[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] articles

[lisa]

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*links

http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2006/05/06/news/news2.txt

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513281

http://citypaper.net/articles/2006-05-04/arts_agenda_last_chance.shtml

http://citypaper.net/articles/2006-05-04/arts_agenda_last_chance.shtml


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Sunday MAY 7, 2006 *Last modified: Friday, May 5, 2006 10:44 PM PDT

Artist opened new worlds on walls

JOSHUA TREE - According to several clients of a Joshua Tree muralist, 
the Morongo Basin lost one of its most talented artists when Christopher 
Simon, 52, died of congestive heart failure April 27.

Simon was a prolific muralist whose colorful work has decorated many 
businesses and homes in the Hi-Desert over his 30-year career.

Kat Moser, a client of Simon's, said he had painted five projects for 
her and her husband over the years. She said there were more planned 
that, sadly, will never be done.

“We'll miss him as a dear friend, and we are bereft at losing his 
extraordinary talent,” she said.

article

Moser said Simon loved to draw from a very early age. When he was 10 
years old he applied for a scholarship to the Norman Rockwell Famous 
Artists School.

“The scholarship contest was only open to people 21 and over, so Chris 
didn't tell his mom,” she said. “He listed his age as 22, did the 
drawing required and collected returnable bottles until he had enough 
money to send it in.”

Soon after, two white men from the school came into his poor black 
neighborhood to find “Mr. Simon” and let him know he won the contest. 
The art school let the young artist have the scholarship despite his 
age, and Simon continued to study art in high school and college.

Another client, Lesley Mahany, said Simon was born in Houston, Texas, 
and his father died or disappeared when he was very young. The boy was 
close to his mother, whom he adored. Simon said she encouraged him and 
worked hard to help him attain his dream of becoming an artist. Mahany 
said she thought Simon had no other family.

Mahany met Simon for the first time in 2001 when she and her husband 
were building their home in Yucca Mesa. She quickly grew to like and 
admire him both as an artist and as a person.

Mahany said Simon was not only a talented artist but a warm, funny, 
giving and intelligent human being. He became a good friend, she said.

“He was the most incredible artist I've ever seen,” Mahany said. “And as 
a potter, I've been in the art world all my life.”

The most incredible thing, she said, is the fact that although Simon was 
blind in one eye, he was still able to paint the most detailed work and 
also somehow produce images with astounding depth of field.

He used an airbrush on all his jobs and worked in layers to create the 
illusion of depth.

Since their first meeting, Simon helped Mahany make her home into a work 
of art. He painted murals in several rooms, including a 17-foot woods 
and waterfall scene in the bedroom; he painted ivy borders inside and 
out; he painted faux wallpaper in the bathroom, faux marble on the 
fireplace and faux brick on the archways.

Most of Simon's work was murals, but he also painted on canvas and 
sculpted. Among other things, he painted cars, pickups, recreational 
vehicles, horse trailers and trash bins. Simon transformed Mahany's 
glaringly white plastic trash container into an elegant faux wood 
receptacle that blends seamlessly into the kitchen counters.

Businesses that exhibit Simon's work, inside or out, include All 
Seasons, Grand Central Storage, Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel and the 
Oasis of Eden Hotel. In addition to his business clients, Simon had 
several private clients whose homes he painted and helped to decorate.

Simon and Mahany had been working on drawings and plans for another 
project in her master bath the last time they talked, but she never saw 
him again, she said.

Mahany said Simon's motto was “You're only limited by your imagination,” 
but to this he usually added, “If you can't imagine it I'll imagine it 
for you.”



article


Arts
Jess R. Burkle '06
Published On 5/3/2006 8:30:51 PM
By JAKE G. COHEN <writer.aspx?ID=1202259>
Contributing Writer

Friends of Jess R. Burkle ’06 call him a “blind man with vision.” And 
while the senior thespian may not be able to see exactly where he’s 
going, he’s definitely going places.

