I was checking out a colleague’s video on You Tube when I saw one of mine come up in the column of suggested videos, and I was very surprised to see it had 45,811 views, way more than any of the others I’ve posted. [Shortly after this post, it was age restricted on YouTube, so here it is on Vimeo]
2008 was an adventurous year. The impulse to start collecting faces in slideshow videos came in response to a comment by an artist I met while painting at a Parrish Art Museum event. She came in to the gallery where we were painting and told me she had seen our faces all through the village of Southampton on her way to the museum (there’s a few photos in this video from a Parrish Art Museum event.) What she wanted to tell me was that we were creating a “kinetic art form”—particularly, that the style of our facepainting, with very colorful faces and every one different, made her look for them as she saw the painted people moving through the village, wanting to see each face. “kinetic art is art that contains moving parts or depends on motion for its effect. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer.” (from Wikipedia)
Facepainting at an event is a collective art. It is the sum total of the faces we paint that is the art form, rather than each individual face. Her description of this as a kinetic art had me thinking about this collection of faces in motion, and how to try to document that. That led to creating “Every Face” videos, in which I photograph every face I paint at an event and put them in to a slideshow in the order painted, and that led to taking a selection to put a year together in 2008.
The music is “I am An Animal” by Pete Townshend. I felt ok using it because he gave it away as a free download on his web site, on an album of odds and ends and some unreleased “Scoop” tracks, which are the demo versions he recorded of his songs as he wrote them before bringing them into the studio to be done by The Who.
Dream BIG this Summer with Timeless Tales in Two GREAT Shows!
——— SHOW #1: THE LITTLE MOUSE THAT DREAMED BIG ——–
Christopher Agostino returns with a special selection of stories for this Summer Reading Club theme.
The Mouse that becomes an Eagle
Featuring “The Story of Jumping Mouse”, a traditional Native American folktale that captures the power of our dreams to transform our lives. This inspirational tale, made into a children’s book by John Steptoe, is about a brave little mouse that follows his dream and against all odds reaches the far off land where he is transformed into a mighty eagle. Plus the show includes other exciting tales that encourage young people to dream big and never give up, brought to life through Christopher’s playful storytelling and amazing facepainting.
Magic Frog gives him his Name
Christopher Agostino’s Transformations Storytelling is a very different kind of a show. Audience volunteers are brought on to the stage and facepainted very quickly to illustrate the stories he tells. The amazing facepainting holds kids attention while they listen to folktales from around the world and his original tales. With his extensive repertoire of stories he can perform successfully for any size audience and any age: kids, teens and adults, and each summer he crafts a new selection of stories to fit the Reading Club Theme. In most shows he paints 8 to 12 volunteers while mesmerizing the audience with a theatrical storytelling style and tales that range from the comic adventure of the first time a man met a crocodile to the heroic tale of the boy Punia and the King of the Sharks. It’s surprising and delightful theater for any age. Several themes are available and special shows can be crafted to feature specific cultures and special topics. Christopher has appeared on the NBC Today Show and the CBS Early Show and performed for hundreds of theaters, schools, libraries and festivals.
——— SHOW # 2: The BODACIOUS Book Show CLASSICS ———-
Including our special version of Jack and the Beanstalk starring kids from the audience and a 60’ beanstalk!
Beatrice the Bookworm
Beatrice the Bookworm is back in the show that’s so much fun it gets everyone inspired to pick up a book and read. Our Bodacious Book Show Classics edition is all about the books that have kept readers dreaming big for generations, from Dr. Seuss and Charlotte’s Web to timeless fairytales like Jack & the Beanstalk. Also featuring the Quiz Show Game that gets the entire audience thinking and talking about great books:“Have You READ It?”
"Have You READ It?" Quiz Show
This fast paced variety show really gets kids inspired to read, because great books make great readers. It features The “Have You READ It?” Game, a TV-style Quiz Show hosted for laughs by Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest in which the whole audience competes, parents included. It’s great to see kids jumping up and down in their seats with answers to such questions as “What kind of eggs does Sam like with his ham?” The questions and challenges are designed to remind young readers of all the fun they’ve had with books they’ve read and to introduce them to other great books so they’ll want to read more. And we bring to life some funny poetry from great authors such as Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash.
