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Arts

St. John artist presents a flute fest

The New Year brings the a special event to Elaine Estern's regular weekly wine-and-music gallery receptions.

Flutes

Tonight, starting at 5:30 p.m., Rich Greengold and Katha Riccardi of St. John Flutes will perform.  They will be joined by St. John artist Michael Banzhaf and Sue Grimm of New York.

This is the second time the quartet has performed together at Coconut Coast Studios, just up the road from Gallows Point overlooking Frank Bay.  Click here for a map.

They will be playing at the Sunset cocktail party Estern hosts each Wednesday. "Enjoy live music as the sun dips below the sky," she said. "This will be a performance you won’t want to miss!"

Artist Lisa Etre profiled

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Longtime St. Johnian Lisa Etre has been painting for decades.  As a co-founder of the Pink Papaya gift shop in Cruz Bay, her bright, island-inspired paintings, prints, place mats and coasters went to the states in  many a suitcase. 

Now, she’s moved on from supplying the shop, but she continues to create new works – which you can see on her web site (http://www.lisaetre.com).  In an interview with the with the St. John Source, she described how she’s also moving into new media, including handmade books, jewelry and masks.

(Read the Source story here.)

Inner Visions tour, reggae in the USA

Iv The Christmas City is going to get a dose of rhythm Thursday as St. John's premier reggae band, Inner Visions, takes the stage at Noon, part of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania's week-long Musikfest.

"This huge festival is the bomb!," the band wrote on their Facebook page. "Had (us) a few years back, for a day, and requested us back for two years straight! By popular demand!"

Meanwhile, the band's annual summer tour has had the group at the Club Helsinki in the Berkshire mountains, at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ, and Crosstown Station in Kansas City, Mo.

The band really liked the Asbury Park date, playing with other groups. "Was great to hear Dub Proof and Randomtest reggae bands do their thing too! Taking a few hours of rest before heading Upstate to Hudson NY at Club Helsinki. Should be a continuation of the madness we have been accustomed to with the awesome vibes there."

The picture above is from the group's Long Beach Island, NJ date – body surfing!

  • Inner Visions on Facebook, here
  • Bethlehem's Musikfest, here

St. John: “Shake, Shake It, Bend Over”

The big St. John Festival parade drew hundreds of colorfully-outfitted marchers and performers PLUS the video makers from Palm Tree TV. 

Lyrics like “Shake, Shake It” and “Hands Up! Hands Up!” invigorated the more demonstrative marchers in what was a morning full of music, laughter and good fun.  This video by the Palm Tree Charters people lasts about eight minutes and has a thoroughly-St. Johnian music track.

You can see many more St. John videos from Palm Tree on its YouTube Channel here.

Quartet of artists’ show

The Michael Banzhaf Gallery in Cruz Bay is featuring the work of four island painters this month. 

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Kat Sowa has been on the island for nearly 14 years and has become well known was the Resident Artist at Caneel Bay.  Her Web site is http://www.katsowa.com/. 

Joan Farenkopf, when she's not creating art on the island, makes a home in North Carolina where she is a yoga therapist.

Bente Hirsch, has worked with Holiday Homes Real Estate and has a rental villa http://www.bentesfancy.com/. She is showing some of her watercolors.

Andrea Leland, a pastel artist, is also an accomplished film and video director and producer.

(Photograph of Banzhaf and the artists, courtesy of Bob Schlesinger of TropicalFocus.com

Banzhaf Gallery has two exhibitions

Lily-Pad-Necklace-600w  The centerpiece at Michael Banzhaf's gallery this month is his own work.  An example of the goldsmith's art is "Lily Pad," an 18 karat gold necklace which carries a small diamond on each "Pad."

Monica-rios_128_bigBesides his own work, Banzhaf is also featuring the paintings of Monica Rios. Her work is inspired by dreams and tropical scenery and often includes cats. So it's not surprising that 10% of the proceeds of the sale of her work at the Cruz Bay gallery will be donated to the St. John Animal Care Center.

Ready for early holiday shopping?

Calendar While merchants on the mainland are just hoping to get a decent Back to School season, Elaine Estern is already gearing up for Christmas.  She’s taking pre-orders for her 2010 Calendar, and built interest by running a contest to name the item.

Calendar_2 There were several winners who offered “St. John Citizens,” the chosen entry.  Estern said she’ll give autographed copies of the calendar to them: Jim and Annette Harper and Sandy Dean. But rather than people of St. John, the "Citizens" depicted are animals: fish, peacocks, dogs, cats, and various beautiful birds. Each of the monthly pages feature one of Estern’s colorful, sometimes whimsical, and always entertaining watercolors.

You can see this year’s art selections at http://www.coconutcoaststudios.com/Site/Calendar.html.

Estern plans to start shipping calendars in September.

Let’s hear it for the girls

I used to live in Chicago, where they DO say, “Vote early. Vote often.” 

Well, in this case, it’s nearly the last minute, but, if you’re a VI resident you can support two St. Johnians whose photographs are finalists in the Territory’s “Share My USVI” competition, sponsored by the Department of Tourism.  Deadline for voting is Sunday, May 17.

Etre Lisa Etre, a longtime resident multi-media artist, is one of he island’s finalists, and Julia Pergolizzi from East End is the second.

Lisa’s entry is “Keepin’ de Beat” in the Culture and Heritage category. 

Bananaquits Julia’s contribution is a picture of bananaquits at feeding time.

“Julia’s become interested in photography and took a bunch of pictures … and is now a finalist in her age group (ages 11-13),” wrote Louise, her mother. “She’s so excited about it.”

The rules of the contest say only legal VI residents can vote, and only people who are eligible to vote can see the finalist photos.  But anybody can go to www.sharemyusvi.com and see many of the contest’s entries.

Rutnik exhibits at New York show

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The International Caribbean Art Fair wrapped up its second annual exhibition and sale Sunday.

The three-day expo featured artworks by Caribbean artists—either living in or outside of the Caribbean islands. As many as 40 galleries and artists representing the best in Caribbean art were exhibiting, including St. John’s Janet Cook Rutnik.

The ICAF venue was The Tunnel in the Chelsea gallery district of Manhattan.  It spans a city block and boasts 22,000 square feet of space.  The Fair's Web site is http://icafair.com/attendees/index.html

One of the sponsors of the international fair was Virgin Voices, a tourist publication for the Virgin Islands.

The Masters, St. John style

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The Artists Association of St. John debuted its third annual "Replicating the Masters" event.  The theme is to have local artists try their hand at painting in the style of the great masters, like Monet and Chagall. The exhibition opened this week with dozens of pieces of art on display and an auction at the Association’s gallery in the Lumberyard. The show is scheduled to continue until Feb. 10.

Web site: http://www.stjohnarts.org/