New Art and Music, and Other Work

I have been interested in "mashing up" art and music. I have recently completed a new body of work called, After Bazille Series, where I took various works of Frédéric Bazille and mashed them together by means of digital collage. For example, in the above work, two of Bazille's works ( The Improvised Ambulance - the Painter Monet Wounded at Chailly-En-Biéré and The Pink Dress) were fused.

Browse the entire collection to learn about this amazing Impressionist artist who was killed in the Franco-Prussian war at the age of 29 years. View my Quicktime (QTVR) movie, based on his work, which I have called "Afternoon in the Studio."

Over the past year, I have been experimenting with composing music outside of my musical mash-up creations. The following four composition are samples of this work which explores the relationship between the space of silence and intervening sounds, or the space that sound creates and the intervening silences:

e-Piano Meditation
Oceanfront
Sound Between Spaces
Spaces Between Sounds

Synergetic Temperament System

When I was in my twenties, I experimented with tuning systems or temperament in music. I proposed that a tuning system could be devised based on the way that sound is propagated in the manner of a pulsating sphere. Drawing from R. Buckminster Fuller's Energetic-Synergetic Geometry, I came up with a sequence of tones that is based on the cubo-octahedron or vector equilibrium.

During the last year, I was able to generate a sequence of sine tones based on the principle that there are 12 omni-directional vectors radiating from a common nuclear point (silence) that extends through to the outer-edges of the various frequency-edged modulations (tones). This is all very experimental, and I will have to go through the tonal sequences to ensure complete accuracy. But, the following composition will give an example of what this music sounds like.

This work raises many questions, including is it possible to create non-"so-called" tonal music that is meaningful, and is it possible to use the "beats" in frequency modulation to create multi-tonal variations? Another question is, how does one notate this music? This will be one of my significant projects for the year. Read what Dr. Fuller said about this work, in a letter he sent to me about the Synergetic Temperament System.

Suicide Prevention Help

I have been busy with the development of the Suicide Prevention Help Global Web Directory. Over 2,000 resources have now been listed, with thousands of visitors using the site, and coming from all over the world. See the site's Blog to view updates and recent visitors. I am planning an official "launch" of the directory next week.

For that Tomorrow - A Remembrance Day Song

Nigel J. C. Turnbull of, Scotland, has penned a lovely composition, "For That Tomorrow - A Remembrance Day Song."

Inspired by a pilgrimage for veterans, during October 2005, to World War ll cemeteries around Montecassino in Italy, this song is dedicated to his uncle, Private James Cram Turnbull, who was killed in action in 1942 at the age of 22 years.

Touched by the simple yet beautiful melody, I offered to write a choral arrangement. You can download the sheet music, in PDF format, by clicking here. To listen to a mp3 of this four-part work, please click here. Browse his website to read the lyrics of all five verses or to see images taken during this visit.

Friend, Jason Menard, of London, Ontario, sent me an email requesting that I take a moment to review and sign a petition to bestow a State Funeral upon the last surviving veteran of WWI. As it stands, there are only three men left in Canada. The goal is 50,000 signatures by Nov. 11.

You can find the petition, initiated by the Dominion Institute, by clicking here.

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre has just completed its 9th Annual Holocaust Education Series. Download the brochure. The Series presents eyewitness survivor testimonies, films, exhibits and lectures. These events are presented in English and in French and take place at a variety of venues such as universities, CEGEPs, churches, synagogues, cultural centres, libraries and bookstores throughout Montreal.

One event was the showing of the film Fateless, based on the 2002 Nobel prize-winning novel by Imre Kertesz. Fateless "chronicles the attempts of 14-year-old Gyuri Koves to reconcile the unimaginable horror of having been incarcerated in German concentration camps." Directed by Lajos Koltai, with music by Ennio Morricone and stunning cinematography by Gyula Pados, this compassionate film speaks to the "resilience of the human spirit." If you have a chance to see this movie, please do.

Progress has been made on the Suicide Prevention Help - Global Web Directory. To date, 1670 resources have been added to 117 categories. Visitors to the site have come from:

Afganistan, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia (Hrvatska), Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Nigeria, Non-Profit Organizations, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uraguay, Viet Nam, US Commercial and the US Military.

