Blue Mountain Center: Eagle Lake

Blue Mountain Center is a working community of writers, artists, activists and musicians in the heart of Adirondacks, the largest state park in the continental US. And it is my favorite residency. This September, I was able to spend four weeks at BMC once again. This was my third full-length residency at BMC. I was also there over the Memorial Day weekend for the mini residency this year, so I felt really fortunate to be back at BMC again.

The main house at BMC is a turn-of-the century Adirondack lodge in a pristine and peaceful setting of woods, lakes and mountains. Eagle Lake is just steps away from the main house, and it is just beautiful. My past two residencies were in August, and I swam everyday with my swimming buddy, Henri Cole. I met Henri at BMC in August of 2005. He is a great swimmer and an amazing poet, and he inspired me to swim in the lake every day. In his sort of unassuming way, he would go into the water, once in the water, he would transform into a fish, or the Neptune of the Lake as I often called him. He was so natural in the water that I wonder if he ever grow any fish scales on his back. In August of 2008, Henri and I were both residents at the same time again, and we established our rigorous swimming schedule: swimming twice a day—before lunch and dinner―every day. We were the BMC swim team. And I cherished every moment when I was in the lake.

This time, it was September. And Henri was not at BMC. I knew that the temperature was going to drop and the water would get really cold. Summer is short in Adirondacks, and September in Adirondacks could get pretty chilly. I was hoping that I could go swimming as long and as much as possible. I just didn’t know that I would end up swimming every day! To my surprise, I managed to do so simply because I became addicted to swimming in the cold water. It was rejuvenating. I was enjoying the cleansing and healing energy of the water tremendously, and I just couldn’t have enough of it.

The surrounding nature is astonishingly beautiful and peaceful, and I enjoy seeing the beauty and being with the nature. This time around though, I didn’t even fully realize how much my experience with the lake and the water was influencing my drawing.

Here are some more shots of the Eagle Lake, my favorite lake in the world.

My morning yoga spot

One foggy morning

... and lost in the fog

Fog clears suddenly and everything is so still.

A beautiful work by a resident spider

BMC resident, Nancy going for early morning kayaking

Morning mist over the lake

Boat house - the best place to contemplate

Eagle Lake - my spiritual and physical healing place

My Tiger, My Lover: Play by Dramahound Productions

It was mid-May when I got an email from Monika via my website.

“This is Monika, Miho's friend - the one with the 3 kids and the gallery.

I actually did something really wired. I did organized a play around your body of work about the tiger - tamer and did not quite ask you if you are willing to show your pictures with Open Source?

The weirdest thing is that the actors are ready soon!

I am really sorry about inviting you so late.

The problem was that I did not have any space and no guarantee of anything happening.
but now I am pretty sure it will happen.

Anyways I would like to invite you formally to show in a solo show with open source in June. We are opening a new space.”

So, that’s how I learned that someone wrote a play based on my drawings, the playwright had already chosen actors, and they were ready to rehearse soon. And Monika wanted me to show my works in her gallery in a month. And I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Someone was writing a play around my work and I didn’t know about this until, well, they’re ready to rehearse for a show?” It was bizarre and I didn’t know what to make of it at first, though I thought it was really cool that my work inspired someone to write a play. So, I said yes, and in June, we had the exhibit and the performance.

“My Tiger, My Lover,” written by Anne Phelan was as inspired by my drawing, “Mi Tigre, My Lover” series. The play was performed during the opening for my exhibit at the Open Source Gallery’s new space in Brooklyn, New York in June, 2011. The cast included Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah the tiger. It will be directed by Tamara Fisch, with costumes by Sidney Shannon.

Rajah in Anne Phelan’s play was a chatty tiger and spoke to Mabel a lot, acted as he was a man in her life. Morphing between being a man and a tiger, Rajah was a jealous lover, a baby, a demanding and controlling “husband”, and a wild beast all in one. This neurotic man/tiger, Rajah, played by Grigolia- Rosenbaum was amazing. Mabel played by Cotton Wright was equally amazing. Her delicate face and feature took completely different look once she had hold of the whip. Anne’s play showed their relationship as co-depending, controlling, obsessive, yet somewhat loving.  I always thought that their relationship was destructive and loving at the same time, with real physical danger presented by wild animal, which Mabel seemed to crave excessively in her life. I found her life inspiring nevertheless. Mabel Stark was a renowned female tiger trainer in the early 1900s when the circus was in its golden age. Mabel survived many severe mauling by her tigers and had five husbands, but she seemed to have always preferred tigers. This was a woman who dedicated almost her entire life to training tigers for the circus. Pretty courageous choice for career in her time, and even in our time.  View the artwork from “Mi Tigre, My Lover”.

Read Anne Phelan's blog about her play.

Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo 

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki 

Special thanks to both Cotton Wright and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum for their wonderful performance, and Tom Bovo for his beautiful documentation.

Anne Phelan is now trying to make this short-play into the full-length version, and hunting for money to produce it. The play is now called “The Tiger Play”. 

Naoe Suzuki and Dramahound Productions: Mi Tigre, My Lover

Open Source Gallery
306 17th Street, Brooklyn, New York
June 25th- July 9th

Opening Reception: June 25th, 7:00-10:00pm
Play by Dramahound Productions: June 25th, 7:30pm and 8:30pm



Mi Tigre, My Lover, detail
Mineral pigment and graphite on paper.

