JAVA Nov 19

284 •NOV 2019
GINO
BELASSEN
MERRYN ALAKA & MIGUEL MONZON • MEDIO COMPLETO • GRACE ROLLAND

Opening
November 8
Step inside one of Africa’s most
powerful and enduring art forms
In partnership with
Presenting sponsor
MIM.org | Open Daily 9 a.m.–5 p.m. | 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix

David Hockney’s Yosemite
David Hockney, Yosemite I, October 16th 2011
iPad drawing printed on four sheets of paper (38 7/8 x 34 7/8” each), mounted on four sheets of Dibond. Edition 1 of 12,
77 3/4 x 69 3/4” overall. © David Hockney, Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt
Collection The David Hockney Foundation

Masters of California Basketry
Experience the work of one of the World’s greatest
living artists together with the Masters of California Basketry
only at the Heard Museum
FOR A LIMITED TIME | OCTOBER 28, 2019 – APRIL 5, 2020
Heard.org/Hockney
Carrie Bethel, Mono Lake Paiute, 1898-1974
Bowl basket, 1956. 13 x 25 inches. Split sedge root, dyed bracken fern root, split winter redbud
shoots, willow shoots. Collection of Stevia Thompson.
Photo Credit: Craig Smith, Heard Museum.

CONTENTS
8
12
22
30
34
FEATURES
Cover: Gino Belassen
Photo by: Susan Allred Prosser
8 12 22
34
SHERRI & GINO BELASSEN
The Mother & Son Duo Behind
Belhaus Gallery
By Susan Allred Prosser
MERRYN ALAKA AND MIGUEL
MONZÓN
Modified Arts Turns 20 and Looks Forward
By Rembrandt Quiballo
CHANGING WINDS
Photographer, Stylist, Creative Director:
Rachel Callahan
ALL OF US TOGETHER
Art, Water, Community, and Culture
By Morgan Moore
GRACE ROLLAND
Rising Sun Daughter
By Tom Reardon
COLUMNS
7
16
20
38
40
BUZZ
November Together
By Robert Sentinery
ARTS
Jennifer McCabe
Curating Counter-Landscapes at SMoCA
By Grant Vetter
Brian Boner
American Playground
By Jenna Duncan
FOOD FETISH
Through the Doors of Persepshen
By Sloane Burwell
GIRL ON FARMER
Showtime
By Celia Beresford
NIGHT GALLERY
Photos by Robert Sentinery
JAVA MAGAZINE
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Robert Sentinery
ART DIRECTOR
Victor Vasquez
ARTS EDITOR
Rembrandt Quiballo
FOOD EDITOR
Sloane Burwell
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Jenna Duncan
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Celia Beresford
Mikey Foster Estes
Kevin Hanlon
Morgan Moore
Ashley Naftule
John Perovich
Susan Allred Prosser
Tom Reardon
Grant Vetter
Justen Siyuan Waterhouse
PROOFREADER
Patricia Sanders
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Rachel Callahan
Enrique Garcia
Johnny Jaffe
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6 JAVA
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BUZZ
NOVEMBER TOGETHER
By Robert Sentinery
This month, we delve into the idea of collaboration, and how working together
can create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. On Roosevelt Row,
Modified Arts has been a longstanding staple. Established as a music venue
and creative space in the late ’90s by avid localist Kimber Lanning, Modified
was at the forefront of the First Friday boom that brought art-hungry crowds
downtown. Now, as the space turns 20, having survived the twists and turns of
the marketplace, a new gallerist duo, appointed by Lanning, is bringing a fresh
perspective to the space.
Merryn Alaka and Miguel Monzón are both recent art school graduates. They
come from diverse backgrounds. Alaka’s father was born in Nigeria and was
attending pharmacy school in Indianapolis when he met and married her mother.
Monzón is a first-generation American, born to Mexican immigrant parents,
who spent his formative years here in the Valley. Together, Alaka and Monzón
bring unique, multifaceted perspective to Modified Arts, curating shows that are
extremely relevant to our current state of culture (see “Merryn Alaka and Miguel
Monzón: Modified Arts Turns 20 and Looks Forward,” p. 12).
Another duo – the mother and son team of Sherri and Gino Belassen – is shaking
up the art scene on Grand Avenue. Their Belhaus Gallery (a fusion of their last name
with “Bauhaus,” the venerable German design school/movement) shows work by local
and international artists, including their own. It’s also a place to grab an excellent
espresso drink, whenever the gallery’s distinctive roll-up garage door is open.
Sherri has been a full-time artist for decades, having hustled in the studio
while raising her two boys as a single mother. When a sports injury got Gino
thinking about a different career track than what was expected (his dad is a
sports agent), Sherri was one-hundred-percent supportive of his turn to art.
Gino’s recent painting show at Shortcut Gallery was a smash success, attended
by a who’s-who of the local creative scene (see “Sherri and Gino Belassen: The
Mother & Son Duo Behind Belhaus Gallery,” p. 8).
Water is the lifeblood of our arid desert city. In 2018, the Arizona Community
Foundation launched the Water Public Art Challenge, a competition calling for
projects that explored ancient water systems developed by the “Hohokam”
people. One of the most impressive entries was a collaboration between
Audubon Arizona, the Huhugam Heritage Center (serving the contemporary
tribes descended from the “Hohokam”), and a local artist collective called Medio
Completo, composed primarily of Latinx creatives.
These three groups joined forces under the moniker Vesich eth ve:m, which
translates to “all of us together,” to produce a multimedia immersive art
experience titled We Are Still Here. Composed of soundscapes, sculptures,
augmented-reality murals, film projections, bookmaking, and performance, it
tells stories of Huhugam history, woven together with the community’s continued
connection to the river. We Are Still Here culminates in a one-night-only
performance on Saturday, November 16, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Nina Mason
Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center (see “All of Us Together:
Art, Water, Community, and Culture,” p. 30).

