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Learning to be part of a Community

Kd Neeley

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May 4th, 2015 - 10:49 AM

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Learning to be part of a Community

The Show | Bebe La La's CD Release Party for High Wire, their debut album
May 2nd, 2015

It was almost too crowded at the beautiful Las Amapolas event center in the midst of an exciting Bebe La La performance--the lights were low and the band took a break--to pass out these mesmerizing little contraptions called kazoos--which turn adults back into 7 year olds, it was AWESOME!

Have you ever played a kazoo?

Last night was the first time in my life that I played with one. I had no idea how to make sound come out of it (yes you can point and laugh if you've ever had a decent science class). When they came around I happened to have the good fortune of being in vibrant conversation with a guest named Monica, who teaches elementary school students at the Botanical Gardens and was ready to give stellar kazoo lessons right there on the spot. What do you do? Put it in your mouth like a whistle, and pretend you're a police car. You'll get it! If you ever catch yourself having a bad day, and you feel terrible, playing the kazoo is bound to lift your spirits!

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My Experience Behind the Scenes

Art making is usually a very isolated activity for me, and I have often experienced a deep sense of loneliness wondering hopelessly what real work my creations could do for anyone. After long hours of isolation at labor with the echos of your own mind, and little knowledge of what to do with it once it's finished, It's easy for a sense of nihilism to take over.

The work I've done with Miko Zen for Bebe La La has been the first time in my life that I've made art for a local band right here in my own community, and I could not have predicted how different it would cause me to feel about being a visual artist.

The transformative feeling struck when I went with Alicia and Miko to see Honey House. I was mesmerized by their drummer, Dianne De Leon. She's a beautiful, tall, dark-haired woman that I had met just once 3 years before over dinner in a restaurant (Ragin Shrimp)--surrounded by Miko's paintings of women playing hand-drums. I had not realized back then that I was seated with one of them! Not until the moment 3 years later when I got to see Honey House perform. I watched her hands touching, tapping, and patting a variety of hand-drums, the vivid colors and textures of the women in Miko's paintings came back into my mind over and over again.

When I first met Miko Zen back in 2011, he had just finished work for Deleon's book Two Worlds One Soul, and the illustrations he made are still some of my favorite Zen pieces. What I mean to describe is the experience of being enthralled by an amazing musical performance, while synchronously being thrown back into memory after memory by the epiphany of realizing what I had unwittingly already experienced. Memories and people in my life were directly linked to the work of a fellow visual artist. As it happened, I was seated between Miko--whose visual artworks coursed behind my eyes in an explosion of memory--and Alicia Ultan--whom Miko had asked me to meet and begin working with. I felt, for the first time in my life, that I belonged to a community, and that my artwork, like Miko's, possessed the potential to directly support some of the very best people in my life.

That was on March 8th.
Ten weeks later I was setting up with Miko for Alicia's performance in Bebe La La! The CD Release Party for High Wire happened in that very same venue.

The magic in the music was irresistible, but the enchantment came from artists who had all learned what they could accomplish together.
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More and More of the Community and the Amazing Performance for High Wire

A mutual friend of Miko and I, Kendra Tuthill, came to support Bebe La La with videography. Kendra is a local director, producer, actress, and writer here in Albuquerque. Whenever I run into her at a coffee shop I am captivated by her answer to "What are you working on?". She moved non-stop at the show, getting from camera to camera like a ninja-it's amazing how smooth she was to capture every moment without blocking anybody's view or attracting any attention away from the stage at Las Amapolas.

The show was presented by AMP Concerts, and Neal Copperman came with volunteers who brightly worked and danced.

The wonderful duo and owners of Las Amapolas, Las Flores del Valle, set the mood with their opening performance--taking us on a journey back in time with some history of Cinco de Mayo stories interwoven in their beautiful Spanish songs.

I had the pleasure of meeting-in-the-flesh many of the musicians whose portraits I've been doing paintings of for Bebe's upcoming Musician Card Set, including John Wall (who mastered the High Wire album at Wall of Sound Studios), Jefferson Voorhees, Jeremy Sment, Mike Fox, Roger Jameson (Roger Jameson and the Jaded Heart Band), Jacqueline Ultan, and Oatzinu She'e'lake'e'.

Alicia Ultan and Maryse Lapierre picked us up with their voices and lead us over the High Wire, with the treat of guest musicians who made every song blossom even brighter, all of whom are part of the album: Jeremy Sment and Mike Fox both played base, taking turns grinning at one another as each of them gave a different set of heartbeats to Bebe's songs. Oatzinu, a medicine man, sang out a spell; his voice and unique Native instruments surrounded the room with a feeling of the sacred in Alicia's song Ruins. Jefferson Voorhees seemed to be erupting from states of deep meditation, as though his entire body became one with every song on some ethereal plane like a time traveler holding us to the measured rhythm of his own heart beating on the drum set. Roger Jameson touched our roots, bringing us into blossom with sounds like sunlight from his harmonica. And I was especially mesmerized by Jacqueline Ultan (Alicia's twin sister), whose fingers over the cello played the inner universe of my entire body, pulling and pushing my heart on a wondrous journey. Jacqueline, like her twin, plays in at least three groups simultaneously, including Pray For Brain.

The original artworks by Miko Zen for High Wire were hung along the walls, (Across the Universe and Songbirds) along with the original mixed media painting I made for Bebe La La's 2015 poster. Our efforts had gone far past waiting for paint to dry in the studio after the final stroke was laid down, and we had delivered sets of posters, cards, and magnets that we sold to fans to support both the band, our dear friend Darla who came to help us handle sales, as well as ourselves as independent visual artists--we even had Bebe La La coloring pages to give away as part of our next project New Mexico Coloring Book! Although none of us had much to invest, we still found a way to launch actual merchandise for this amazing group of musicians!

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Some of the Artworks we Produced for the Band


My favorite work of art that was born out of this undertaking is Miko Zen's Cosmic Walk

Click Here to see the album cover 'Across the Universe'

Click Here to see a small sample of the Art Magnets we produced for the band

Click Here for More Information

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