{"id":20447,"date":"2021-02-10T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T10:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20447"},"modified":"2021-01-20T09:55:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T14:55:13","slug":"creativity-during-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/10\/creativity-during-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity During COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This story started as an assignment for <\/em>Mountain Xpress about one artist — Chris Tullar — and grew into a larger story looking at a wider range of creatives local to Asheville. — bk<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The ways in which creatives deal with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic vary widely, but many of them serve not only to entertain, but to inspire. Here\u2019s a look at three Asheville-based artists and their approach to what current times have brought us.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bonnie Antosh: Embracing the fantastical <\/b>
\nBonnie Antosh is an actor, literary manager and playwright who \u2013 in normal times \u2013 is based both in Asheville and New York City, a concept she jokingly calls \u201cdual citizenship.\u201d But since the pandemic began, Antosh \u2013 who was born in Spartanburg, S.C. but grew up in Brooklyn \u2013 has stayed put in Asheville and Spartanburg.<\/p>\n

That decision was initially a creative one. \u201cI came back to the Carolinas because I wanted to interrogate a few of the seductive and terrifying contradictions that exist in the many Souths,\u201d Antosh explains. But COVID-19 was an unavoidable factor as well; staying here is now \u201ca practical decision about safety for myself, my neighbors, and the people I love,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Time was, Antosh could often be found at Odd\u2019s Cafe in West Asheville, a place she describes as \u201cmy office in spirit. There was a wonderful community of regulars there, and we all generated a hum of noise and life around each other.\u201d And while she expects to return there when it\u2019s responsible to venture out in public, for now she\u2019s ensconced at home, and outdoors when it\u2019s practical to do so.<\/p>\n

As a playwright, Antosh finds herself thinking more about the challenges of that medium in a COVID and post-COVID world. \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking a lot about why audiences do or don\u2019t go to the theater,\u201d she says. She asks herself, \u201cHow can the theater feel simultaneously more accessible and more itself, in terms of what it can offer in conversation with other spaces of culture\u201d like movie theaters, bars or even basketball games?<\/p>\n

Antosh endeavors to address that and other open-ended questions in her plays; she believes that a \u201csense of imaginative, generative conspiracy\u201d can be key. \u201cSo I\u2019ve been writing a lot of unbelievable and fantastical elements into my plays: time jumps across centuries and continents, animal puppets, songs in dead languages, characters who can see the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the pandemic began, Antosh has authored two plays. One is Lemuria<\/i>, which she describes as \u201can inheritance drama about queer anthropologists. Think a very loose, playful adaptation of King Lear, <\/i>set in a North Carolina lemur research lab.\u201d The other, I Told You It Would End Like This,<\/i> was co-written over GoogleDocs and Zoom with Avery Deutsch. \u201cThat one\u2019s a re-imagining of the Cassandra and Trojan War myths,\u201d Antosh says. She has also written a short play to be performed via Zoom.<\/p>\n

Quarantining has made Bonnie Antosh more productive, she says. Commitments and deadlines explain some of it, but at its core her productivity is a coping mechanism. \u201cWrite for many hours, make sure other artists and neighbors have resources to survive the pandemic, use routine to travel from one day to the next,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd then repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Akira Satake: Online Convergence<\/i> <\/b>
\nLike many artisans, Akira Satake\u2019s creative rhythms suffered an interruption in March 2020. \u201cMy overseas workshops, including Tuscany and Barcelona \u2013 got canceled,\u201d says the ceramicist. \u201cAnd then the domestic workshop and exhibit were also canceled.\u201d At first, he panicked, but then centered himself and began to think about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a time for me to focus, to create something very new, a little bit more adventurous,\u201d he decided. \u201cI thought that would be kind of a wonderful idea, because I always wanted to have a little bit more time to focus on my art.\u201d But he felt a responsibility toward the people working for him: three assistant, two gallery staff, and his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one year to focus deeply on my art,\u201d he decided. \u201cBut I have to make sure [they] can make a living.\u201d So with his gallery in Asheville\u2019s River Arts District closed to the public, he shifted to online sales. \u201cWe put out 500 pieces of work,\u201d Satake says. \u201cAnd I did everything I can do to let the people know.\u201d Between his mailing list and social media, he was able to reach a wide audience. \u201cAnd surprisingly,\u201d Satake says, \u201cThat did well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also decided to be adventurous, launching Convergence<\/i>, an online workshop in collaboration with Ken Matsuzaki, a potter based in Japan. \u201cWe sold out our workshop in four hours,\u201d Satake says, the amazement clear in his voice. The three-day, nine-hour workshop attracted students from around the globe.<\/p>\n

