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Multimedia Modernist

In her music and in her art, Kathy Kosins grooves to a jazzy vibe.

Kathy Kosins: Clockwise from left, All Blues; lmprovosation; 52nd Street; Seeing Jazz.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

M

elodies linger on — and then
transform — through the tal-
ents of jazz singer-songwriter
Kathy Kosins. While change is at the heart
of any jazz performer, she is taking the
sounds into a new dimension to express
them on canvas.
Kosins, a Ferndale resident and record-
ing artist who travels more than 180 days
each year for stage shows, long had paint-
ing as a hobby but is about to turn those
expressive qualities into another serious
phase of her working life with her first
exhibit.
"Jazz in the Abstract;' running Oct. 24-
Nov 29 at State of the Art in Ferndale, will
be launched with a first-day reception and
second-day performances to call atten-
tion to what inspired the images as well as
what listeners will find on her new CD.
"As a singer and songwriter, I've always
worked in a collaborative format, joined

with musicians, arrangers
and writers:' says Kosins,
who reveals that her artis-
tic interests reside in the
Modernist movement reach-
ing from the 1940s to the
1960s.
"The artwork is really
an extension of my per-
formances; only instead of
collaborating with people I
know, I'm collaborating with
Kathy Kosin
deceased jazz musicians,
such as Miles Davis, Charlie
Parker, Bud Powell and John Coltrane.
"As I listen to the recordings of these
jazz greats, I become a visual extension of
what I hear them play. The paintings are
by my own hand, but I feel as if the musi-
cians are communicating through me,
guiding my strokes on the canvas. When I
go to paint, I don't have any preconceived
ideas, and it's like I'm on automatic pilot."
Kosins, whose recent performances
have reached from the intimacy of clubs

like the Jazz Standard
and Birdland in New
York City, the Dakota Jazz
Club in Minneapolis and
the Jazz Bakery in L.A.
to the large expanse of
the Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts in
Washington, D.C., will be
showing 25-30 paintings,
some originally seen at
a home party to which
she invited State of the
Art gallery owners Nicole
Rafaill and Veronica Lujic.
"One painting, All Blues, which also will
be offered as lithographs, was inspired by
Miles Davis;' Kosins explains. "One of his
most famous compositions had the same
title, and I was listening to it while I was at
my easel.
"There are lots of shades of blue in this
particular piece, and the process all came
through me very fast without any realiza-
tion of what I was doing."

Another painting, Seeing Jazz, essen-
tially was inspired by Charlie Parker's
music, albeit with influences of other
musicians. 52nd Street recollects the New
York City thoroughfare formerly lined with
jazz clubs.
"The artwork is very abstract, and the
music is abstract as well:' says Kosins, who
uses acrylics often enhanced with layers
of modeling paste. "My biggest goal is to
get some nice reviews off of this show and
submit myself to galleries in some of the
bigger cities where I sing."
The artist took up painting some 15
years ago, just waking up one morning
with the idea. She attended classes at the
Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center and
formed a group that still meets there to
paint together.
Kosins, who sang in the choir at
Southfield High School, started her musi-
cal career as a backup singer for Don Was
— former Oak Parker Don Fagenson of
Was (Not Was) — as he entered the rock

Modernist on page C11

October 16 2008

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