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Photo: Susan Allred Prosser

Sherri Belassen greets visitors to her gallery and studio with a warm smile
and a large, loping Weimaraner named Bizou. Her son Gino, just a few steps
behind, has an equally engaging smile.
The morning sun is pouring in through the open garage door at Belhaus Gallery,
where a select group of minimalist contemporary paintings hang in a space custombuilt
to house the art and a gleaming espresso machine. The machine is topped by a
collection of espresso and coffee cups sourced from Scandinavia.
Artists’ work from all over the globe – from New York to London to Poland then back
around to Los Angeles and Phoenix – complete the cosmopolitan vibe at Belhaus. Even
the gallery’s name is a mashup of the owners’ last name and the Bauhaus art movement.
As we pass behind the espresso machine to duck into a bright, open space containing
two studios, Sherri offers a coffee and waves her hand. “This is where we work,” she
says. “The coffee and the gallery [up front] help form a sense of community.”
“It works very well, too,” Gino adds. “We have people drive in from Chandler, all
around really, to come hang out in the gallery and drink Fio’s coffee.”
Fio is Anthony Fiorelli, the owner of Caffio Espresso, which operates from Belhaus
during gallery hours (Thursday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) and at various markets
and private events from the back of a Vespa Apé truck. “We couldn’t make it here
without Fio,” Gino continues. “When he’s here, the gallery is open and we don’t
have to worry about anything. We can take care of our own work.”
For Gino, that work is varied and wide ranging. He studied design and advertising
before earning a BFA from Chapman University in Orange County. He’s working with
a friend on building BonesFC (Bones Football Collective), where soccer fandom,
apparel, and art meet.
Gino’s paintings are minimalist contemporary, like the artists Belhaus represents.
“We want to make sure that it all works well together. It has to blend well. All of
our work, mine, my mom’s, and our artists’, can hang together cohesively,” he said.
But an art career wasn’t Gino’s original plan. As a soccer player at Arcadia High, Gino
grew up thinking he’d work in sports. “I was very lucky to play with a creative coach
who encouraged me to think improvisationally on the field. I learned quick thinking
and had an internal understanding of the game,” he says.
“I thought both the boys might be sports agents like their dad,” Sherri said. But that
wasn’t to be. An injury in high school sidelined Gino for two years, so he started
thinking about what to do while he waited to get back on the field.
“I always saw my mom painting, and I saw how hard she worked to make her art
and to support us,” he says. “During that two years [spent recuperating], I started
thinking about how to channel my creativity into painting.”
As a single mother with two boys to support, Sherri never thought about doing
anything other than making and selling her art. She didn’t see any reason why Gino
should do anything else, either. Sherri had always encouraged him to paint as a
child, and Gino didn’t think that being an artist was out of the ordinary.
“I’m so lucky,” he says. “I have a lot of friends who want to be artists, and they
have to get permission from their parents to study art. It’s always a negotiation with
them. My mom just said, ‘Yeah, go be an artist.’”
Sherri immediately agrees. “I told him to go paint. If that’s what you want, go and paint.”
But she also passed down some practical wisdom from her own mother. “Mom
always used to say that if anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. I’ve always
applied that to my life and to my art,” she says.
Photo: Lorenzo Belassen, @lorenzobelassen
She came by those heartland values honestly. Sherri was raised in Indiana, and
earned a BFA in painting from Indiana University in Bloomington. While she was
in college, her parents bought the town of Tortilla Flat, so she came to Arizona
after graduation. She soon met a gallerist from Dallas who offered to represent
her. That allowed her to get a studio in downtown Phoenix. So for her, finding
studio space in the Bragg Pie Factory building is a return to her artistic roots.
“I’ve come full circle by working down here again,” she says.
Sherri rented the space three years ago during a downsizing period. She wanted a
studio that wasn’t in her now-smaller home. The impetus for creating the gallery
came from Gino. After college, he applied to an art fair in Australia. The notice
that he’d been accepted prompted him to complete about 20 pieces in two and
half months. He sold 13 pieces at the fair and realized that he had what it took to
create and sell his work.
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Photo: Cole Seefus, @cseef
When he returned to the States, Gino and Sherri put their heads together to decide
where he should head next. “Obviously, I thought about New York,” he said.
“He could have gone nearly anywhere,” Sherri chimes in. “We have family in Paris,
Spain, Copenhagen. There were so many possibilities.” Gino takes up the story
again. “But I kept coming back to Phoenix and looking around. This is home. I grew
up here. I realized that I wanted to stay.”
So one evening while he was visiting Sherri at her new studio, he looked around at
all the space, then filled with overflow from her downsizing. “I realized that there’s
enough space here for two studios. And so I started helping Mom get rid of all that
extra stuff,” he said.
Soon the two Belassens were living and working together. They both say it’s a great
situation for them. In one way, ironing out their differences in work style led to
creating the gallery. Sherri likes long hours of solitude while she works. But Gino
loves being around people and making new friends. He quickly realized that the
growing crowds around the other galleries on Grand Avenue presented a chance to
build the community he’d wanted to find back when he was exploring moving to a
larger city with more opportunities for artists.
“I realized that we could be a part of building that culture right here. I want
that culture, and this is home, so why not figure out how to create the culture I
want?” But first he had to find a way to integrate the space and pull traffic from
Grand Avenue. Belhaus is located on McKinley, around the corner from the main
foot traffic on First and Third Fridays. So they built a couple of movable walls to
separate the gallery from their studios. Gino also knew that he wanted to bring in
an expert to run the coffee shop that he hoped would draw people in. So he went
on Instagram and looked for what he needed.
“I found Fio pretty quickly and Instagram-messaged him. He showed up here
within an hour. Before he left, we all felt like family,” he said.
“Yes,” laughed Sherri. “I call him my third kid.” To draw people in from the street,
Gino and Sherri installed strip LED lighting around the garage door. You can see
the bright lights from Grand Avenue when the gallery is open, but the lighting has
another, more community-oriented purpose.
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Photo: Cole Seefus, @cseef
“People come and take selfies when the garage door is down,” Gino said, showing
Instagram pictures of kids framed against the door after dark. They intentionally
installed the light switch outside the building so people could use the lighting to take
their photos. “We love it when people use the gallery as a backdrop,” Sherri said. She
just wants everybody to remember to turn the lights back off when they’re done.
The Belassens say they weren’t especially prescient about the center of gravity
that was building in the Grand Avenue art scene. But they feel fortunate to be a
part of the community there. The gallery will have extended hours (10 a.m. to 8
p.m.) for the Grand Avenue Festival on November 9.
They’re getting ready for a show set to open on December 6, called “Bad
Neighborhood.” Caffio Espresso will be open, and they’ll have live music outside.
The show will feature their own work, plus that of Preston Paperboy, one of
their represented artists. “We’re still deciding who else to include,” said Gino.
“The name of the show and the names of the pieces we’re choosing are a little
tweak for some people who might still have the idea that artists only work in bad
parts of town.”
That couldn’t be further from reality, says Sherri. She points out that while
it’s true that artists have always been at the forefront of gentrification of the
neighborhoods they live in, Grand Avenue has changed in the three years that
she’s been there. There are more galleries and more coffee shops and restaurants
opening all the time.
The building across McKinley from the gallery has been vacant for years, Gino
said. But it recently sold to someone who’d been watching the neighborhood
become more commercial.
“He told us that he felt comfortable buying that building by seeing us succeed. I
feel really good about that,” he said.
And he should. Belhaus Gallery is helping to create a sense of culture that the
Belassens want to live and work in.
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Merryn Alaka and Miguel Monzón
Modified Arts Turns 20 and Looks Forward
By Rembrandt Quiballo
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Photo: Rembrandt Quiballo

