March 17th

Tali's Silver Bullet from O'Hare.

As the tale goes, Tali was whisked off the plane onto the L train and taken directly to the venue in Chicago's Loop where she would literally hit the ground running since March 17, 2012 is the day she landed and it is the day that we were officially kicking off The COLORboration Project - Loop.

How it all started.

It's all true, the space at 208 S. Wabash had been quickly transformed from a cramped gallery to something a lot more expansive. Thanks to the help of good friend and shlepping buddy Rick Neuhaus walls were moved and stages rearranged and painted just in time for Tali's arrival.  We she walked in the door the place actually sort of looked like a gallery and the buzz was on since we only had a couple hours to get things together for the first evening of many live painting with live music sessions.

Pretty much a proper gallery.

Do I need to remind you that March 17th is St. Patrick's Day, and if you know any thing about Chicago other than Al Capone, you will know that St. Patty's day is pretty much a no holes barred sort of a day that actually really gets started somewhere around the 10th. So the energy was high in the city as well as the venue.

St. Patty's Day revelers.

We started off mellow with the music of mitre, aka Scott Richardson. Interestingly enough we worked with Scott last year on the last day of our Colorboration Project in Logan Square. His atmospheric guitarscapes were a good way to ease on into the first night of this project.

Tali with her first painting of the project and the maker of the music, Scott Richardson

As Scott's set was winding up slowly the rhythms of Rick Neuhaus's near hemisphere were layered into the guitar of miter. First with hand claps and until most of near hemisphere which by now was all in the audience were beating on something.

near hemisphere

A minimal stage change up also changed the rhythms about 180º too. near hemisphere play a very special version of West African influenced beats. But more than that Mr. Neuhaus has taken these West African sensibilities and made them his own with lyrics that we can all pretty much latch on to but maybe not totally understand. Let's say this band has fun and by the end of the set everyone in the room is having fun too.

near hemisphere

Now, before all we do is talk about the music, which does by the way mean a lot to us, we want to talk about the paintings that we did. Like was mentioned earlier the change up between the first set and the second set was so definiate that it was obvious in Tali's art. She painted two separate paintings that night, while Royce painted on the same panel all evening.

Left- Tali's near hemisphere  Right- Royce's first night.

It is always amazing that when we get back in the studio that thing just start to fall into place. And as much as we wonder if we will remember how to do this painting thing, it is wonderfully reassuring that it is something that comes back to us the moment we start.

The Colorboration Project - Loop 2012

Before any more time passes and everybody including us thinks it was just some wonderful dream, we thought it would be good to start posting some stories about The Colorboration Project - Loop that happened between March 15 and April 25, 2012. 

208 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago

There are many many stories that we will get around to telling here, but before we do we thought it would be appropriate to give a big Colorboration Project THANK YOU to all those that helped out in so many ways with sponsorships and generosity above and beyond the call of duty.

Thanks too all of you, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York and the Chicago Consulate. Thanks to the Chicago Loop Alliance for the Pop-Up Art Loop program that is really so vital to the art in the Loop. Tristan Hummel, the Pop-Up Art Loop director was great, thanks for believing in us and for you support throughout the time we were their. The first ever Colorboration Project Folk Fest was a success and would not have been possible with the help of the Old Town School of Folk Music. As always Alpha Bruton and the Phantom Gallery Network was there with necessary back up and support. Thanks to Josh Ginsberg and Chicago Art Leasing for help getting the word out. This project was also sponsored by Fuze, Ashley Brown was always Ms. Johnny on the spot when it came to keeping us and our musicians stocked up with the latest FUZE flavors.

Of course all the musicians, were amazing, as the blog posts go on you will hear about them specifically but you were all amazing. 

It also seriously goes without saying that all this craziness would not have been possible without the tireless support and other unspeakable generosities that were provided by Rick Neuhaus and his darling Sophia. We won't even start to list the many ways and means, but they know, and we know what and how and a bit more. 

So, stay tuned for some stories and some photos from all of the fun.