The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 17, 1995 Page: 8 of 16
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8 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1994 THE RICE THRESHER
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Lovett or Leavitt
Lyle's latest album shows evidence of Julia and a new muse
. -1; ' i
■ "-I--:".: . :
Lyle Lovett stops in Houston this week to sing about all the people he loves.
Yellow Ooze
Rice artist gives poetic
interpretation of nature
BY ANN ABEL
Darra Keeton: "Paintings and Works
on Paper"
Until Feb. 25
Sally Sprout Gallery
223 WestheimerX 2nd floor
Tuesday-Friday 1/1 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat:
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
526-6461 ~
Free
Darra Keeton's work teems
with organic energy. Her exhibit
at the Sally Sprout Gallery re-
veals her interest in the ways
people experience nature.
Her abstract oils on canvas/
wood panels and her mixed me-
dia works on paper draw their
inspiration from botany, biology,
science and poetry.
According to the gallery, "As-
tronomical photographs, cellular
structure, roots, tree rings, pods,
fungi, the cycles of growth, de-
cay and renewal... all of [these]
filtered through human emotion
and memory ... are primary
sources in her work."
That may be, but those "fil-
ters" have personalized her re-
sponses to nature enough to ob-
scure the original natural forms.
The artist, describing her im-
ages of cellular structure as an
"internal and intimate" view of
nature, takes a somewhat meta-
physical stance and explains that
"we are in nature and nature is in
us."
Keeton's art captures both or-
ganic forms and human emotions
in a basic, primal way. The oil
panels also embody the ideas of
transformation and fluidity, both
in nature and human experience.
But don't expect to look at
her paintings and recognize
particular natural elements.
Although they virtually
resonate with life and
growth, some works
evoke thoughts of
Rorschach Tests,
Chinese
characters or
batik print
fabrics.
The
esoteric titles offer few immedi-
ate clues to the subject matter.
Rather than copping out with
"Untitled," Keeton creates poetic
names that complement her im-
ages, although she finds it diffi-
cult. 'The title is as important as
a brush stroke," she said.
Keeton purposely uses names
like "Just Wait," "Pulse," "Ache,"
"Breathe" and "Desire" to avoid
confining her viewers'responses
to her work only.
She said that while titles may
occur to her before or after she
finishes a painting, they gener-
ally grow out of the finished com-
position after it has taken on a life
of its own.
"Desire" is one of those titles
Keeton captures
organic forms
and human
emotions in a
basic, primal
way.
that perfectly embodies the paint-
ings it names. The five oil and
canvas panels are among her
more animated pieces. Thin
strokes and swirls of color seem
to move fountain-like across some
of the canvases.
Keeton said that in creating
the "Desire" paintings, she was
"painting emotions" and that they
are "metaphors for breaking
down, growing and changing."
In "Ache," the title also seems
appropriate to a work in which a
pale yellow object seems to ooze
painfully across a gray canvas.
The artist said she often "plays
around with things" — cutting
edge?; poking; holes, gluing ex-
tra material onto can-
vases. In "Ache," small
holes in the panel cre-
ate an awareness of
both the surface and
the metaphorical
space. The painting as-
sumes a rotting qual-
ity.
_ Two mixed media
multi-panel pieces also
see KEETON, page 11
BY MARC HIRSH
Lyle Lovett
/ Love Everybody
Tuesday 8 p.m.
Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana
$25-$35
621-8600
Lyle Lovett
I Love Everybody
Not to be cynical, but it seems
that marrying Julia Roberts may have
been the best career boost Lyle
Lovett's ever had.
Before, Lovett was a bit of an
outcast from the country commu-
nity, which didn't know what to do
with his often bizarre mixture of
country, blues, jazz and gospel. The
mainstream musical community saw
the "country" tag on his music and
stayed away as well, leaving only a
cult following and strong critical ac-
claim.
One shotgun-paced wedding to a
high-profile movie star later,
everybody's on his front porch try-
ing to listen in on what they've been
avoiding for years.
Lovett doesn't seem to mind. If
the title of his latest album, I Love
Everybody, is any indication, he's
ecstatic over the attention.
Or maybe he's just giddy over his
whirlwind romance. Long-time fol-
lowers fretted that his new connu-
bial bliss might mean the end of his
string of songs such as "I Married
Her Because She Looks Like You,"
"She's Leaving Me Because She
Really Wants To" and "She Makes
Me Feel Good."
