thursday, march 10, 1977
pags 12
daily nebrsskan
Human body and fabrics
provide subject for vases
By Janet Lliteras
She uses soft pastel blues for the back
ground of her pottery. She etches a human
figure in clay with orange, yellow and
green. The figure is shaped around the
body and neck of the porcelain vase so
that the body becomes the vase and the
vase becomes the body.
This work is typical of Prill Brackett,
self-taught artist.
Her porcelain vases, plates and oil pastel
drawings are on display until March 13 at
the Haymarket Art Gallery, 1 19 S. 9th St.
Dressed in faded blue overalls, her
sleeves rolled up to the elbow, Brackett
took time out from her UNL art class to
talk about her work.
"I'm dealing with the voluptuous con
tent," she said.
The artist said she uses the "imagery
from the human body and patterning taken
from fabrics," to create her vases and draw
ings. "I like the sensuous feel of porcelain,
graphite, oil and pastel," she added.
Brackett, 34, mother of two boys, has
been involved in many art shows, mainly in
California where she has lived for the past
H years. She gave a one-woman show
called "Porcelain and Paper" in Hay ward,
California.
She came to Nebraska in July 1976
when her husband changed jobs. She began
taking art classes at UNL and said she is
officially classified as an "unclassified grad
student."
"I'm basically a self-taught artist," she
m
added. Raised in Connecticut, she re
ceived a bachelor's degree from Sarah
Lawrence College in New York and a
master's degree from the University of Cali
fornia at Berkeley, but her education was
in social sciences, not art.
"1 felt futile, frustrated. I wanted to do
something more satisfying personally,"
such as counseling. She said her career was
decided on, but when a friend asked her,
"Have you ever thrown a pot before?", she
replied she hadn't.
She said after the first time she worked
with clay she was hooked.
"I jumped into it completely," she said,
her former career was forgotten so she did
not go back to school.
She began working with clay in J 968 at
oerkeky, getting help from her friends and
taking a few evening art courses.
Then she took up drawing in 1973 while
she was in San Francisco.
"I'm in school now to try out things I
didn't do when I was in school before," she
explained.
She added her classes at UNL are mak
ing up the undergraduate credits she never
got.
A'
J.
"" "mart" J
.V P ' JT' Y
Photo by Ktvin Higley
Prilla Brackett takes time out to relax in her home studio with her son Matthew.
and
entertain men
Rape victim relates film story to male experience
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Review by Michael Zaneari
In 1962, Martha Coolidge was raped. It wasn't a sordid
back alley affair, but involved statistically what is a more
common experience. She was raped by someone she knew
in the course of a date.
Coolidge was 16 at the time. v .
Not A Pretty Picture, at Sheldon this week, is her pain
staking reconstruction of the assault and the immediate
after effects.
The film manages to be a very human document, rather
than just a feminist vehicle. Much of the film's power
comes from being able to address the male experience as
well as the female.
Intercutting the fictionalized rape account with a
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Collegiate band plays
The UNL Collegiate band will present a free mid
winter concert tonit in Kimball Recital J la3 at 8.
The concert, directed by Robert Fought, UNL asst.
band director, features the UNL woodwind quintet
Program highlights are: "A Jubilant Overture" by
Alfred Reed, "The Seventh Seal" by Francis McCetH
the quintet will play Newell Long's "Concertino for
Woodwind quintet."
documentation of the actual film making, Coolidge deals
honestly with her own feelings, and those of the two
major roles.
Actress Michele Manenti who in reality also was raped
and actor Jim Carrington, are shown improvising through
scenes, breaking down in the course of a sequence and
discussing their feelings with each other and Coolidge.
New power
By making the film's production part of the story,
Coolidge opens the field to an entirely different type of
power.
The examples are legion. In one particularly violent
scene, Carrington scares himself with his own aggression.
In another he and Manenti fall exhausted into each others
arms, and throughout Coolidge looks on, hand over her
mouth, mixing her personal pain with a quiet obsession.
It is reminiscient of the American Indian tradition of
Sri Lanka dancer
conveys lifestyle,
universe's rhythm
In Eastern Indian tradition, it is taught that sound is
God. Indian music's history is more than 4000 years old.
