In late January I lost two old friends. Diana Alva was a longtime comrade and cohort in the Detroit art scene. Since 1998, she was also an important part of the Spaceband.
Donald Baker was a longtime Detroit musician and also part of the Michigan Gallery and of the Zeitgeist Gallery and Performance Venue. I wrote something for each of them in these blogs.
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
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Here’s a separate version of the February 2024 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows since the Summer 0f 2020. We’ve recorded over a hundred shows now. Here’s another recent episode from late in 2023.
Over 100 performances are available to viewat this page:
I knew Diana Alva for over 40 years. I first met her through Detroit’s visual arts scene. We were both young artists who were going out to galleries to see various art shows, circa late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
In those days, when I was both shyer and odder in ways, Diana was someone that you’d feel comfortable talking to. Early on, I saw her as yet another talented and interesting person. We were friendly.
Diana was helping to run the Michigan Gallery. This space ran for over 25 years. In 1997, when it closed, the Zeitgeist Gallery and Performance venue took over the same space. The Zeitgeist featured theatre and artwork with a special sensibility and outlook, which was very different from what the Michigan Gallery was doing. I got to know her better in those Zeitgeist days.
At a Spaceband practice, 2011
In 1998, Jim Puntigam and I started the Spaceband. Before that, we had a short-lived project called the Afraid of Music Band. Diana was involved with both. She enjoyed playing music with the Spaceband and she was an important part of our sound and presentation.
Spaceband has been playing for 25 years now. In the early days we were a five-member group. We practiced every week. As the band grew to ten or twelve members, we had more concerts yet we practiced less often. We always played some unique music and put on a good show. Diana brought a lot to both our sound and our sense of presentation.
Diana with Maurice, Jim and Gary, circa 2000, at a Russell Industrial Center gig.
Diana had a great sense of humor and of style. For part of the time, she named her Spaceband persona Oomlock McNally. She designed her costumes, often using real or artificial plant life. Her musical sense was superb and she really added a lot. She specialized in playing unique percussion instruments. I always tried to listen carefully to what she was doing and to respond to it or to compliment it. Also, it was great having at least one woman in the band. There’s a lot of “male energy” in our music and she added a positive feminine outlook or vibration.
At the Ellen Kayrod Gallery, October 2016
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Some of Diana’s instruments, August 2021.
As a fellow visual artist, I found her art to be vibrant and truly extraordinary. She’d worked at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit and did a large body of work in clay. Diana was also an excellent painter and truly followed her own path. We enjoyed seeing where it led. I went to many of her exhibitions. She had a great success showing her work in France at the Musée de la Création Franche in Bègles and had many shows in the Detroit area. I did a number of collaborative works with her at the Zeitgeist’s annual visual jam sessions, with no solo work allowed.
Diana working on a collaborative drawing at Zeitgeist’s Visual Jam Sessions.
Her spirit and her strong personality was often an inspiration to those of us who knew her. Jim Puntigam was close to her personally, artistically and musically. The Spaceband performed on their wedding day and the bride and groom joined in. I’d meet some of her family over the years, at art shows and Spaceband concerts. I got to see many of them again at her 70th birthday party.
Jim Puntigam and Diana Alva at the Zeitgeist.
The last few years were especially challenging, for her and for many of us. I know that she kept in touch with some of her artist friends through a series of zoom meetings. Some of us had some idea of her health challenges and with what was going on in her life. I’m practically telephone-phobic and rarely use the device. Yet I had a few memorable telephone conversations with her, in these past five years.
She had another success with her August 2021 exhibit Abstract Reflections. This was a solo show art detroit contemporary. The Spaceband played its first show since the pandemic hit. She played with us too.
In a curious coincidence, her final performance with the Spaceband was also at the detroit contemporary gallery, exactly one year before she died, on January 28, 2023. We’ll miss you Diana, rest in peace. Perhaps we’ll meet again, in the beyond.
From the 2021 exhibit Abstract Reflections exhibit.
At the the 2021 exhibit Abstract Reflections exhibit.
Diana was one of five artists who painted murals on the front of the Zeitgeist.
This piece is dedicated to her memory and also to her family, to Jim Puntigam, to Veronica Bielat and to others whose lives she touched.
Circa 2019, photo by Erick Buchholz.
There’s a memorial exhibit soon at the detroit contemporary:
“An exhibition will be held from April 2nd – 7th at detroit contemporary. We will gather for a celebration of life on April 6th from 1:00-3:00 pm in the gallery where we will tell stories, eat good food, and laugh, just as Diana would have wanted.”
2024 is off to a challenging start. It seems fated to be a year drenched in drama. I hope that there are more good surprises than there are bad ones. This is not the science fiction movie that I thought I’d be living in. I’m some sort of “older man” now. I’ve always remained faithful to art and poetry. Here’s round one of work for this latest 12-month cycle known as the year 2024..
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the January 2024 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows since the Summer 0f 2020. We’ve recorded over a hundred shows now. Here’s another recent episode. We believe that this was the 100th puppet show that we ‘ve filmed since 2020, lucky 100!
