Limelight lost in
new generation
of music
lovers
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
“Though the songwriters write most of the songs I
do... it’s clear that no one will ever sing them quite the
way I do.”
It’s not bragging if it’s true.
And when those words come out of the mouth of
folk-singing legend Joan Baez, nod your head in
agreement
Those lyrics came in 1977 in the song “A Heartfelt
Line orTWo.”
This was long after Baez played Woodstock, long
after she served as the “queen of folk,” long after her
romantic link with the folk king Bob Dylan.
This was long after she marched die streets with
Martin Luther King Jr., long after she appeared on the
cover of Time magazine and long after she dazzled
everyone with her performance at the Newport Folk
Festival at the age of 18.
Since that festival in 1959, she’s been an icon in
folk music; she will treat her Lincoln fans with a con
cert tonight at the lied Center for Performing Arts.
From her rise
Performance Preview
to folk fame at
Newport to the
creation of her lat
est CD, “Gone
from Danger,”
Baez has always
had a knack for
the limelight.
“She estab
lished herself
when folk was re
emerging and
became the queen
of folk, the female
counterpart to what Bob Dylan was,” UNL music pro
fessor Tom Larson said.
Scott Anderson, also a UNL music professor and
lecturer, said it’s easy to figure out why Baez is still
such a strong figure in the
music world
after
more than 40 years.
“She has a great voice, and she makes very good
choices about what she sings,” Anderson said.
Anderson said Baez often doesn’t write her own
songs, which has kept her from gaining the same larg
er-than-life reverence accompanied with Bob Dylan.
In an unscientific survey of nearly 50 UNL stu
dents, only half recognized the name Joan Baez, and
many that did recognize her name couldn’t cite a Baez
song or even categorize her within the genre of folk
music. Those same people all recognized Dylan’s
name, and most named a few songs that he has writ
ten and even hummed a few bars.
“Dylan was a songwriter. He is widely recognized
as changing the course of music history the same way
The Beatles are,” Anderson said. “Baez often sang
handed-down music, which is actually the true defi
nition of folk music, but in the 1960s it became
unfashionable to become a cover artist”
Baez also isn’t straight off of MTV, which makes
her unknown to a large portion of young music fans.
“Joan Baez doesn’t have the criteria to be a mod
ern-day star,” Larson said. "She doesn’t dance and
doesn’t have some funky beats in the background.”
Yet Dylan and Baez’s following has grown consid
erably over the years, Anderson said.
“There’s this feeling that Dylan was this huge star
and that Baez was this huge star, but in retrospect they
were against the grain in die 60s. 1116/10 much bigger
now.”
Baez had too much singing talent to go unnoticed,
said Randy Snyder, also a professor at UNL who
teaches a history of rock ’n’ roll class.
And if an artist is going to stay on the scene for 40
years, singingfolk is one ofthe rare genres where it can
be accomplished.
“Folk music doesn’t sell at the same level pop
music does,” Snyder said. “But it is specified to a cer
tain loyal clientele."
Folk music touches the people the way other
styles of music does not, Larson said.
“Folk music has endured because of the lyrics and
the message,” he said. "Typically, it’s about change
and making things better. It has social relevance to
people.
"It’s not like some punk band that sings 1 hate you.
I hate me.’ It’s catchy for a while, but then you grow
up.”
But Anderson said it should not be a concern that
college students don't recognize Baez’s name.
"It doesn’t concern me that they don’t know her
music,” Anderson said of his music students. “It does
concern me if I play the good stuff
and they can’t relate to
the scenario or the
mood.”
Two-artist show incorporates meeting of mediums
BY EMILY PYEATT
The University Place Art Center
hopes to convey a precise idea
through two different mediums this
month.
The name of the art center’s new
exhibit for October is complementary
to the artwork displayed. “Precise
Decisions” offers a glimpse into the
precision utilized in diverse art medi
ums.
Oil paintings, watercolors and
drawings by Charles Novich, an
Omaha artist, and ceramics by
Adenna Kravet from Lincoln will make
up the exhibit.
Charles Novich’s art is a mini-ret
rospective of a body of work that is
fueled by his fascination with the
human figure.
While at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, Novich studied
painting and ceramics but received his
inspiration to paint from mentor and
artist Steve Roberts.
Roberts reinforced in Novich that
“paintings can still be considered art if
they are painted realistically,” Novich
said.
Novich began with sketches of the
human figure.
“But die way I work is painstaking;
it takes so long,” Novich said.
Novich then began photographing
his models to serve as references for
his paintings and to question what he
considered quality composition.
“This led to a more spontaneous
style allowing me to refine my ability
to render die figure,” Novich said.
Novich’s interest in the human fig
ure started about two years ago.