It has been handed down from "guru" to "shishya"
(teacher to pupil) and recorded in Sanskrit verses. Indian
dance symbolizes the life and death rhythm of the
universe.
The combination of Sri Lanka dance and musk tries
to convey Eastern Buddhist philosophy and lifestyle,
according to Basil Mihiripenna, Sri Lanka dancer, who
performed Wednesday in the Nebraska Union ballroom.
He added that it is the Western tendency to perform,
for the sake of entertainment, but Eastern performing is
connected to the spiritual development of a man.
Dance purifies the body and requires concentration,
which is connected to meditation and the spiritual aspect,
Mihiripenna said.
He performed traditional and modern Sri Lanka dance
and music, along with flutist Anil Mihiripenna (his
brother) and drummer D. R. Pieris.
Costumes are an important expression of Eastern
Philosophy, he said. Each costume is designed for only
one dance. One. traditional costume takes him an hour
to put on.
.Mihiripenna trained five years under the foremost
Kathakali dancer in Kerala State, India. He has toured
China, the USS JU Pakistan, India and the U.S. He won
the Internationa! Dance Festival prize at the Moscow
Festival in 1957.
Mihiripenna directs a dance troupe in India and writes
and produces ballets with his brother's help.
"We are from a musician's family," he said. Although
ballet can be compared to modern ballet, the movements
are different They show tradition and history of -
he said. . -
MSiiripenna slid whj& i-t5 fa "concentrates
about the v?: uance I perform. If anything else comes to
HUTrU it is a failure."
He added that he is confident he will not be disturbed
while dancing, which helps lead to spiritual enlightenment.
exorcising pain from a past event, by recreating it.
Carrington's self examination, and reflections on the
adolescent experience is sometimes abrasive, and
sometimes enveloping, something that can be said about
the entire film. , .
It is a very real movie, so real in fact, that there is an
urge to talk to Coolidge at length about it f
AftAr cppStm fhf film I mAp attmnte at oaUina hjtr
with no prepared questions or no direction really, just
a desire to perhaps complete the cycle, to be assured that
it indeed was a real story.
The frustration that came with being unable to reach
her initially was soothed later when I reached her in LA.
Real Film
She indicated her initial fear was that it would be "just
another story" and said that she meant the film to be very
real.
Although there are moments of awkward dialogue and
some crude acting, she achieves that, if not by straight
forward documentation, by subliminal emotional power.
In dealing with the after effects of the rape, Coolidge
admits she isn't able to have a completely trusting
relationship with a man.
In the story, she worries about pregnancy and tries
to deal with the ignorance of the other women in her
dormitory who write "whore" on her door and spit on
her. Continued on p. 13
Graduate student
wins opera award
Vaughn Fritts, a UNL graduate student, went to
Minneapolis, last month, sang "Come dal del precipita"
and came back $100 richer.
He attended the Upper Midwest Regional Metropoli
tan Opera auditions and won the Mr. Austin D. Ditzler
award.
Fritts, 23 of Omaha, is a native of Lincoln. He is work
ing towards his master of music degree. Fritts said he
entered the contest to get experience. He wants to be a
performer.
"It's such an ify thing," he said. "Performance is some
thing you can't expect to do; It's something you hope will
happen."
It takes persistence, he said and lucky breaks. Entering
contests gives him experience, he explained. He has com
peted two years at the regional level. He said he has sung
in the UNL operas for the past five years.
Fritts said he wants to sing with a small opera company
after graduation to get more experience and eventually
sing in one of the larger companies such as the Nrs -YfirV
Qty Center Opera Co. Iur
"It's really hard to v . A .
tilioa is stiff "- tcd, he said. "The compe-
S he can't make it as a performer he will be content to
teach music at the university level, Fritts said.
"I'm in a performing art," he explained. "When the
opportunity to better yourself comes along, you go ahead
and do it. The experience won't go to waste and can al
ways be used in teaching."
As for his $100 prize, "I've already spent it," he said,
"and I haven't even received the check yet." He bought a
new carburetor for his car.