Keandre, age 11 on left and Xavier, age 12, on right, holding the banner commemorating their daddy; photo by Keandre's mom, Charlee Shegoturown Byington
We are The Friends and Family of Callion Hamblin.
We were laid low by the horrific killing of Callion,
who was only 32-years-old when slain in a hail of police bullets in the city
streets of Farmington, Missouri on February 20, 2012, for the high crime of jumping
bond and being black in a deeply racist county.
Flags marking some of the bullets at the murder scene; image from St. Louis Post Dispatch
We were sickened by power's repeated lies about what had gone down on
that fateful night—corrosive, hurtful lies.
We became certain something was and remains terribly rotten in our
hamlet.
We pulled together to organize an historic rally, the first ever of its kind in St. Francois County, one year later.
Photo by Kerry McMullen
We met weekly for two months to plan our event and prepare a
video (to be released in the coming days).
We repeatedly told each other the story of what had happened
to Callion that night, piecing it together over time, slowly facing the
implications of what we “knew.”
We composed a counter-narrative to the official pack of half-truths, deceptions and distortions.
We sought inspiration from family photos, Cal’s portraits drawn in pencil;
we read his letters and poetry.
We arranged for banners to be made, one for each of his sons.
We disseminated a press release.
We fashioned signs from poster board and markers.
We read the AP article published about our efforts all over the country the
day before the rally, in the local papers too.
We felt the mixed emotions of having our worst suspicions confirmed.
Photo by Kerry McMullen
We learned that the autopsy report stated that Cal had taken
6 bullets to the back, and that one of the bullets was from a bondsman’s gun, a
bondsman with a $25,000 investment in Cal’s death.
We rented a podium and a bullhorn.
We brought an extension cord and plugged it in outside the
courthouse.
We took our power back.
We showed up in frigid weather, some 45 strong—black and
white, old and young, city and country folk.
Photo by Charlee Shegoturown Byington
We smashed the silence.
We saw our neighbors whose tax dollars had paid for the bullets that killed Cal drive by our rally on Columbia Street,
curious about events in their own town. Finally.
We heard a few of them rev their engines in disrespect, blow
their horns during Amazing Grace.
We shook our heads in disgust.
We stood taller.
We held our ground.
We made history. Not just Black History, but wonderfully also that.
Denny Henke, Founder of the Eastern Ozarks Astronomical Society (EOAS);
Photo By Russ Middleton
, Member EOAS
I've often wanted to write down the words of Denny Henke as they've gently tumbled from
his lips. Yesterday, I indulged my inclination.
I asked Denny why it mattered
to him so very much that our elements of life derive from the stars…?
Denny Henke: Because our human culture is off-track. We’re overly focused on the self, especially as it has come to be defined, self as each individual person.
Its conceptual roots are in Christianity, the soul inside a self, defined by the body. As
a consequence, our lifeway has come to be based on private gain. And fear.
We got off-track in the 1950’s when we created the physical environment centered on the nuclear family. In suburbanization we built the physical
system to put people off on themselves. Old people are warehoused and kids who
don’t manage to leave their parents’ homes are considered failures. Our lifeway has become one of fear and alienation.
FM: Is your own passion for stargazing fueled in some sense by social alienation?
Denny Henke: For me it’s a few different things.
To remember the context of life on planet earth, that it’s
fragile and special. I’ve lived my life trying to respect that, on balance.
And we know the end of the story for our planet, that one
day it will be consumed by the sun. And when you recognize that we come from
stardust—literally the carbon in our bodies—and that’s where it goes back to,
then one is no longer limited by mortality. When you make peace with mortality
and if you’re curious about the universe, what better way to spend your time on
the planet than looking up? It’s absolutely amazing.
FM: Can you describe your sense of amazement?
Denny Henke: I have a moment of giving up—wowed—allowing
for the mystery of something. Not that I own it, or even that I understand it. Just
that this thing in front of me is…awe inspiring!
This is not to say that you won’t try to understand it, but
not in that first moment of encounter.
FM: How do you, Denny, try and understand the galaxies?
DH: You mean my approach?
FM: Yes.
