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pictures from videos
Earth Prayer, an Incantation in Movement, Images, and Sound

9 minutes, 2018
A collaboration with Hope Schultz, a dancer from SAFMOD and Lisa Miralia, a local and extraordinary sound artist working with electronic sources. This piece was initially created to be shown projected as a large video backdrop with the dancer performing live onstage with her own image and the musician improvising a powerful and formulated response to the combination of images and the dance. It was shot in a green screen studio. I recorded the images of the dancer as still photographs from which I constructed an animated version of the dance. This allowed me to translate the movement into an other-earthly movement akin to those portrayed in Butoh, somewhat like the live reanimations of Jan Svankmajer. I have intentionally combined images of varying tempos to create feelings of opposition and harmony . In editing I layered the dance with images of our planet, both in its beauty and plight. I have sought to use my art to express my feelings about the Earth, our fragile planet, driven by its powerful nature, at war with our own destructive tendencies. I have experimented using motion pictures to express my own visions of what is happening in our modern world pointing towards the destruction of life and our need to pay heed.


Flower Power, a Trip Back in Time

2014. Made initially for the Maria Neil three person exhibition, Flower Power. I put out a call for people to show up on Coventry Rd. one Saturday to film a recreation of hippie days, summer of love in the Cleveland area. Many came. The resulting footage was manipulated with filters. The video showed concurrently in the gallery's window for the duration of the exhibition. 2015 This video played to a live music soundtrack performed by Richie Kindler on sitar and Cliff Snyder on flute during the Standing Rock International Shorts Festival.


Frank Green, An Artist's Life

2013. A memorial video to commemorate the life of Frank Green, performance artist and friend. Shown first at the Beachland Ballroom Celebration of the Life of Frank Green.


Water Cycle, six vignettes on the theme of water

2012. Six video vignettes arranged in a linear fashion along the theme of water and its importance, power, and presence in our lives. Women=Source. Compiled from six works produced since 2009. ...vimeo water cycle

 

 


Footloose promo

2012. The CMSD All City Musical. Produced by Cynthia Penter while she was Photo/Video Director on the DAE staff of Cleveland's All City Arts Program. ... Footloose promo on You Tube


Monica MzDrummer, Hit Like a Girl

2012. Produced entry music video for MzDrummer, Cleveland, Ohio for the national contest, Hit Like a Girl. ...youtube Hit Like a Girl


L'Avation: A Dance Concert, Rainey Institute

2012. A multi camera recording of student and professional dancers. ...vimeo My Homecoming (pt.6 L'Avation) . ...vimeo My Soul Cries Out (pt.3 L'Avation)


Gale Force

2011. Filmed at and first shown during 48 Hours of Making Art, Lake Erie College. ...vimeo Gale Force


Various video productions, Cleveland School of the Arts and Cleveland All-City Arts

2011 through 2012. While Director of the C.M.S.D. All-City Arts Photo and Video Ensemble and Visiting Artist at the Cleveland School of Art, I produced, recorded, and edited many video products for these linked institutions, including promos, school musicals (The Lorax, No Room for Ordinary, etc), various performances of the other arts ensembles, the summer P.A.S.S. Institute for teachers, Arts Friday productions, performance at Rock Your World, and more. I also guided students in various video and photo events and productions, as I taught these media over two years.


Bubblin' Brown Sugar promo

2011. The CMSD All City Musical. Produced by Cynthia Penter while she was Photo/Video Director on the DAE staff of Cleveland's All City Arts Program. Shown at Rock Your World with STEAM.


Cleave/Verge

2010. A film created for on stage use with Antaeus Dance Theatre....vimeo Cleave Verge Film only


...vimeo Cleave Verge Onstage with Film

 


Winter Play

2010. A collaboration with musician, Brad Bolton commissioned for the Standing Rock International Short Film & Video Festival. Performed live. ...vimeo Winter Play


Walk Me Out

2008. A dance video shot in multiple locations with Laurel VanMetre, based on the Jeff Beck song of the same name. It is a meditation on death. This video was then screened with a live performance of the same music by Root Doctor, at both Owl Hill, an end of summer festival, and at the following year Standing Rock International Shorts Festival. ...vimeo Walk Me Out


Amuse l'Oeil

6 min. 2008 Three short animations made with still images, green screen technique, Photoshop, Imageready, Final Cut Pro and motion tools, Flash, etc. Included in the loopable DVD are Fairy Berry Farm, Kwan Yin Fishing and The Journey, with music Morning Song, by Ravi Shankar. Choreography and dance by Laurel VanMetre. ...vimeo Kwan Yin Fishing


Fundraising video for the Cleveland Treatment Center

2008. The Cleveland Treatment Center provides activities and guidance programs for youth at risk.; Made while I taught a series of workshops to students attending this treatment program.


