Music
We Were All Women in the Womb: Icelandic Drag Performers On Feminism and Free Expression
“Gender is a social construct and drag breaks it down and reconstructs it.”
Read MoreFor the Love of Music and Beauty: Interview with Singer, Songwriter, Halie Loren
“…And you are reminded of just how strong this medium is and yet also how little it has to do with you. You realize that it’s not just about you.”
~ Halie Loren
Let Me Tell You About My Father…
I invited some of the special people I know ~ from poets whose work has appeared in Combustus magazine to a dancer friend of mine who immigrated from Hungary ~ to share with us some of the wisdom they’ve received over the years from their fathers as well as what has been passed on to their own children.
Read MoreTo Remain Astonished: Interview with Concert Pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi
“There is nothing more astonishing, and rewarding, than to play through a work you’ve played hundreds of times, and all of a sudden discover a new hidden line…”
Read MoreDaniel Heikalo, photographer/musician, Quebec: Our Beautiful Decay…
“Decay and impermanence are states that are definitely a big part of what I portray as a photographer. There is much beauty in the derelict.”
Read MoreAn Artist Dreamed: Interview with Ethiopian painter Yared Nigussu
I was in France at the time and I met a young guy in my French class. And he was an ex-child soldier. I saw him as always really sad. You didn’t ever see a smile on his face. We’d go for coffee or a drink, and one day I just asked him, “Hey man, why don’t you ever smile?” And he just explained to me that his childhood was stolen from him. I told him that if I was a writer I would write something, but I am a painter. So I painted his portrait.
Read MoreCreating in Community
Something happens when we get together to create. What could otherwise remain static begins to evolve organically. A co-mingling that forever alters the recipe. Chemicals react. There is a sense of something building, bubbling. The unpredictable. That which cannot entirely be controlled. Nor should it.
Read MoreWilhelm Matthies, Visual Artist and Teacher
“After playing with prepared guitars, and later prepared mandolin, I realized that perhaps I could create an instrument that would suit what and how I wanted to play” ~ Wilhelm Matthies
Read MoreMatteo Marchisano-Adamo, Narrative Filmmaker, Hollywood
“With the Internet and the advancements in technology and equipment, a new breed of moviemakers is evolving. This helps in making it an art again – it makes it democratic. It has been a long time coming, but now the technology and quality of the image and sound have surpassed storytelling. Now we need to relearn now to tell stories. We are still telling old stories.”
~Matteo Marchisamo-Adamo, Hollywood filmmaker, musician
Luca Bergero, Music Therapist, Composer, Field Recorder, Italy
Music therapy has allowed me to figure out how I can live a life of purpose by serving really unlucky people. That’s what has saved me.
Read MoreIsolda, Singer-Songwriter, Pianist in London, England
Composing music for me can be a very concrete way of immortalizing a powerful feeling or event by encoding it into a song. When you hear the song, it can take you right back to that particular moment when you wrote it, what you were feeling, what the weather was like that day, your mood.
Read MoreInterview with the Whimsical Alessandra Celletti
“One night I dreamed I was this completely blue boy and with a propeller on his head.”
~Alessandra Celletti, pianist; Rome, Italy