4B - Thursday, March 15, 2007
{the b-side}
40
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
GALLERY PRVi
Ap
with
BELOVED LOCAL ART
INTIMATE RE
By CAITLIN COWAN
DailyArts Writer
Poet Jim Gustafson famously wrote
that there's "no money in art."
There are, however, other riches that
come with a fruitful
career in art: veneration, Two Ways
love and vision. Ann
Mikolowski, the beloved of Looking
Detroit painter and late in a Mirror
wife of RC Prof. Ken
Mikolowski, had all of Trough
these in large measure. April28
The Center Galleries At the Center
at the College for Cre- Galleriesat
ative Studies in Detroit the Collegefor
will present a career- Creative Studies
spanning retrospective
on Mikolowski, a CCS Free
alum, opening Saturday
and running through April 28.
While national recognition for
Mikolowski's art was abbreviated by her
death in 1999, she has been no less revered
oet
paint
'IST REMEMBERED IN
TROSPECTIVE
"She was so loved and so highly regard-
ed among the creative community," said
Michelle Perron, director of the Cen-
ter Galleries, where the exhibit will be
shown. "I thought it was time for another
critical look at her work."
The title of the retrospective, "Two
Ways of Looking in a Mirror," is taken
from the Robert Creeley poem of the same
name. The exhibit will prominently fea-
ture for what Mikolowski was especially
known: "Two things," Mikolowski said,
"waterscapes and miniature portraits."
The miniature portraits Mikolowski
painted feature a number of artists and
writers as well as her personal friends.
Though the largest of these measures just
three by four inches, they're painted with
meticulous attention to detail. The photo-
graphic immediacy of each portrait was
inspired by Polaroid snapshots Mikolows-
ki took of her subjects before she painted
them.
Mikolowski also captured this same
immediacy in her sweeping, emotive land
and waterscapes. Among many other bod-
ies of water, Mikolowski said "she spent a
lot of time on Lake Huron."
"She spent the bulk of her career
on these major series," Perron said of
Mikolowski's work. While the small por-
traits and large waterscapes may initially
seem to have little in common, Perron said
she sees a definite connection.
"She considered the waterscapes to be
internal self-portraits, and the miniature
portraits she painted of her friends and
fellow artists represented, in a way, her
external life," she said.
According to Perron and Mikolowski,
the CCS retrospective was a long time in
the making. Collecting all of Ann's work
0
0
0
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: "Big Lake Moon," "John Egner" and "Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg."
was also a daunting task in itself. "Eleven
of the paintings are from my collection,"
Ken said. The rest of the works included
in the retrospective were loaned from
other galleries, collectors and individuals
spread over the country.
Though their artistic lives were always
interesting, Mikolowski admitted he and
his late wife often struggled. "For 15 years
we worked with one part time job between
the two of us. She was a painter, I was a
poet, and together we ran a press," he said
of their life.
The publishing company he spoke of
is the Alternative Press, which published
original hand-printed materials and poet-
ry by artists like Allen Ginsberg and Anne
Waldman. While the CCS retrospective
will focus solely on Ann's oil paintings,
the pair collaborated on many projects for
the Alternative Press. "She was the artis-
tic half of the operation," he said.
The exhibit will run for six weeks after
the public opening reception tomorrow
from 6p.m. to 8 p.m. Other featured events
will take place throughout the exhibit's
run, including a poetry reading featuring
Andrei Codrescu(whose ownminiature
portrait appears on the cover of one
of his collections),
Ken Mikolowski
and Chris Tysh
on March 30 at
8 p.m. Michelle
Perron will also
give a gallery talk
at noon April 5.
"Intimate" is a
the word Per-
ron chose to
best describe
Mikolowski's
paintings both
large and small.
"You're liter-
ally drawn in
and enveloped by
them," she said.
"She was a poet
with paint."
4
0
TASSI
From page 1B
and prove to everyone that yes,
he has become a man. It might be
annoying having people call you
"Harry Potter" every time you
walk down the street, but it's got to
be better than hearing "Hey, was it
cold in there or what?"
Being taken seriously isn't
limited to comedians or typecast
children.
Many musicians seem like they
have something to prove these
days. Did you know that in the
span of about a year, Justin Tim-
berlake will have been in four
movies? Seriously, IMDb it. But the
craziest part is that he's not even
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ing in atrailer and cooking crystal
meth. Justin really has been a
pleasant surprise as an actor after
a string of musicians like Ice Cube
and Usher have failed us before.
(To be fair, Ja Rule really did speak
to my heart in "The Fast and the
Furious.")
