

You don’t have to be a famous writer to attend. You are all officially invited to my next reading at the Yellow Door.

The Yellow Door
POETRY AND PROSE READING

www.yellowdoor.org
3625 Aylmer, Montreal (between Pine & Prince Arthur) Tel: [phone]
Founder, producer/host Ilona Martonfi 514-939-4173
[e-mail]

Thursday, August 27, 2009
Doors open 7:00 pm Reading 7:30 pm At the door $5

Poets, Prose Writers & Musicians featured:

Michael Mirolla recently published the novel Berlin. Another novel, and a brace of short fiction/poetry collections complete the picture.

Rana Bose Montreal poet, writer and engineer. His second novel, The Fourth Canvas has been published by TSAR, 2008.

Talleen Hacikyan Author and illustrator of the artist’s book, Postcards. Stories published in Ararat Quarterly and Room Magazine. www.talleen.net

Denise Desautels GG Award (1992) winner will read from The Night Will Be Insistent (Guernica). English translation read by Antonio D’Alfonso.

Louise Dupré A major voice from Montreal reads from The Blueness of Light (Guernica) English translation read by Antonio D’Alfonso.

David Cavanagh A second book of poetry, Falling Body, (Salmon Poetry of Ireland, 2009.) Even the cross on Mount Royal gets into the act.

Jennifer Neri The Mistake won second place award for 2008 QWF/CBC. Published in In Other Words. Broadcast on CBC radio. http://jenniferneri.com

Louise Dessertine began singing in Chœur Maha, joined cappella Ensemble Rubia, & discovered song-writing; performing compositions, solo.

Talleen Hacikyan

MUNAE National Print Museum in Mexico City

Mexico City is a must-see for artists. I just returned from eight days of exploring this buzzing metropolis of 25 million people and I can’t wait to return. Thanks to visits to the National Anthropological Museum, the Banamex Collection, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo’s studio, the Tamayo Museum, the MUNAE National Print Museum, and a night at the Mexican ballet, I got an ultra stimulating art fix.

MUNAE is located in the historical centre of Mexico City, in the Plaza de la Santa Veracruz. This charming square is a peaceful haven from the electric energy that charges the surrounding streets. The museum is housed in what used to be the atrium of the Santa Veracruz church, built in the late nineteenth century. In 1986 the museum opened its doors to the public.

Walking into a museum devoted solely to print media is a transcendental experience for a printmaker. Printmaking tends to exist quietly backstage in the theatre of visual arts. To have it glorified and honored in a museum is a rare treat. During my two-hour visit I kept marveling at the team of security guards vigilantly protecting the precious prints, not paintings or sculptures, but prints, prints, prints!

There were two temporary exhibits: The 2009 First Biennial of Contemporary Mexican Printmaking, and Atelier Clot, Bramsen & Georges.

The Biennial was the perfect show to feel the current pulse of Mexican printmaking. I was expecting to see the same blast of color that flames across the city and was surprised to discover a rich universe of black and white lines and textures. According to Cesar Gordillo, director of the print museum in Puebla, printmaking is on the rise in Mexico. This exhibit is proof that Mexican artists are pushing technical limits and are churning out strong imagery.

Serpiente
Ernesto Alva Franco

The first prize went to Ernesto Alva Franco for his triptych Serpiente. His image is engraved in trovicel, plastic sheet. Although reminiscent of linocut or woodcut, a closer look reveals linear nuances with a slightly synthetic, almost mechanical quality.

Luis Ricaurte Vilota has two pieces, entitled Lookumi, that have been made with lasergrafia, a technique he developed himself, which consists of engraving digital images on wood plates. For these works he layered see-through prints in plexiglass boxes. These prints embody timelessness, where traditional and high tech methods merge to create something powerful and altogether new.

Daily Salary Strategy
Jorge Iván López Medina

The only other piece that incorporates digital technology is Daily Salary Strategy by Jorge Iván López Medina. This bold image is a combination of etching and digital printing.

At the other end of the technical spectrum, it was interesting to see Jesús Antonio Martínez Escobar’s in situ print of a tree stump. The paper bears subtle folds, testimonies to the hand printed process.

Atelier Clot, Bramsen & Georges was founded in Paris 113 years ago. It specializes in lithography. By the end of the last century, Auguste Clot, its founder, was considered the best printer in Paris. He was known for his experimental nature, particularly in the field of color printing. This drew many important artists to his studio, including Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Munch, and Rodin.

I discovered an interesting trend in the exhibition. Many artists showed carpetas, portfolios of works, consisting of a series of prints ranging from four to forty-five prints. Some of the smaller series were shown unframed in showcases.

El pollo
Francisco Toledo

Francisco Toledo’s El pollo is a celebration of the fluid imagery that is the hallmark of lithography. There is something tragic, yet almost humoristic about it. I love the fork in the drawer. Is it for the pollo to use or is it for someone to use on the pollo?