Has the presence of Ms. Roberts
stolen our dear Mr. Lovett's sense of
humor? Not quite. While nothing on
the new album quite reaches the
heights of "his last, Joshua Judges
Ruth,jwhich managed to find cathar-
tic humor in songs about mortality
and hopeless love, that's probably
Lovett's plan.
His considerably downscaled as-
pirations are demonstrated by the
sheer number of songs on Every-
body. With 18 songs clocking in at
just over 53 minutes, the album shies
away from the epic feel of his last
album. Lovett seems to want to
present himself as something of a
jazz-folk troubadour.
Unfortunately, his new image
undermines one of Lovett's key
strengths, the ability to turn the
mundane into full drama. They
Don't Like Me," about newlyweds'
fears upon meeting their new in-
laws, could have been turned into a
massive production, but Lovett holds
back, leaving it as a pleasant but too
simple tune.
Many of the songs end just as
they're really getting started. A song
like "Sonja" establishes its theme
and then promptly finishes. The old
Lovett would wallow around in it for
a while, eventually dragging us down
to his level and making us glad to be
down there.
This brevity is probably the
album's weakest point, really; it just
doesn't allow most of the songs to
achieve any sort of buildup and cli-
max. Everything's just put out on
the table. Individually, most of the
songs are fine, but together they just
don't mesh.
Even standouts like the soulful
SEE LOVETT, PAGE 11
A spooky ghoul (Sid Haig) asks hrs nubile sister (Jill Banner) what's for dinner in Jack Hill's Spider Baby.
fine young cannibals
Campy 'Spider Baby' beats Ed
Wood for horror film madness
by Dan mcDermon
Spider Baby, doubling with Jack Hill's
Switchblade Sisters
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.
The Rice Media Center
$5 general, Rice students with i.d. $4.
It's hard not to like any movie
whose original title was Cannibal
Orgy, or the Maddest Story Ever Told.
And it's easy to like Jack Hill's 1964
camp cannibalism shocker Spider
Baby.
Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Bruno,
dedicated valet to the Merrye fam-
ily. The Merryes suffer from a
strange disease (Merrye's Syn-
drome) which, as Lon says, is not so
much retardation as it is regression.
Once the afflicted members of
the clan reach a certain age, they
begin to drift backwar<te^n mental
age, eventually reaching^ pre-natal
consciousness which%is also com-
pletely amoral.
As the film opens, an ill-fated cou-
rier brings a message informing
Bruno that a distant branch of the
family wants to claim control of the
Merrye estate and of the three re-
maining children, who appear to be
near-adults, yet act and talk like six-
year-olds.
The strangers visit the house,
catching hints and glimpses of the
extremely bizarre situation as the
three "children" demonstrate the
effects of their illness.
This is one of the few movies
which succeeds in being intention-
ally campy without ruining the
story's eerie (and surprisingly erotic)
underpinnings.
The production values of this low-
budget flick are better than you'd
expect for a 1964 cannibal movie,
and there's plenty of camp humor in
the acting and production. (Be sure
to check out the reflection of the film
crew in the car window when the
relatives arrive.)
The atmosphere of this movie is
so well-establishfed that you'll be
convinced that the house where the
main action takes place actually was
black and white. There's a sincere
reverence for '50s horror movies
which is reminiscent of Tim Burton's
recent biography Ed Wood.
Writer/director Jack Hill creates
some truly beautiful characters in
the tragically afflicted Merrye fam-
ily, and delves into an almost
infantilist sensuality in the spider
game played by one of the Merrye
girls.
I'm not sure if Hill intended any
of this, as* he was probably more
interested in the exploitive value of
his subject matter. He went on to
make such titillating tripe as The
Swinging Cheerleaders and The Big
Doll House.
But whatever his intentions, Hill
made a poetic and enthralling film
that hearkens back to the days when
films assumed a more innocent, less
sophisticated audience.
Spider Baby is a funny, exciting,
and compelling look at the merging
of film's past and present. There's a
lot to think about as far as the union
of antiquated horror archetypes and
present-day exploitation-value. But
beyond that, Spider Baby is a good
time. Check it out.
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Hale, David. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 17, 1995, newspaper, February 17, 1995; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246504/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.