Sacramento State music professor Stephen Blumberg and his wife, art professor Rachel Clarke, had the opportunity to display one of their original collaborations as part of the Crocker Art Museum collection.
Blumberg, who teaches musical theory and composition, and Clarke, who teaches electronic art, recently created a piece titled, "Hang at the Crocker: A Crocker Mosaic" for the museum's grand opening held earlier this month.
"Hang at the Crocker," which is a celebration of the museum's members, is a 10-minute, three-dimensional video presentation of more than 500 moving images arranged by Clarke and choreographed to Blumberg's music. The entire presentation is then projected onto a curved wall.
"The intent was everything from serious and heartfelt to completely humorous. I was fascinated by the range of works submitted - the mosaic is like a slice of life, and the dynamism in the piece is created by the random juxtaposition of these images," Clarke said. "The underlying theme of the mosaic is to embrace and celebrate the richness and vitality of a diverse community."
The presentation consists of personal photographs of family members, friends, nature, food, as well as images of the members' artwork, such as ceramics, paintings and sketches.
It is set to remain in the museum for another year.
In putting the project together, Blumberg first composed his music. Clark then inserted the music files into her animation timeline. From there, they went back and forth discussing how the rest of the presentation would be put together.
"I just felt like Stephen's music would fit really well, and early on they (museum officials) liked the idea of incorporating music," Clarke said."He created this emotional mood for the whole piece so it was really critical working with the music. It wasn't like plug the music in afterwards, it was really integral to the whole structure of the piece."
Clarke said it took her about three and a half months to complete the presentation, working 10 hours a day every day during that time.
"(It was) very intense in those final stages, from June until towards the end of September, I was working on it constantly," said Clarke, who is on sabbatical this semester.
Clarke and Blumberg choreographed the presentation with the idea of a mosaic, where each tile or image plays a part in forming a bigger pattern.
"So in this piece, the images moving across the surface or up and down. Sometimes they form patterns or interweave. In other places, I create a virtual space by using 3D effects," Clarke said. "In these parts, it feels like you are going into the space or the images are coming out at you, and they form into architectural structures or 3D forms."
Clarke, who is originally from the United Kingdom, has studied art and exhibited original pieces both nationally and internationally. The Arts and Business Council of Sacramento has also named her Artist of the Year.
Blumberg, a New York native, has an extensive background in music. He had studied in Paris and received degrees from UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. He had also performed in Amsterdam, Warsaw, Prague, France and all over the United States.
Blumberg, who usually composes instrumental "avant-garde" music, said this piece is a little bit different from what he usually does.
"It's quite simple and expressive, with what I hope is a universal appeal. It's more traditional in a lot of ways than some of my previous works, although I think it's still very much of today," he said. "A number of contemporary composers are writing in a neo-tonal language."
"Hang at the Crocker" is Clarke and Blumberg's fourth collaboration.
"Skirr," the first project they worked on in 2003, has been performed at Sacramento's Festival of New American Music and has won a juror's citation from a San Francisco Art Institute's International Film Festival.
"Rachel and I actually got to know each other through collaborating on our first project together, and it was through this process of creative interaction that we came together as a couple and eventually got married," Blumberg said.
The couple is working on another project, which is also a composed piece with animation. The project will be screened at UC San Diego once completed.
"We've continued to work together artistically on several projects, including this one, and being a couple is really an advantage in that we've come to know each other's artistic ideas and working processes quite intimately," Blumberg said. "But we still argue sometimes about whose turn it is to wash the dishes!"
Cayla Gales can be reached at [email protected].