Jack and the Beanstalk starring audience volunteers: The Magic Dancing Bean
Plus there are special guest stars: Professor Fineprint lectures on “1001 Uses for a Book” (but he doesn’t know you can read them); and the very popular Beatrice the Bookworm enlists younger audiences to join in her pledge to “always read my books before I eat them”. The grand finale is a hilarious rendition of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with kids playing the parts onstage and a 60’ beanstalk growing through the audience. The Bodacious Book Show was created to support reading programs in schools and libraries by reminding kids of the fun books they’ve read and interesting them in new ones, because the best way to develop good readers is to let kids discover books so fun they can’t wait to read more.
In 2011, the Bodacious Book Show was selected to host the kick-off celebration for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, and introduce the celebrity readers such as Mark Ruffalo and Uma Thurman.
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SPECIAL DISCOUNTS available forLibrary Performances.
CONTACT US by email: info@agostinoarts.com, or call 516-771-8086
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Agostino Arts Theatre has been presenting programs in schools, libraries, theaters and other venues throughout the Tri-State area for nearly 30 years.
Libraries we appeared at in 2011 include:
Mechanicville Library, Hewlett-Woodmere Library, Garden City Library, Sayville Library, Atlantic City Free Public Library, Harborfields Library, Wyandanch Public Library, Farmingdale Library, Lynbrook Library, New London Library Festival, East Williston Public Library, Riverhead Public Library, Newburgh Free Library, West Milford Township Library, South Huntington Library, Goshen Public Library, Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Libarary, Burlington Library, Bryant Library, Jamesburg Public Library, Half Hollow Hills Library, West Babylon Library, Rye Free Reading Room, Connetquot Library, Big Flats Library, Horseheads Free Library
When Target planned their launch for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, they asked us to host the kick-off celebration. Beatrice the Bookworm opened the show, then Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest played the exciting “Have You READ It?” Game with the entire audience in between a stellar lineup of celebrity readers, including Uma Thurman and Mark Ruffalo. http://reading.target.com/read-across-america/
Our Bodacious Book Shows involve the entire audience in the fun
Jack and the Beanstalk - The Singing Golden Harp Duet
Twitter didn’t like this one, my Twitpic just disappeared:
Is this one ok, Twitter?
(I wonder if they will notice the little guys’ little thingies?)
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UPDATE: I guess it wasn’t ok with Twitter, because the 2nd Ingres Venus image, with the breast and genital covers in place, also disappeared from my Tweet. Once again, the image was somehow taken off the tweet (there’s a question mark in its place) with no notice to me or explanation. In their Terms of Service the only relevant language about offensive content I find is this, and the way I read it, it says that they don’t limit content and it’s a “let the viewer beware” policy regarding whatever they might stumble across, which is how I think an intelligent culture should approach the issue of censorship in the public forum:
“We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any Content or communications posted via the Services or endorse any opinions expressed via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive. Under no circumstances will Twitter be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Services or broadcast elsewhere“
UPDATE to UPDATE: Apparently it’s Twitpic that is doing the image removal. From their terms of service: “TwitPic reserves the right to remove any image for any reason whatsoever. Specifically, any image uploaded that is pornographic or offensive in nature (including nudity, violence, sexual acts, or sexually provocative images.), infringes upon copyrights not held by the uploader, is illegal or violates any laws, will be immediately deleted and the IP address of the uploaded reported to authorities. Violating these terms may result in termination of your ability to upload further images. We reserve the right to ban any individual uploader or website domain from using our services for any reason.”
Twitpic’s reply to my request for explanation: “Thanks for contacting Twitpic. The photo was deleted as it was in violation of Twitpic’s TOS http://twitpic.com/terms.do It is a beautiful painting however, to be user friendly for all our users we have to have guidelines of what is allowed. While some will appreciate this beautiful art work others may be offended because of nudity.”
UPDATING, Again: I was able to Tweet the Ingres Venus photo directly via Twitter (without Twitpic) and so far it has not been taken down—different standards apparently. This tiny exploration of the way art images are censored by social media was initiated due to the removal of images on Facebook pages of some of the participants of the Breast Cancer Awareness Body Painting Project.
