You heard it right: Walter Trout and Coco Montoya will be rolling into downtown Canton in June for the 2012 Canton Blues Fest. The free annual two-day affair boasts rhythm and blues all day Friday, June 8, and Saturday, June 9, from noon until 10:30 p.m. Walter Trout’s practical schooling in blues started when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1973 and got gigs behind Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Finis Tasby, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulsom, Percy Mayfield and Joe Tex, but the real turning point was his tenure with British blues giant John Mayall. Trout became part of the Bluesbreakers’ lineage...
Last time we stopped by ACME Artists (332 4th Street NW in downtown Canton) we were treated to the quirky sensibilities of purveyor Holly “Buffy” Aktinson, with a romp through her “rules” on, well, just about everything. This month, Canton boomeranger Joe Cortese will have his first solo show at the gallery. His art has been hanging on the walls at ACME for a few months, but at the September opening of Joe Cortese: The Life and Mind of… we’ll get a more robust taste of the 39-year-old artist slash teacher’s creative perspective. Whether you’re already familiar with Corte...
More than 500 people enjoyed a big screen on the green downtown last month for the debut movie, “Jurassic Park,” and the August and September installments of Cinema in the City are gearing up to be just as popular. The outdoor movie series is shown on a jumbo screen set up in the Kresge Green Space between Third and Fourth Streets along Market Avenue in Canton. For families with young kids, “Shrek” will be shown on Wednesday, August 17; for young adults and adults nostalgic for a young Harrison Ford, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” will be screened on Wednesday,...
During last month’s hands-on artist interview, I got hot and sweaty with John Boyett at Canton Glass Works. This month I wanted to do something even more off-the-wall. Our community is ripe with visual artists (painters, sculptors and the like), performance artists, musicians and their ilk, and those of you who know me know how much stock I put in the literary arts. But what of the culinary arts? Is it an art form? Can artists wear aprons? I’m going out on a limb this month. I’m introducing you to the art of cupcakes. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down. I can hear some of you now: ...
Over the past few years, we’ve written quite a few features and interviews about the amazing artists, galleries and venues in Northeast Ohio. And while the articles have (hopefully) offered insightful views into the sometimes peculiar, always entertaining minds and methods of these hardworking individuals, we felt as though it might be about time that we started pulling our own weight a bit. Beginning, well, now, we’re going to be doing some down-and-dirty, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-slap-on-a-smock interviews where — you guessed it — we work alongside local artists while they g...
David McDowell has been making stuff since about the time he could sit up, or so his mom says. And he’s had a love of glass, stained and otherwise, since he attended Indiana Wesleyan University. He graduated with a degree in ceramics, but perpetual breathing problems resulting from inhalation plagued him when working in his chosen craft. And so he’s turned to glass and mixed media. “I started by simply asking, ‘How do you make that?’ Nobody makes some of this stuff anymore, so I knew I had to figure out how to do it,” said McDowell. And then, as soon as he figured it out, he...
Megan Mars is a weird loner, or so she says. She has a lot of friends — it’s just that some of them are paintings. She has quirky witticisms, or as I have come to call them, “Marsicisms”, and took the standard-issue childhood awkward phase and channeled it into creative fuel. She likes being a girl more than any girl I know, and her work is beautiful in an odd, old-fashioned way that proves it’s just fine being your sexy self. So I want to tell you not to read too much into the title of Thirteenth Floor’s upcoming show, “She’s A Monster”. But when the show opens on April 2...
Some of my fondest memories of actor Steve Martin aren’t moments when he’s acting at all. Don’t get me wrong: I love watching him gyrate around like a “wild and crazy guy”, and I get sucked into TBS every time “Father of the Bride” comes on Sunday afternoons, which is pretty much a weekly occurrence. But, though he’s a prolific and varied actor, Martin’s most endearing work of late for me is his work on the page — and, on occasion, from the page to stage. This month, the Beck Center for the Arts (17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood) will be the latest theatre to present “T...
Everyone’s favorite Arts Council is usurping a date usually relegated to everyone’s least favorite government agency. Beginning April 15, there’s truly more to death and taxes: There’s art, and it is ALIVE! Helming the two-day art show and sale again this year, ArtsinStark has assembled an impressive group of local artisans and craftspeople. From intricate beaded and bedazzled baubles to metal sculpture, artistically appointed greeting cards, stationery, handmade books and every variety of fine art, you’ll find it here — not to mention a few feathered fedoras and a collection of...
A young couple at the end of a promising first date has an even more promising first kiss. Girl coyly goes upstairs; boy gets into Chevy, starts car and drives off. A little ways down the block, boy pushes a few buttons, cueing his car to respond by providing audible Facebook status updates, including one from his date: “Best first date ever.” In an America that gives an Oscar nod to a film about Facebook, it’s safe to say that we as a people have embraced social and digital media on every plane. But that’s not all. Social media is one in a cadre of digital forces that have bred in ...
Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur. ~Henry Miller As I prepared for my interview with Dylan and Holly Atkinson – two artist-entrepreneurs who have been active in the downtown Canton arts district since, well, since there wasn’t really much of a district to speak of – I’ll admit I was a bit nervous. I can’t quite tell you why, other than to say openly that I was equal parts intimidated and intrigued. I was right to feel one thing, wrong to feel the other. What was intend...
If Santa had an arts scene up in the North Pole like we have here in Northeast Ohio, he could dump all of those tchotchke-making elves in lieu of a far more original lineup of gifts. Luckily, we have an ever-vigilant community of artists, artisans and craftsman who, not unlike those aforementioned rascally elves, work all year long to ensure that you won’t have to buy lame, uninspired gifts for your loved ones. Read on for some suggestions for gifts for the whole family and save yourself the trouble of some fat old man checking lists and roughing up your chimney… Massill...
October was a great month for Thirteenth Floor Gallery in Massillon, but November’s no slouch. Massillon artist Scot Phillips will be taking over the gallery beginning Nov. 20 for a show entitled “Six Six Sex.” “My artwork can have sexual implications,” said Phillips about how he coined the title. “I think it’s clever because there are many people who have strong feelings about the number 6-6-6. But to me, it’s just a number.” For his first solo show at Thirteenth Floor, Phillips will debut his signature style- most often immortalizing silent film beauty Clara Bow- pain...
Censorship be damned, here’s to a month with meaning October is National Anti-Censorship Month (and Banned Book month) and several Stark County organizations have banded together to bring you a series of events on artistic license and responsibility. With these events comes the hope for a dialogue, a discussion of the freedom that art brings, but also the grave accountability that comes with that freedom. Uncensored National Juried Show Kicking off the month-long extravaganza sanctioning the unsanctioned is Anderson Creative. They will present their first national juried show, UN...
Sixty-nine artists have been selected to appear in this November’s Stark ARThology, the first art anthology dedicated to the many talented and eclectic artists of Stark County, Ohio. The book is published by Indigo Ink, an independent non-profit publisher of poetry, fiction and artistic non-fiction (such as visual-art books). Artists selected for the book will receive two free copies and professional photography services for the selected piece(s), as well as a professional artist headshot photo. In addition, Indigo Ink Press and the Canton Museum of Art are collaboratin...
With all the talk these days about hyper-connected communication, community building and social media, Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE has really cornered the market on true community collaboration. Through the Xbox XNA Creator’s Club, individuals with programming and design skills can create and submit custom games for sale in the Xbox LIVE Indie Game catalog. Currently, more than 1,100 such games are available on Xbox LIVE in every genre and at a great, low price point (usually around $1). Not an aspiring developer? Not a problem. The really cool thing about the indie game community is t...
For years, the storefront at 28 Charles Street in downtown Massillon has been the practice space of LUDWYG, an electronica band fronted by Billy Ludwig. On July 17, Massillon finally gets what’s coming to it: an independent, progressive art space. We recently sat down with Thirteenth Floor gallery owner Billy Ludwig to get the scoop on the gallery, the opening and some other super secret sneaky stuff. Ok, first things first: what floor is “Thirteenth Floor” on? You wouldn’t believe how often I’ve gotten that question. We’re street level. In fact, I’m pretty sure...
Everyone’s favorite pixeled prince is back in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, sequel to Sands of Time. And this time around he’s a roguish movie tie-in a la Jake Gyllenhaal (no complaints here). There’s just one problem. The game is more Cirque du Soleil than merciless massacring. Sure, this platformer’s layout is exquisite and the astounding acrobatics fit like a familiar old pair of shoes. But, maybe that’s the problem. It’s all a bit too familiar. And the movie tie-in makes it that much more comfortable. Perhaps the spark is gone from our relationship? You begin...
LIONS, TIGERS AND OPERETTAS, OH MY! When the Canton Comic Opera Company brings L. Frank Baum’s vision of The Wizard of Oz to the Canton Palace Theater stage on July 10, you’ll find that you’re not in Kansas anymore. This funny, lighthearted show has lots of surprises that you won’t be expecting – this is Wizard as Baum imagined it, 37 years before MGM got its hands on it. While almost entirely forgotten today, the 1903 Wizard of Oz was one of the most successful musical comedies of the turn of the century, firmly cementing the timeless story and characters in the hearts and min...
ALAN WAKE: After six long years in development, Remedy (creators of the Max Payne series) will bring psychological thriller Alan Wake to Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 18. Bestselling insomniac author Alan Wake is trapped in a waking nightmare of his own construct. The plans for his next novel are literally coming to life, putting the author through his terrifying paces as he searches for answers and his missing wife Alice. He’s even finding pages from a novel he has not yet written as he progresses through a landscape riddled with ax-swinging, shadowy enemies. It’s not just a matter of...
