Artists, Artists Everywhere!

Today I went to the most fascinating place: The Mississippi Crafts Center. It's a wonderful building filled with art by all types of Mississippi craftspeople. The outside lawn has many whimsical outdoor sculptures. The interior has a shop filled with incredibly beautiful handmade items. Think pottery, wood, furniture, jewelry, weaving, quilts, baskets, and decorative items. I'm a sucker for handmade, hand crafted and imaginative items. For instance, how about using all those empty wine and whiskey bottles?

One of the highlights of the day was getting to meet several of the artists who were doing demonstrations of their art. First, was Max Goodman of Ogre Forge who makes the most amazing handforged knifes. He takes a raw piece of metal and turns it into a large hunting knife with an exotic wood handle and a handwoven leather scabbard. He was in the outdoor area - like a big garage, but three of the walls were windows. He had a small forge there and all sorts of blacksmithing tools. He gave us an interesting talk about the chemistry of forging steel. It's quite complicated and the chemistry is very precise. Forging is not trial and error anymore. Mr. Goodman is a retired geologist.

Then, there was the German Baptist basket maker. At first, because of her clothing, I thought she was Amish, so I just asked and found out she was German Baptist - obviously, not a Southern Baptist. This community migrated to Mississippi sometime in the 19th century, and the traditions are still alive - witness her dress and the cap covering her hair. She's a basketmaker, and she actually finished this basket in the time that we were here. You can see the stainless steel staircase and glass walls of the Center behind her. This is a place to work and to teach. The Center, which is on the Natchez Trace just north of Jackson, runs summer programs and is a galley offering the works of 0ver 400 members of its Craftsmen Guild.

Without a doubt, the most cutting edge art we saw was an artist making clocks using material and ideas from the past four centuries. First, personal clocks date back from the 18th century. This is when it really became possible for ordinary people to own a clock as a decorative item in their home. Larry L. Smith, the artist, makes clocks using a compilation of materials. He begins with 19th century weathered wood in blocks or cut into 18" long pieces of 2x4. He mounts computer mother boards and disc drives as well as 20th century vacuum tubes from radios and televisions onto the wood. The 21st century computer detritus is what he mounts the clock works and hands on. He actually buys antique wood to use. He's branching out from weathered fence posts and barn wood and has just bought the wood interior of an old elevator from New York City. He has friends that are really happy to give him their old computers which he salvages for parts. In the gift shop, there is a killer grandfather clock he has created. He confided it was the grandfather clock that got him into the Craftsmen's Guild. I can see why; it's spectacular. He calls what he does PC Art. Imagine 18th century personal clock, 19th century wood, 20th century vacuum tubes, and 21st century computer disc drives and motherboards. I'm so sorry the picture didn't come out; technology, what can you say?

Another demonstator was making chainmail. Martha Scarborough has learned the medieval technique of making chainmail - the shirts knights wore to repel knives, swords, and pikes. (That's why the longbow was such an awesome weapon - fired from afar, it could pierce chain mail.) Nowadays, there's not too much call for chainmail armor, so she is using chainmail techniques with silver, copper and gold wire to create jewlry. There are formal patterns (turkish, celtic, etc.) that she uses to make her jewlry. I asked her how she got started, and she confided that she went to a craft school with some girlfriends, and the silver working class was full but the wire class was open! An artist was born.

I think overall each of the artists that I spoke with came to art late in life. They don't have fine arts degrees. They all have 'day jobs' - actually careers, and they pursue their art in their spare time as a passion they can not deny. I can identify with that drive to create which drives my embroidery work.

The drive to create can be all consuming, but most artists don't have the luxury to create on a full time basis. That's the real beauty of the Mississippi Crafts Center - it's a showcase for art that sometimes only finds a home at local craft fairs or church bazaars. The Center legitimizes this type of artwork. The venue is really great - spacious, full of cases, shelves, hanging space, and light. You wander from one beautiful item to another. Some are lyrical, some are whimsical, some are functional. All have that creative spark of artwork. Drake has faithfully promised that when we come back for the next ballet competition (yes, we are having that great of a time - you should have seen the contemporary stuff last night) that I can shop the Craft Center for decorative items to furnish our house when we re-settle. Now, because of our tight space and weight requirements, I only got a handmade ceramic magnolia magnet (my Mississsippi magnet), and SOMEONE who reads this blog got a gift from this wonderful place.

Coming to the end of Round I (or the 'two a days' as I like to call them), we will have seen 103 dancers perform. It's still a mystery how many competitors will get to move on to the second round - that number is a closely guarded secret, or more likely, a fixed number is not desirable because it hems in the judges. Without a fixed number moving onto Round II, they can be more flexible in including competitors they want to reward.



This next section of this blog will make much more sense and be much more fun if you read everything in quotations marks with a soft, dripping, southern accent. Be sure to end each quotation as if you've asked a question. Southern people's voices always go up in octave at the end of each conversational pod. It's a conversational technique that keeps things flowing.



I've heard so much artful small talk this week that it's a lesson in itself. Almost every encounter overheard includes a reference to the weather, to family, to the competition, all tinged with a bit of gossip - not malicious - more like, "Did you hear that Mary Lou may have to have her fingernails removed? Lord, I hope she will be Ok." Then there are formal goodbyes - along the line, of "It's been so good to see you all." (You all is singular or plural, remember). "We have to get together soon." with the alternative closing of: "You tell your sweet _________ hello for me." The blank is usually a family member in the same generation as the person who initiated the goodbye ritual. Younger people use Yes, Ma'm and "No Sir" routinely during these encounters. Little old ladies are particularly good at this exchange, but men also excell at it. I saw a group of three ladies stand directly in front of the interior door into the Ladies Room and carry on like this for at least 2 minutes. It never occurred to them they were blocking the door. No wonder people from elsewhere pull out their hair. These people have all the time in the world to practice the art of civility. Watching all of this makes me realize how isolationistic we heathens have become.