Miguel Monzón, “Searching” 2019
As Roosevelt Row undergoes drastic
changes, Modified Arts has been a bedrock,
although not without going through its
own evolution. Founded by longtime
community leader Kimber Lanning, it embodies the
spirit of downtown Phoenix in its ability to persevere
and adapt.
Modified Arts started out as a music and
performance venue in 1999 and transitioned to an
art gallery in 2010. Local First Arizona and its offices
took residence in the space in 2013, allowing the
gallery to be open full time. In 2018, it went through
renovations that would define the storefront gallery
as what it is now.
Through it all, Modified Arts has shown some of the
best contemporary art in the Valley. This is thanks
to the people who put in the hard work behind the
scenes. It continues to evolve and looks to the future
by entrusting its programming to two individuals with
diverse backgrounds: Merryn Alaka, a transplant from
the Midwest, and Miguel Monzón, a first-generation
Mexican-American who grew up in Phoenix.
As such a young city, Phoenix is not burdened with
tradition like other major metropolitan areas. These
two up-and-coming artists/curators in the local scene
embody the forward thinking that Modified Arts has
always been known for. Both fresh out of art school,
they have been learning on the job, with a knowledge
of the past and bright eyes toward the future.
Merryn Alaka was born and raised in Indianapolis,
Indiana. Her Nigerian father was in the pharmacy
program at Purdue University when he met her
American mother, then studying nutrition and
dietetics. They would marry and have three kids, with
Merryn being the youngest. Her immediate family
was more into the hard sciences than the creative
arts. However, Alaka had an aunt, a practicing artist,
who made an impression on her as an adolescent.
“I didn’t have a direct art influence in my immediate
family,” she said. “Growing up, I always wanted to
be really close with my cool aunt. She is actually an
artist. I definitely admired her – I thought she was
really great. She mostly did collage-based work. I
looked up to her and was inspired by her.”
Alaka became even more interested in art when
she attended a high school specializing in the arts.
Eventually she would enter the Herberger Institute
for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.
She was attracted to the quality of the program and
the fact that it was far from home. She would be
challenged by her professors to create work that she
cared about. “I had a critique in class once,” she said.
“My teacher just totally tore my work apart and was
like, ‘This doesn’t even seem like something you’re
passionate about.’ After that critique, I cried.”
Alaka would grow as an artist in school by
overcoming adversity. She would look within herself
to examine what she was passionate about. Her
father always had an appreciation for art, especially
art from his hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, such as
rugs and textiles. Alaka began exploring her heritage
diligently and would be inspired to make work about
her unique background.
After her parents divorced, Alaka grew apart from
her father, but her renewed interest in her family
history rekindled their relationship. She would
take old family photographs and incorporate them
with African motifs, creating pieces that were
aesthetically seductive but evocative of a deeper
personal history.
Being a transplant, Alaka was not yet aware of the
thriving art scene in Phoenix and saw Modified Arts
as a way to get involved. She started working at the
gallery just as Miguel Monzón was taking over as
director for the space. “Miguel and I, we get along
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Merryn Alaka, “Not Your Mixed Baby Fetish”
Miguel Monzón, “Angel” 2019
really well,” she said. “I think we make a good pair at Modified. We kind of had
the same idea for the type of work we wanted to show at the gallery. We wanted
something unique each month or something different. We didn’t want to just have
painting shows or drawing shows. I mean, we do those, but we also wanted the
work to have some conceptual meaning.”
Miguel Monzón was born in San Bernardino, California. His parents came to the
U.S. from Mexico, making him a first-generation American. His family moved to
Las Vegas for a couple of years, then on to Phoenix for good. Monzón grew up in
the Valley and feels much affection for the area. “When people ask me, ‘Where
you from?’ I’m just like, pretty much I’m from Phoenix, man. I grew up here. All my
youth was spent here. I was on the streets skating, you know – Phoenix is home.”
He drew voraciously growing up. He would render people and creatures from
real life as well as his imagination. After high school, Monzón started attending
community college. He knew he had the talent for art but that things wouldn’t
come easy. “It was that whole period of what are you going to do with your life?”
he said. “I was aware that art was not an easy path. It was going to be a lot of
work. You’re going to have to be self-motivated to do this. No one’s going to make
you do anything. I just decided to go with art and follow my passion. I started
trying to learn about art as much as possible. Honestly, I didn’t set foot into a
museum until I was like 18.”
This delayed exposure to the arts would not deter Monzón, it would just make
him even more determined. He started watching documentaries about art, reading
books about artists, and, of course, going to art museums. He came at art with a
fresh outlook. He learned about the tradition of painting and the masters, but he
was attracted to the ideas conveyed by the work.
Merryn Alaka, “America(nah)”
“I realized that I was more interested in the concept or what was behind the work,”
he said. “What is it that made you make this piece? What does it mean? So because of
that, I chose to go into intermedia. Then also, I had learned about these other artists
that were doing work that’s not just something on a wall. I was interested in
learning more about non-traditional art, so that’s when I transferred to ASU.”
Monzón as a maker is not tied to any medium. He works in all kinds of media,
from drawing to printmaking to video. He chooses the medium that will best
express his ideas for each body of work. This leads to the creation of diverse
artworks. He is always experimenting with materials and ideas, relentless in his
pursuit of a higher truth, but always remembering where he came from.
Alaka and Monzón took all the knowledge learned in school and put it into
practice when they started working at Modified Arts. They both had a willingness
to learn and a positive attitude of wanting to contribute to the art scene. Kimber
Lanning took a chance on them, and they’ve been paying dividends since then.
“I was basically assisting Connor Descheemaker (Modified’s former gallery
director),” Monzón said. “Trying to absorb what it’s like to run an art gallery. At the
time, he was working for Local First also. He was just inundated with work, and
then he was doing Modified on the side. Anything I could help with – that was
what I was there for.”
“It’s been great to have the support from Kimber Lanning,” Alaka said. “She leaves
a lot of the things to us, but she’s always been so supportive. She wants us to use
the space however we see fit.”
They put forth their vision of what they want to show at the gallery in a thoughtful
manner. The first show Monzón fully curated was called Within and Without, a
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AN ART
BOUTIQUE HOTEL
with inspiration
and comfort in the
HEART OF
DOWNTOWN
PHOENIX
Merryn Alaka, “It’s Mine, I Bought It”collab with Sam Fresquez
printmaking group exhibition that explored the artists’ inner visions and how
they relate to the external world.
Alaka curated one of the most important shows in Phoenix last year,
Americana. It featured artists of African lineage, all based in Arizona, who
were exploring racial identity in the context of our current political climate.
In the meantime, Modified Arts will be celebrating its 20th anniversary through
a historical exhibition of photographs and memorabilia, along with a showcase of
artists who have shown there in the past. It will be a celebration of the gallery’s
standing in downtown Phoenix, but also an opportunity to speak about the changes
that are occurring and what they mean for the future of the arts in the Valley.
“If there’s anything I can say about Modified,” Monzón said, “the name’s
perfect. That’s what we are. We are adaptable. We are fluid. We are very
open, and I think that has to do with the fact that Kimber Lanning is the owner.
I think since she runs Local First, and she’s so focused on local community and
helping people in the local scene, it’s almost more about the community aspect
of it. It’s more about allowing or helping people that maybe don’t have access
to or know where to go to see local art to have a place to go. I think that really
kind of captures what Modified is.”
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ARTS
JENNIFER MCCABE CURATING COUNTER-LANDSCAPES AT SMOCA
By Grant Vetter
The exhibition Counter-Landscapes: Performative
Actions from the 1970s–Now at SMoCA is both a
curatorial and an artistic triumph. It celebrates the
work of three generations of the most important
performance artists, including the likes of Marina
Abramović, Francis Alÿs, VALIE EXPORT, and Adrian
Piper, to name a few. The breadth of the artists
selected by museum director and chief curator
Jennifer McCabe, which includes 24 in total, provides
a concise and thought-provoking survey of the kinds
of motivations that have been often overlooked in the
history of the genre.
Of course, the idea of counter-landscapes is a
reference to the work of the French philosopher
Michel Foucault, who defended the notion of
counter-memories as those that have been repressed
or marginalized: memories of happenings that the
status quo could not accommodate. Starting from this
premise, we could say that works like Abramović’s
“Looking at the Mountains” is a counter-landscape
in the sense of inverting the iconic image of Caspar
David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.”
Friedrich’s painting of a rather well-dressed man at
the summit of a high mountain peak is considered
by many to be the epitome of Romantic art because
it provides an image of mankind overcoming nature,
where the mind is set free by the sublime expanse
of pure metaphysical contemplation, and the gaze
places humanity in the position of being both the
pinnacle and surveyor of the natural world.
Abramović’s work is a counter-landscape inasmuch
as it inverts all three of these premises by situating
the artist between the heavens and earth, where
the image places her firmly in this world, and the
darkened clouds above provide a sense of existential
isolation rather than metaphysical mastery.
A different kind of counter-landscape, aiming
to challenge the ideals of the Enlightenment as
much as those of Romanticism, can be found in
the works of Agnes Denes. Her three images from
the Wheatfield series serve not just to question the
narratives of progress and civilization but to highlight
how skyscrapers provide corporate CEOs with a
Friedrichesque worldview from atop, in their offices
and boardrooms, albeit places decidedly removed
from nature.
But, of course, this is the point, and these three
photographs can also be read as a three-act
play of sorts, with the first image revealing the
detritus of modern civilization set off against one
of the greatest symbols of the Enlightenment – the
Statue of Liberty. The next shows us an expanse
of unharvested grain, demonstrating the power of
reclamation, but not just in a literal sense. Rather,
the juxtaposition of field and figure, the latter bearing
the words of the poet Emma Lazarus, serves to
underscore an expanded notion of “liberty, equality,
and fraternity.” Denes’ project points to the hope of
reclaiming a lost sense of congress between nature,
people, and the greater ecology of exchanges that
make up modern life.
This is highlighted by the third photograph from
Wheatfield, which struck a chord at the height of
the environmental art movement, but which reads
differently today with the World Trade Center
pictured in the background. The image now occupies
the place of a memory as much as it functions as
documentation. Denes’ work, and the space allotted
to the twin towers, becomes even more relevant
for having pictured the place where a conflict
over capitalism, the first and third worlds, and
secularism and fundamentalism would eventually
explode in an act of terror. In this way, we learn that
counter-landscapes always already contain countermemories,
and that the archeology of images from
our past can come to haunt our understanding of the
future.
It is this temporal element that is highlighted
throughout the exhibition as we encounter
Mendieta’s symbolically charged acts with her body
and the earth, or Piper’s critique of silenced minority
positions, as well as Pope L.’s profound performances
about the grueling struggle for artistic recognition
in an art world that continues to be permeated by
racism. These works and others in the show are part
of the profound archive that McCabe has assembled
