Rynski's Blogski » art

Art needed: Sick of public school art cuts? Get your kid outta there

Rynski — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:17:20 +0000

Education without art is like a sky without sunshine, a car without wheels, a vampire without fangs…

You get the idea. You may be able to survive, but you’ll surely be miserable.

Art makes the world go round/Photo Ryn Gargulinski

Yet with all the public school funding woes, art programs are usually the first to go.

Sure, some steps are being taken. Organizations like Opening Minds through the Arts Foundation (OMA), mentioned by Artistic Tucson blogger Charles Spillar, works to keep all forms of art in the schools and use it to enhance learning in other areas.

But are programs like that enough?

You can always buy a kazoo and a can of paste to provide your own art lessons for your kids. Or you can get your kids the heck out of there.

Independent schools may be an option. Read more about the newly formed Tucson Association of Independent Schools (TAIS) in a news release that mentions “educating the whole child,” “vibrant art programs” and, perhaps most importantly, “financial aid.”

Representatives from each school will be on hand at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona campus.

Art needs to be fostered and encouraged at an early age. Education must include art. Kids can’t be well-rounded when all they get are spelling tests where they are not even required to spell the words properly and a strange new way to do math.

Art also provides kids with a healthy outlet for pent up energy. They can release their violence, disruption and angst on a canvas instead of on the kid with the pop bottle lens glasses. Artistic expression should not be limited to graffiti and weird patterns created on the wall with spit wads.

Artistic expression is a necessity/Photo Ryn Gargulinski

Aside from one of my early teachers that told my mom, “Your kid will never be a writer,” some of my fondest school moments involve art:

* Collection of illustrated poems I created way back in elementary school – and still have today. Even then my drawings and poetry were warped. But they were also wholly encouraged.

* The collage of a bright pink monster I made using ripped up strips of construction paper. Think it had polka dots and a deep purple background. I was in love.

* My Garfield the cat piñata – OK, that one was more like a gigantic nightmare because I made it way too big and then got sick of sticking on little pieces of tissue paper with a pencil and cried until mom helped me.

* The portrait of Loni Anderson I sketched on my first round using charcoal. That one sticks in my head because the shop teacher, whom we’ll call Mr. R, was filling in for the art teacher and Mr. R. helped me sketch it so the portrait ended up with massive cleavage that shocked the heck out of my parents.

See how fun art can be?

Including art in education may not be the answer to all of society’s woes – but it sure would be dandy if it were.

Ceramic spaghetti and meatball project/submitted by AZMouse

What do you think?

Is art essential to education?

Would you consider an independent school for your children?

What are your fondest early art memories?

Was art encouraged or ignored in your own education?

Do you reckon yourself an artist?

Odd Pueblo: Snappy or crappy?

Rynski — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:11:22 +0000

This fun Odd Pueblo feature asks the audience to rate a trend, topic or sighting of something around town: is it snappy or crappy?

The last snappy or crappy, thug outerwear, was riddled with crappy votes – 76 percent. Seven percent said such fashions were both snappy and crappy for different reasons while 2 percent said they didn’t know and had to go ask their parole officer about it.

The latest snappy or crappy weighs in at the opposite end of the scale: a big pink rhinoceros.

Side view pink rhino/Ryn Gargulinski

Front view pink rhino/Ryn Gargulinski

This sweet pink rhino stands atop Jack Furrier’s Western Tire Center on South Palo Verde Road, just north of Ajo Way. Every time I drive by I try to get a picture of it – and for once a fat truck was not in the way.

Overview pink rhino/Ryn Gargulinski

The rhino is a bright spot along an otherwise dour stretch of road. This particular stretch happens to double as a speed trap. At least if you get pulled over in the area, you can gaze at this real keen beast. The rhino is one of those phenomenons that cross the line from tacky to cool.

Besides, a giant rhino has got to be better than both white and pink elephants.

The pink rhino rules.

What do you think?
Please vote and leave comments below.

What do you think?

Would you put a big, colorful statue on your business?

Are you afraid of rhinos? Are you afraid of big pink things on top of buildings?

What is art? Not one dude’s graffiti – Slide show of found art

Rynski — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:44:31 +0000

Tucsonan Bobby Leverette’s potential career as the next Picasso was cut short last week when he was busted for his alleged graffiti spree.

Bobby Leverette/TPD photo

Leverette, 28, was arrested in connection with more than 20 different cases that involved graffiti, according to a news release from the Tucson Police Department.