The Diary of Sally Hemings, an Opera

2008. An hour long opera about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. This was presented and videotaped at Case Western University.


A Walk on the Beach

15 min., 2006 Filmed in high definition during 48 Hours of Making Art at Lake Erie College. The piece is simply what it says, a walk on the beach. My hope was to recreate the experience two dancing girls had going towards a lighthouse, to embellish the experience with a simple narrative, and to craft it simply using only sequencing, cuts, and dissolves so as to let the images speak for themselves. Shot in High Definition video.


ArtWorks

2005 A series of video works following a two-week shoot documenting a unique program that employed area youth to make art and to design a performance in collaboration with area artists. Included is an hour-long video of the performance for local broadcast, as well as a highlight video of the two-week process and documentation of visiting lecturers. Sponsored by Forest City with YAGC.


VAT Movie (Visual Arts and Technologies Environment at CIA)

12 min., 2004 The VAT environment commissioned me to produce a video to showcase our area, which includes Painting, Film, Video and Photography, and Sculpture. What I created was a visual experience of processes and product and people set to an East Indian techno beat.


Various videos for ICARE / Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland

2002 through 2004 A series of approx. 25 short videos (5 to 10 minutes each) commissioned by ICARE and Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland to highlight various arts programs, artists, or recipients of the Annual Arts Educators Awards 2002. Each video includes numerous interviews, scanned artwork, music, text, footage of events, arts performances, and demonstrations of art process and student involvement.


Hybrids (In a Time of War, Spring Returns)

8 min., 2003 A video collaboration with Mike Hovansich and Pointless Orchestra that was played with live music at a weekend-long multimedia performance called The Birth Project in April 2003 at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Kent. Dance by Christina Anderson. ...vimeo Hybrids: In a Time of War


Halle School: Options at the Crossroads

30 min., 2001 The culmination of a year-long experience with a group of inner-city Option School students at the Cleveland Learning Center. This video is a documentary about what makes this school special and how it allowed its students to get back on the right path. Shooting and interviews by the students, themselves. Training and editing by C. Penter and T. Laufer.


Passion is an Art Form

8.5 min., 2000 A digitally produced video about the process of creation. Music by The Horseflies and dance by Christina Anderson. Processed at the Experimental TV Center in Owego, New York. Edited during 48 Hours of Making Art at Lake Erie College.


Quilt Square for Diane

30 min., 2000 A souvenir portrait of a friend, a tribute to her life. In 1988 Diane died of AIDS. This is not the entire story. With love. Excerpts from my films, Doreeya Luna / Pira Luna (1982) and Images of Women (1985), as well as the dance number from On the Town and the lament from Madame Butterfly. Original music by Julie Akerlund. Additional images by Diane and Amy Burt. Poems by Diane performed by Alice Cone and Major Ragain.


Cancer Dance

5 min., 1997 A reaffirmation dance while dealing with a precancerous condition. Digital and electronic manipulation of images. Produced at the Experimental TV Center.


Velvet Mink

6 min., 1997 Digitally processed and edited music video piece made for my nephew, Josh Nelson, who composed the music. Produced at the Experimental TV Center.


To Cast a Spell

14 min., 1997 An experimental instructional video on the subject of magic and spell casting. Interviews and dramatization. Includes footage made digitally.


The Carmagnole Trilogy

A three-part dance video produced at the Experimental TV Center:
Danse macabre des femmes (the Women's Dance of Life against Death)

11 min., 1996 Based on a 14th century French manuscript and a medieval dance. With choreography by Kathleen Davis Pierce and danced by the Fairmount Spanish Dancers, a company of ten women. This piece explores the rage to live against the inevitability of death. Digital and electronic manipulation.


Lotus Dance (in the Balance)

11 min., 1995 Based on choreography by Lynette Welnicki Morrow, music by Yo Yo Ma, and the Buddhist Heart Sutra, this is an experimental dance piece about living in the balance between life's oppositions. Many special effects of image manipulation have been combined into a choreographed collage (among them keyed mattes, colorization, SEG effects, double exposures, frame buffs, time manipulations, sequencers, Amiga toaster, C.G., and more). A visual display of techniques with heart and rhythm.


Liberation (the Beginning of Life)

6 min., 1996 Based on a passage from Gibran's The Prophet, this video dance poem expresses the joys and fears connected with birth. Choreographed and danced by Lynette W. Morrow in her ninth month of pregnancy, it is a subtle and beautiful expression of affirmation.