The success of Satake\u2019s online sales and Convergence<\/i> workshop may or may not point the way toward his post-pandemic future, he admits. \u201cThe experience really opened up the possibilities,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to be too busy, too stressed out for the next year. I like to progress every moment, and if I\u2019m too busy, it\u2019s not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was even able to negotiate with his landlord to acquire a significantly larger space. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m not making money from that studio, but I\u2019m preparing,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen this pandemic is over, I have a much better place to do workshops or concerts or exhibits.\u201d<\/p>\n

His new ventures \u2013 and their effectiveness at allowing him to keep his staff employed \u2013 give Satake increased optimism about what may lie ahead. \u201cNobody had to go,\u201d he says. \u201cI think we got even better as a team after we went through this time together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satake doesn\u2019t want people to misunderstand his situation: \u201cOh, Akira is doing great!\u201d He explains that when a difficult circumstance presents itself, he tries to \u201ccome up with some way to make it positive instead of worrying or complaining.\u201d Asked if the darkness of current events shows up in his work, Satake is emphatic. \u201cNo,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m a very happy guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chris Tullar: Charting a course of a different color<\/b>
\nAsheville multi-instrumentalist Chris Tullar<\/a> has been crafting his genre-defying, quirky pop for years now. His debut release as Carpal Tullar, Antidisestablishmentarianism<\/i>, was released in 2000. Album number eight, Ore<\/i>, continues his creative path, one characterized by music that\u2019s equal parts complex, challenging, tuneful and accessible.<\/p>\n

Some artists labor over the creation of a new album for years, tinkering endlessly with the results. Others \u2013 like Robert Pollard\u2019s Guided by Voices \u2013 seem to record and release every musical idea they have. But Tullar takes a more unhurried and stress-free approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to come up with a random assortment of things, so nothing ever really seems like very cohesive,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be completely honest, I get to 40 minutes [worth of music] and I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, that\u2019s enough.\u2019\u201d But that description belies the quality of the music created under the Carpal Tullar banner.<\/p>\n

Back when live performances were a thing, Carpal Tullar gigged regularly around town. And that lineup \u2013 featuring Tullar, guitarist\/keyboardist Dave Baker, bassist Rob Heyer and John McKinney on drums \u2013 expects to return to live shows in the future. But when it comes time to make albums, Tullar tends to work alone. \u201cI\u2019m a little bit of a control freak, maybe,\u201d he admits. And Most of Ore<\/i> was recorded before the pandemic began. \u201cAll I really did during the pandemic was mix it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Tullar created a video for one of the album\u2019s standout tracks, \u201cAll These Love Songs.\u201d But miscommunication between the CDBaby platform and YouTube resulted in the latter entity flagging the original song for alleged copyright violation. \u201cYouTube says, \u2018You can\u2019t monetize this video,\u2019 which is fine,\u201d Tullar says with a chuckle. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t do that anyway. What am I going to get? Twenty cents?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tullar is already at work \u2013 alone again, naturally \u2013 on his next album. But he doesn\u2019t know what it will sound like. \u201cI kind of enjoy the unknown,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I\u2019m most creative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: This story started as an assignment for Mountain Xpress about one artist — Chris Tullar — and grew into a larger story looking at a wider range of creatives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49],"tags":[4441,237,4440,3090,3091],"class_list":["post-20447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-akira-satake","tag-asheville","tag-bonnie-antosh","tag-carpal-tullar","tag-chris-tullar","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20454,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20447\/revisions\/20454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}