“The figure is something in human
psyche that is viewed in terms of beau
ty and of physical being and life,”
Gallery Preview
Precise Decisions]
Novich said.
Novich’s works in “Precise
Decisions" are a more exact depiction
of form and composition, said Gayle
Andres, executive director of the
University Place Art Center.
“Novich's work seems so deliber
ate. He uses such wonderful precision
and is so sensitive with his intent,”
Andres said.
Kravet’s work illustrates the notion
of surface meeting form, she said.
Kravet utilizes various techniques
within the ceramic medium for sur
faces and sculpture.
Kravet said she thinks her work is
about function and the celebration of
a beautiful, handmade object.
“Her work is sensual and precise
and is controlled ceramic work,”
Andres said. “She creates the most
beautiful coffee cups that will be on
sale.”
While diverse artistic mediums are
offered in the "Precise Decisions” exhi
bition, the show demonstrates how
different forms of art can appeal aes
thetically to the senses of a variety of
people.
---- _____
Courtesy photos
TOP: Tigure # T by C. Novich, watercolor BELOW:"Untitled" by Adenna Kravet
“The reason the two artists’ work
are shown together is that they share a
fluid sort of motion that is still so pre
cise and planned even though their
mediums are so completely different,”
Andres said. “Their sensitivities are
similar - there is no line or color that is
placed without thought.”
A consciousness conveyed in an
aesthetically beautiful manner is
shared between the artists, Andres
said.
The University Place Art Center’s
goal to actively represent local artists
and promote visual-arts education
will be enhanced by “Precise
Decisions.”
The exhibit will be accompanied
by artist discussions at 6:30 p.m. on
Friday, and hands-on art activities will
be offered for children from 5:30-6:30.
The exhibit will run through OcL 25.
Courtesy photo
"Gucci," by Kirk Pederson, mixed media
Runways
inspiration
for exhibit
■ Nebraska native Kirk Pederson explores the
American fashion trends in a Haydon Gallery
exhibit this month.
BY MELANIE MENSCH
As fashionably frenzied as a New York City run
way, Kirk Pederson’s abstract paintings take a too
close-for-comfort view of chic
popular culture.
Pederson, inspired by fashion
advertisements, examines com
mercialism’s extravagance and
excess by reducing images to pure
color and shape.
The exhibit is on display at the
Haydon Gallery, 335 N. 8th St.,
until Oct. 21. The public is invited
to attend an opening reception
Friday from 7 to 9 p.m.
Teliza Rodriguez, the Haydon
director, said Pederson’s paintings
separated the elements of fashion
ads.
“His art reminds me of New
York buildings, covered with lay
ers of posters, and as you pass by
them, it blurs so all you see are col
ors and shapes,” she said.
Pederson, a Nebraska native,
previously concentrated on “urban landscapes,”
painting close-up views of street pavement, aban
doned cars and deteriorating tiled floors.
Pederson has shifted his focus to the fashion
trends of American culture.
“His art
reminds
me of
New York
buildings
, covered
with
layers of
posters
Teliza
Rodriguez
Haydon
director
Layering
pages from
Cosmopolitan
magazine and
pieces of canvas,
Pederson soaks
each painting
with thick
acrylic colors
like burnt reds,
muted blues and
tawny yellows.
These drips
and drabs of
color disguise
frayed sections
of tyvek, a type of coated paper similar to canvas,
which protrudes haphazardly off the sides.
Pederson named some of his works after fash
ion’s leading brands, like Gucci, DKNY and Fendi, to
continue his focus on the essence of commercial
ism rather than specific images.
Gallery Preview
An arr proiessor ai mi. san Aniomo college in
California, Pederson received his bachelor's of arts
degree from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont.
He then studied at San Francisco State University
and Claremont Graduate University in California
for his master’s degree.
Bob Therien, an art professor who taught
Pederson at Midland in the 1970s, said Pederson
began painting, as all art students do, in realism.
“(Pederson’s) specific subject is grounded in
reality, but then it deviates from that, so you still see
some of its realistic properties, but he brings varia
tions in color and brushstrokes,” Therien said. “It’s
juicily painted.”
Norman Geske, former director of the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery, had collaborated with
Pederson on his exhibits at the gallery.
“He’s extremely gifted,” Geske said. “He’s a
native Nebraskan working today who has estab
lished his work on the public scene.”
With more than 26 individual exhibitions to his
name, Pederson also has pieces in public collec
tions at places such as the Sheldon, the Albrecht
Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Mo., and
Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe.
Whether or not Pederson’s abstraction of the
fashion industry speaks to gallery viewers,
Rodriguez said she enjoyed all reactions to his art.
"I like people to come in and have an opinion,”
she said. “Any comment, either positive or negative,
is good. It tells me that they're looking.”