Magical Me Movie

1 min., 1990? My first foray into digital video. A small experiment, pre larger formats, to introduce me as a media artist. Made after my trip to Greece 1986. ...youtube Magical Me Movie


Play Gypsy, Dance Gypsy: the Ernie King Documentary

58 min., in progress Music and interviews of 82-year-old virtuoso Hungarian born violinist, Ernie King (aka Kiraly Erno), of Middlefield, O. Commissioned as part of a joint OAC/OHC traditional arts project. This project is being completed in a digital format thanks to KSU SML.


The Last Night, Live at JB's, 15-60-75

in progress A music video of a local progressive jazz/blues band closing down the club where they have been house band for the last 26 years. SEG and color and key manipulations.


Women of Song

29 min., 1990 Various female musicians recorded between 1987 and 1990. What bound these women for me thematically was their strength, beauty and conviction. Performances by Valerie Depriest, Hazel Dickens, Maura O'Connell, and the Rude Girls.


Arraignment

20 min., 1989
Fever

15 min., 1989
5 Letters from Jane (Bowles)

28 min., 1989
Three performance pieces presented by Frank Green, a former New York performance artist now residing in Cleveland. The piece about Jane Bowles examines the mental condition of an artist as her physical condition deteriorates. ...vimeo 5 Letters for Jane Bowles


The 22nd Annual Kent State University Folk Festival

2 programs, 58 min. each, 1989 Two concerts are presented in a multi-camera production. Concert #1 features the Mellow Harps (a steel drum band), the Rude Girls (feminist songs with a blend of sarcasm), John McCutcheon (hammer dulcimer virtuoso), and the Horseflies (a Neo Wave Bluegrass band from Ithaca, N.Y.). Concert #2 showcases the dancing ensemble Rhythm-in-Shoes, Vassar Clements with the Ed Foley Trio, and Hazel Dickens, one of America's finest coal miner's daughters.


Dennis Brutus: Thoughts and Poetry of a Man in Exile

58 min., 1988 Dennis Brutus, South African poet, addresses the reality of apartheid. Music by Halim El Dabh.


Amish Country, Burton, Ohio

15 min., 1988 An ambient mixture of visuals and sounds of the farms, animals, buggies and daily endeavors of those who lead "simple lives."


Cuyahoga Valley Festival 1988

58 min., 1988 A multi-camera production of highlights of the 1988 Cuyahoga Valley Festival (presented by the National Park Service). This year's show features performances by Bogan and Armstrong, the Appalachian Travelers, Kapelye (a Klezmer band), African drummers, the Anatolian Trio, and the Sterling Trio (with Jerry Douglas and Maura O'Connell.)


Sing Your Songs Softly, My Companeros

58.5 min., 1988 University of Akron. A half-hour concert of liberation songs by folk singer Valerie Depriest followed by workshops and a panel discussion of the 1988 Central American Solidarity Association.


Cambodian Refugees' New Year's Celebration, Columbus, Ohio

28 min., 1988 Highlights of a local event to keep alive cultural traditions, sponsored by the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.


Fiddlin' Around

58 min., 1987 Highlights of the 1987 Cuyahoga Valley Festival featuring performances by local and national acts including country star Johnny Gimble, Howard Armstrong (alias Louie Bluie), and dancers, instrument makers, craftsmen, and more. ...vimeo Dance section, Fiddlin' Around


American Friends Service Committee presents Mike Simmons

58 min., 1987 Lecture by Mike Simmons of the National AFSC office on the historic voting patterns of blacks in this country and how they can affect the outcome of elections.


Amnesty International Seminar on the Death Penalty

30 min., 1987 A documentary of a seminar at the University of Akron debating the effectiveness and ethics of the death penalty, with special emphasis on the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the racial bias of U.S. court sentencing. With commentary by Robert Domer, author and former inmate on death row.


Invasion ... of Privacy

58 min., 1985 Beginning with a grave-side interview of one happy widow, the crew enters the unlocked and sometimes uninhabited abodes of seven friends to reveal their secrets and in the final segment opens their own closet doors!


Other video work has included:

video camera operator on "The Scarlet Letters," a performance piece at Cleveland Public Theater by Frank Green; projects with students in film program at KSU; camera operator on taping of the 1988 KSU Folk Festival; volunteer worker at the 1988 Ohio Valley National Federation of Local Cable Programmers (NFLCP) Conference; PSAs for various organizations including those done in official capacity as videographer for Cuyahoga Valley Festival; edited tapes made for NEA and OAC applications submitted on behalf of the National Park System; audition tapes for various bands; other taping for local community organizations; four-year involvement with the Warner Cable Access Program(Akron/Wadsworth); crew member for local video productions; and other short, ambient video pieces.