Jamie Elizabeth Hudrlik - Grow UpSince the Quad Cities version of Venus Envy began in 2005, it has celebrated women's artistic expression in the visual and performing arts.

Now it aims to let them embarrass themselves.

Walking with Dinosaurs The irony might be a little obvious, but extinct dinosaurs have helped stave off extinction for another animal: the creator of animatronic creatures.

Animatronics is "one of those arts that's probably dying out," said Sonny Tilders, the creature designer and builder for Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience, coming to the i wireless center March 5 through 9.

Mayor Mark Schwiebert and Ruth Evelyn Katz Over the past 19 years, the Riverssance Festival of Fine Art has bestowed the Harley Award (named after the event's harlequin logo) in recognition of "an individual or organization that has demonstrated a lasting commitment to the promotion and the advancement of the visual arts and artists in the Quad Cities area." And certainly, that description applies to 2007's Harley Award recipient, Ruth Evelyn Katz.

by Yossi Lemel, Israel From August 31 through September 27, the Quad Cities will host the touring exhibition Coexistence: The Art of Living Together, and there'll be practically no way to miss it.

Annual Manual for the Arts

 

 

Information from the Annual Manual for the Arts is available in JPG and PDF formats. Click on the links below to view the files...

 

 


 

Reader issue #643 Welcome to the Annual Manual for the Arts.

In years past, the River Cities' Reader has published a music guide each summer. We've expanded our vision this year with this inaugural Annual Manual for the Arts.

The impetus behind the Annual Manual for the Arts is that there has been no single resource for the arts in the Quad Cities, whether you're a consumer of the arts, one of their practitioners, or someone who wants to become one of their practitioners.

Reader issue #617The e-mail query was direct, but the phrasing was careless: "I'm working on an article on making a living as an artist ... ," it began.

The response from writer Maureen Wallner came within half an hour: "Making a living," she wrote. "That's funny. If we count fulfillment, I'm a wealthy lady."

Less sarcastically, photographer Jack Wilhoit said: "I don't know any artist ... who is making a living selling their own art."

artwork by Elizabeth Shriver It has always been a nomadic monster, roaming the Quad Cities (usually Rock Island) in search of arts patrons. In recent years, it has squatted at The Villa, the McKesson building, and (most recently) the Rocket Theatre.

Now, in its 13th year, it has taken up temporary residence across the river in Bucktown, and it has also mutated. What was once a single-minded creature - all about selling art - has now evolved into something of an entertainer. To its already formidable arsenal it has added magic and improvisational comedy and a haunted dungeon.

It is, of course, MidCoast Fine Arts' Great Mask Halloween Bash & Fine Art Auction, scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 21, at the Bucktown Center for the Arts (225 East Second Street in downtown Davenport).

"Sunbeam, Airstream, Toaster Camper" by Dick Cooley Glancing at the Dick Cooley metal sculpture that he calls "my Sunbeam, Airstream, Toaster Camper," your first thought is likely to be: Look at that - a toaster on roller skates.

But stare at it a bit longer. Hey - there's a bottle opener for the grill. That's a cheese-grater awning. The lights are actually nuts. And wait a minute ... is that what I think it is?

Yup. "I have a martini shaker on the front for a hitch," Cooley said during a recent phone interview. "I always try to put many different things in a piece."

"Suited Saguaro Sights Migrating Money" by John M. Booth Painter John M. Booth, referencing one of his artworks, says, "Hopefully, it'll put a smile on somebody's wall." The odds are pretty good that it will - in his airbrushed acrylic paintings, there's a lot of smiling going on.

In Booth's Fishin, an enormous red fish grins dementedly as he prepared to devour a small black cat. In Tada, a similar fish - emerald green this time - is balanced on top of a cat, who, in turn, stands upon a dog; their smiles indicate great pride at the feat. (Ta da!) In Good Coffee, a balding, middle-aged man looks frighteningly giddy about taking his first sip.

And throughout Booth's works, many of which can be seen at (http://www.masongraphics.net) and at Riverssance this weekend, his figures - human and animal, smiling and unsmiling alike - are painted in bold, vivid colors, a vibrant array of reds, blues, greens, and purples.

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