in order to highlight how we think about various
genealogies of artistic disciplines that have not only
challenged the status quo but have forever changed
the art world as we know it.
Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s–Now
Through January 19, 2020
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)
www.smoca.org
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Agnes Denes
Wheatfield--A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill,
Downtown Manhattan--With New York Financial Center
1982, C-print, 16 x 20 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects
Pope.L
The Great White Way: 22 miles, 5 years, 1 street (Segment
#1: December 29, 2001), 2001-2006
Video installation, 6:35 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
Antonia Wright
Under the Water Was Sand, The Rocks, Miles of Rocks, Then Fire
2017, Single channel video, night blooming jasmine plants,
fragrance, boxes, and shop lights, 2:20 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and Locust Projectst
Ana Teresa Fernández
Of Bodies and Borders 1 (performance documentation)
2017, Oil on canvas, 54 x 94 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris
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BRIAN BONER
AMERICAN PLAYGROUND
By Jenna Duncan
“I grew up in a very rural part of America, you know,
the Midwest,” painter Brian Boner says. “When you
have kids, you have this baseline of, ‘Well, this is
how I grew up, maybe this is how my kids will grow
up.’ But my kids are growing up in a city in the desert,
whereas I grew up in a small town in the forest.”
Boner’s new collection of paintings, American
Playground, combines contemporary images with
some family photos, and also images symbolic of his
childhood and the new world he is experiencing as a
father, with his two sons.
Boner grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, near the
Black Hills, a town he describes as “small, but not
horribly small.” He went to college in Minnesota and
Montana (got a bachelor’s in painting and drawing),
and he says after too many days of 60-below winters,
he had to move on to someplace warmer.
But critical geography is not the only big difference
between Boner’s childhood and that of his sons.
After college, Boner and some friends moved to
Tempe. He used to visit his grandparents there
with his family in the winters, so he was familiar
with the terrain. Once he started getting into the art
scene, he moved downtown.
“I met Greg [Esser] and Cindy [Dash]. They were renovating
a house on 6th Street,” he says. “My studio
was a garage that you could open from both ends.”
While living in the Roosevelt arts district, Boner met
his wife-to-be, artist Christina Ramirez, at the Long
House. Boner worked for Phoenix Art Group about
two years and became further connected with local
artists. Then, he supported himself solely from the
sales of his paintings.
“I’d pick up the odd job installing things, for Scottsdale
Museum of Contemporary Art or various galleries.
Or I’d pick up a job teaching art for a couple of
days.” But when the economy turned sour, he found
himself in the position of needing a day job again.
Through a friend, he signed on with Art Solutions,
fine art installers. He’s been with the company more
than 10 years and says he likes the work and the
flexibility. He was able to take six months to paint
full-time in order to prepare for this show.
Some paintings are still lifes – a handful of alphabet
magnets, an image of a Jackelope – while others
combine imagery taken from a variety of sources in a
sort of collage of new meaning. One painting shows
his youngest son, Elias, standing before an American
bison. The bison appears to be about to drink water
from a blue plastic kiddy pool. In the background is
the white house his father grew up in, and a barn
wall painted with white and red stripes, emblematic
of the American flag.
Another painting shows a collection of antique school
desks that seem to drip with electric colors (some
hidden purples, corners of green) as if emerging from
a dream of nostalgia. Boner says these desks were
discovered in the attic of his family’s ranch in South
Dakota. They came from the old schoolhouse that
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used to exist miles down the road. How they ended
up in his family’s possession is a mystery.
“I come from a long line of educators,” Boner says,
listing his great-aunt, grandmother, mother, and
father. The idea of handing down family knowledge
through the generations is certainly one
theme in this show.
Occasionally, firearms and animal predators that are
hunted appear in his paintings. Boner explains that
his dad was an avid hunter: “He’d shoot anything!”
Sometimes there would be big game hanging in
the family garage, blood draining and waiting
to be skinned by his dad. He tried hunting a few
times, but after shooting his first deer, he decided it
wasn’t for him.
One of the juxtaposed-image paintings depicts
Boner’s older son, Jasper, standing on the walkway to
the family’s front door, armed with a squirt gun. Jasper
appears to be defending two bunnies who cower
together in the foyer. “Guardian of the Innocents”
came about after his son asked him one day, “Dad,
how do bunnies protect themselves?”
The Americana motif appears in many images, as
well, in the use of stars, stripes, and other imagery
associated with nationalism. But the message is
neither pro nor anti-homeland. It’s a subtle suggestion
of the ways our nation has changed from Brian’s
generation of children to that of his own. At every
turn, there are hints of danger, suggestions that some
presence or power might be lying in wait.
These amalgams provide an intriguing dialogue
between the pastoral, perhaps of Brian’s upbringing,
and today’s real world, one in which his boys are
growing up surrounded by screens, with the threat
of things like social media bullying and witnessing a
burning car in the middle of the street.
American Playground
Through November 21
Fiat Lux Gallery
6919 E. 1st Ave., Scottsdale
Open to the public from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays and other
times by appointment
“Barracade” 60”x64” oil on canvas
“Trajectory 48”x39” oil on canvas
“This is a Test” 48”x48” oil on canvas
“In the Velvet” 38”x38” oil on canvas
“Roadside Attraction” 38”x29” oil on canvas
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Through the Doors of
Persepshen
By Sloane Burwell
My friends and I have been fans of Persepshen (one of the bad things about
having a phonetic spelling of your restaurant name is that it looks funny in print)
since they rolled out their food truck at the Uptown Farmers Market a couple of
years ago. Their meat sticks were fabulous. I became addicted to their curried
pickled cauliflower. Their gorgeous breads are almost too pretty to eat. The dish
that locked in our love was a round, hot, fresh sourdough donut loaded with lemon
thyme curd. We all still wax rhapsodic about it – the warm, crispy dough and the
fantastic filling. We noshed in silence until every molecule was gone, greedily
licking up any errant dollops of tangy, sweet lemon curd. It was primal, sensual,
and so decadent, someone chimed in about feeling like they needed a cigarette
afterward. It was that good.
After the food truck disappeared, we noticed a sign had gone up on Central, in the
former Hula’s Modern Tiki location. We cheered. We texted updates, until finally
we saw they were open. And after a handful of meals, I’m here to tell you it is
every bit as wonderful as we had hoped.
Persepshen added warm, earthy touches to their space. Four wooden booths line
the interior, and a giant communal table with long benches holds center court. A
massive woodfired oven has been added, with chairs facing the chef, in a perfect
spot, albeit a toasty one in the summer, I’d imagine, to watch the action. In the
back you’ll find a charming bar, and you’ll pass a window that peeks into a curing
room, loaded with meats and an entire leg of prosciutto, about 11 months away
from being ready to devour. We were told that rib eyes will dry age for 120 days
in the back. As I write this, Persepshen has only been open for about 10 days, so
we’ve set the countdown to not miss them.
The focus here is on a farm to table experience. The purveyors are mostly organic,
with a focus on locally sourced everything. While charming and admirable, I was
glad I travel with my own ice tea sweeteners. Given that stevia or an alternative
isn’t available, expect to be offered honey to sweeten your jasmine green tea ($4).
Fans of cocktails will enjoy the creative libations. We were particularly partial to
the Filthytini ($9), a martini that comes with muddled green olives, bleu cheese,
pickle juice, and a spoon. As we were told by our adorable server, the intention is
to taste the drink with all the flavors. We did, and it was pretty special. This is a
first for me – a martini with a spoon.
Speaking of spoons, we loved their silverware: adorable vintage silver service
is their weapon of choice. Instead of being stuffy, it adds to the charming vibe.
Drinks come served in canning jars, in keeping with the farm-ish flair.
This is the kind of place where appetizers shine, and their menu is set up for
sharing – broken up into Snacks, Small Plates, Big Plates, and Entrees. You could
share an entree, if you like, but I prefer to travel the other options, since it’s more
interesting to me. We adored the Chorizo Stuffed Dates ($9). Three golf ball sized
creations come atop house-made harissa. The chorizo packs a spicy punch, the
sweetness of the dates rounds it out, and the harissa is perfect for swiping onto
the dates for extra punch. Given the size, each treat is several bites’ worth. Share if
you like, but you’ll want to keep one for yourself.
The Wood-Roasted Sunchokes ($12) are an inventive treat. Also known as
Jerusalem artichokes, these nuggets are smoky, slightly crunchy on the outside,
and pillowy on the inside. They disappeared with haste. It’s the perfect combo of
salty, smoky, and savory. We adored the Wood-Roasted Oyster Mushrooms ($12),
served with slivers of house-made bacon, sweet pieces of black garlic, and brandy
demi-cream. We politely pretended to like them. We actually loved them. The
mushrooms take advantage of their new woodfired oven, and like us, you’ll want to
drag each perfectly cooked morsel through the creamy sauce. I’m almost swooning
just thinking about it.
And as for Big Shared Plates, do not miss their Charcuterie Plate ($24). A giant slab
of slate is delivered, loaded with five kinds of meat, and two wafer-thin lavash
crackers are artfully perched on top. Make no mistake, these are enormous pieces
of culinary art, nearly two feet long. The meat is so succulent and all made in house.
We loved the headcheese. It sounds scary, I know, but it was creamy and melts in
your mouth. We adored the salumi – kicky salami-like meat disks.
Their mortadella is like smoky prosciutto; it reminded me of the bacon my
grandmother used to make, sliced so thin the fat melts in your mouth. A robust
grainy mustard serves to cut some of the fat (I’d like to buy a jar of this, please),
and an impressive blueberry ginger jam adds interest as well. Each Charcuterie
plate comes with three pickled veggies, and I was very happy to see their famous
curried pickled cauliflower, so kicky and hot and a perfect balance to the rest of
the plate. We also loved the pickles – cold, crisp, and tasting ever so slightly of dill
and coriander seed. Our charming server advised us that this dish will constantly
change, based on seasonal availability.
What I hope never changes is their Burger ($16), loaded with Danish bleu cheese,
strawberry jam, and an elegantly prepared patty. I was thrilled that the toasted
brioche bun was able to hold firm and not disintegrate into sadness. We were
equally impressed with their Wood-Roasted Shrimp ($22). Perfectly cooked, slightly
sweet shrimp, made smoky from having been roasted, arrive on stellar smashed
pinto beans. The smoky tortillas served alongside are delicious enough to give the
former Rolands a run for their money. I’d expect these tortillas to appear as favorites
around town any day now.
I’ll admit a tiny pang of sadness when we discovered the orgasmic lemon thyme
curd sourdough donuts were not on the menu yet. They’ll show up as soon as
Sunday brunch makes an appearance, in a few weeks. We drowned our dessert
sorrows in the Blondie ($9), a rectangular brownie topped with a stripe of prickly
pear praline and candied pancetta. It was shockingly fabulous. It sounds tricky – so
many flavors on one dessert can be a challenge. Here, it is a victory, the sweetsavory-salty
ending to a fabulous locally sourced meal.
We waited for a year for Persepshen to become a brick and mortar reality. And in
only 10 days, I’ve been there so many times that nearly everyone in the restaurant
recognizes me and says hello. They know I’ll swing by the curing room and wave to
Stanley (that’s the name I’ve given to the leg of prosciutto). I waited for a year to eat
at Persepshen. I’ll wait another 11 months for Stanley.
Persepshen
4700 N. Central Ave., Phoenix
Wednesday to Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
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21

