COCKY, the catalog, is a documentation of an exhibition that occurred from November 19, 2010 through Saturday, December 4, 2010. It was a conversation between the artist and his critics over the past seven years of creating work. This dynamic new body of work demonstrates Shumate’s mastery of storytelling while merging new contemporary pieces with the classical concepts from DuChamp to Ruscha. The semi-autobiographical show includes an exciting variety of multimedia experiences for its viewers. Central to the exhibition is the anthology of a contemporary cock.The familiar rooster, icon of domesticity chosen for both its regality and absurdity, takes on a multitude of forms throughout the exhibition. Each piece is a rhetorical answer to today’s artistic questions of criticism, aesthetics, and concepts- and finds humor in the sincerity of its execution.

Tom Palazzolo began making films about Chicago in 1964 while a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Coming from St. Louis, he saw Chicago with fresh eyes and began a four-decade career documenting “the city of big shoulders.” Mayor Richard Daley, the riots at the 1969 Democratic Convention, the ethnic festivals and neighborhoods, wedding showers, the Nazis of Marquette Park, and the legendary Maxwell Street have all been captured by the Palazzolo lens.

In 1999 Palazzolo looked back on old film footage and photographs he had shot while living near Clark Street in the mid 1960’s, images that documented an amazing contrast the Chicago of today. Gone were the flop-houses, vintage barber shops, and colorful street people. They had been replaced by financial office towers, trendy restaurants and bars, and people in business attire. Palazzolo’s nostalgic reminiscence blends his vintage footage with the new, and “On Clark Street” is a poignant recollection of those times and the Chicago that once was.

This CINEapp contains the entire film, amazing photographs of the residents of Clark Street, a POV written interview with Palazzolo by Robert Rayher, an essay by Jack Stevenson and commentary about the film’s premier on PBS in Chicago.
Take another look at the Chicago of the past, and further explore other aspects of this award winning film by a legendary filmmaker from Chicago.

THIS STATE I’M IN is the “true” story of Truey Kemah Shivers, a teenage girl filled with adolescent wanderlust and curiosity and completely dissatisfied with her uneventful life on the Texas coastal plain.  When she can no longer tolerate the shabbiness and domestic squabbles of home, Truey decides to make a run for it and seek her fortunes elsewhere.  She rows away into the Gulf of Mexico where she is swept up in a ferocious hurricane.

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Welcome to the surrealist parlor game, Exquisite Corpse, now on the iPad. Exquisite Corpse is a drawing journey into chance encounters with surprising juxtapositions. You as an artist participant in creating a composition on the drawing panel, and then pass it to another person without them knowing what exactly you have created. Play from two to up to five panels! No drawing skill needed!

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Smile & Relax is an award winning short independent film made inside a photo-booth machine. This app includes the film, the script, commentary, photo strip stills, and an essay.

Before Apple attached the term to its iSight software, the photo booth was a vending machine that had an automated camera and film processor.  Much like a confessional, the photo booth contained a seat designed for one or two patrons. Once the quarters were dropped into a slot, the photo booth began to take a series of photographs.  A light or a buzzer went off before each photograph was snapped signaling the patron to pose. After the last photograph in the series had been shot, the photo booth began developing the film,  a process which took several minutes. The anticipation of seeing the final results was part of the fun.

The modern concept of the photo booth with a curtain, screen or other material covering the background and entrance originated with Anatol Josepho in 1925 with the first machine appearing on Broadway in New York City.

The curtain provided privacy, which allowed subjects to create a fantasy or an illusion of themselves, a private performance piece that was documented in four parts.

The term “smile & relax” was one of the written “tips” inside the machine for good results.

“Smile & Relax spins a yarn through time-lapse and motion control photography with the assistance of a photo booth machine. The subject, an aspiring dancer, recounts a tale of love and affection while moving through a calliope of self portraits. Beautiful and heinous, happy and sad, smart and silly, are just a few of the emotions locked and loaded in a repeating volley of images thrown at viewers (the photos are the actual film strips from the photo booth machine). Other times the images are slowed down, allowing viewers to scrutinize every frame and facial change, as if under water.  The film is a hell of a ride in less than 7 minutes.”  – Robert Ziebell

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A little luck, a dash of enchantment and a flicker of hope help your wishes come true with iVotiveCandle. Just type your desire in the form, light the candle and sit back and relax as your prayers are answered. And for a little extra luck and to assure your wishes are heard in the cosmos, send your desire into cyberspace (in confidence of course).

We dwell in the midst of infinite abundance. We now open our minds to receive the good. Nothing is too good to be true. Nothing is too wonderful not to happen. Blessings come in expected and unexpected ways. We are grateful. And so it is (along with a good dose of faith).

Check out all of our iVotive Candles at www.ivotivecandle.com.