Visit the site's blog to learn about recent updates.

Suicide Prevention Help Global Web Directory

I have created the Suicide Prevention Help Global Web Directory in order to provide quality resources that will be valuable to researchers, practitioners, lay people and students.

To date, there are 256 links and 98 categories. Users can find news and updates, relating to the directory, in the site's Web log.

Categories include Conferences and Events, Crisis Centers, Education, Government Initiatives, Groups at Risk, Guides and Directories, Helping Someone, News, Organizations, Personal Testimonies, Research, Statistics, Support Groups, Survivor Support, Teens and Young Adults, Training Programs and Treatment Programs.

Individuals and organizations are welcome to suggest links.

Browse the directory or visit my revamped Suicide Prevention Help Web site or read The Friendship Letter.

Shabbat Shalom!

In With the New

I decided that it was time to re-fresh the look of my website. It was not that I was unhappy with the old "look." I just wanted something that was a bit cleaner in appearance.

While rummaging around the files on my server, I found a composition I had written called, "Four Word Sounds" for S.A.T.B, Piano, Strings and Percussion. This composition plays with meaningless words that I made up, including "Kanatee," "Alazaynah," "Kabalana," and "Moyakol-lokayom." I transcribed the music using Finale software. This is a MIDI program so the voices are a bit cheesy, but you will have a sense of what the music sounds like.

If you can read music, the score can be found here.

Bollywood Brokeback Fun

Recently, I discovered Bombay TV where users can add subtitles to Bollywood movie clips.

When I lived in Vancouver, I would enjoy watching Bollywood films, with their often corny and lavish productions, on TV, Sunday mornings.

Click here to view my take on the recent hit film "Brokeback Mountain." Have fun making your own clips.

On a more serious note, I was asked to participate in an art auction in support of the Yaldei Development Centre. This amazing organization, which started in Israel, works with children from two to eight years of age who have developmental challenges. I took a tour of the centre and was very impressed with the comprehensive range of therapies they offer, including art, music, computer, play, speech and more. I was particularly delighted to learn about how they include high school, CEGEP and university students in their intern and volunteer programs.

I have donated the following two works from my 770 Series:

  

Other News:

Christine Morin (Omoshiroi omoshiroi) has blogged my Montreal Visual Mashup Series.



She writes "... cet artiste montréalais travaille la déconstruction numérique de l'image. Cette série de Mash Up s'intéresse à différents lieux publics de Montréal, réinterprétant à sa manière l'ambiance et l'imaginaire que nous renvoient ces bâtiments et autres lieux plublics."

A Pasadena, California, a commercial and entertainment company (Strom Magallon Entertainment) is interested in my video, "Je suis bleu: like a cloud in the sky" and will be featuring the work on their new website.



That's it for now!

Long Time No Blog

I haven't blogged for quite a while. It is not that I have been inactive, I have simply had other concerns that needed to be dealt with, and blogging was not high on my priority list.

Having said this, here is a sampling of what I have been up to since my last blog:

I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Enright, a Montreal artist, who created the Starving Arts Gallery. He is providing opportunities for emerging and established artists to have their works displayed in offices, homes and other venues. Works can be leased or purchased by companies and individuals. Take a peek at his website to see the artists whom he has enlisted.

After being active in ArtsNDG for over a year, I stepped down as vice-president in order to give other members a chance to lead. However, I am serving as an advisor and webmaster, maintaining the website I created for this organization that promotes art and art practices in the community. Browse the group's archives to view FLASH Bulletins, detailing the organization's activities.

Creatively, I have been selected as a finalist in the International Itinerant Exhibition M.I.A.D. Venado Tuerto in Santa Fe, Argentina. I also exhibited at the Pyongtaek Lake Arts Center, South Korea. My work will be soon seen in Queen's University creative arts journal, Lighthouse, and I have been approached by an Atlanta, Georgia, art magazine that will be including several images of my work. Details to follow. A new San Francisco cable TV station, Channel 79, will be airing my video, Je suis bleu: like a cloud in the sky.

