I was so fortunate to attend Lesley Dill's talk, together with my friend Susan Turkel. Dill's work truly has no boundaries, only 'intersections' with all of life, especially words and transformational experience.
She spent a couple of years in India as a young person, and her interest in mysticism and spirituality shaped the rest of her life:
Her work has also been deeply influenced over the years by Emily Dickinson. Most recently she has put together an Opera based on Dickinson's poems, that is stunning both visually and musically. It has been performed in California, and is about to be performed in New York city in April 2018.
This three-minute trailer gives a taste of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLy4LBS16E
I'm tempted to go see it!
Above is a detail of her lithograph with photogravure (2005) that has sixteen sqares.
We had a brief conversation before she started her talk. I had brought a book with me of her work from 2002, so she knew I was a long-time fan. She inscribed it with a quote from an Emily Dickinson poem and wishes for good luck with my work. We are connected. I am grateful.
The Dumpster Divers recently visited Bethany Mission Gallery, where they fit right in. Only Eugene Ionesco could have brought about this historic convergence.
A fan of theater of the absurd, I had gotten tickets to The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium's performance of Ionesco's Bald Soprano. Little did I know that the venue would be Bethany Mission Gallery (BMG). Once I saw it, I knew I had to share it with the Divers.
You can see why I love BMG. Here is one of my favorites: She-He by Sam Doyle (1906-1985):
Bethany Mission Gallery is the private collection of Victor Keen, and is
not open to the public. It is like the Barnes, in the sense that it is
the collection of one man, and is eclectic because it reflects his
particular interests. It encompasses primarily Outsider Art, but also
folk art, radios, toasters, tin toys, and all kinds of other stuff.
It's a little gem of a museum that is a well kept secret.
This Adoration of the Wise Men, 1985, by William Hawkins (1895-1990), is extraordinary.
Gary Smith, the BMG guy who figures out how to hang the work and manage the logistics of the collection, greeted us, and here is starting to show us around.
Victor Keen gave us the scoop on his collection, and wanted to hear from us about the Dumpster Divers as well.
We were rapt.
After the talk, there was time to look around some more and schmooze.
Many pictures were taken.
This shows only part of the radio and toaster collection:
Where would we be without the Theater of the Absurd?