DH: I combine the beauty of looking through the telescope at
objects, which is enjoyable in a physical way, with research. Wikipedia covers
anything you can think of in astronomy, and is almost always a good starting
point. But there’s so much available on the Internet, high-level astronomers
offering up free podcasts—284 of them so far. When you combine the
audio with the research, it’s not exactly like going to a university but you
can pick up everything except for the math. And anyone can do it.
If you don’t have a telescope, even looking up at the sky
with the naked eye, you can still see a lot.
Which brings me back to your first question about matter; because
it’s through matter that we’re connected to each other, and to the universe.
It’s sad that many of us never learn the truth about the
origins of the universe, very simply, that we all literally come out of the
stars at the moment of the Big Bang. In the first few moments of the universe
there were only two elements: hydrogen and helium, and maybe a trace element of
something else. They clumped up, by accretion—think of a dust bunny on the
floor gathering material to itself, getting bigger, collecting a gravity.
The
first generation of stars had to produce carbon, iron, lithium and beryllium, etc.; they cooked up all
the elements and then they blew up. Then the second generation had more to work
with, and so on. All the elements of life came from the stars, we are literally
star stuff.
Because of that you are never alone. You can get locked in
emotionally into a bad place, but physically, you’re never alone.
FM: Then the attempt to understand the stars also becomes a way
of gaining a deeper self-knowledge?
DH: Yeah, without a doubt, yes! We’re just another part of
it, hydrogen studying hydrogen. We are the universe studying itself. We are
nature studying nature. Humans get caught up...we forget we're just part of it. It’s why we do damage, that forgetting; why we’re alienated
from each other, isolated from the life force around us.
Studying astronomy is definitely an attempt to understand where we come from,
and where we might be going.
FM: At the level of affect. How does it make you feel to
know that your humanity is literally supported by the stars, that humanity itself
was born in the cradle of the stars?
DH: When you connect with that, you live like I have been doing—in
a constant state of bliss. The universe is fascinating; it doesn’t get more
fascinating than looking up, and more so within this extreme limit, knowing
this is all I have, a very brief time on the planet. That’s the beauty of it, I’m
good with that—the briefness of it. But it’s a comfort to me to know my atoms
will never cease to exist, I’ll always be a part of it.
The day I die, I want them to throw me to the coyotes. Don’t
put me in a box. I don’t know if it’s legal, but what I want is for my body to
be thrown into the woods for the coyotes to eat me. Let them rip me to shreds into
tiny bits and pieces. That’s life! That’s what I have right now.
FM: Even without consciousness, you feel that it’s as much
life as—?
DH: —Feeding the worms, who feed the birds…? Yeah!
FM: I’m wondering if stargazing has given you some
hyperawareness of light—all those hours and hours of basking in starlight, that’s got to be
affecting you?
DH: After half-an-hour, or so, your eyes adjust. The more you
look, the more you see. When I’m looking at a galaxy, I’m looking at something
that’s ten million light years away. It’s incredibly dim. The photons have
traveled trillions of miles. We’re looking into deep history, deep dark space.
You have to be patient and spend time picking up the details.
FM: What is the quality of that time? Does time slow down? Is
that another reason why you stargaze so avidly?
DH: Absolutely! But sometimes you can spend a lot of time
outside at the scope, and it feels like it went very quickly. The experience of
astronomy is not just what you see through the scope; it’s also the knowledge
and thoughts you have fermenting in your brain.
FM: For example…?
A globular cluster
DH: Globular clusters are one object people really enjoy
looking at. A globular cluster is a tightly-grouped ball of stars. On a good
dark night with a good telescope, if you’re looking at, say, the Hercules
cluster, you’ll see just that, a ball of stars. But if you keep looking, your eye will
start to be able to pick out individual stars.
Eventually your eye will be able to pick out about a
hundred stars.
Globular clusters aren't on the
same plane with the majority of the stars in our galaxy, so I think about
where we are in relation to the universe, issues of
placement posed by that particular object.
Plus they’re old stars, among the oldest. At one time they
were calculated to be older than the universe, which is impossible. And Science
had to confront its miscalculation and correct for it,
refining its own scientific method.
And that’s what ferments in your mind, those kinds of things.
For more information about opportunities for amateur astronomy in southeastern Missouri, please visit the Eastern Ozarks Astronomical Society's Facebook Page and Website.
