FAC inspired Halloween Costumes

It’s that time of year again. You’ve broken out the sweaters (but kept the shorts as well because Colorado Springs weather can be a little…temperamental) and all of the leaves have changed colors. This can only mean one thing. It’s Halloween time; time  for hundreds of children to knock at your door and ask for candy. 

If you’re anything like our New Media Intern Seema, then you spend a lot of time thinking about your Halloween costume,  but still end up searching through your closet for the perfect costume right up until the day of.

If you're still trying to figure out a costume, the FAC is here to offer some Halloween-costume inspiration. The FAC Galleries have a large amount of Western, Modern and un-classifiable pieces that can easily be translated into an awesome and original Halloween costume. Below are a few pieces with costume ideas provided by Intern Seema.

Floyd D. Tunson, Synchro-Mesh 19, mixed media.

Contemporary Art

Floyd D. Tunson is a local Colorado artist who is known for his experimental art as well as Americana references. In order to dress as a Floyd D. Tunson piece, find some interesting metalware around the house and find an adhesive to stick it to yourself.  Also, if you just take some gray cardboard and cut out common shapes, that might work as well. This would probably work best if you’re wearing white underneath. If anyone asks you what you are just strike a pose and say “Contemporary Art!”

Floyd D. Tunson, Where the Hell Is Batman?, acrylic on canvas.

Super Hero Hodge Podge

Another Floyd D. Tunson inspired piece is this collage of American super heroes and icons. Super Heroes are always a popular Halloween costume so why not mix it up this year and use elements from all of them? Maybe a Superman cape with a wonder woman lasso but dressed as Popeye the sailor? This is the perfect costume to attract attention at any party.

Esteban Blanco, Spy Plane, mixed media.

Spy Plane

Googly eyes are a bit odd and strange-looking, but they can also make a fun addition to a costume, and can be found in any crafting store. I once went to a party as a Cyclops by sticking one in the middle of my forehead (that got me a few raised eyebrows and head turns). But a super simple costume inspired by the FAC’s own Spy Plane piece would be to wear all black and stick large googly eyes all over your body and face.

Jerry Vigil, Saint Drogo, Patron of Coffee Houses, mixed media.

Patron Saint of Coffee

As an avid coffee drinker, this piece caught my eye the first time I visited the FAC Galleries, and I was reminded of it again when thinking of Halloween costumes. The best way to make this costume would be to find a monks robe  (or wear all brown) and glue a coffee cup to a beaded necklace. Make sure you also have a cup in hand at all times for effect! Coffee is, after all, a beautiful thing.

Walt Kuhn, Trio, oil on canvas.

Circus Trio

The perfect group costume as inspired by Kuhn's oil painting. Have two friends dress in all red. And then dress in white with white face paint. Don’t forget the tights!

There you have it folks! Five interesting and unique Halloween costumes as inspired by works of art in the Fine Arts Center. Happy Halloween, and if you have an FAC or art inspired costume, we'd love to see it! 

SON OF POP: Catalogs now available!

"His images exist just on the other side of 

an idealized beauty, just across the mountains, barely or rarely out of reach, in a place in the world, but also outside of the world — a place of great vulnerability." 

 —Yusef Komunyakkaa, Poet

 

The official 120-page, full color catalog for Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop has arrived just in time for tonight's exclusive Members Preview! 

Now available for purchase at our Box Office, the Son of Pop catalog features a foreword by the Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa, an introduction by FAC Museum Director Blake Milteer, and an interview with the artist himself. 

"Tunson looks to the challenge and provocation 

of some tough subjects but, perhaps 

necessarily, interweaves them with craftsmanship and expression of astounding beauty." 

 — Blake Milteer, Museum Director and Curator of American Art
 

FAC graphic designer Serena Wolford with the catalog

Catalogs are $25 for FAC Members, $30 for Non-members, and can be purchased at our Box Office, 719.634.5583. 

MEMBERS PREVIEW 

Fri., Oct 26 | 5-7p

This FAC Members-only event will include a special presentation by artist Floyd D. Tunson and Museum Director Blake Milteer. Not a member? Become a FAC Member and get free admission to the museum, invitations to exclusive events, discounts and more.

Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop
Oct. 27 - Jan. 20

Best of WINNERS!

We... Are the Champions, My Friends...

The FAC captured three awards in the Colorado Springs Independent's annual Best Of!

(source)

Fine Arts Center was named the Best Cultural Attraction/Museum, especially noted for our three-pronged approach to the arts with the museum, Bemis School of Art and FAC Theatre:

"Whether you view or create there, the FAC provides a holistic approach to art (for all ages, no less) that makes it a well-deserved community flagship."