Changing
Winds

Stylist, Photographer,
Creative Director: Rachel Callahan
Wardrobe: Vamp Rodeo Vintage
Models: Hades, Ariel Graves-Wake

One of many Planning meetings: from left: Nuvia Enriquez, Ayo Sinplaneta, Martin Moreno,
Reggie Casillas, Sam Gomez, Gloria Martinez, Diana Calderon, Edgar Fernandez
ALL OF US TOGETHER
Art, Water, Community, and Culture
By Morgan Moore
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Medio Completo artist: Gloria, Nuvia
Huhugam Heritage Center’s: Monica King
Like water in the desert, art has the
powerful ability to bring people together.
In contemporary Phoenix, all too often,
community-based art is reduced to
branding and marketing efforts, and authenticity
can quickly be lost. This city does, however,
continue to bring people together beyond property
and product. One recent powerful example of this
is Vesich eth ve:m, a creative team that arose from
the Water Public Art Challenge.
On May 30, 2018, the Arizona Community Foundation
launched the Challenge – its third philanthropic
competition “aimed at creating the Arizona of
tomorrow.” Funds were distributed to collaborative
projects that delved into the “Hohokam” legacy,
canal system, and history of water use in the Valley.
The majority of winning teams will be exhibiting
their work on November 16 at Scottsdale’s Canal
Convergence, the Mesa Arts Center, and the Rio
Salado Audubon Center (with the exception of
Pueblo Grande Museum’s exhibition, which was
held on October 20).
The competition called for “collaborative temporary
public art projects that build connectivity between
cultures through creative expression.” Audubon
Arizona’s executive director, Sonia Perillo, saw it as
an opportunity to link water and community with the
organization’s mission to protect birds and habitats.
Birds, after all, need water.
Audubon Arizona is one of many nonprofits in
South Phoenix looking for ways to connect with
its community. Public meetings on the South
Central light rail extension brought together many
stakeholders, including Perillo and Sam Gomez of the
Sagrado Galleria (located on south Central Ave.), and
they began to discuss the possibility of collaboration.
Meanwhile, a separate group was coalescing around
Gomez. Diana Calderon, Gloria Martinez-Granados,
Reggie Casillas, Nuvia Enriquez, and Ayo Sinplaneta
were all looking to combine their individual artistic
practices to form a collaborative. Soon enough,
Edgar Fernandez and Martin Moreno joined the
conversation, along with Gomez. Together they
formed the artist group Medio Completo. Gomez
then bridged Medio Completo with Audubon Arizona
through the idea of the water competition.
Perillo was simultaneously reaching out to members
of the Gila River Indian Community, which is
composed of two tribes – the Akimel O’odham
and the Pee Posh. In the past, tribal members had
frequented the Rio Salado Audubon Center to collect
materials for basket weaving.
The Huhugam Heritage Center was established to
ensure that the Gila River tribes continue to flourish
for generations. The center’s education curator,
Monica King, says, “We want it for our community,
but we also want to share with the public.”
King connected with Perillo and signed on to the
competition, inviting Heritage Center staff and artists
from the community, including Joyce Hughes, Tim
Terry Jr., and Aaron Sabori to contribute their vision
and direction to the project.
Together Audubon Arizona, the Huhugam Heritage
Center, and Medio Completo formed a team called
Vesich eth ve:m, which translates to “all of us
together.” Team members got together for the first
time at the Rio Salado Audubon Center over a year
ago to begin the application process, and since
then have forged a path to share the results of their
collaboration on November 16.
While all are interdisciplinary artists, Calderon and
Martinez-Granados both currently work primarily

