Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? - Revelations! By Bondo Wyszpolski
Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? - Revelations!
By Bondo Wyszpolski
Nancy Sewell - Crying Paper Tears
The artists, the art, and the music inspired by the art—explained and performed live
Saturday, Nov. 6, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Palos Verdes Art Center
Last month, right about this time, “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” opened in the upstairs gallery at the Palos Verdes Art Center. It featured the work of 34 artists, each of whom had created a picture based on a title which they had—apprehensively!—drawn from the inside of a fortune cookie (the original “fortune” having been removed). These “titles,” my contributions to the project, included “Waking Up In My Halloween Costume,” “From Swan Lake to Swanee River,” and “Who’s Whistling at My Antiquities?” Clearly, from the start, this wasn’t going to be a show with lots of sunsets over the ocean, family picnics, or one’s favorite pets.
Aaron Westerberg - I Fell in Love with a Woman from the Spanish Armada
As successful as the evening was (with due credit to the exquisite “Eugene Daub: Monumental” in the more expansive downstairs gallery), there was one aspect of “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” that didn’t go over as well as we had hoped.
Brad Webster - Grant and Carol Hungerford - Photo by Philicia Endelman
Over the last year and a half, in an effort to enrich the show even further, Brad Webster has been writing music centered around the lyrics that I have been writing, these lyrics based on my impression of each work of art. In other words, the titles inspired the pictures, the pictures inspired the lyrics, and the lyrics in turn inspired the music. There are, to date, about 21 or 22 completed songs, and at the opening last month Brad was on hand—a “human jukebox,” I called him—to key in each song, as requested, which could be listened to while at the same time viewing the image it referred to, projected on the large screen in the atrium. Additionally, the lyrics scrolled along the bottom of each image. All that was missing was the bouncing ball.
Opening night reception - photo by Philicia Endelman
However, with perhaps a couple of hundred people in the venue and doing what people tend to do at large gatherings—eating, drinking, talking, laughing—it was difficult to hear the music and Brad’s explanations of it.
This was a setback of sorts, not completely unexpected, but we weren’t deterred.
And Now It Becomes Clearer
What underpins “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” is, collectively, all of the artists who volunteered to take part in the show. One can enjoy their work in person for the duration of the exhibition, which is up through Nov. 13, view it on the PV Art Center website or by going to areyouthinkingwhatimthinking.art.
Artists
To gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of the show, the public is invited to attend a free event at the Palos Verdes Art Center on Saturday, Nov. 6, from 2 to 4 p.m., in which emcee Bernard Fallon will first summarize how this “art challenge” came about and evolved (it had originally been scheduled to open in March of 2020). This includes a spinning or two of the Wheel of Fortune on which the original fortune cookies with their titles were attached. Several artists will briefly explain their initial reactions to the title they ended up with and how they set about expanding it into their eventual artwork. Furthermore, the lyricist (me) will say a few words about creating the little “narrative” that fleshes out each image, and interwoven with this will be more detailed explanations by the composer about how he set about capturing the essence of the lyrics within the framework of each song. He’ll also perform a select number of songs live, so in effect this will be a mini-concert as well.
Carol Hungerford - photo by Philicia Endelman
Audience members, who will be able to view an image of each song while it is being played, will then be able to ask questions, to comment, criticize, or praise what they hear. There will be wine, and limited refreshments. Many of the artists will be on hand throughout the afternoon to personally discuss their participation in the show.
Don Crocker - photo by Philicia Endelman
It promises to be an enlightening and perhaps delightful afternoon, and, again, it’s free to the public. Of course, Covid protocols will be in effect.
The Palos Verdes Art Center is located at 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. (310) 541-2479 or visit pvartcenter.org.
Many of you have seen Bondo Wyszpolski with notepad and camera in hand at all kinds of community events, ready for interviews and photo shoots. Bondo has also reviewed thousands of plays, movies, concerts, books, art shows and operas. He prefers the Baroque operas by Henry Purcell and Handel, while his favorites among modern composers are Sergei Rachmaninoff and Ralph Vaughn Williams, and he also enjoys some African music. He favors the Symbolist painters of the 1890s and though he studied the standard authors from Poe to Hemingway in college, he now reads mostly foreign writers such as Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago and Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Colombia, both Nobel Prize winners. In fact, it was after The Los Angeles Times published one of Bondo’s book reviews that Kevin Cody, the owner and publisher of the Easy Reader, hired Bondo full time as an arts and entertainment editor in 1993. Before that Bondo wrote for the now-defunct Beach Cities Newspapers. Bondo grew up in Palos Verdes Estates, attended Lunada Bay Elementary School, Margate Middle School, and Palos Verdes High School.
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