Best Art Exhibition 

"This year, the FAC game Springs audiences the work of world-famous contemporary artist James Turrell, as well as sure-to-be-world-famous locals Scott Johnson and Floyd Tunson."

Joyce Cook-Levy's Colorado directorial debut for last season's In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play won the Indy Pick for Sex Talk:

"Didn't attend the production? You missed a fantastic performance, but you can still get educated by reading The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel P. Maines, on which playwright Sarah Ruhl based her work. Then go share your newfound knowledge with someone. Maybe your daughter. Or yourself."

Floyd D. Tunson, Haitian Dream Boats and 
Adrift installation, 1991/2012.

In this issue, Arts Editor Edie Adelstein also wrote a feature piece on upcoming exhibition Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop. Here are some highlights:

Like much of Floyd Tunson's oeuvre, "Coco" fuses discordant images to reveal a pressing social issue, a human tragedy. 

And so much of it is based on stupid little cartoons that reflect a dark underswell of big problems.
Take that to the power of 40 years and you have a bear of a show to organize. But Milteer's been able to whittle the work down and organize the show chronologically, with a loose thematic grouping based on four of Tunson's large installations. 

"My younger brother was shot in a park in Denver by the police, and I think that had a profound effect on how I feel about young black males," Tunson says. "But I don't think that's the only experience — it's also from news, individuals in my family and other families, and just being informed on the whole aspect of the black male in this society, young and old, actually."

MEMBERS PREVIEW | Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop

Fri., Oct 26 | 5 -7 p.m.

This FAC Members-only event will include a special presentation by artist Floyd D. Tunson and Museum Director Blake Milteer. Not a member? Become a FAC Member and get free admission to the museum, invitations to exclusive events, discounts and more.

Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop
Oct. 27 - Jan. 20

Upcoming Music Performances at the FAC

Did you know the Fine Arts Center Theatre was originally built with music performances in mind? We've now adapted the theatre space to include the theatrical musicals, traditional plays, and music performances. Speaking of music... we have two great bands performing at upcoming museum events.

Glenna Goodacre, Watersprite III, bronze, 1990. One of the pieces currently
 on display in the Tactile Gallery. This figure's hand has been touched so much
that when you view it, the bronze is weathered in the figure's palm.

A previous performance at the FAC by the Bad News
Bulldog Band (source).

The Bad News Bulldog Band
Tactile Gallery 31st Anniversary and Open House
Oct 24 | 4-6 p.m. — FREE!
The Bad News Bulldog band is the school band of Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind. The band has played at the FAC previously for other Tactile Gallery events, and is under the direction of Julie Novak, Music Therapist. They'll take the stage around 4:30 p.m.




The Kim Stone Trio
Members Preview of Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop
Oct 26 | 5 - 7 p.m. — Members only
The Kim Stone Trio features Kim Stone, Britt Ciampa and Andre. Stone was bassist for Jazz fusion band, Spryo Gyra and contemporary jazz band, The Rippingtons. Stone now lives and performs in Broomfield, Colo. Ciampa is a Colorado Springs native (and Colorado Springs' favorite boy-prodigy jazz drummer), William Patterson University alum, and drummer for local band, The Classical (who was featured on this blog earlier). Andre plays the trumpet. Below is a video of a 2011 performance by Kim Stone at Jam Rock USA in Fort Collins, Colo; as well as one of Britt's favorite songs from The Classical.

Tactile Gallery 31st Anniversary and Open House
Wed., Oct 24 | 4 - 6 p.m.
Join us for light refreshments as we celebrate a Pikes Peak original, the FAC's tactile gallery. Featuring local sculptors and new acquisitions.

MEMBERS PREVIEW | Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop

Fri., Oct 26 | 5 -7 p.m.

This FAC Members-only event will include a special presentation by artist Floyd D. Tunson and Museum Director Blake Milteer. Not a member? Become a FAC Member and get free admission to the museum, invitations to exclusive events, discounts and more.

Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop
Oct. 27 - Jan. 20

Floyd Tunson, detail of Untitled 96, mixed media, 2005.

Va Va Voom: A Burlesque Playlist

Here's a playlist inspired by the burlesque dancing in current FAC Theatre production, Gypsy! (Some songs may contain adult language)

Gypsy

Closing Oct. 21 | Buy Tickets Online

Invite your friends!

Dancing in the Galleries: Ormao Dance Company

Inspired by the exhibition Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop, Ormao Dance Company has jumped into an exciting and complex collaboration with five different choreographers and composer Glen Whitehead. Travel through the galleries with dancers and live music to experience a very special series of site specific choreography that explore themes surrounding generations, freedom, cultural awareness, racism, and history.  

