Seattle and Beyond--Art & Culture

It's not every day that you get immediate feedback from one of the artists that you are writing about and its not every day that the person you get to talk to is as kind and charitable as Joshua Kohl one of the founding members of the Degenerate Art Ensemble , who reminded me that DAE was created as " a statement of freedom of expression rather than (as) a statement about a particular aesthetic."  The collective formed in 1999, was named and to a certain extent stands as a statement against the forces of fascism which once claimed all modern art to be "Degenerate Art."  The collective is a true group of artists working together to create performances that are rites and invitations to enter a transformative world of fantastically lush characters and environments.    Kohl specifically asked me to mention their photographers, who are instrumental in the continued evolution of the ensemble --(specifically my dear friend, who I have known for years and who has introd

Pacific Northwest Ballet soloist Ezra Thomson with company dancers in Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump , which PNB will present as part of its Season Encore Performance, one night only, June 12, 2022. Photo © Angela Sterling.   June has me thinking about the dual concepts of identity and gender, and especially, since June is the month of Gemini--it has me thinking about the idea of duality--especially in the sense of the outer and inner spaces that we all carry with us.  We are made of two very different worlds.  We exist and move through an exteriorized/exteriorizing labyrinth of things and ideas; but it is one that is not always exactly what we expect.  Even our internal dialogues are suspect--is there magic afoot? What is magic and where are the magicians we seek?  While sitting in the audience at PNB, after having spent some amazing moments listening to the orchestra warming up--always my favorite part of any night with a life orchestra--I began to think about the fact that t