The Commission on Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce that it has launched a new show, “artSPARK,” on Access St. Tammany. “artSpark” is about the process of making art—all kinds of art. From visual arts and music to culinary, literary, and the performing arts, the show takes the audience into artists’ studios as they share how they do what they do.
To kick off the series, the Commission on Cultural Affairs visited the Covington studio of master ceramist Dennis Sipiorski. Sipiorski is a Wisconsin native who made his home in Louisiana more than 25 years ago. Sipiorski is a master ceramist, painter, and photographer. He chooses these mediums for the unique qualities they bring to his finished pieces. He can be most easily characterized as a storyteller whose images come from many sources—including his adoptive home’s flora and fauna—to illustrate a universal narrative of significance in ordinary subjects.
Sipiorski received his MFA from Notre Dame University and BS from the University of Wisconsin. He is professor and chair of the Visual Arts Department at Southeastern Louisiana University since 2003. He also taught at Nicholls State University for 23 years and chaired the Art Department for 11 years. His work can be seen at www.devilswampstudios.com/ds/.
The second artist featured on the artSpark series is Mandeville guitarist/vocalist Christian Serpas. Serpas discusses his process as a song writer taking you through the life of a song from paper to a final recording.
Serpas performs throughout the Southeast region, playing a style of revved-up, boot-stomping, American honky-tonk music with his band Christian Serpas & Ghost Town. Ghost Town has shared the stage with the likes of Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Montgomery Gentry, Kenny Chesney and over 50 others, performing throughout the Gulf South.
The band has released four recordings, earning accolades along the way. Giddy Up and Six Pack were both named one of the Top CDs of the Year by Offbeat Magazine and nominated Louisiana Country Album of the Year in their Best of the Beat Awards. The band was also nominated Best Country/Folk Band in Gambit magazine’s 2007 Big Easy Awards. In 2006, Christian received the President’s Arts Award for St. Tammany Parish Musician of the Year, and Tambalaya Magazine readers voted Ghost Town's debut, Electric Hoedown, Album of the Year and Serpas its Male Vocalist of the Year.
Currently Serpas is recording songs for a new CD at Covington’s Sound Landing Recording Studio. It is here that Access TV visited with him to talk about the life of a song.
The March artists of the month will be Elizabeth Moore and Alice Couvillon, who will discuss the process of working together to write their books. They are both native Louisianans and residents of Covington. They also are the authors of Pelican’s Louisiana Indian Tales, Mimi’s First Mardi Gras and Mimi and Jean-Paul’s Cajun Mardi Gras. In March 2010, they will release a new boo, Ancient Mounds of Watson Break. Artist Marilyn Carter Rougelot, also of Covington, provides illustrations for their books.
artSPARK airs Mondays at 7:00 PM, Wednesdays at 6:00 PM, and Sundays at 9:00 AM on Access-TV Channel 10, or streaming live at www.stpgov.org. For additional dates and times you can go to the Access-TV schedule at www.stpgov.org/accesstv.php. Click “Access TV” at the top right of your screen to start watching, and you can catch all your favorite local shows.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LUKE’S BRISKET AND BROADWAY
Feb. 12 through March 6th: “Take My Husband Please!” Friday and Saturday nights only, Lukes Brisket and Broadway Dinner Theatre presents Take My Husband Please! This door slamming comedy, directed by Christine Barnhill Tramel, stars Grace Marshall, Fred Martinez, Katie Lynn Cotaya, Eric Generes, Patrick Rouse and Karin Elmore. Doors open at 6:30. $40.00 per person for dinner and show. Reservations: 985-781-6565 or www.brisketandbroadway.com
Playmaker’s Theatre
“Sylvia” by A.R. Gurney. Directed by Kay Files. March 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21. Cast: Greg, John Carambat; Kate, Debbie Carambat; Sylvia, Wendy Schneider; Phyllis, Jane McNulty; Leslie, Liz Zelenka; Tom, Martin Booda. Reservations: 985-893-1671.
Cutting Edge Productions
Regional premier of Matthew Wilkas and Mark Setlock’s, “Pageant Play.” February 19 - March 6. Directed by Brian Fontenot. This play welcomes the audience to the hilarious, terrifying and surreal world of child beauty pageants. Pinky Corningfield will do anything to make sure her little angel wins the ultimate title, Supreme Queen. Performances will be 8pm Fridays and Saturdays from February 19 through March 6. Tickets are $17.00 For more imformation call 985-290-0760, or visit www.cuttingesgeproductions.org.