Dama en technicolor I
Antonio Saura

Dama en Technicolor I by Antonio Saura jumps off the wall with raw energy that begs to be accompanied by an Afro-Brazilian soundtrack. The piece feels so spontaneous, as if the artist painted it directly onto paper. To think that it was executed on a lithographic stone is mind-boggling.

I ended my visit with a stop at the educational studio. The room, designed for school-aged children, has different stations where the students can experiment with stamping, linocut, and frottage. Alejandro Monroy, head of educational services, insisted that I print one of their demo linoleum plates. They use a nifty wood tortilla press to print with. These presses are usually used to make corn tortillas. A ball of masa is placed in the centre of the press, pressure is applied and the dough is flattened into a round, flat tortilla. The studio’s tortilla press was altered; it has a door hinge, instead of the original smaller hinge, thereby creating more room to insert a linoleum plate. The plate is covered with paper, which in turn is covered with a thin rubber mat. I can say without hesitation that the quality of the printed image is impeccable! Mr. Monroy explained that the museum works with limited resources and pointed out that in the studio the children print onto recycled photocopy paper.

“Limited resources,” is a refrain I heard over and over in artistic circles. However, it is inspiring to see what is being done with those limited cultural funds. In Mexico art and culture are worshipped on a pedestal. Across the capital city banners announce cultural events, each more enticing than the other. The artistic glory of pre-Hispanic Mexico lingers in the air and blends with today’s exciting art scene to create a truly effervescent cultural atmosphere.

Talleen Hacikyan

Photos of artwork from exhibition catalogues.

What’s in a Number?

According to Wikipedia, 10,000 is the natural number following 9999 and preceding 10001. Many languages have a specific word for this number. In English it is a myriad. Somehow it sounds more impressive to say that 10,000 people have visited my blog, rather than boasting about a myriad of visitors.

I Googled 10,000. I discovered a prehistoric epic film, 10,000 BC. I fell upon 10,000 Steps, a program that encourages the use of a step-counting pedometer to track daily physical activity levels.

In Danvers, Massachusetts, 10,000 bees landed on the wing of a plane used for flight school training at Beverly Airport. The school’s owner called the police, who referred him to the local bee removal expert, Al Wilkins, who promptly sucked the bees off the plane with a specially designed vacuum. Luckily for the 10,000 bees his intervention did not stop there--he relocated the frazzled insects to hives where they can produce honey.

In The Game Cabinet, an online games magazine, I found some chat entries regarding a dice game called 10,000. Rina Whitehouse writes that she used to play this game where players rolled 5 or 6 dice and played until someone reached 10,000 points. However she has forgotten the rules. Charles Weckwerth claims he is the creator of 10,000, a dice game that comes with “six beautiful electric blue dice,” and English and Spanish instructions. He also mentions that he has not one but two copyrights on this product. Others comment that they used to play a similar game, with names that include Dix Mille, Farkle, Keepers, Blewit, and Cosmic Wimpout.

There is a site where you can print out your own 10,000-year calendar. And it’s free! Yes, for those who always wanted to determine the day-of-the-week for any date in the years 1 to 10,000, this is their big break. “Not as easy to use as the 100-year calendar, but not difficult either.” Maybe I’ll use it to see what day my birthday falls on 800 years from now. There’s nothing like advanced planning.

On the same site I found a link to the Long Now Foundation, established in 01996, “to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.” This is the brainchild of Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, a California couple who coauthored several books including Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food. Kudos to them because most of the time, I don’t even know what I’m going to put on today’s table.

I went to the 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed website but it was down for maintenance, “for a few days, possibly weeks,” so I couldn’t get a taste of the doom and gloom that was fit to be included in this list. One Saturday night, around a dinner table, six friends, Vazaneelo 6 or V6 (Yes, they have a sense of humor) decided they were tired of “the fake optimism, superficiality, non-talented celebrities, doped-up athletes, dishonest and illiterate politicians, corporate thieves, wife-beaters and evangelical terrorists rampant in the world today.” What better way to deter some of the doom than to create a website where people can submit their reason to be included in this rosy list.

10,000 people have visited Talleen Hacikyan’s Art Blog. I tried to imagine what that crowd would look like if it gathered in one place. In 1977 I attended Pink Floyd’s Animals concert at the Big O, along with close to 80,000 fans. All I have to do is picture one eighth of this rocking audience. It’s a bit of a fuzzy image, as was the stage that night due to the clouds of illicit smoke that floated in the Olympic stadium. Roger Waters wondered, Is there anybody out there? When I created my blog, I wondered how many of those out there would read it. The counter shows that more than a myriad have. Virtually 10,000 virtual readers! I suppose that’s a legitimate reason to hit the keyboard and rock on.

Talleen Hacikyan