Painting the world with sound - more art and music

report filed 2/22/00 7:58 am - Deadline madness here at Anytime/Anywhere Studios. Under the proverbial editorial gun for two features due this Friday. The first is an -Artist Profile- on Psydecar, the other is a look at Mp3 music downloads. The Mp3 piece will attempt to separate hype from reality while answering the question: is it worth an independent band's time to get involved with Mp3 technology as it currently exists? Look for both articles to be posted here next time.

This week's journal entry focuses on Kristina Woodruff, a very accomplished autistic savant artist whose works have won numerous awards, and exhibited in many traditional and digital art shows. We are proud to feature a couple of Kristina's paintings this journal entry.

Here's an excerpt from Kristina's official bio: Buildings and holiday subjects are a couple of Kristina's favorite subjects. She has intuitive perspective skills and wonderful color abilities. Kristina has received wide recognition for her card, T-shirt, bookmark and print designs. She has also sold many original pieces. Besides using traditional mediums, Kristina enjoys drawing on the Macintosh computer using a Wacom tablet. Her computer art has appeared in several books and publications, Also she has appeared as a featured artist on the PBS Computer Chronicles and NTV Art Time in Japan. Kristina's savant talents also extend into music. She can recognize a piece of music within a few notes and her knowledge of classical music is phenomenal. She is a passionate guitar player. At times a piece she is playing will stir her so much that she will break into tears. Kristina studies art/computer art privately with Kathleen Blavatt and attends art classes at St. Madeleine Sophie's Center (a training center for developmentally disabled adults in El Cajon). Kristina studies classical guitar with Paul Grinvalsky.

Check out Kathleen Blavatt's website for more info.

Folks in San Diego can view a few of Kristina's paintings and sketch's currently on exhibit inside the Newbreak At the Beach coffee house in Ocean Beach. A hip hangout situated directly across the street from the ocean, the Newbreak occasionally hosts an evening of live music. Such an occasion will be happening on March 7th, when Kristina will perform as part of a documentary being filmed by the Australian Broadcast Company. Showtime is 6:30. Anyone interested in attending can contact Kathleen Blavatt at 619-222-0057 for more info.

On the topic of paintings, got a couple of CD's over the past week or two that have cool cover art.

Stir Fried will have a new CD soon called The Last of the Blue Diamond Miners, but in the mean time they've released a 'two song teaser,' for their faithful fans. 'West Of the Mississippi,' is a lively little hoedown of pedal steel twangin', banjo pluckin' proportions. 'The Door is Still Open" is more of a bluesy rocker, a sing-along-shuffle-down-the-highway in 4/4 time. Can't wait to hear the whole album...

The Motet, a very interesting band from Colorado, also sent a CD with outstanding art. Not only does Breathe look good, it sounds good too. Check out our CD review for the scoop.

Alrighty then, what else do we have goin' on... posted a feature on one of the hottest bands currently on the scene, Sector 9. If all goes well, we'll be able to catch Sector 9's upcoming show at Winstons on Sunday and have some photos posted here next week.

Gotta hand it to cub reporter and slide master AG for keeping us up to date on WMO's US Winter Tour 2000. Rumor has it that a cache of photos are enroute as this journal entry finds its way to cyberspace. Look for those to be posted sometime soon (as in, as soon as we get 'em).

OK, that's the buzz - more later...