A search warrant at his house covered enough evidence to link him to the numerous cases – and some other stuff. He was booked into Pima County Jail, charged with one count felony criminal damage, along with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of narcotic paraphernalia.

C’mon, Leverette, everyone knows you can’t do your best artwork when you’re stoned.

Police evidently found Levertette’s handiwork to be more like vandalism than anything else. Yet other graffiti – and various scenes around town – can definitely qualify as art.

Don’t take it from me, as I find roadkill artistic. Judge for yourself in the slide show below. No, I did not include any roadkill photos – although I have a whole gallery of them.

Slide 1 of 19.
Art or not? Shopping cart wheel/Ryn Gargulinski

What do you think?

What’s your definition of art?

Does art have to be beautiful to qualify as art?

What makes art beautiful? What makes it ugly?

Tickled with a day trip to Tubac: Slide show

Rynski — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:21:17 +0000

Be ready for some fine art, funky art, wacky art and crappy art if you ever take a trek to Tubac.

Tubac rates high as a fun, funky day trip/Ryn Gargulinski

We have this strange feeling Tubac may be an artists’ haven.

Nestled about 50 miles south of Tucson, Tubac makes for a great day trip as long as you don’t get befuddled by the kilometer signs that line Interstate 19.

While art and a few strange hotels are the showcases of the main drag, you can also go exploring off the path.

A stop at a state historical park lets you check out its fine display of Flintstone wheels. You may even encounter gads of Boy Scouts who are probably completing a troop project yet still take time out to stare weirdly at your dog.

A trek through a forgotten, vacant lot gives you a glimpse of what it would be like to live among the Clampetts of Beverly Hillbilly fame.

A surprise find of a dog park gives you a glimpse of some very selfish people (Sawyer will be blogging on that one).

When all that gets mundane, get back to the art.

While some of the creations, like the $76,000 giant moose, may be a bit out of most people’s price range, you can find less expensive goodies in the throngs of knickknack shops. You can even find birdhouses made out of cowboy boots.

Just steer clear of the wide array of life-size bronze children statues as they tend to be very creepy. They resemble kids who were caught mid-play by a volcano and baked into place.

Check out the baked children and other tantalizing Tubac tidbits in the slide show below.

Slide 1 of 56.
Demonic wonder/Ryn Gargulinski
Slide 6 of 56.
Aviation/Ryn Gargulinski
Slide 9 of 56.
Harold/Ryn Gargulinski
Slide 11 of 56.
No bull/Ryn Gargulinski
Slide 28 of 56.
Taps/Ryn Gargulinski

Highlight: Scouting out the vacant lots and hidden parts of town – although the art places a very close second.

Lowlight: When Sawyer got stuck on the stairway from hell, a narrow, stone stairwell that led upwards with promise only to be blocked by a tiny wooden door. He panicked for a moment, refusing to walk backwards down the stairs, until he finally figured out how to turn around. Then he sped so fast away from the stairs that he knocked me and my camera backwards off the steps.

Overall day trip rating despite the stairwell from hell (1-10): 14.4

What’s your take on Tubac?

What’s your favorite Tucson day trip?

What’s your favorite type of art?

Do you enjoy scouring vacant lots?

Pez man dead at age 87

Rynski — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:14:20 +0000

Curtis Allina, a man who thrilled the world by helping to make the Pez dispenser a household item, died of heart failure Dec. 15 at age 87, according to his obituary in The New York Times.

Illustration Ryn Gargulinski

Folks who don’t like Pez dispensers go into the same category as those who don’t like animals – you just can’t trust them.

They are probably crabby, too.

Actually, Allina is just one of a half-dozen possible people who may have come up with putting a head on the formerly boring plastic Pez dispenser, a hot point of debate among Pez historians.

Yes, Pez historians.

Even if the head itself was not Allina’s idea, he was the guy who convinced the Vienna-based candy company to transform their bland candies into fun-flavored fruity things and put them in a kid-friendly package.

The candy first appeared in 1927 in Vienna as mints, hence the name Pez, which is derived from the German pfefferminz, or peppermint. It was offered to consumers as an alternative to smoking and its thin, plastic dispenser was designed to resemble a lighter.

But that was boring and the stuff never really took off in America, where it arrived in the 1950s.

Allina, in his capacity of vice president of the candy company, was charged with convincing the honchos in Vienna that the candy should branch into fruity flavors and come out of the neck of fun figurines.

The first two dispensers were a Santa Claus and some robot called the Space Trooper. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dispensers are now on the market. They range from Elvis to Mickey Mouse, Wonder Woman to Garfield, zombies to panda bears.