Burkle has been a powerful force within the Harvard theater community, 
directing and starring in a number of major productions despite being 
legally blind. His involvement in on-campus arts recently culminated 
with his thesis project “Knock: or, the Triumph of Medicine,” a play 
that he translated from the original French and directed on the Loeb 
Mainstage. He hopes to continue acting, writing, and directing 
professionally.

Hailing from just outside of Cleveland, Ohio—or, as he jokingly puts it, 
the “arts epicenter of the world”—Burkle found his passion for creative 
work at an early age, experimenting with various visual arts. Discovered 
in fifth grade by a teacher who, intrigued by his acting potential, 
shifted him into another class so he would eligible for a school play, 
he was bitten by the stage bug early.

He actively participated in his high school drama program, despite its 
limited resources. Plays were staged in the gym, where “we had one blue 
light for when it was dark—or sad.”

During Burkle’s freshman fall at Harvard, he stepped out of the 
spotlight, choosing not to participate in Common Casting.

“It was a period where I wasn’t producing anything. I wasn’t imagining 
situations all the time,” he says. Intimidated by his overachieving 
classmates, Burkle was “looking for excuses not to get involved.”

After what he describes as a “dull” semester, Burkle decided to go 
through the audition process and ended up with a couple of roles. 
Gradually, he became a presence in the drama scene, garnering larger parts.

For Burkle, playing Hedwig in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” as a sophomore 
was an important step in his acting education. “Wearing 8-inch patent 
leather boots and being a transvestite and being naked at the end of the 
play was a little bit different than Ohio,” he says.

“That was jumping into the deep end,” he adds. “I wasn’t going to be 
afraid of anything after that. There wasn’t much missing from that 
production that could challenge me.”

Nonetheless, Burkle has since worked hard to challenge himself. “When I 
did ‘Hedda Gabler,’” he says, referring to his 2004 play, “I wanted to 
prove that I was a serious actor, that there was more to me than the 
clown.”

His directorial efforts, including 2005’s “Rhinoceros,” gave him more 
chances to show his serious side. “Thinking about the play is so much 
fun,” he says. “You get to create a world.”

Still, “the laugh whore in me likes acting,” Burkle quips.

Burkle, who also works as a proctor for the Freshman Arts Program and is 
a member of the Signet, has an insatiable appetite when it comes to 
creating. “The starving artist picture is a bit of misnomer. It refers 
to the need to fill yourself with art,” he opines. “Different parts of 
you get hungry for different types of art.”

For him, that includes acting, writing poetry—and watching “Alias.” 
Burkle’s tastes range from the high to the low, and he hopes to one day 
star alongside Madonna in a pop music production of “The Silence of the 
Lambs.” That, or start a department of Television Studies at Harvard.

Burkle says he feels that “the whole concept of spotlighting me as an 
artist is ridiculous because I’ve been supported by so many of the 
people around me.”

But when it comes to his approach to art, he’s not quite so unselfish. 
“Getting involved in the arts should always be about you, because if 
it’s about other people you’ll end up unfulfilled. It should always feel 
like it’s fun.”


article


*My Vision: Sculpture and Paintings by Physically Challenged Artists *

Runs through May 5, Allens Lane Theater and Art Center, Allens Lane and 
McCallum St., 215-248-0546, www.allenslane.org <http://www.allenslane.org/>

Despite the restrictions that physical disabilities often pose, it seems 
that nothing—not even blindness—can keep a person's visions pent up. 
Students from Vision Thru Art, a sculpture class for blind and visually 
impaired people, are showcasing their 3-D art. Nuvisions for Disabled 
Artists, whose motto is "Creativity Knows No Limitations," will also 
display works.

article

There were 23 projects completed this school year by Rose-Hulman 
electrical and computer engineering students. Other products include a 
proximity audio system developed for art museums that delivers audio 
content to a user's hand-held personal digital assistant or audio iPod, 
based on location; a multilane traffic monitoring system that allows 
highway officials to better monitor traffic flow; and an interactive 
audio interpretation system developed to enhance the proposed 101 Trees 
of Indiana project that's part of the Indiana Mile walking trail in 
Terre Haute.