Over 90 performances are available to viewat this page:
2024 is off to a challenging start. I finished off last year putting these together. I spent part of this month touching them up a bit and then scanning them.
The “Outré Space Exhibition” at detroit contemporary closed a year ago today. That’s hard to believe. Jennifer Gariepy and I started last year off with a solid art exhibition.
As I’m putting this together, my old friend Diana Alva died over the weekend. I’ll write more about her soon. She’d had a long illness. We were both in the Spaceband from 1998 to 2023. She was well enough to perform a year ago, at our Outré Space show. I’d already known her long before the band started. I’, thinking of her as I put this together, finishing up last year and starting this year.
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
This is the 38th annual dedications issue. These issues celebrate musicians Chick Webb and Brian Eno, writer Victor Hugo, photographer Berenice Abbott and filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Eno and Jacobs are still with us as I write this. Ada Lovelace was an important mathematician who also was the daughter of poet Lord Byron.
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Here’s a separate version of the December 2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer and I have been recording new puppet shows since the Summer 0f 2020. We’ve recorded over a hundred shows now. Here’s a recent episode.
Over 80 performances are available to viewat this page:
Here’s last month’s issues of the POETIC EXPRESS. This year’s been another difficult one. It wasn’t all that bad for me personally, but the politics, the wars and the environmental issues all have me on edge. I can get really upset about it, but that does little good. It’s not easy to stay sane and balanced in a crazy and off-kilter world. Don’t panic, just try to take constructive and sensible action. Be aware!
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the November 2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows since the Summer 0f 2020. We’ve recorded over a hundred shows now. Here’s a new episode which wishes everyone a happy New Year’s Eve and all best for 2024.
Quite a few of our performances are available to viewat this page:
Here’s “Mauricent” issues of the POETIC EXPRESS. The November and December issues should appear soon. I’m still writing and drawing the year-end pages.
This year’s been a wild ride. It wasn’t extremely rough for me personally, but as a citizen of the world and yet another member of the problem species, it’s pretty daunting. What about the future anyway? I’m living in a science fiction movie but it’s not the one that I dreamed about or hoped for, back in the 20th century.
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the October 2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows since the Summer 0f 2020. We’ve recorded 104 shows now. 96 are up for public viewing. We hope to record a few more in 2023. Here’s another recent and previously unseen episode from last month, November 2023. The old man of the mountain sings yet another “new version” of his theme song. It also includes special appearances from the talking sandwich, a hipster-bird, a patchwork dragon and the little pink person.
Quite a few of our performances are available to viewat this page:
Here are two more issues of the PoeticExpress from September 2023, recent work. It’s back to school (jobwise, I work at a university library).
I’m still self-taught in most ways. it’s like I never left school and still try to educate myself. I keep working hard at this, taking it seriously. My father was the same way. I keep writing, making new visual artwork and living my life as best as I can..
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the September 2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows for over three years now. It looks like we’ve recorded 102 shows now. 95 are up for public viewing. We have 5 new shows and 2 older shows “still in the can.” We hope to record at least 2 more in 2023. Here’s another recent and previously unseen episode.
Quite a few of our performances are available to viewat this page:
Here are more issues of the Express from the Summer 2023, recent work. It’s been a strange Summer for me, but I keep working hard and getting things done. There’s not much time for fun, just keep working. Spaceband played the Trinosophes in late August, our second gig of the year.
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the August2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows for three years now. There are now nearly 100 shows up on our YouTube channel. Here’s another recent and previously unseen episode.
I’m attracted to the color blue: water and sky, and too blues as music/ blues songs. Most of my pen and ink drawings are done in blacks and greys. Sometimes though, I go with the blue ink.
A painting on the cover of my SOME OF MY BLUES notebook, 1980’s.
As a painter, one of my strategies is to do monochromatic works. I’ve done some all green and all red paintings, and of course works in blacks, whites and greys. Blue paintings are the most frequent though. I’ve done quite a few off them.
Shades of blue create a special mood or a unique network of vibrations. I do the fine line work with a watered down mix of dark blue paint, usually in acrylics but sometimes in oils.
BLUES MAP, late 1970’s
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Collage 2000’s.
I also do blue works with collage, sculpture and other formats.
Here are more issues of the Express from the Summer 2023, recent work. It’s been a strange Summer for me, but I keep working hard and getting things done. Studies have included seahorses, bird eggs, Harry Smith, New York City, Detroit music and early films by Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin.
Back issues of the Poetic Express are on my digital archive at the University of Detroit Mercy. These include all issues from April 1985 to December 2016.
These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.
Here’s a separate version of the July 2023 SURREAL THEATRE:
Jennifer Gariepy and I have been recording new puppet shows for three years now. There are now nearly 100 shows up on our YouTube channel. Here’s another, very recent and previously unseen episode.
Quite a few of our performances are available to viewat this page:
for art and artists 