How exciting! Anne Phelan of Dramahound Productions wrote a short play which was inspired by my series, Mi Tigre, My Lover. And we’re showing our works together at the Open Source Gallery in New York later this month.

My series, Mi Tigre, My Lover is inspired by a life of Mabel Stark, a renowned female tiger trainer in the early 1900s when the circus was in its golden age. Her relationships with tigers and men were complex. Mabel survived many severe mauling by her tigers and had five husbands, but she seemed to have always preferred tigers.

Just a brief background on Mabel’s life. Mabel Stark was a nurse for a short time before she joined the circus as a sideshow dancer in 1909. She married a rich man in Texas, but only a few months later she left to join the Cosmopolitan Amusement Company as a cooch dancer. The following year or so, she was performing cat act with two tigers and a pair of lions for the Al G. Barnes Circus. By the early twenties, her wrestling tiger act became the best-known cat act in the American Circus. Mabel also raised a tiger from a cub—her favorite tiger, Rajah. She bottle-fed him and let him sleep in bed with her. She was mauled several times throughout her career, but kept coming back to the tiger cage every time. Mabel committed suicide on April 21, 1968. According to the show-business newspaper, it was a heart attack and her age was listed as seventy-nine. She always lied about her age and her exact age was actually unknown.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, detail
Mineral pigment and graphite on paper.

Mi Tigre, My Lover at the Open Source Gallery will be a multi-media installation, originated out of my series, and the related play by Anne Phelan of Dramahound Productions. Just a brief correspondence with Anne revealed that she too had pretty intense relationship with Mabel and Rajah when she was working on her play. She said, “I feel like Mabel and Rajah have taken up semi-permanent residence in my head.”  That’s exactly how I felt when I was working on these drawings. I had several images of Mabel from books and internet, as well as many images of tigers on my wall. I kept looking at these images for more than a year before I actually started drawing about them. By then I was very consumed by Mabel and Rajah. During my research on Mabel, I also came across a great book called, “The Final Confession of Mabel Stark,” by Robert Hough, a fictional biography based on Mabel Stark’s life. Hough’s novel provided another interesting layer to the life of this famous female cat tamer.

For me, it was the ‘love affairs’ aspect of Mabel’s relationships with her tigers that fascinated me, as well as her wild career and private life. In Mi Tigre, My Lover, there’s a complex play of love/power relationship between a woman and her tiger. Obsession, control, submission, passion, tension and love filled the space between them.

Dramahound Productions will be performing a play entitled My Tiger, My Lover written by Anne Phelan during the opening reception on June 25th. The cast includes Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah the tiger, both featured in last year’s “Deconstruction.” It will be directed by Tamara Fisch, with costumes by Sidney Shannon. I’m really looking forward to seeing this play!

View the entire series of Mi Tigre, My Lover.

Read Dramahound blog.

Experiment Diary/Drawings: 2

Here are more drawings from Experiment Diary/Drawings series. I was interested in using scientific experiment to show dynamics in relationships; power, emotions, balance/imbalance, and connection/disconnection. Interestingly enough, there are a lot of leakages, machines/equipments-breaking, and toxic chemicals. Now I see why—this was one of my first series after taking a year off from making art during my divorce process. Breakage, water spilling, mending, staining, working, working, working, more spilling, and creating.

8.10.00 Long Trail, VT (dripping sweat on yellow chair)

8.10.00: Unknown location (two yellow chairs, water from the mountains)

8.22.00: San Sebastian, Spain (siesta hours)

9.4.00: Monday, above some land

9.10.00: Madrid, Spain (acting like a 5 years old)

10.15.00: Ashburnham State Forest (dripping yellow chair)

Untitled (wilted plant and poison)

Experiment Diary/DrawingsPen and mineral pigment on mat board or paper
5"x 4" or 4"x 3 ½”
2000

Experiment Diary/Drawings: 1

I’ve been going through a lot of old drawings and sketches in the past year. It started when I had a flood in my basement last March and lost a lot of old drawings. I’ve began to scan some of them to organize these little drawings better. It’s been interesting to revisit these random drawings. This series of drawings is from 2000. I used to carry a small cardboard case that could fit 4”x6” papers, and I carried it with pen and papers inside everywhere I went. I was always drawing whenever I had a chance. On the back of the paper, I often recorded the location, date, and the number of steps, calories and miles from a pocket pedometer that was attached to my body. I usually wrote some poem or texts as well.  I must have been obsessed with record keeping at that time. Not only I kept those records and included on the backside of each drawing, I remember that I also recorded everything I consumed for a day in my journal.  With those texts and records on the back, these little drawings are like diary, and seeing them again after ten years, it is interesting to see how I still use some of the same images as recurring vocabularies in my current work.

These are some of the drawings from the series, Experiment Diary/Drawings.



7.15.00. East Gloucester, MA




7.15.00. Unknown Location




7.16.00. Harvard Sq. Cambridge, MA




7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary (same result)




7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary 2




7.23.00. Newburyport, MA (yellow chair watching the blue screen on TV)




Back of 7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary 2




Back of 7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary




Back of 7.23.00. Newburyport, MA



Experiment Diary/Drawings

Pen and mineral pigment on mat board

5"x 4" each, 2000