Some are kitschy and cool while others, like new characters from many banal Disney movies, wholly work against the kitschy and cool.

An entire museum in the San Francisco Bay area is dedicated to the little plastic things: The Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia.

Sounds more fun than places like the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum or the Cumberland Pencil Museum in England.

Born in Prague, Allina was the only member of his Sephardic Jewish family to survive the World War II concentration camps, his obit said. He moved to New York and got his candy job at Pez-Haas in 1953 after first working in a meat packing plant.

While we are tickled he helped create the Pez dispenser, we are still wholly curious as to how we’d be now eating hamburger if Allina would have stayed on in the meat packing business.

What do you think?

Do you have fond memories of Pez dispensers or did they start fights with your brother?

What is your favorite/least favorite Pez dispenser?

Do you even care about Pez dispensers or do you have more important things to fret about, like world peace?

Odd Pueblo: Snappy or crappy year end special

Rynski — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:11:40 +0000

In honor of the arrival of the brand new year and the old thing that just passed, I’ve looked through my photo archives and found one photo from each month that merits a snappy or crappy vote from you gorgeous TucsonCitizen.com readers.

As you may know, this fun Odd Pueblo feature asks the audience to rate a trend, topic or sighting of something around town: is it snappy or crappy? Have fun deciding, and please don’t be swayed by my own votes, which I’ve included in the captions.

May your New Year be blessed with a lot of the snappy and little to no crappy.

Slide 1 of 12.
January: Lucky kitty at a Japanese restaurant/Ryn Gargulinski - SNAPPY

Ryn Gargulinski is a poet, artist, performer and TucsonCitizen.com Ryngmaster who sometimes thinks crappy stuff is snappy. Her column usually appears every Friday on Rynski’s Blogski but she wrote this week’s TC.com editorial for The Arizona Daily Star, which will appear on Rynski’s Blogski on Monday. Her art, writing and more is at RynRules.com. E-mail rynski@tucsoncitizen.com.

What do you think?

What’s the snappiest and crappiest thing you’ve seen, done or heard all year?

What photo is the snappiest? The crappiest?

Is New Year’s Eve the crappiest holiday?

Gov. Brewer says it’s OK to celebrate holidays

Rynski — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:18:26 +0000

Folks who are still not sure if they are going to openly celebrate Christmas can now rest assured it’s OK to do so.

Swan Road church/Ryn Gargulinski

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said so.

She issued an Executive Order on Dec. 11, the first day of Hanukkah, which laid down the rules for both Christmas and Hanukkah. The latter ended Dec. 19 but heck, keep that décor in place since we’ve got the green light from Brewer.

She declared that Arizona government agencies are hereby ordered to:
*Allow state employees to personally celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah and put up decorations
*Allow state employees to use “accurate names” of Christmas and Hanukkah and wish others a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah”
*Refrain from censoring the “lawful celebration and acknowledgment of Christmas, Hanukkah or any other recognized religious holiday.”

We are dying to know what disgruntled state employee, who may have gotten reprimanded for putting a mini Christmas tree or Menorah on his desk, prompted this one.

While her Executive Order is targeted for government agencies and state employees, others can use it as a springboard for their own arguments if they get yelled at for putting a baby Jesus in the kitchenette.

Or you can go for some other last-minute decorating ideas:

AZMouse's charming gingerbread house/submitted photo

Gingerbread house:

Those wishing to go for a gingerbread house better start now, as these kitschy little abodes are certainly not very quick to create.

Loyal reader AZMouse hooked up this dandy gingerbread house and tree, with a lot of work and even more patience.

“The hardest part, besides keeping the roof from trying to slide off while it was drying, was doing all the brick outline on the house in frosting,” she said. Brickwork took an entire day to complete, and she topped it off with a fence fashioned from X-Men white stick candles and a path made of licorice and sprinkles.

She even hooked up textured snow on the ground by painstakingly picking through a box of Nerds to extract all the white ones.

Whew.

Everything is edible, as her cats have gleefully discovered.

Rooftop Santa/Ryn Gargulinski

A quicker fix can be had with a giant Santa or festive CHRISTmas light.

Giant Santa:

This guy was spied on a rooftop not far from the Fourth Avenue street fair. Giant Santas work well suspended from the office ceiling or in lobby and waiting areas. You may also want to set one in your boss’s chair before he arrives for the day to really spread the holiday spirit.

CHRISTmas lights:

A Baptist church on North Swan Road (pictured top right) heartily reminds all passing cars of the origin of the Christmas holiday. Anyone driving by gets a very good view of the lights, as many drivers still don’t realize the speed limit in that area is 40 mph and decide instead to putt putt at about 28 mph.

