Author Archives: Christopher Agostino

Ver Veris — The Evolution of Civilization

A fascinating video from a young friend, Tzintzun Aguilar:

“A symbolic synthesis of the history of mankind composed of clips taken from old black and white documentaries. Though the images may not be modern, they are edited in rhythmic sequences to express current themes. 

Simbólico resumen de la historia de los seres humanos, compuesto por clips tomados de viejos documentales en blanco y negro, editados de tal forma que expresen temas actuales.”

Tzintzun is the son of one of my mentors, Sigfrido Aguilar — a master of physical theater. Sigfrido’s teachings on the universal language of physicality, of synthesis of content, and of the use of the abstract/concrete to add resonance to imagery, these are concepts that imbue all my work, visual and theatrical. To learn more about his Estudio Busqueda de Pantomima-Teatro, located on a mountainside in beautiful Valenciana, Guanajuato in Mexico, visit:

http://www.pantomimetheater.org

The view from Valenciana, with the city of Guanajuato in the valley below

Penguins at the Bronx Zoo Saturday Morning

Each year the Bronx Zoo hosts a Run for the Wild to raise awareness and funds for a specific conservation issue. This year it’s a run for penguins, this Saturday morning, April 30, 7:00 – 9:30 am. Go to the zoo site for details: http://www.bronxzoo.com/

We’ll have five artists there turning the runners, their families and guests into penguins, in every way we can think of. Even in a single animal theme like this we strive for creativity variety.

Part of my job as “artistic director” of a company of talented artists is to give them a head start on taking a creative approach to a new theme like this by doing some new designs to expand the repertoire. Penguins make for some great faces, because you can easily do a simplified but recognizable penguin image that then allows you to put multiple penguins on a face, and to put them into scenes and to give them personality.

a couple of the new sketches I did for this event

I tried out one of these designs at an event in March.

Last year’s run was for tigers. You can see the faces I did for that one here:

Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts – PIFA – Saturday

A bunch of us are heading to Philly to paint and perform this Saturday for the PIFA street fair produced by The Kimmel Center. From their website:

“Broad Street transforms into a slice of Paris, with street vendors, café tables, a grass-laden park, live music on two Festival stages, and a giant Ferris Wheel. Don’t miss the thrilling climax, as world-renowned French theatrical troupe La Compagnie Transe Express performs 100 feet in the air!”

http://www.kimmelcenter.org/events/pifastreetfair.php

I will be performing my storytelling show street theater style at 11:30 am and 3:00 pm, at the Amphitheater.

Two shows will mean two different sets of stories.

We also have a team of artists there painting faces. The theme of the whole event is Paris 1910-1920, so our artists will be painting faces inspired by artists associated with Paris of that era — Impressionists, Fauvists, early Modern Artists — and other French themed imagery. The participants will be asked to sit down and be turned into a work of art — no requests, every face a surprise. Even though there is nothing that excites me as much as performing, I’m a bit envious that I won’t get to do the painting, it’s just the kind of painting I love to do.

To support my artists in their own explorations of the theme I collected images of artwork from the era and asked them to find additional examples. I also have a lot of examples of faces I’ve painted that fit because I’ve been incorporating modern art into my facepainting since I painted for a Picasso exhibit at the Nassau County Museum of Art in 2006.

 

One of the faces I painted at the Picasso exhibit in the Nassau County Museum of Art, that started me on an exploration of modern art on faces.

Related articles