Ormao Dance Company: Fall Gallery Performances
Sunday, Nov. 4 | 5:30p; 7p
Friday, Nov. 9 | 5:30p; 7p; 8:30p
BUY TICKETS  $25 adults, $15 students and children

“Trace” Choreography by Patrizia Herminjard

Trace is an installation existing amongst Floyd Tunson's Haitian Dream Boats, which float above a trio for three women scanning three generations. It explores how movement traces architectural places of the body eliciting psychological implications. Trace seeks to reveal how the history of tracings in one’s own body language triggers a response before and beyond words.

“Bound Breath” Choreography by Stephanie Kobes

Inspired by Visual Artist, Floyd Tunson’s beautifully tragic and striking images, five women surrounded by glass, find themselves struggling to overcome the overwhelming sensation of being bound by every breath they take.  Frenzied chaos, gives way to tranquil release as bodies are tossed and turned in a noble battle to exhale.

 

“Sentience” Choreography by Jan Johnson

Sentience explores finely sensitive perceptions of feelings, with influences from visual artist Floyd Tunson's Hearts and Minds and Delta Queen. Exploring awareness, attention, face to face, back to back, side to side, near and far…with care…with superiority…with indifference, challenging the culturally expected responses.

“unrecognized beauty” Choreography by Ila Conoley

The soundscape by Glen Whitehead fills the gallery with a sometimes hauntingly sparse and sometimes suffocatingly dense sound cloud. Viewers journey, with the music as a guide, through a variety of abstract movement scenes inspired by and reminiscent of the emotional content and the human experience represented in visual artist Floyd Tunson's works. "unrecognized beauty" acknowledges the all too often unrecognized and unrealized beauty lost in the victims of racism, sexism, and all things hateful.

“Interstices” Choreography by Emily Ford

This piece looks at the near and the far and seeks to describe the intangible space that lies between. Our individual and collective past and future realities define our present.

Floyd Tunson: Son of Pop
Oct. 27 - Jan. 20

...In the Community (Oct 18 - Nov 1)

KRCC employee Jake Brownell carved these two pumpkins of The Big Something's Craig "Richumpkin" and Noel "Black-O-Lantern" in celebration of Halloween, but also The Big Something's upcoming multi-media exhibition that will be held in Colorado College's Coburn Gallery at the end of the month, a day before Halloween.

We're featuring a bi-monthly glance at some exciting upcoming local events — some art, some outdoors, some music... hopefully you'll find a little bit of everything. Share your experience of these events in the comments section, Facebook, or Twitter (use #inthecommunity) if you go to any of these! 

K8E Orr, La Cancion de Los Muertos 3 (source).

ART | K8E Orr Art Show
Fri., 10/19 | 7 - 9 p.m.
Free at Swirl Vine Emporium
Enjoy some yummy food at Swirl Vine in Manitou while checking out local artist K8E Orr's new work. Orr will be participating in tonight's RAW Artist Showcase: Provocations.

NATURE | Bear Creek Nature Explorers — Hooray for Hawks
Thurs., 10/18 | 9 - 10:30 a.m.
$4/per person, reservations required (719.520.6387) at Bear Creek Nature Center

One of the instruments sometimes used in Kirtan singing
is the tabla, pictured here (source).

A jam-packed morning for children ages 4-5 (with an adult) that includes hands-on nature activities, puppetry and crafts, and a guided hike in Bear Creek.

MUSIC | Bhagavan Kirtan!
Sat., 10/20 | 7:30 p.m.
Donation at Yoga Journeys
A live band will accompany your Kirtan singing technique of call and response between audience and a leader, or a kirtankar. Kirtan, a form of Bhakti yoga, vocalizes the Sanskirt Mudras, allowing for a space of spiritual transcendence and oneness.


THEATRE | Improv Colorado at Venue 515
Sat., 10/20 | 7:30 p.m.
$10 (adults), $8 (students and kids under 12) at Venue 515 at Business of Art Center
Family-friendly live-improv based on audience suggestion. Each show is different, so if you can't make this performance, don't worry, they have shows planned into the next year! Below is a video of Improv Colorado performing in 2009.


MUSIC & ART | Opening Reception — KRCC Presents: The Big Something
Tues., 10/30 | 4:30 - 7 p.m.
Free at Coburn Gallery, Colorado College
KRCC will be bringing their daily web-based program to real life in The Big Something Exhibition.  The reception will feature a live DJ, story-telling booth, arcade games, and glimpse into a forgotten Pikes Peak history.