Skeleton with reindeer antlers:

The skeleton on a tricycle that always graces my living room was outfitted with a pair of reindeer antlers. That marks the extent of this year’s holiday decorating. The reindeer antlers were originally placed on Phoebe but stay in place better when they are not worn by a dog who is trying to head butt the world. Skeleton holiday décor is one way to perhaps horrify your coworkers and give them something to gossip about at the office holiday party.

Fine holiday skeleton/Ryn Gargulinski

What do you think?

Do you think it necessary to issue an Executive Order regarding the “lawful celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah”?

Were you ever reprimanded for decorating for or saying “Christmas” or “Hanukkah”?

Did you decorate at all this year? Why or why not?

Have you ever made a gingerbread house?

Off making puking cats

Rynski — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:26:56 +0000

Ryn is busy making art for holiday gifts, half of which she usually ends up liking enough to keep for herself.

Posting will resume the week of 12/21.

See you then.

Like the puking cat? Check out similar stuff by clicking photo/Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski

Lucky Voodoo Doll. See more by clicking photo/Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski

Snappy or crappy special: Gift guide slide show

Rynski — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:09:46 +0000

Tis the season to be buying — and you’ll never be at a loss for something crappy to buy your friends if you pick out a fine present from the gift guide slide show below.

You can't go wrong with a White Trash Cooking book/Ryn Gargulinski

To be fair, you may even find a few snappy gifts in the guide.

And I must admit I actually own one of the items and absolutely adore it. No, it’s not the bacon dental floss.

Check out the fine array of goodies below and cast your vote in the comments for the snappiest, the crappiest and the one most likely to make you lose friends.

Also pick out the gift you think I own.

Happy shopping.

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Bacon dental floss/Ryn Gargulinski

What’s the snappiest gift you ever gave or received?

What’s the crappiest gift you ever gave or received?

Did a gift ever make you lose a friend?

Did you ever start a fight over a crappy gift someone gave you?

Did you ever open a present and say “Oh, just what I never wanted”?

The Saga of Sheriff Joe – new play debuts Friday

Rynski — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:58:23 +0000

Sheriff Joe Arpaio constantly makes the headlines – and now he’s the star of a new play debuting on Dec. 4.

Charles Dee Rice Photography/www.cdricephotography.com

The Saga of Sheriff Joe, written and directed by James E. Garcia, runs Dec. 4 through 13 at the Third Street Theatre in Phoenix.

The production is put on by the New Carpa Theater, a group that focuses on multicultural and Latino theater works.

Maricopa County’s notorious sheriff has piled up an interesting list of acts that helped make him notorious since he took office in 1993.

These include:

* Immigration sweeps – and arrests – in targeted communities where illegal aliens are suspected of living
* Creating a tent city, bordered in barbed wire, in Maricopa County Jail
* Swathing inmates in pink – pink socks, pink towels, pink prison garb and pink boxer shorts
* Feeding convicts bologna sandwiches, cutting off coffee, smoking, and any cable except for the Disney and weather channels

Anyone who thinks his tactics are too harsh will especially enjoy the play since Sheriff Joe ends up dropping dead from a heart attack.

“Turns out his personal physician is the same guy who was ‘treating’ Michael Jackson before his early demise,” the New Carpa Theater synopsis explains.

“Satan offers to cut Joe a deal — his life in exchange for stopping the Hernandez family from making their annual trek by foot from Sonora to Phoenix to catch the light rail to Bethlehem (it also stops in Vegas now). Comedy ensues. Show intended for general audiences.”

Anyone who is a fan of Sheriff Joe can maybe throw tomatoes or something.

What: American Pastorela: The Saga of Sheriff Joe
When: 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12 – 2 p.m. matinee on Dec. 6, 12, and 13
Where: Third Street Theatre, 1202 N. Third St. in Phoenix
Tickets at the door: $16 gen. admission; $12 students and seniors; $8 kids 12 and under. Discounts for groups of eight or more.
Discount tickets online: Limited number available by clicking here

More info: Call (623) 252-2772; e-mail info@newcarpa.org; or visit website newcarpa.org

New Carpa Theater is funded, in part, by a variety of sources, including the City of Phoenix, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Maricopa Community College District and Phoenix College.

What do you think?

What other public figures should get a play produced about them?

Do you enjoy live theater or prefer the sticky-floored movies?

Does this play sound like it has the makings of a good production? Why or why not?

Does Pima County need a Sheriff Joe?