Bronze by Bill Knight, A Wintry View of Marquand, Missouri from The Gallery
What a blast the forty or so art
revelers that gathered Saturday afternoon at The Gallery in Marquand
had celebrating the opening of Angela and Bill Knight's sculpture
exhibit—Carved in Stone. It was a rare chance to experience world class
museum-quality artworks in an intimate setting, and spend an early
December afternoon in brilliant and invigorating company. Juli Von Zur Muehlen of
Jewett said it best: “I'm here because I love art, I love my
friends, and I love my friends who are artists. And... also the
stone—the smoothness, the permanence, the organic-ness and the
sculptures' not-so-subtle sexual messages...Angela, the feminine,
Bill, the masculine, each artist only ever portraying themselves.”
Adam in Cast Resin by Angela Hunter Knight
Having spoken at length with Bill about his work with indigenous stones—"relics prospected from the Missouri landscape"—earlier this year, it was my turn to have a tête-à-tête with
Angela. Readers of The Madison County Crier may remember Angela's stirring and soaring words to last year's graduating class at Crossroads College Prep in Issue 3.5 (p. 11): With Humility All Things Are Possible. In the cozy inner salon redolent of hot apple cider, we stole a few moments to sit side-by-side on the chintz sofa to talk about what we both love best: ART.
FM: When did you begin sculpting?
Angela Hunter Knight: I began sculpting
in earnest when I began teaching; if you want to teach sculpture
you should do it. I'd studied sculpture at
Fontbonne under Rudy Torrini—a whole community of artists were
taught by him. The other impetus was Bill; he was having such a good time sculpting, I took a stab
at it. The challenge attracted me, it seemed a new way to draw but in
three dimensions. At a professional development course in Marble, Colorado,
I attempted my first large-scale carving. In eight days I finished
roughing out a 300-pound sculpture.
A Venus by Angela Hunter Knight
FM: How is that you came to focus on
Venus?
Angela Hunter Knight: In many ways I am a Classicist,
and I enjoy the many characters of Venus. I attribute to her a joyous, even whimsical persona. I show
her in various states of womanhood. I hope to redefine her, I've
enjoyed messing with her—exposing the parts of her that are
teasing, playful, that exhibit reckless abandon. Breaking her out of
a box that history has put her in. That's not fair, she needs to be
set free!
FM: Can you please talk a bit about your process, how you approach a new work; and if it has, how it has changed over time?
Angela Hunter Knight: In the past I started with drawing,
then created a maquette, and then proceeded to the stone. Now I'm starting
with the stone, then I do a drawing, and finally the maquette.
It's a different process of discovery—finding the way, instead of
knowing the way. A means of trusting your instincts more. I've become
more confident about carving, handling the materials, the tools.
There's so much to learn about what each tool does. Errors are okay.
I look for the errors, you're forced to make a decision. For instance
after working on one of my Venus pieces, I discovered a huge crack
all the way in.
FM: What did you do, Angela?
Angela Hunter Knight: I decided to take a hammer to it
and break it along the crack. Part of the work is finished, polished,
and part is unfinished. When I looked at the result I thought that's
perfect! In sculpture there's a constant conversation with the
materials.
FM: I got a chance to take in the Federico Barocci exhibit
last week at the St. Louis Art Museum and loved how each painting was hung in a constellation of its studies, shining a curatorial light on process and the revelation of Barocci's choices: hand up, hand down, foot turned in or out. I suppose those choices are even more stark and
immediate in sculpture...?
Angela Hunter Knight: Yes! At the Barocci exhibit I
barely glanced at the paintings, but the drawings blew me away. During
the Renaissance, paper was at a premium. He used every square inch of
it, and his sense of composition is extraordinary.
In Colorado I thought I can't do this,
it's too hard, I'll never be able to do this. Day One, I was crying,
facing something that I knew was the most difficult thing, wondering maybe I
wasn't cut out for it. But then I started chopping, drawing,
selecting a strategy, grinding, and I found out, along the way you get brave. By
Day Two I saw I was getting somewhere. I'm very organized. I never
stop one day unless I know where I'm going to start the next day.