Much more interesting are the people we have been directly meeting. By far the most surprising are the country couple from Cleveland, Mississippi - "You, know, we live on the Delta" was how the woman introduced herself in the kind of an accent you could spoon over ice cream. She cooks lunch everyday (still) for six people including her husband, her children and some grandchildren. "They just like my cookin', and this way they don't eat that fast food." You would not pick this couple out of a line-up as people coming to every performance. I do find it amusing that they eat at the same restaurant between the performances every day. When I inquired why they didn't try new places, her reply was: "I just like it; it's the food I make, but with a twist." The restaurant they like is in the museum, and she confided that they are slowly making their way around the place, a little bit at a time.



They are also rating the dancers (as we are), and we have been having some lively discussions about what we like/don't like about what we see. I think we've been too lenien't in awarding our *'s - which indicates we think they will move forward. All our favorites are not going to make it to Round II. We have been having fun doing this, though. The group of us Mezzaniners who all visit among one another quip that we are going to be sending down our recommendations to the judges.



Our evening seatmates are a couple of native Jacksonians who have been generous with their restaurant recommendations as well as suggesting things we can do in the area. Alec in particular is very interesting. He's an English professor at the local junior college. He volunteers as a docent at the Eudora Welty house (yes, this is her home town), and from what he has let drop has his finger in many cultural activities in Jackson. His wife, Kay, is very friendly. I do get the feeling she still works full time, and this competition (coming every night to performances) is wearing her out. She left early last time pleading tiredness.



Many other people are now recognizing us and speaking to us when they see us. It's fascinating how people will form themselves into a group simply based on propinquity. You can see it happen everywhere - especially when people seat themselves in the same place over and over again. (Think church, classrooms, work cubicles, meetings and auditoriums!) By the time we leave here, I'll bet I will have added another few readers to this blog. I wonder how much more I will know about these individual people before I leave. That's interesting in itself. I'm sure this talent, curse, ability, whatever you can call it, will rear up and folks will start telling me all sorts of things.

Here's Jackson!

We've now seen one-half of the 112 dancers who are the competitors of the USA International Ballet Competition. It is an honor just to be a competitor since the selection is so rigorous. This experience was a 20 year dream, and I was initially worried that we would have built up such high anticipation that the actual competition would be a let-down. Happily, it's been just the opposite. So far this has been more fun than the anticipation. In addition to seeing wonderful dancers, we are developing a little mezzanine community of people who, like us, have the time and desire to come to ALL the performances including the 'two a days' we are doing now.

We go to see dance performance at 2 pm and 7 pm EVERY day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else. We leave at 1 pm and get back to our home away from home (extended stay hotel) about 10 pm. We are eating in some really new interesting restaurants. One surprise is that there was a pretty substantial group of Lebanese who settled here, and you can see their stamp in the restaurants here. We ate at a terrific place (Aladdin's) yesterday. Today we went to the Mayflower Cafe - a downtown landmark for over 75 years. I think it opened in the 1920's.

Everyone (whether black or white) has been extremely friendly and welcoming as only the Deep South is. Good news is that there seems to be a lot less racial tension than there was 20 years ago. These people also have the most amazing accent. It's so thick at times that we have to pay really close attention to understand them! We are sitting right across from a couple form Cleveland, Mississippi - deep in the heart of the Delta - (exactly what they said!) They are taking a pause and going home on Thursday, so the husband can "check in on his recliner" - no lie, that's what she (the wife) said. The four of us are rating the dancers, and we keep joking that we'll be glad to send our consensus down to the judges. It will be interesting to see how well we do when the competitors are judged. The couple sitting next to us are native Jacksonians who rattled off 10 restaurants to try when we asked for recommendations.

This is really a lot of fun. We have seen some amazing young dancers from as far away as Mongolia! (The one competitor from Mongolia wore the same costume for both of his solos today. I got the feeling from his response to the audience that he's never performed before so many people before.) Overall, the Japanese competitors are extremely well trained and a joy to watch. There are also a large number of wonderful American dancers of all different ethnicities. Next week starts Round II which Drake estimates will be only 3/8ths of the total competitors. That's about 40 dancers that will move on.

On a sad note. Jackson is filled with wonderful architecture, and should be a delightful place to live. However, we went to the main downtown public library today, and it was really sad. Obviously, they are seriously underfunded. The Bastrop, Texas library was more up to date and better funded per capita than this library. For instance, their audio book collection is ALL beat up cassettes - almost no CD books, and no MP3 books. Their "new book" section was just pathetic. Apparently, race is still dictating. There's 'white flight' going on - moving out to the suburbs, leaving Jackson economically strapped - then along comes the recession. I've talked to several people, and everywhere else in the country people are moving back to their city - here, whites are still fleeing a wonderfully livable city because they might have to live by black people. On the positive note, there is some racial mixing that I never saw 20 years ago. So even Mississippi is changing.

The weather is dreadful. Just as hot, humid and miserable as I expected. Washington is going to feel great after this climate. Stay tuned for more dancing updates - I'm sure you'all just can't wait.