So you think you would not last a day on Project Run Way? Maybe you never learned to sew or maybe you are the creative type but fashion is just not your media? This past Friday I realized anyone can make "wearable art." Tie-dying is easy, no sketching, cutting or sewing, most of the process is left up to chance. Park Works (a great oganization that brings fun events to Cleveland parks) held a tie-dye event at Fairview Park near where I live in Ohio City. Park Works made it easy; they provided free white t-shirts, coolers of cold water for soaking the shirts, rubber bands and rubber gloves and bottles of dyes in every color you could want.

As I drove from the site of the murder of Detective Schroeder, on West 98th Street, I passed the park dedicated in the honor of the murder of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi on West 65th, and it occurred to me that there must be a similar park dedicated to Detective Schroeder. This is a fitting way to memorialize the victims of murder, and all violent crime, in our city, as it replaces death with life, and sorrow with joy... it gives people young and old a place to move on in the most healthy possible ways. I do not believe the people of Cleveland want to brush away such tragedy, but rather they want to have a remembrance of those who we lose, and a bright spot to remember that... and they want their neighborhoods to grow stronger so there will be less tragedy there in the future.

I'm pleased to promote a friend and great Cleveland community leader Michael DeAloia as poet of the day. From the website where his work of poetry may be purchased is a description of his work... below that is an invitation to a fundraiser featuring Michael reading some of his work...

Michael DeAloia "Roses on the Gates of Hell" is author Michael DeAloia’s first published book of poetry. His collection forms an imagistic journey through the intensely personal and transforms a decade of personal experiences and textured observations into feats of creative imagination with clarity, precision and acuity. Crafted with a thoughtful and cadenced approach, the poems in this collection reach lofty heights while being grounded in the everyday. DeAloia’s meditative, and at times confessional, poems explore the wonder and torment of life, the impropriety of men and the inconstancy of women. DeAloia explores a range of topics: his subject matter varies from spirituality to social commentary to brooding introspection. The results are accessible but not trite, insightful but not pretentious, and well crafted but not overly flamboyant. DeAloia relies heavily on imagery, which becomes the cornerstone of the entire volume, and his verbal facility brings such a polish to these poems that the reader is left feeling that this book once opened must be finished. Michael DeAloia is a poet and essayist originally born in Dayton, Ohio but resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a graduate degree from Case Western Reserve University and an undergraduate degree from Xavier University.

The host, he says that all is well
And the fire-wood glow is bright;
The food has a warm and tempting smell,—
But on the window licks the night.

Pile on the logs... Give me your hands,
Friends! No,— it is not fright...
But hold me... somewhere I heard demands...
And on the window licks the night.

There is an amazing sculpture on the edge of the Cuyahoga River by former CSU professor and renowned NEO artist Gene Kangas, created in tribute to near-Cleveland born poet Hart Crane, situated in far less than a park, but a beautiful site, marked by a wordless sign. You'd only know the sculpture if you know the Flats, or Cleveland sculpture, and I only knew of poet Crane for knowing of the sculpture, and I'm glad for both. This 1992 master work by Kangas is the Art of the Day, and Crane is the poet of the day, today. See and learn more below...

I am very excited! I recently volunteered to become an Energy Ambassador at Case Western Reserve Univeristy, part of the Adopt a Building program. I will be adopting Mather House, the building where I work. Mather House is a  century old Gothic Revival former girls dorm  turned office building -- probably not the most energy efficient on campus. I suspect the most  significant improvements at Mather House will be directly related to changing the residents' behavior. I think I could be a good energy ambassador; I am always turning out lights, I go to great pains to recycle, I hate air conditioning and I walk rather than using the campus shuttle bus. But I am looking for suggestions as to how myself and the other residents of Mather House could really make a difference. Please post your ideas. I would also appreciate links to good energy conservation sites. The Adopt a Building program is just getting started. My first "Ambassador's" meeting will be next Wednesday. I will fill you in with more details late next week.

The one and only Chaco presents a drumming workshop.  Learn about the different drums and drumming styles used in Afro-Cuban music.  A family-oriented program.

Location

There's an interesting, very colorful new installation of public art right at the W. 28th on-and-off ramps for Highway 2, by Detroit Avenue. While you can get a fair glimpse of the overall work from the road, that does not do it justice at all, as the greatest importance is in the details. For this work, Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Emily Acita collaborated with the Children of Lakeview Terrace Community Center, which is located right down the road from the mural location, explaining the unusual site selection, being where these children and their families pass-by daily on the way to work, school and play.

I went to the Beck Center for the first time for the Masumi Hayashi memorial. I was interested to see the place, as it has sufaced in controversy as the Beck Chairman of the Board wants to move it to Crocker Park, and the media and arts powers that be agree. What I found was a very expensive, expansive, high quality arts facility, as ugly as sin, on the skin, and poorly managed in obvious ways, but far from beyond redemption. That the regional arts leadership is ready to demolish this solid facility is beyond belief and shows how disposable our leadership finds our core and inner-ring community.

As a largely grey and blue crowd of arts and peace lovers assembled in Lakewood to think and talk about renowned contemporary artists John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, now living only in spirit and retrospect, a young and multi-colorful crowd gathered in the "Market Square" pocket park at W.25th and Lorain (across from the West Side Market) to give props to scores of nameless contemporary artists that live on in the streets of Cleveland's urban core, through their art of aerosol paint, rap, scratch and break... otherwise known to the establishment as counter-culture, noise and pollution.

