Interview: Tom Patterson

Job: I'm an actor.

Weren't you just in Sarasota, FL? What for?

Yeah, I was down in Florida for about three months. Kate Alexander, who is the Associate Director for Florida Studio Theatre, in FST’s production of Shotgun , had cast me.

First I guess I should tell you a little bit about what was happening with the play. Shotgun is a new work by John Biguenet and was picked up by the National New Play Network.

The NNPN is a sort of alliance of regional theaters who develop new work, and FST was one of three member theaters to pick up Shotgun . All three get credit in a "rolling world premiere" which, in theory, is to help promote new plays. All of this is to say I owe everyone involved a great deal because it led to me getting a job.

Shotgun itself about two families in the months immediately following Hurricane Katrina, one black and one white.

When the play opens, my mom has died. My father and I are moving into half of a shotgun apartment, hence the play's title. From there, you can sort of imagine the crucible. You have five characters, are wounded and sort of lost, and most not entirely comfortable with one another.

Image to the right, below - Tom Patterson as "Eugene" (left) with William Peden as "Beau" in National New Play Network rolling world premiere of "Shotgun" at Florida Studio Theatre

The play is about New Orleans, clearly, but it’s also about people living with death, which is something we all have to do. That said, I'm proud that it can remind audience that New Orleans isn't recovered. It's in the process of recovering and has been abandoned by the government and the collective American conscious.

You went to Tisch. What a privilege!

Well, I went to Tisch because it was in New York and part of NYU. I really didn't look at it beyond that.

Heh. Tisch was five years ago. I went to the undergraduate drama program which... has a lot of faults. I liked some of my teachers. Vicki Hart and Per Brahe were very influential. As far as professional advantages there's a lot more schools that offer a better "in" as far as the industry is concerned.

I received some good training, but I felt the program, as a whole, is unfocused. I've been out for a little while, and while I think there are programs that might serve you by getting you in the room, ultimately its up to you to bring the goods. You can look up any alumni list and see there's people who work and people who don't. A program can be a boost, but it won't give you jobs. Man, school was a while ago. It's not really something that I think back on or try to reason out. When I auditioned, I think I came in with the idea that I'd be famous a year after graduation. Now, I want a Tony.

It's not that I don't look back, it's just that I don't think where I went to college has a massive influence in my current career or lack thereof. NYU didn't grant me a "launch" and I feel everything I have I've hustled for.

Coming Up: The Colour Palette @ Tin Can Alehouse

Be there! It's going to be hot. I have known Dylan forever and his watercolors are illustrative and charming. Also look out for their interviews here on Balise, coming soon! Look after the jump for a piece from each artist!

Exhibition Review: Josue Castro and Cynthia Colis of Jett Gallery

Images used are for educational purposes. Castro's work is from Josue Fine Arts blog, and Colis' work is from her Facebook page.

Starting Saturday evening on 12th of June, Josue Castro and Cynthia Colis, represented artists of the Jett Gallery in Little Italy, San Diego, rotated in some strong pieces for their HOBNOB event. Recurring mainstays of this gallery, Castro and Colis’ pieces are not presented as a group exhibition, and are to be considered apart from each other in theme and motif. Castro presents geometric forms referencing Zapotec cosmology, and Colis presents stylized portraiture, a stylized and more graphic evolution from her “Kisses” series which she attributes to her art journey with Joze Ciuha, in vivid colors and suggestive titling.

Exhibition Review: “NewAbstract Paintings” Victor Rodriguez at Scott White Contemporary Art

Connecting the Dots of Things

All images used for educational purposes only, the artwork of Victor Rodriguez shot by Jeff Lancaster for Jett Gallery. Image to the left is "NewAbstract (Universal)."

Theatrical, vivid, sensationalist... Rodriguez' work is to be viewed with the crawling eye of a paparazzo. The SWCA having been my first introduction to Victor Rodriguez, it was perhaps serendipitous that I spoke with Kathleen Crain, Assistant Director there. In the middle of raving about the work, I asked if there was an artist’s statement. Not that it is necessary, but I like hearing artists articulate their ideas most especially when I like the art. I said, “I feel like I am projecting into this my own artistic memories and context.” She responded that it is what the artist wanted people to do, to interpret the information in their own way. I considered that a direct invitation.

Cinema Review: “Babies”

This documentary chronicling human life from birth to walking for four children is an independent darling lately, and it merits that immediate classicality! A simple film with no twists and largely predictable, the strength of it is not drama, but its sense of wonderment. Primal nature is depicted with elegance and dignity. You might have a momentary social cringe when you see graphic scenes of defecation and urination, but somehow, knowing the film is an art documentary about “Babies” helps you walk into those scenes with sincere amazement for life at its most basic. Even at its most basic, life is immediately complex and a vast buffet of experiences for these children, and for us by proxy.

A rare achievement, it is

Finally finished... where is this heading?...

birdbath (desiccated chinoiserie), acrylic with silvery and golden dust, 2010 

Please note that the color, in particular the blue, has been altered slightly to compensate for the blowout of the flash on the metallic sheen.

"Dexter," "V," "The Little Mermaid," human emotions, domesticity.

"There are fewer things harder to bear than remorse. ...It's what separates us from the animals." - Trinity Killer, Dexter (“Road Kill”*)

When Trinity said that, naturally he didn’t really know what he was talking about. He was a cold-blooded serial killer, completely devoid of humanity. Not all killers are cold-blooded by design. But for Trinity, the ritual of the kill and what it stands for to him completely consumed the original emotional impetus that drove the first killings. The habit of murder is what makes a killer a serial killer. And though suffering and emptiness, two humanistic experiences, may lay the foundation--it is the desensitization to remorse that peels back the moral binding that would usually constrict a citizen. To liken this to the animals, though… is that a speciesist sentiment?

There is still a school of thought, unfortunately a prevalent one, which casts doubt on animals’ ability to feel