Medio Completo artist: Diana Calderon
Medio Completo artist: Sam Gomez
through printmaking, Fernandez through painting and
murals, and Casillas and Moreno through murals and
sculptures. Enriquez and Sinplaneta are well known
for their creation of La Phoenikera, an online bilingual
publication covering Phoenix’s countercultures; they
also bring experience with performance and film.
Besides curating shows at the Sagrado, Gomez also
works in photography.
The Medio Completo artists have approached the
project from varying perspectives, but ultimately
contrast with the Gila River and Heritage Center
members in that they connect with the project
through immigration – a common motif in the
group – along with exploration of their ancestral
roots. Many of the artists are immigrants or children
of immigrants, and much of their professional
work draws from their Latinx experiences. But in
connecting with the Huhugam Heritage Center and
members of the Gila River Indian Community, they
learned not only about the living history of Phoenix’s
tribal cultures, but also how easy it is to relate.
“It doesn’t feel that unfamiliar,” Calderon shares,
“even though it’s not specific to my culture.” She
reflects on her own family’s indigenous roots in the
Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico. The sentiment
is echoed by many Medio Completo artists, who find
commonalities between their heritages and those of
the O’odham.
The Medio Completo artists are familiar with
community-based work – from Casillas and Moreno
collaborating with others to make murals, to Calderon
leading bookmaking workshops, and Enriquez and
Sinplaneta cultivating the written form with La
Phoenikera. Developing the work behind We Are
Still Here was a new experience in that the artists
effectively acted as students, learning how to
accurately portray art expressing a historical and
contemporary community.
We Are Still Here is an immersive art experience that
presents a chronology of water history and features
the importance of rivers for the sustenance of the
Huhugam people. Through soundscapes, sculptures,
augmented-reality murals, film projections,
bookmaking, and performance, stories of Huhugam
history are woven together with the community’s
continued connection to the river. The artists aim to
celebrate those who set the foundation for life in
Phoenix and the surrounding communities.
Research took Vesich eth ve:m on trips to pick cholla
buds, harvest cattails, attend storytelling sessions,
and tour Pueblo Grande. The members also attended
the dedication of the Gila River Indian Community’s
MAR 5 (Managed Aquifer Recharge) Interpretive Trail,
which presents a reminder of how water still does
flow through the desert. Research trips were not led
by disconnected historians but by living descendants
of the Native Americans who built the extensive
canal structure around the Salt and Gila Rivers.
“Each artist has had the opportunity to get feedback
from the Huhugam Center, from the artists there,
and from Monica and her staff,” Moreno explains.
For example, Calderon consulted with artists on
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Medio Completo artists: Edgar Fernandez and Martin Moreno
Medio Completo artists
designs for her printmaking activity and with Hughes for
translation of a poem to O’odham.
Sinplaneta shares that he connected to the project by
“writing something that was approved, in a way, by
the culture. I’m really kind of a tourist, and it could
even be perceived as appropriation.” Learning about
and listening to storytelling from community members
enabled the Medio Completo artists to interpret
their roles in the project. “We’re gathering stories
that we’ve heard, and all this knowledge that we’ve
been exposed to, and giving interpretation through
our artistic sense,” Sinplaneta says. Ultimately, Medio
Completo aims to bring the project a contemporary lens
that has been lacking in conversations about Arizona
and its tribal communities.
King shares an explanation by the Gila River Indian
Community’s tribal historic preservation officer, Barnaby
Lewis: “‘Huhugam’ is not the same as the archaeological
term ‘Hohokam,’ which is limited by time periods.
The archaeological term does not acknowledge our
ancient ancestors nor living O’odham, who will become
ancestors today and tomorrow. I am O’odham today, I
will be Huhugam one day when I perish.”
Medio Completo will be exploring these distinctions
while weaving together each component with water,
which serves as the crucial connection among the
ecological, economic, and cultural fabrics of the desert.
Water as a resource and economic structure through
the historic canal system will be ever-present in the
exhibition, as it is in our modern life.
Vesich eth ve:m will also promote the importance of
water in their project beyond its extrinsic value, delving
into its cultural and spiritual side. From the significance
of a cottontail rabbit’s dependence on water, to monsoon
storms and water rights interpreted through projections
and performances – the role of water flows through the
entire project.
“Hopefully, whatever happens with this event, we can
continue and do more projects like this, and continue the
narrative,” Gomez says. “Preservation, ownership, and
being able to control our narrative” are key components
of We Are Still Here, as they relate to the Huhugam, the
O’odham, and the artist collective’s individual heritages,
as well. The artists agreed they had learned a lot from
this process, and are inspired to spread the knowledge
gained from the Huhugam Heritage Center and Gila
River Indian Community, so that future generations don’t
have to learn these lessons from scratch.
King echoes the sentiment: “We’re not talking about
a people who lived and disappeared. No, we still live
on through our traditions, our cultural and oral history,
our practices, our songs and stories – and we share
those. That is something we wanted to do with this
group – to help them understand the difference.” King
concludes, “So again – we are still here. Our tribe lives
on, and we continue.”
We Are Still Here
An Immersive Art Experience Celebrating the Huhugam Water
Legacy
Saturday, November 16, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center
riosaladoaudubon.org
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Grace Rolland
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By Tom Reardon
Photo: Taylor Noel Photography