Today the bleak Beck Center for the Arts had a heart pounding inside, to the beat of a Masumi Hayashi retrospective... that is the power of art, even when the artist is dead. 100s of friends of slain artists Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson consoled themselves and those who joined them, with staged remembrances to the memorial gathering, which were broadcast throughout the center and had great impact. There were places to read some of the articles that have been written about Masumi over the years... mostly since her death... and a project of having attendees write messages to the artists on tissue paper and tying them to cords strung in front of the center, in what was described as a Japanese tradition.

During a gathering tonight of 100s of Clevelanders, promoting peace and honoring the lives of artists John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, at the West Clifton Park and labyrinth at W. 65th Street and W. Clinton Avenue, now dedicated in the artists' honor, the heavens shed tears in a light, cleansing rain... followed by scores of uplifting tributes to the artists and other lost lives, numerous musical selections, the play of dozens of innocent children, in a coming together of good souls with love in their hearts.

Leave it to a great artist to know great artists, and to a great publication to get the right words out. In this week's Free Times, one of my favorite artists from Northeast Ohio, and our finest arts journalist, Douglas Max Utter paid tribute to John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and finally shared true insight about these great artists and their work, characters and visions with the world.

Edgewater Park no.2, Cleveland, Ohio. Panoramic Photo Collage with Kodak type C prints, 1992. Size: 36” x 77”. Artist: Masumi Hayashi

From a blog posting by Laura McShane:

We have all seen a rise in brutal, subhuman behavior.  Children deprived of artistic, natural, and cultural literacy and rich human interaction are fed by a world of drugs and video game inspired violence. John Jackson and  Masumi Hayashi faced brutal death at the hands of a "29 year-old kid," because we have allowed this disease to destroy our communities.Councilperson Matt Zone will hold a ceremony to dedicate a Peace Garden in their memory this Thursday, August 24th at 7 p.m. at the intersection of West 65th and West Clifton in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood (one block south of Detroit Ave).  I do not have a lot of information at this point, please contact Matt Zone or the Detroit Shoreway Development Corporation for more details.Please tell anyone you know to reflect on the life of these artists.  There should be more media information in the following days.I know that there are preliminary plans to establish scholarship funds at CSU and CIA for both artists.   Please remember these quiet, peaceful souls who both revered art and life

Location

The best recognition of Masumi Hayashi to appear online or in print is not in the Plain Dealer or on Cleveland.com but the LA Times, where they actually went to some effort in celebration of her success. Read great insight and true caring about Masumi in LA and worldwide, below...

The Flats in the Fog. Cleveland, Ohio. Panoramic Photo Collage with Kodak type C prints, 1987. Size: 34” x 64”. Artist: Masumi Hayashi

When I saw The Redhead's posting on REALNEO for "green :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck :: every sunday!" I knew this was a good thing and decided to invite some friends and attend. I'm certainly glad I did. Not only did I have the best meal in recent memory, from good homes and hearts, but it turned out to be a real "NEO Excellence Roundtable" where I met a bunch of awesome people making NEO special... we all even learned lots about vegan baking, from an entrepreneurial pro chef... all on a beautiful Summer's eve, in a setting hard to beat, on the shore of Lake Erie, at Lakewood Park. Learn more about all of this, and plan to join in next week... read on!

Cuyahoga County Courthouse no.2, Cleveland, Ohio

Panoramic photo collage with Kodak type C prints, 1986. Size: 18" x 46. Commission: CSU Law School. Artist: Masumi Hayashi

Granada Relocation Camp, Foundation, 1997,panoramic photo collage, 23"x 31

John Jackson, "Green Goddess", 2005: Graphite, charcoal, and paint on paper

Manzanar Relocation Camp, Monument, 1995, panoramic photo collage, 48"x 80"

An especially exciting project 7GEN Canada is undertaking is the transformation of the premier gallery of the glass art of Canada, Material Matters, into a virtual community. In doing this, we are taking a physical gallery at 215 Spadina Avenue, in Toronto (which 7GEN also calls home), and transforming that into a community of all Canada's glass artists, and a global marketplace for their art.

Lisa Wuohela in front of Material Matters, the premier gallery of Canadian glass art in the world.

The August 14, 2006 REALNEO header (included below) has great meaning, as it introduces a new initiative of 7GEN, LLC, the organization formed by Phillip Williams, Evelyn Kiefer and myself following the attempted theft of REALinks, LLC, property by my former partner, Peter Holmes. This header is of a great NEO art collection, of my parents, Doctors Ann and Norman Roulet, which Phillip, Evelyn and I are documenting on-line as a first service of May Show for the NEO community... in the future, my parents and other NEO art collectors and art dealers and artists may show the world the art they create, sell, collect and exhibit here in Northeast Ohio. The May Show portal being developed by 7GEN, LLC, will be the only interface in NEO to so well document art and make it available to the public, far eclipsing capabilities of even our beloved Cleveland Museum of Art. But that is not the most exciting development for 7GEN I have to share with NEO today, as we are basing future operations at the location shown above, on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, Canada. Read a brief introduction of what, how and why 7GEN will operate in Canada below.

Welcome to the home of Material Matters, and now 7GEN Canada, at 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Canada

If you have not been to Spaces Gallery to see it yet, your last chance is this Friday August 4th. Nine works that represent the implied theme of the failure of the American Dream in the 21st-century by artists from Ohio, New York and Colorado. This exhibition received a bad review from Dan Tranberg, but see what you think.  

Location