ART UNLOCKS THE SOUL
by John Moran
I was driving a limousine at the time; It was a late night pick-up, Christie’s auction house to the Upper West Side. An art dealer sat in the back.
“What is art?” I asked.
“Art is the tool which unlocks your soul,” he replied.
“Then what is good art?” I said.
“If your soul needs a hammer to release it and your art hits your soul like a hammer, it’s good,” he answered.
“What if your art twists your soul like a wrench?” I challenged.
“Then it is good for the man who needs the wrench.”
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On Friday night Artists Without Walls celebrated the work of Kathleen Bennett Bastis at Chelsea’s First Street Gallery. Her mixed media art works are truly tools to unlock the soul.
Surrounded by Kathleen’s stunning and beautiful creations with names such as Sentinel, Concerto #1, Copper Spirit and Scattered Geometry, the equally evocative and eclectic artists Martina Fiserova, Allison Sylvia, and Annette Homann captivated the crowd with their own forms of highly skilled and entertaining art.
Martina’s accompanied vocals playfully and intensely reverberated through what seemed like near perfect acoustics in Kathleen’s First Street Gallery space. Martina’s sonority so total, so brilliant, so penetrating was a perfect prelude to Allison Sylvia’s attention grabbing, fast paced, stay focused so you don’t miss a thought, hey, I think just learned something about myself, spoken word brand of poetry. Allison is not a rapper, but if Socrates were a rap artist you might think of Allison. Brilliant.
Annette Homann wrapped up the evening’s entertainment by bringing us on a musical theme park ride: Soothing us with the classical, Massenet’s “Meditation on Thais;” moving us with the contemporary, “If I Aint Got You;” thrilling us with her fiddling in Mark O’Connor’s “Caprice for Unaccompanied Violin #2,” and making us smile with a sexy, funny, acrobatic interpretation of Adele’s “Skyfall,” complete with gypsie like dance moves and back bends while never missing a note. She is a profound talent.
Great art on every level for a warm and welcoming crowd.
Annette Homann’s Skyfall below:
It was so gratifying to read such a wonderful “review” of the evening at the Gallery. Hopefully it will be the first of many in the AWoW Series.
It was a truly memorable night for me as it was for many others.
Thank you for your kind words about my work…..and I completely agree with you about the accomplished, intelligent and thoroughly engaging performances. There wasn’t a corner that didn’t reverberate with the music and words of Martina, Allison and Annette. When I returned to the Gallery on Sunday I was glad to have the memory of that energy in my head…the vibe kept me company. KB
It was all our pleasure.