AMERICAN MOSAIC - Sam Gilliam: A Painter Who Always Tries So

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Sam Gilliam: A Painter Who Always Tries Something New
By Dana Demange, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Friday, December 09, 2005

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HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We hear some jazz music …

Report about pets still being rescued since Hurricane Katrina …

And tell about an art show in Washington, D.C.

Sam Gilliam

Today we visit a museum in Washington, D.C. to learn about an important contemporary painter named Sam Gilliam. Shirley Griffith tells us more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: A new exhibition of Sam Gilliam's work is at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This show represents the many artistic² developments Gilliam has made and continues to make during his many years as a painter.

 
"Light Depth," a 1969 work
Sam Gilliam began painting as part of an art movement called the Washington Color School. This group of painters began working in the nineteen sixties in Washington, D.C. They made artworks that were colorful and abstract. Abstract means that there are no recognizable objects represented in the painting. Instead, abstract artists cover their painting surfaces with non-representational forms and colors.

Sam Gilliam first became famous in the late nineteen sixties for his "draped" paintings. To make these, he spread many colors of paint onto large pieces of canvas³ material. But he did not stretch these canvases⁴ onto wooden forms like most painters do. Instead, he let them hang freely from the wall. These colorful pieces of flowing fabric⁵ are paintings, but they are also very theatrical⁶ sculptures.

Experts say Sam Gilliam is interesting because he has always explored new methods of painting. He does not make the same kind of art over and over just because it is popular. Instead, Gilliam works to discover new artistic possibilities.

 
Sam Gilliam
For example, in the show at the Corcoran, you can see his "black paintings" from the nineteen seventies. To make these, he poured thick black paint onto a colorful canvas. The black paint dried in bursting layers. Through the uneven⁷ surface you can see small amounts of color. In the next room of the museum, you can see the wooden painted sculptures from yet another time in his career. What remains⁸ the same through all of these periods, however, is Gilliam's love of color.

Sam Gilliam's latest art is completely different from past periods. He is now making smooth paintings on wood. Each painting has only one color. But the shiny perfection⁹ of the painted surfaces is very beautiful.

Katrina Pet Rescue

HOST: The severe ocean storm called Hurricane Katrina struck three American Gulf¹⁰ Coast states last August. It killed at least one thousand three hundred people. Many of the people who survived lost their homes, their jobs – and their pet animals. Now, more than three months later, people are still searching for their lost pets. Faith Lapidus tells us more.

 
A cat, saved from Katrina, waits at a shelter
FAITH LAPIDUS: One of the worst storms in American history separated a black and white cat named Sly¹¹ from his owner, Alison Wells. Miz Wells was forced to leave the cat behind when she fled her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. The hurricane also destroyed plans she made for his care while she was gone.

But this story has a happy ending. The five-year-old cat is safely back with Miz Wells in her home in New Orleans. Animal rescuers and an Internet Web site called Petfinder.com reunited the two last month.

It was a long way home for Sly. First, people who found him in the street took him to an emergency shelter in the nearby state of Mississippi. Other rescuers later took him all the way to their shelter in New York City. That is where the reunion took place.

The New York rescuers were from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. They put a picture of Sly on Petfinder.com. The site is one of a number helping¹² to connect animals with their humans.

One animal aid agency says fifteen thousand dogs, cats, horses, birds and farm animals were saved after the hurricane. But today, many pets remain unclaimed. Like Sly, rescued pets were sent to shelters and animal welfare centers all over the country. Distance makes it difficult to connect many owners with their pets.

Some organizations that saved animals are small, like the Hamptons group. Others are huge, like the Humane¹³ Society of the United States and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Humane Society has helped organize more than one thousand two hundred reunions of people and their pets so far.

Jazz

HOST: Our VOA listener question for this week comes from Gurpinar, Turkey. Suat Atan asks about the birth of jazz music in America and if the English word comes from the Arabic word jazb.

 
Jazzman, New Orleans-style
Jazz is often called the only true American music. Many different kinds of music helped to create jazz. In the eighteen eighties, African-Americans created blues¹⁴ music from church music and sad songs from the time of slavery. In large cities, African-Americans mixed these songs with music from other immigrants. Sounds from West African, Spanish, French and even Arabic cultures can be heard in jazz music. In this way, jazz is like American culture. Jazz brings together many ideas from around the world to make something new.

Here is American jazz artist Duke Ellington with a song influenced by Middle Eastern sounds, "Caravan¹⁵."

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There are many different ideas about where the word jazz came from. Some experts think that the word jazz borrows ideas from many different languages. They think that people may have made up their own word to describe the excitement of hearing and playing a new kind of music.

Books on jazz music do not mention the Arabic word jazb. But Middle Eastern music and jazz have similar sounds. Both kinds of musicians like to make up the song as they play and create their own sounds using many different instruments. Several musicians from the Middle East have come to America to study jazz. They mix traditional jazz sounds with music from their own countries. This kind of jazz is called fusion¹⁶ and is one of the most popular forms of jazz in America today.

We leave you with the song "Blue Flame" by jazz fusion artist Simon (se-MONE) Shaheen.

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HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program.

Our show was written by Dana Demange, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver¹⁷ was our producer.

Send your questions about American life to [email protected]. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

3 canvas   

n.粗帆布，一块油画布

参考例句：

• The times that people used canvas boat have become history.人们用帆船的时代已成为历史。
• Smith painted an oil painting on the canvas.史密斯在画布上画了一幅油画。

4 canvases   

n.帆布( canvas的名词复数 )；油画（布）

参考例句：

• a sale of the artist's early canvases 那位画家早期油画的拍卖
• I should look deep into the canvases of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt. 我要仔细端详拉斐尔、达芬奇、提香和瑞姆布兰特的油画。 来自辞典例句

5 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

6 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

7 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 perfection   

n.尽善尽美，无比精确

参考例句：

• Their works reach to a great height of perfection.他们的作品到了极完美的境地。
• The picture wants something of perfection.这幅画还有些不够完美。

10 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

11 sly   

adj.狡猾的，偷偷摸摸的

参考例句：

• You can't trust him,he's a sly old fox.你不能相信他，他是一只狡猾的老狐狸。
• I was ready to sly out the alley door.我准备从那边小门溜出去。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

14 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

15 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

16 fusion   

n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。

17 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。