Tucson Symphony Presents Art Of Music

Silent Auction, Music by Members of the TSO, Dinner & Live Auction Set for Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa on Saturday March 3, 2007. How does a violin become a cactus, a cello an ant hill, a sousaphone a man-eating reptile? When prominent artists of the Southwest let their imaginations run wild to transform donated instruments into one-of-a-kind works of art to be auctioned at Art of Music, a benefit to raise funds for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Sponsored by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra League, Art of Music, with TSO Music Director and Conductor George Hanson serving as Master of Ceremonies, will be held Saturday, March 3, 2007 at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive, Tucson, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The evening will feature a silent auction, music by members of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, dinner and a live auction.

More than 30 artists and prominent Tucsonans have been busy since summer transforming violins, clarinets, cellos and cello cases, guitars, a sousaphone and a ukulele into works of art by painting, embellishing and decorating the instruments. The instruments were donated by local music shops including Beaver's Band Box, Dave's Music, Sticks and Strings and Chicago Music, as well as by TSO musicians, Carlie Rigg and Jacquelyn Sellers. Prior to the auction, the transformed instruments will be exhibited at galleries and businesses around Tucson starting early in the year.

Among the Tucson artists who have created works for the 2007 Art of Music are Diana Madaras, who is also the Honorary Art Chair, and Barbara Gurwitz, the Honorary Art Chair of the 2005 Art of Music. Voted Tucson's "Best Visual Artist" in 2004 and 2005, Madaras' unique style makes her work easily recognizable. She has been featured in nine one-woman shows and her art has hung in the Tucson Museum of Art. Recently, Diana completed commissions for Westin, Loews and Miraval resort. She has also created eight paintings for the estate of the former president of Mexico. Now she is working with a wood carver on a special violin for the Art of Music.

Barbara Gurwitz is internationally recognized for her bright, colorful, expressive landscapes featuring villages set in valleys in the mountainous countryside. Her paintings are exhibited in the Tucson Museum of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.

Other notable artists involved in the 2007 Art of Music include:

Brenda Semanick, whose paintings reflect her continuing fascination with desert flowers and may be found in hundreds of collections across the U.S. They have also graced the annual Arizona Chamber Music Festival poster for nine years.

Michael Ives, the internationally-known "outsider" folk artist has transformed a violin into "Sabino Canyon Suite." Michael has been called "the trendsetter of Southwest Folk Art." About his work, The New York Times has noted he makes, "The ordinary into the unusual."

Moira Geoffrion from the sculpture faculty of the School of Art, University of Arizona, a frequent creator of art for public works projects around metro Tucson, who is another contributing violin artist.

Tom Philabaum, the award-winning glass artist and teacher and owner of the popular Philabaum Glass Gallery and Studio in Tucson, has transformed a violin into a colorful work of art using small pieces of blown glass.

DeAnn Melton is making a collage with parts of a violin reminiscent of the Cubist style in which parts of an object create a new decorative and formal vision. Her next show in January, 2007 at the Roswell Museum in Roswell, New Mexico will include many of the 43 portraits she has done of artists and other members of the art community.

Earle Wheatley, the owner of Creative Plastics, his plastics firm, and First Light Creative Center, a Stone Avenue Art Gallery, is working his innovative magic on a cello case. He created the forms for Tucson's Painted Ponies and was also a contributing artist.

Bob and Casey Luria, co-owners of Bloomin' Gourdworks in Silver City, New Mexico. Bob, known for his small, thought-provoking pieces and funny whimsical creations, is creating an original piece for Art of Music fashioned from a small violin case that originally held a bottle of champagne. Casey, known for her totem poles and large whimsical animals created from gourds, has worked her magic on a sousaphone.
Allan Mardon, the veteran painter of desert landscapes, horses, buffalos and the Indians who lived with them. His painting depicting Custer's last stand, "The Battle of Greasy Grass," hangs in the permanent collection of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art.

Mardon is making his first contributions to an Art of Music exhibition and auction. Other artists who have contributed pieces for the first time this year include David Herr, an instructor from the Tucson Academy of Leadership and Art and art students from the school, Diane Barbee, Judith D'Agostino, Joni Falk, Richard Iams, Jean Nerenberg and jewelry designer Laurie Wetterschneider.

The other artists who are contributing works to Art of Music are Dr. David Chakmakian, who has created "Jazz Man II" from a violin; Ned Egen, the former University of Arizona Professor whose sculptures are created with found steel objects and new steel that he welds, blends, pounds, grinds and cuts to shape into their final forms; Bob Kemble, who specializes in painting historical architectural landmarks in Tucson, New Mexico and California and shows his work year-round at the Max Gallery in Tucson; Terry Dietz, a painter and sculptor who teaches at Pima Community College; author and painter Tom Gress; and William Hanano of Sonoran Glass, who is making a glass snare drum. Completing the artist roster are John McNulty, Klayton Kidd and Barbara Rudolph. Michael Santini, the former Arizona resident, whose popular "modern medieval" artworks are now on display at the Micro Museum in Brooklyn, his first exhibition in New York City, is contributing a picture with a musical subject instead of an instrument.

Among the prominent Tucsonans who have indicated they are planning to submit one-of-a-kind artworks made from a variety of instruments are: Donna Nordin, the chef and author of the best selling cookbook, Contemporary Southwest: the Café Terra Cotta Cookbook, who is now a jewelry designer; Mayor Bob Walkup; Bonnie Marson, author of Sleeping with Schubert; and Max and Victor Hanson. The four year old twins of George Hanson and his wife, Petra Boehm, have created a drum featuring a few of their favorite things.

Petra Boehm is the Honorary Chair of the 2007 Art of Music. Tickets are $150. The 2007 Art of Music is being underwritten by Settlers West Galleries, Presidio Group, Wally Rinow-Allstate Insurance, Stuart and Mary Lou Foote, David and Cookie Pashkow, Mary Dryden-H & R Block, Cartridge World, Donald E. Clark CPA, Salon de Nouveau, Cynthia Fairchild, Athens on 4th Ave., Andreas Delfakis, Medicine Man Gallery and the 1st National Bank of Arizona. -- www.tucsonsymphony.org