JAVA: Tell me a little bit about you. Did you
grow up here in the Phoenix area?
Rolland: I did. I grew up in Mesa, and I live like five
minutes away from my childhood home.
Oh wow. So, you’ve gone far…
(Laughs.) Oh yeah. I can walk to my parents’ house,
that’s the problem. My mom grew up here, and my
parents still live in the same house that I grew up in. I
still take my dogs for a walk on the canal that I would
run on growing up. So, it’s nice still being connected
after all this time, you know.
I do. I’m a native as well, although central
Phoenix. I can’t see leaving. It’s so easy to get
everywhere.
Well, a few years ago, I was traveling into downtown
Phoenix to do a lot of activities. It’s much harder
(living in the east Valley). I just don’t drive as much
as I used to. And so, I’m trying to absorb and extend
my time working in the studio and being at home. As
much as I love being stable where I am at, it’s always
just a game to figure out how to feel connected and
actively participate in downtown Phoenix. I love that
place, but it’s a little far.
Photo: Julius Schlosburg
From time to time, people come into your life that just shine. Sometimes you even expect it because
of their talent and ability to create beautiful art, but when their star shines about as bright as
any can, it’s still overwhelming. You brace yourself for the impact, yet the wind can still get
knocked right out of you.
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Grace Rolland is one such person. Under the moniker Rising Sun
Daughter, she has released an extraordinary debut EP, I See Jane. The 30-year-old Mesa native has taken the
last two years to craft the five songs that make up what is essentially her first solo record. While you may
know her from Run Boy Run – an Americana band that achieved a fair amount of success with support from
Garrison Keillor and his longtime syndicated radio show, A Prairie Home Companion – Rollvand’s work with
Rising Sun Daughter deserves equal celebration.
By day, Rolland works at the Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale, before returning home to hang out
with her dogs, Patty and Porter, and spend time working on her craft. She seems to be compelled to pick up new
instruments, especially ones involving strings, so it’s anyone’s guess what sounds will show up on the next Rising
Sun Daughter record. We caught up with Rolland during a break from work on a beautiful October day.
The music scene is better than ever in town
right now. Maybe that’s because our population
has exploded, or maybe people just care more.
It’s not like I need to go somewhere else to get
my music out, as if there aren’t enough people in
Arizona. That’s kind of a daydream notion, that
you have to live in LA, or that only people in those
historically commercial markets will listen to your
music. There are literally millions of people here, and
everyone deserves good music, so I can still live and
make music here, which is fun.
So, tell me a bit about working at the Musical
Instrument Museum. It’s such a great venue for
concerts.
I’m really thankful to have that job. For one thing,
the financial stability is essential to me as an artist,
and I feel so much closer to quality musicians. I
get to watch those people perform, I help support
their shows, and I’m learning audio engineering.
It’s a place that I feel, even if I’m not working
in a performance capacity, it’s a nice peaceful
environment, and, in my opinion, it’s the best concert
hall in the country.
It really does sound amazing in there.
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The theater becomes an instrument, like all the
other gear you’re working with. So, if somebody is
just bringing a guitar and singing, I tell them to try it
without any extra gear, because being able to sing in
a room like that is a gift. It’s just so rare.
Were you always a music fan?
Yeah, I think so. My parents are musicians. Growing
up, I listened to the Beatles while doing household
chores. I loved music. My strongest self-identity
memories have to do with me singing, playing music,
or feeling stage fright. I was very shy as a kid, like
horribly. My stage fright was so intense, I would just
run off stage.
What was the first instrument that you thought
to yourself, “I have to play that”?
That was the cello. They started me on the violin, and
I must’ve been like four. I apparently wasn’t very nice
in the group lesson, so I got kicked out. Then I took
piano lessons, and that was incredibly challenging.
I’m coming back to the piano now. When I was in
fourth grade, my mom played the cello, so I started to
play around with it when I was nine, and it just felt
so comfortable.
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That was my gateway. It’s such a strong instrument.
Once you learn one instrument, you kind of absorb
information about all the others. I had the opportunity to
put my hands on a lot of different instruments because
of my parents. So it was like, “Hey, can I borrow this
tenor guitar?” and exploring without having to buy
everything myself, which was very helpful.
That’s very lucky. Do you still get stage fright?
Not really. I have my way around it. But the way I felt
it as a kid, (it was) the “I want to hide in a box, don’t
look at me, don’t put any attention on me,” kind of
feeling. At some point when I was coming out of a
cello lesson, and I was too shy to even play for my
teacher, my dad told me that to be so consumed by
the fear of what others think and to not just play for
music’s sake is a selfish thing.
When I was in college, I studied theater and did a
lot of improv and performance stuff and got more
comfortable as a creative person. Now when I’m
performing, it’s a challenge and an opportunity for me
to be vulnerable on stage.
How has it been for you to go from being part of
a group (Run Boy Run) to being on your own?
It’s hard. I’ve learned to not rely on other people
to figure out what to do. As a female, you have to
learn to not expect a man or someone in a position
of power to say, “Oh, here’s an opportunity, here’s
what you’re going to do.” Over the past few years,
I’ve accepted my own power and embraced that my
career is not necessarily going to look like how I
fantasized it, with the record deal, a manager, and all
that fuzzy stuff.
I’m sort of speaking on a music business level.
After I made the record, I didn’t know exactly what I
wanted to get out of it, as a musician and performer,
professionally and personally. I really wanted to
understand my goals before releasing the music.
When was the record finished?
February 2017.
You put it in a box for a while.
Pretty much, yeah. It was in my computer for a long
time. That spring (2017) I started really asking the
questions of what I wanted from my music career.
Was I just going to try and replicate my experience
with Run Boy Run? I didn’t necessarily want that.
I wondered if I should try to promote the crap out
of the record and become a social media person. I
couldn’t wrap my head around that either. I knew
I wanted to put a lot of work into it, make a video,
build a website, and that took some time.
You mentioned being a female in the music
business. Do you feel like the landscape is
changing and more women are taking charge of
their careers?
I can’t help but feel it. I don’t consciously approach
my music as a woman. But at the same time, when
I’m composing, I recognize my own narrative in what
I write.
You know, you just accept your plate – by that I
mean, I accept myself. I accept my strengths. I am
cognizant that, in my self-perception, I am a strong,
powerful, tall woman. I like that strength when I’m
performing, and I like recognizing that people in
an audience may not see that all the time. Festival
lineups are not filled with woman-centered bands.
But hopefully that is changing.
Rising Sun Daughter performs on November 8 at
Scottsdale’s Canal Convergence. For set times,
please visit canalconvergence.com.
For more information about Rising Sun Daughter, please visit
RisingSunDaughter.com

GIRL ON FARMER
BY CELIA BERESFORD
I was really looking forward to seeing the show at
Comerica. Not only was I meeting my monthly antiaging
quota, it was also a band I love. One of the
things about getting older is that so many things that
happen are just so lame, especially because they are
so stereotypical and predictable. I’m not even talking
about the terrifying things that start happening to
your face. I mean the middle-agey behaviors that
creep up on you. You go to bed earlier, you can’t
sleep, the idea of heavy drinking two nights in a
row is laughable, and weekend/weeknight – who
cares? Organizing my wildflower seed collection is
preferable to going to the bar, and knowing that I
have all of the laundry done is woefully satisfying. In
response, I decided that, in addition to my daily olive
oil face scrub to combat wrinkles (a battle lost years
ago, if I’m honest), I also need to implement an antiaging
behavior plan.
Part of this plan is going to see a show at least
once a month. In the past, I could easily squeeze in
a few good bands each month. Now, I excitedly put
something on the calendar, but when it comes to
the night of the actual event, I’m like, “Meh, I’ve got
seeds to sort.” This kind of nonsense is unacceptable
in Operation Youthiness: It’s Showtime. I’m doing
OK at meeting the monthly quota, but the necessary
motivation to get to some shows is easier than
others. And this was one of them. I had been waiting
for The National to come back to town since they had
played at the Tempe Marquee years ago. I had floor
tickets and was ready for some young fun.
Young fun typically involves some drinking. But
since when you’re over 35 you have to pee every
10 to 12 minutes, it was important that I put some
restrictions on my liquid intake. This is easy to do at
most venues, where a beer costs more than the Lyft
ride to get there. While in line for my beer, I had to
dig out my “wallet.” Wallet is a generous term for
the cloth sack that I pack to the brim with nonsense
like used subway passes, outdated library cards, hard
half pieces of gum, lucky beads, innumerable scraps
of paper where I’ve collected brilliant, yet illegible,
stoned thoughts, ibuprofen tablets that look like rats
have chewed them, and roughly 66 cents in pennies.
The zipper is broken and it is very dirty. There were
cute embroidered farm animals on the front, but now
they just look like colored blobs.
38 JAVA
MAGAZINE

