ABOUT THE SHOW - DEVELOPMENT

Hello everyone! Thanks for taking the time to peruse through this blog about my first multimedia show. The process is a bit daunting, especially with the other projects that are occurring simultaneously. However, I am excited for April.

This process began back in 2007, when my good friend Mariela Baez helped me put together my application for the ATLAS fellowship at CU Boulder. As soon as I read about the fellowship on AMC's opportunity update, I started my application. The chance for an "evening length" artistic work intrigued me. Within that time, I was also working on a 30-minute song cycle, utilizing the Preamble to the US Constitution, the first 2 paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Up until that point, that was my longest piece, and I had always envisioned of composing something longer, and more involved.

The Book of Job has been something that has fascinated me ever since reading it in Mr. Roberts's English class my senior year of high school. He encouraged us to think reflectively and analytically upon every word we read, and I plunged into the Book of Job with great enthusiasm. I must admit, I was more of a Christian then than I am now, but I still believe that the Bible can speak volumes to anyone who wants to listen, even if it is by way of a Kiekegaardian "indirect learning". Consequently, I used this as the impetus for an evening-length project, and immediately finalized the parts. Mariela, my dearest friend, found the perfect material for the last part, and sealed the deal on my application.

Fortunately, I got into the school, and received CU Boulder's first ATLAS Fellowship.

Wanting more private time to focus on the show, I applied for a residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. I was lucky enough to have spent 4 weeks during the summer of 2009 in my own private studio in Nebraska City, working on the nuts and bolts of the show. It was here that I talked to other artists about the show - a wonderful writer named Allison Landa, 2 excellent photographers named Emily Momohara and Naomi Shersty, an NEA Grant Recipient writer named Sarah Freligh, and two visual artists named Erika Navarrete and Neva Sills. The time spent here was absolutely necessary to the artistic process, and I achieved so much.

It's 2011, and I am putting the finishing touches on the music and the text for the show. I will later start the myriad of video work and patches, and wrap it all up by March. It is, indeed, a load of work. But I love it, and I'm looking forward to sharing the end result with as many people as I can.