More often than not I'd rather
watch Adam Sandler get kicked in
the balls than mourn his dead fam-
ily, and it's hard to watch Jim Car-
rey philosophize about life when
I'm picturing him tiptoeing around
in a furry green Grinch suit. I
think the general rule is to stick
with what you know and you'll see
the best results. Ryan Reynolds,
take note. But actors believing they
have more to give will keep trying
to show their range, and we'll keep
giving them chances. Except when
it comes to boy wizards waving
their wands around. Hell no.
- Tassi can be reached
at tassi@umich.edu.
U' alum to return
with new film
Bob
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Whi
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get a N
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frivolo
"contrc
studio
release
movie
Univer
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Shaye:
Four
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has shy
player
chises
Rings,'
"Night
But the
By BLAKE GOBLE the University of Michigan when
DailyArts Writer Tom Hayden was the editor of The
Michigan Daily. It was very halcyon
Shaye is not your typical stu- times in Michigan," Shaye said.
cutive. The media entrepreneur, who
le most graduated in 1960, will return to
wood CEOs The Last the University tomorrow with his
Vanity Fair new movie "The Last Mimzy," his
probing MiZy first directorial effort in more than
us internal Tomorrow at 15 years. The film will screen at The
oversy" at a 7:30 p.m Michigan Theater at 7:30 p.m. with
that hasn't a question-and-answer session to
d a decent At the Michigan follow.
in years, Theater A Detroit native, Shaye was a
sity alum student in the Business school and
actually works for a living. a member of acting groups.
nder of independent pow- "It was all about football and
e New Line Cinema, Shaye girls," he said. "I didn'tplay football
aped the studio into a major and I didn't have many girls, but I
in the industry, with fran- heard about all of them."
including the "Lord of the After graduating in just three
"Austin Powers" and the and a half years, Shaye wound up
mare on Elm Street" movies. at Columbia University to study
e coolest thing about Shaye, law, only to take the radical step of
outside of all those founding New Line Cinema in 1967.
movies, is the fact New Line was able to build itself
that he once up with the quintessential ingredi-
walked the ents of a successful studio - luck,
same halls managerial intuition, skill and,
you do now. most important, some loyal long-
"I was at term employees.
"One thing you haye to add into
the equation is incredible col-
leagues, who are incredibly con-
tributory to the success of the
company," he said.
Shaye has also had the fortune of
some outstanding creative compa-
ny, jumpstarting the careers of Wes
Craven, Paul Thomas Anderson,
Peter Jackson and Brett Ratner. He
also helped engineer Robert Alt-
man's second life in the early'90s.
Shaye always wanted to work in
the arts and movies since he was
young, making 8mm short films for
fun and work. "It was something
that was really in my blood, in my
soul, since I was very young," he
said.
His new film, "The Last Mimzy,"
is a science-fiction family adven-
ture based in part on the Lewis
Padgett 1943 short story "Mimzy
Were the Borogoves." In the movie,
a strange box is found by two young
children, Emma and Noah, which
supposedly contains toys. The two
play with the items only to develop
higher cognitive abilities, much to
the confusion and astonishment
of adults. The toys may in fact be a
connection to the future, and Noah
and Emma may be mankind's only
hope.
If you're imagining a poor-
man's nostalgic reinterpretation of
"E.T." or "Close Encounters," think
again. A blue-moon opportunity for
Shaye, "Mimzy" is the work of man
in touch with his youthful spirit.
Shaye considers himself a hopeless
romantic for sci-fi, searching for
the goodness in society.
"I was a science-fiction geek
when I was a kid. I may still be a
science-fiction geek. When I read
the short story I was about 14, and
it really resonated with me. It never
left my memory," Shaye said. "I'm
embarrassed to say (it), but I exer-
cised my executive privileges, and I
wanted to direct it."
With the aid of several screen-
writers - including Oscar winner
Bruce Joel Rubin, a fellow Univer-
sity alum - the film came to frui-
tion over a 13-year period and will
finally open in theaters next week.
"I'm very proud of it being a fam-
ily movie, and I've seen audiences
appreciate it," Shaye said. "I just
hope I don't get a bunch of rowdy
college students going out on to the
streets because it wasn't what they
wanted. But to quote the producer
Michael Phillips, it makes you feel
good to be a human being."
Since theatrically grisly and
crass movies like the recent "300"
have come to define the college
movie, "Mimzy" could be a refresh-
ing antithesis.
"The Last Mimzy" is another feather in the hat of prolific alum Robert Shaye.
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