KIDS & ART | Trick 'R Treat at the Museum
Wed., 10/31 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Free museum admission at Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
Explore and exhibitions and complete a scavenger hunt, complete with a special treat at the end. Wear your Halloween costume and sign up for their raffle as well.

...In the Community runs on the first and third Thursdays of each month on the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Blog. 

Behind the Scenes: Gypsy and Mama Rose's Pre-Performance Routines

Curious what the leading ladies, AJ Mooney (Mama Rose) and Lacey Connell (Gypsy Rose Lee) do before a performance?

AJ Mooney performing in Penobscot Theatre Company's
2008 production of State of the Union. Mooney played the role
of newspaper heiress, Kay Thorndike (source).  

AJ's Pre-Performance Routine

• Stretch and vocalize
• Appetite stops after 3 p.m. - "It's a life change as opposed to the day-to-day activities you'd do on a non-performance day. Everything shifts."
• Sinus steaming "I'm from Maine, so everything gets dried up in this climate."
• Quiet meditative space (AJ and Lacey share a dressing room, so it's good that they both enjoy the pre-performance meditative atmosphere)
• Coffee, and tea right before going on

Warm and caffeinated liquids seem to be a
favorite of the two leading ladie
 of Gypsy (source).

Coffee to energize before the show (source).

We spotted some sort of candy in many of the dressing rooms.
Black licorice has been known to sooth vocal cords, and can
be used as a dietary supplement to fight against sore throats
and bronchitis (source).

Cough drops help sooth the actors'
throats before going on stage for a
production as vocally demanding as a
nearly 3 hour long musical (source).

Lacey Connell (source).

Lacey's Pre-Performance Routine

• Stretch and vocalize
• Apple
• Starbucks VIA refreshers
• Caffeine
• Gum "To wake up my face!"
• Being alone in dressing room with a closed door

Lacey Connell, who plays Louise, and Nicole Dawson, who plays Louise's sister June, are on stage during the first act. Connell is wearing the "pants" of the cow costume, after a scene where she and one of the boys dance under one cow costume. 

Gypsy

Closing Oct. 21 | Buy Tickets Online

Invite your friends!

NEW Acquisition: Rafael Ferrer's "Magallanes"

Rafael Ferrer, Magallanes, crayon and acrylic paint on USAF Operational Navigation Chart, 1972. On view in the Security Corridor, near Walt Kuhn's Trio.

Rafael Ferrer in his backyard studio in New York (image source).

As you're walking through the Security Corridor to check out the hallway of recent acquisitions, you may notice something a little strange about Rafael Ferrer's choice of medium. No, not the crayon, or acrylic paint... but the USAF Operational Navigation Chart!

Operational Navigation Charts are the biggest scale map used by pilots. 1 inch = 13.7 nautical miles, or 16 statute miles -- this is a scale of 1 to 1,000,000!

Now draw your attention to the title... does it remind you of a famous Portugese explorer, perhaps by the name of Ferdinand Magellan, or his Spanish name is Fernando de Magallanes. Magellan obviously did not have a plane like our neighbors over at the Air Force Academy, but he is most famous for leading the first naval circumnavigation of the world (he died before it was actually completed, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines).

Rafael Ferrer with 3 Leaf Piece installation,
performed at the Castelli Warehouse in
New York in Winter 1968 (image source).

Ferrer's American-born, English-speaking parents raised him in Puerto Rico. Ferrer rejects a strict association with Latino culture, saying his art just has "an accent, one influenced by a Latin temperament."

He studied at Staunton Military Academy (was located in Staunton, N.Y. until it closed in 1976) and Syracuse University, but eventually returned to Puerto Rico to finish college. In Puerto Rico, he studied with Spanish Surrealist Eugenio Granell and even traveled to Paris with Granell to meet Andre Breton, the author of The Surrealist Manifesto.

In the 1960's, Ferrer's interest in process art began with his performance piece, 3 Leaf Piece. He continued to reference the concept of voyages throughout his installation pieces, similar to the theme of our new acquisition. In 2010, El Museo del Barrio featured the first large-scale retrospective of then 77-year-old Ferrer's variety of works.

“Ethnicity was born with the social upheavals of the 1960s-1970s. Hispanics and Latinos, i.e., individuals from any of the South or Central American republics, joined African-Americans, women, and gay, lesbian, and transgender minorities in the struggle for equal rights and respect.”

Stop by the galleries to check out this new acquisition, along with the EIGHT other exhibitions we have going on! Below is a video of a Penn State interview with Ferrer.

Tues. - Sun. | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.