I threw myself over the wallet and awkwardly
grasped for the papers and trinkets that were
scattered over the floor and began hastily stuffing
all of it into my purse thing. Finally I got my beer
and scurried away to hide among the crowd.
Recently, while out for some drinks with a good friend, she saw the wallet, shook
her head and said, “God, I hope you don’t let anybody you work with see that
thing.” I told her young people like me don’t use fancy wallets, and I wouldn’t be
shamed into doing another middle-age thing by getting one.
As I pulled out the wallet to pay for my beer, a long line waiting behind me, it
kind of flung out of my hand and onto the floor. It looked like a piñata had broken
open, but instead of candy it was a bunch of bullshit. “Uhm, you dropped your
uhm.” The girl behind me wasn’t really sure what it was, but when I saw my
wallet on the floor for everyone to see, it felt like I had dropped a pair of dirty
underwear. “Oh my god, oh no,” I blushed. “I’m, I’m so sorry. Don’t look at that!
What is that thing?” I asked, incredulous, as if I hadn’t seen it before. “I’m a
grown adult woman. I have a job, I swear.” I threw myself over the wallet and
awkwardly grasped for the papers and trinkets that were scattered over the floor
and began hastily stuffing all of it into my purse thing. Finally I got my beer and
scurried away to hide among the crowd.
I got to the floor and met my friend just in time for the show to start. About 30
minutes in, as the crowd swayed and stared, listening intently to a quieter song,
this meatball with a backwards baseball cap started yapping to his group of friends.
Most responded quickly with some head nodding, as if they understood that they
were standing among a crowd who was trying to listen to music. The meatball didn’t
get it and loudly, repeatedly engaged his friends in stupid stories, likely involving a
keg stand. I loudly shushed in his direction. I even smiled. He kept going. “Let’s all
just shushhhhh,” I loudly suggested, determined not to let him ruin the song. He
kept at it, louder, until finally on behalf of everyone, I had to remind him that we
did not pay money to hear him blabber to his friends. He reminded me I was in
a big crowd and people talk. I then reminded him there was A WHOLE OUTSIDE
WORLD to go to if he wanted to talk. This went on until finally, on my young night
out, I did the most very middle-aged thing I could do: I told on him. I went to the
security guard, pointed him out, and said he won’t stop talking.
It worked, and the kid did eventually shut up. But the experience undermined the
spirit of Operation Youthiness. It had fouled my mood, and instead of going out
after the show for more drinks, as my younger self would have done, I headed
back home.
It was early though, so the night was not lost. I smiled, remembering the new
packets of seeds I had gotten in the mail that morning.

NIGHT
GALLERY
Photos By
Robert Sentinery
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1. Clare steals the show at Chaos Theory
2. Bro & Sis, Sam and Cristiana
3. Phoenix Fashion Week with Oscar and Cynthia
4. Izzy Molloy’s opening at FOUND:RE
5. Victor and Emily at Stardust Pinbar
6. Rielle is a social butterfly at Phoenix Fashion Week
7. Super stylists Ashley Page and Anthony Leroux
8. Lovely lady at the Town Scottsdale grand opening
9. Brian Hill, the man behind Phoenix Fashion Week
10. Track Club opening with Chuckie Duff and Bri
11. Irene and her fab friends at Stardust
.................................................
.................................................

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12. Rowan’s “Geometry of Motion” opening at Step Gallery
13. Town Scottsdale grand opening with this duo
14. Mello Jello with her wares at the Bubble Room
15. Tanqueray or Kim Crawford?
16. Ann shows her work at Town Scottsdale
17. Ok, now smile for the camera
18. DJ Kim E Fresh gets support from this lovely violinist
19. Snapped these guys at the Town Scottsdale fete
20. Va va voom! Lavish burlesque night at Bubble Room
21. Adam from Town has family in town
22. Pretty pair at Town Scottsdale
23. The Track Club menu looks like an LPs
24. Leopard print lady and her pretty pal
25. Flamenco artist Carlos caught in confetti
26. The main man behind Town Scottsdale and Denver
27. Bubble Room at Wasted Grain
28. Group shot! Lavish at the Bubble Room
29. Destyn and Effie at Lavish

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30. Pyra Sutra’s stellar burlesque show, Lavish
31. Another fun duo at Town Scottdale
32. Friends & family opening of Track Club
33. Pretty faces in the crowd
34. Fairy Bones in the house at Track Club
35. All together now with Lisa from Practical Art
36. DJs Pickster at Aw.dre at Track Club
37. Track Club trio
38. Tube sock and Dolphin shorts at Track Club
39. High stylin’ at Phoenix Fashion Week
40. Peekaboo, Lydia, we see you
41. Getting funky with Rachel from Bunky
42. Cool vendors at Phoenix Fashion Week marketplace
43. Michael gets his groove on at Track Club
44. Pretty runway walker art Fashion Week
45. Jessie and pal at Track Club
46. Menswear on the runway at PFW
47. Matchy belts and drinks at Track Club

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48. First pic of the night at Chaos Theory 20
49. These guys showed up for Rowan’s show at Step Gallery
50. Photog. Nader Abushhab and friend at Chaos Theory
51. Pabst Blue Ribbon time at with Johnny and Brian
52. Chaos Theory with Liesel, Mia and pal
53. Brad Perry in the house a Phoenix Fashion Week
54. Matt Dixon with his piece at Chaos Theory 20
55. Chaos Theory with Jessie and her man
56. Another epic Chaos Theory with Randy and Alicia
57. Funkhouser and friend at Chaos Theory 20
58. The triple threat
59. Stylist extraordinaire Mitch Phillips
60. Lexie and Jason at Chaos Theory
61. Caught amongst the art at Legend City Studios
62. Hangin’ with Samir, Chris and Drew
63. Sam and her man at Legend City Studios
64. Kim Moody’s 75th with Marshall Shore
65. Always nice to bump into Bobby and Alissa

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66. Pinball, drinks and winks at Stardust
67. Model for Samantha Lyn Aasen’s “For Her Time” show
68. Abbey, Brandon, Sarah, and Francisco
69. Rockin’ the “Brains Beauty Booty” tee
70. Photo op with Kandice and Rafael
71. Brian Boner’s opening at Fiat Lux Gallery
72. Irene’s Taproom Timothy Chapman and friend
73. All together now at Stardust Pinbar
74. Jennyfer and Brad at Fiat Lux
75. Samantha Lyn Aasen’s “For Her Time” at Eye Lounge
76. Snapped this posse at Brian Boner’s show
77. Another Friday at the Lost Leaf
78. Kellye and Raul at Fiat Lux gallery
79. Ernesto and friends at Lost Leaf
80. Time for a refill at Fiat Lux
81. Fred Tieken’s opening at Royse Contemporary
82. Grant and Jimmy at Eye Lounge
83. End of the night at Stardust Pinbar

BidUP!
Silent Auction Fundraiser
Fri, Nov 15 (6-8 pm)
Exhibition / Preview: Nov 12-15, 2019
FREE & OPEN to the PUBLIC!
CORINNE GEERTSEN, Intermission,
Digital photo collage, printed with
archival ink on archival paper,
13½ x 15½ inches
• Live Music by The Dusty
Ramblers Project Large Band
• Premiere of 2020 Art
Print Calendar
• Cash Bar & Sweet Treats
MARK MCDOWELL, Stilt Walker, Polymer Relief Print.
From 2020 Print Calendar.
1 East Main Street • Mesa, AZ 85201 • 480-644-6560 • MesaArtsCenter.com

Featuring CAMELBACK FLOWERSHOP founder,
Teresa Wilson, in Jacques Marie Mage Bacall Optical,
See more portraits #YOUINEWE
FOUR YEARS IN A ROW!
Thank EWE Phoenix for naming us BEST EYEWEAR
in this yearʼs Phoenix New Times BEST OF PHOENIX.

squidsoup @smoca
Murmuration
November 2019 – May 2020
Squidsoup returns to SMoCA this November with Murmuration a new site-specific artwork that uses a
networked data systems to connect hundreds of lights and audio sources, creating a responsive data swarm.
During the daytime, Murmuration offers a harmonious auditory experience, but when
the sun goes down, a dynamic audiovisual experience swirls around the Museum like
its namesake—a term for a flock of starlings whirling in unison through the sky.
Related Event: Artist Talk: Squidsoup: Thursday, November 7 I 7 p.m.
Organized by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Curated by Julie Ganas, Curator of Programming.
Image: Squidsoup, Murmuration (rendering), 2019.
SMoCA.org I 7374 East Second Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 I 480-874-4666