In addition to my Montreal Visual Mashup series that I have been working on, (updated website to be soon completed), I have been creating layered digital collage pieces such as the untitled piece above.

I also completed a biographical sketch for Montreal's Negro Community Centre, on my foster mom, Dr. Daisy Elitha Peterson Sweeney, that was published in their recent newsletter. This material has been adapted for the publication, Who's Who in Black Canada.

During Suicide Prevention Week in Quebec - the first week of February - Debbie Parkes, of the Montreal Gazette, published an article, Moving beyond suicide, detailing my experience with suicide and suicide prevention. The article produced considerable interest, and I was surprised to hear from quite a number of acquaintances, and others, who shared with me how suicide has impacted their lives.

Last year, I was asked to sit on the Holocaust Education Series Committee of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Each year in October/November, the Committee plans, coordinates and holds an annual four-week education series that includes films, lectures, presentations and survivor testimonies. This year's planned activities and events, in French and English, promise to be enlightening, challenging and heartfelt. The series will be held from October 16 - November 9, 2006 in churches, synagogues, lecture halls, film theatres and other venues throughout the city. Details to follow.

Over the last couple of years, I have been taking weekly courses through the Jewish Learning Institute. I recently completed an excellent course called The Kabalah of Time. I learned just how essential time is, in its granular, rhythmic and cyclic forms, an organizing principle in one's existence. This week I am starting a new eight-week course, From Sinai to Cyberspace: How Ancient Wisdom Guides a Modern World.

There are various other projects that are in progress that I will report on in upcoming blogs in the near future.

Camera as Paintbrush

At the end of the summer, I wrote a blog entitled, Playing with Light. At the time, I took images of moving cars. I mentioned that I would return to this work where I used the camera as if it were a paintbrush.

My partner, Harry, put up some Christmas lights, and I took the opportunity to work with this colourful material.

Browse my Camera as Paintbrush Series website where you can find 12 of over 40 images from this body of work.

Other Lights

There are a number of people who have brought light into my life during the past year, and I am delighted to share with you their Web presence. Anne Charlotte Riley is a creative SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist, editor, and writer. Browse her site to see the success she is having in refining and improving a wide range of websites. She works with the brilliant Web designer Kathryn Presner of Zoonini Web Services.

I have known Fred Herscovitch for over 30 years. Fred is a talented artist and writer who resides in Toronto, and when he comes to Montreal for a visit, we usually have an interesting get-together to discuss our work and to catch up. His wife Mara is also an accomplished artist. I recently had the chance to view some of her exquisite paintings on leather. I hope to see her work online one day.

Dr. Evelin Gerda Lindner is an amazing woman who heads Human Diginity and Humiliation Studies, anchored at Columbia University. She has just been named recipient of the 2006 SBAP Award for Applied Psychology for her unique research and independent project management skills, as well as for her international presence as a well-known, committed, and multidisciplinary advocate for humanity in a global society. Her work on the effects of humiliation on individuals and communities has made a significant contribution to the study of peace.

Dr. C. M. Yogi is the principal of Hindu Vidya Peeth-Nepal, founder of the Shanti Sewa Ashram, and patron of Youth Society for Peace. He offers youth programs that nurture humane respect for all life, human and non-human. I am impressed with the quality of consciousness that he instills.

I met Zsolt Szigetvari and John Connolly this year. They are founders of a new human-edited Web directory called Zenome. Not only can editors and referrers develop a knowledge base in the directory, they can also transfer their commissions or Zenome Points to a charity. It is this synergetic business application that appeals to me and demonstrates their insight into doing good in the world.

When I mentioned my Guide in Humane Awareness to Dr. Paul P.T. Wong of the International Network on Personal Meaning, he kindly and immediately offered to publish the eBook. Browse the INPM site to find research and resources related to advancing health, spirituality, peace and human fulfillment through research, education and applied psychology with a focus on the universal human quest for meaning and purpose.

I wish my readers a prosperous, healthy and happy new year. Shabbat Shalom!