Strange Fruit
I work mostly on large pieces in
Colorado Yule marble. It's very fine-grained, crystalline, with great
luminosity. It's honest in its workability, you can get along with
it, you know what to expect. Other pieces are carved from alabaster.
Strange Fruit for instance, which is not a reference to the Billy
Holiday song; it's based on an avocado, much more literal. If you
look at it from the side it looks like an avocado, if you look at it
from the front/back, like a female. It's very colorful and I love it
for that reason. White outside, tawny inside.
For small-scale works there are tools
that we use, industrial tools. Large pieces are so physical, you're
using your whole body when you work, and I like using my whole body. With
small pieces, you're using your hands. I don't micro as well as I
macro. I connect smaller pieces to writing. Sometimes, however, a
small piece manages to have a great presence; that's where I'm going
next.
Photo by Russ Middleton
FM: What advice do you have for novice
sculptors?
Angela Hunter Knight: Don't kid yourself: there will be
tears. You will lose your fingerprints; you have to be strong both
physically and mentally, but don't give up. It is hard, there's
nothing easy about it. I have an inner need, I have to do sculpture
to sustain me, I'm always making art. When I retire from teaching, in
my grand finale, my grand design is to always find myself there,
creating. But it has to work organically with everything else I do—my
horses, the dogs, running.
Bill and Angela Knight, Photo by Russ Middleton
FM: What are you working on right now?
Angela Hunter Knight: A model for a metal sculpture;
it's an abstraction of herons. A commissioned piece for the garden at the school where I teach.
Art lover and maker Norah Von Zur Muehlen, age 8, holding one of Bill's pieces. Behind her is Venus Whimsy, her sister Ellen's favorite piece in the show. When I asked Ellen, age 15, why that was, she replied: "It appeals to the same part of me that enjoys daydreams, or reading fantasy fiction novels."
I asked Norah to please ask Angela one final question, and she kindly agreed.
Norah: Angela, where do you get the ideas to
make your stuff?
Angela Hunter Knight: I'm a thematic person. A theme is
like an umbrella, it covers a lot of things, the figure and the
abstraction of the figure. My Venus series, for instance, which grows
progressively more abstract. My first Venus was Rational Venus, she
was based on ideal beauty, the next was Venus of Mirth, then Venus
Whimsy, and so on...After spending all this time with Venus, now I
need a new umbrella!
Carved in Stone will be on display throughout December and January, 2013. The address of The Gallery is 101 East Pinckney Street in Marquand, Missouri 63655 (just off Whitener Street behind The Reagan Hotel.) The Gallery's hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 12-5 pm. Or call Dorothy Kelley at 573-783-5609 for other showing times by appointment.
Bill Knight and Marquand vintner Jay Hansmann holding a piece by Bill. Jay is owner of Durso Hills Winery where we all repaired after the opening for a fabulous post-gallery repast. We couldn't help ourselves, we ordered a second bottle of the oaky Norton 2005 with dinner!
A profile in courage: a pensive Kerry Smith before the show at Regional Arts on Delmar
My friend Kerry Smith walked the runway
for Glitterfly Apparel at the Second Annual Style in the Loop fashion show, and I
was there to ooh and ahh and clap and cheer, not only for Kerry but
for designers Noelle Wagner (Flat River) and Michelle Swane
(Ironton)--a happy to be alive night! Though not a professional
model, in fact this was to be the first time she ever wore stilettos,
Kerry did us all proud. But it wasn't the shoes that made Kerry grow in stature right before my eyes, it was the risk taking, the throwing herself into something new, not knowing how it would turn out, but giving it her all.
Though not captured in my pics, my favorite moment of the whole show was when Kerry, so serious about appropriately repping Glitterfly with a certain command and dignity, so determined not to totter or sway on those high heels, got to the end of the runway and saucily threw the photographers a kiss. It was a perfectly loving gesture to salute the clothes themselves and the way they made her feel that fabulous night. Weeks later when I asked her to offer a few adjectives about the Glitterfly collection with the very first words that popped into her head, she fired back with "sexpot, free-spirit!" Absolutely right. If you weren't there for a once in a lifetime chance to see Kerry and Glitterfly take a huge leap future forward, here's part of what you missed.
Because it was a first modeling experience for Kerry, I asked her to please
tell us in what ways it felt like new experience, and how her participation helped her in breaking new ground
personally?
"Oh,
I felt my experience with the fashion was special because it was able
to connect me to people that have similar interests. Gave me an
inside look behind the scenes at the perks, nerves, work, and
excitement others don't see. I embraced the chance to plunge into
something new, something unfamiliar, because I recognize that's where
human growth happens. I've always felt I'm socially awkward,
sometimes more than others, and this gave me a chance to throw myself
into a bunch of people I didn't know. I was testing myself, the test
was: can you make friends easily? By the end of the night I was
dancing with 3 girls backstage and laughing about all sorts. It gave
me more energy too and confidence. Before, I said: I only wanna walk
once, I don't think I can even handle that with my nerves. Then,
after walking, when I got backstage I thought I
wanna walk every time.
Moreover ladies I'm taking your spot.
Even more so than that feeling, I wanted to be the designer. For
sure! The creator, the brains. It's so much more fulfilling for me, I
think."
Oooh! Patrick wore this shirt so well, more pictures of him here
I want this to be the official Written Word, Spoken Word cardigan!
Noelle told me: "My clothing lines depend a lot on what
kinds of fabrics come through the studio door; 90% of the fabric
comes from seamstresses no longer sewing, remnants from an
upholstery/drapery company in St.Louis, thrift stores, and garage
sales. Occasionally, I'll be at a fabric store picking up zippers and
whatnot and will see a bolt of something that I can't resist. The
designs are based on styles and cuts that have traditionally
flattered the female figure: high-waisted pencil skirts, princess
seams, a-line, etc."
She also passed along this statement submitted as part of the application by Glitterfly to Style in the Loop:
Glitterfly Apparel is the creation of
Noelle Wagner & Michelle Swane. For years we costumed many for
Halloween, theatre productions, and well, just for the fun of it. We
also gifted friends and family with enough of our handiwork to make
their closet doors bulge. Then folks we didn't know began to take
notice and seek out our wares; a librarian quickly transforms into a
Dewey Decimal diva, the folk singer becomes a frock star, etc. We've
primarily sold our duds at festivals, shows, and the occasional open
studio sale. We're starting to branch out but we still relish the
person-to-person show sale.
Neither of us have any formal
fashion/design training. Rather, we both sat below our grannies while
they stitched, learned basics in 1980's home economics class, and
then began years of learning through trial and error. Then our skills
were perfected by challenges we brought unto ourselves. Inspiration
often comes from nature, dreams, and a slightly distorted idea of
normalcy.
A portion of the company is dedicated
to the upcycling of vintage pieces with unique appliqué designs:
alien women, poison ivy, flies, balloon dogs, and beets to name a
few. A specialty of ours is the western shirts & polyester
western suits a la Nudie Cohn, but with more appliqué, less sequins.
Besides Nudie, Little Edie and each other provide inspiration.
Another side of our company sews
series of one-of-a-kind, retro inspired women's apparel. The series
is sewn from the same design in various sizes; the series limited to
25-50 per series. And although it is a series, each one is unique in
fabric & embellishment making each genuinely a one-of-a-kind
piece. Some even receive their own title. For the cooler months
ahead, I've sketches for the 9 to 5 series inspired by the 80's flick
of the same name. It will include sexy pencil skirts and bow blouses
to rock way after 5:00. All of the garments are carefully made
incorporating hand stitching and details, just as Granny insisted!
Opening up the possibilities in wedding garb. Makes every other wedding dress I've ever seen pale by comparison.
This collection is so hot; it's only a matter of time before it spreads like wildfire!
Feeling good after the show, even before the after-party
Kerry's grandma Tessie (who's teaching her to sew) and mom Kelly who drove up from Fredericktown after a long work week to be there for Kerry
Kerry back in her own stylish vintage duds (notice her lion necklace, for courage she confessed) in the embrace of one pleased fashion designer. And why not? Several items were sold off the mannequins before the doors even opened, snapped up by the other designers. What better compliment and endorsement of her creative vision?
One beautiful talented lady--Glitterfly designer Noelle Wagner at the end of the happy (and successful!) event
From everyone in southeast Missouri--we're so impressed and excited for you, ladies! If there ever was, there's no stopping you now.
