Artist Brian Dettmer gives new life to antique books and other media as intricate and complex works of sculptural art.  With an eye for detail, hidden histories, and transformation, his work is a feast for the eye and a banquet for the inquisitive mind.  This month he has a show opening in Maribor, Slovenia as part of its designation as the European Cultural Capital of 2012.

What does being a sculptor in 2012 look like?  How do you feel it has changed since you started creating your work?

That’s an interesting question because I would say most artists that makes sculpture today wouldn’t be considered sculptors because they aren’t actually sculpting their material. For me, I am actually sculpting even though I am not working with traditional materials. I’ve been working with books for about 10 years now and I would say in general, the idea of being a sculptor in the contemporary art world hasn’t changed too much in the past 10 years since non-traditional materials have been a major part of sculpture since the mid-twentieth century. Personally, in my work, I began with pieces that we’re mostly wall based and still maintained the basic shape of a book so I had been carving, or sculpting books, for several years before I began to think of myself as a sculptor or someone who makes sculptures. My work has shifted more from being image based to object based so I do think of myself as a sculptor, or at least use the term as a basic way to describe what I do.

A photo of Earl Scruggs is projected during his funeral in Nashville, Tenn. Some 2,300 mourners attended the service at the Ryman Auditorium, where he made his with Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys at The Grand Ole Opry and played for decades. / AP

Photo: Huiling Wu/Iowa State Daily

MarleyDobyns Protraits

Marley Dobyns, junior on the ISU diving team, shows off her drawings on Thursday, March 29, in the Terrace Room of Friley. Dobyns enjoys drawing and dance as well as diving.

The Mane Event at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Horse Expo held at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colo., continues to improve. Each year it gets more exciting and more artistic as performers return with new material that they have spent all year perfecting. Each year there is at least one new performance that is exceptional.

There is no prescribed general theme to the Mane Event, but this year seemed to have a spanish or vaquero flair to many of the performances. There was the pair of black Friesians, with their flowing manes and tails, pulling a carriage complete with a Groom. A new addition to the Mane Event this year was the beautiful Torres Andalusians from Denver. The Torres family is committed to keeping the Spanish equine traditions alive and their authentic costumes and silver saddles were magnificent.

There were a number of performers that used the Peruvian Paso. The Peruvian Paso is a naturally gaited horse which takes a long and free stride and because of this is generally very smooth. The fore legs have a movement that can best be described as a swimming motion called Termino. The Peruvian Paso is one of the smoothest four beat gaited horses in the world.

Although somewhat similar in name, the Peruvian Paso is not to be confused with the Paso Fino. The two breeds have different conformation and the gait of the Paso Fino is high stepping with slow forward progress.

An interesting reining routine was performed by Sean Sowa of Elizabeth, Colorado. It was a dance performed on horseback with Sean manipulating La Garrocha. The Garrocha is a 12-foot long wooden pole used by the Vaqueros in Spain and Mexico to move cattle. Some think that this is where the term cowpoke comes from.

One of the most remarkable examples of horsemanship came from Clinician and Extreme Trail Champion, Mark Bolender. Mark and his horse, Sir Rugged Chex or Checkers did some really amazing things when it came to traversing obstacles at least it was amazing compared to most horses for Checkers, it looked pretty routine. Oh yes, Mark did his routine without a bridle.

The Mane Event is a ticketed event on Friday and Saturday night. The fans that come to see the show absolutely love it, but it has not seemed to have quite connected with the general population yet. To concentrate the fans and the cheering, Bill Scebbi, Executive Director of the Colorado Horse Council, restricted seating to just one side of the large Equine Arena at the Stock Show Complex, and it seemed to work out very well.

Fan control tonight was kind of fun. Putting everyone together and in a group with each other really worked out for the Mane Event. said Scebbi, We think the attendance will exceed many years. Were excited that the horse industry is coming back and people are out there coming to our Expo, and we put a lot of time and energy into expanding our advertising and reach.

The Colorado Horse Council does great work for the equine industry and for the horse owner in Colorado. The Horse Expo is well attended and growing every year. The Mane Event shows off the artistry of the horse and the connection between horse and rider. It is affordable entertainment for the whole family and that means a lot these days.

Like fine vintage wines, some artists become ever more impressive with time. Flutist Paula Robison certainly falls into that category and she was in prime form Wednesday evening in a wonderful recital for the Friends of Chamber Music at Florida International University’s Wertheim Auditorium.

Robison won first prize at the Geneva Competition in 1966. In the intervening years, she was a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, co-director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festival and has taught at Juilliard and the New England Conservatory. Robison has authored several textbooks on flute performance and, indeed, her playing is a textbook of supple technique and mature artistry.

Schumann’s Three Romances displayed Robison’s purity of tone and sensitive musicality. The flowing melodic path of Einfach, innig was fluid and she brought an aura of mystery to Nicht schnell.  Ken Noda was her superb pianistic partner, bringing romantic ardor to Schumann’s keyboard writing.

Robison’s transcription of five pieces by Grieg was a total delight. Her brisk, airy version of Wedding Day at Trolhaugen turned languid in the songful central episode. The silvery sound and rich colors of Solveig’s  Song from Peer Gynt and her breath control in Tak fordit rad (Thanks for the advice) conveyed Robison’s undiminished instrumental command.

Before assaying Henri Dutilleux’s Sonatine, Robison said, All you flute players out there, say a prayer. Indeed the score is an awesome test of instrumental flexibility and dexterity but it held no terrors for Robison. She played the Ravel-tinged opening section with Ãlan, then dashed through the high-flying finale, her triple tonguing and rapid articulation marvelous. Noda was equally brilliant in the spiky keyboard role.

Robison’s transcriptions of three melodies by Gabriel Faure captured the Gallic vocal lyricism of these intimate pieces. She projected the sensuous beauty of Apres un Reve (Awakening from a Dream) and, in a whirlwind of rapid notes, the incandescent melody of Notre Amour sang with the beauty of a lyric soprano.

Bohuslav Martinu’s Sonata No.1 combines musical threads of the composer’s Czech heritage with a lithe Neo-classicism. Robison related that the score was inspired by an injured whippoorwill that Martinu rescued and nursed back to health during a summer in New England. Bird sounds whirl through the flute writing while the tolling of bells resounds in the piano’s role. The spare Adagio is a prayer, raptly uttered by the flute while the bird’s return to freedom is celebrated in the sizzle of the final Allegro. Robison and Noda excelled in the bravura strophes of this irresistible showpiece.

As an encore, Ravel’s Piece in the Style of a Habanera offered a touch of the exotic, Robison projecting a mini-canvas of Andalusian colors.

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Exhibit a mash-up of DIY aesthetic and unconventional visual artistry

• By Michael H. Hodges
• Detroit News Fine Arts Writer
• 
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Pole dancing in Sin City was not the plan.

Is it ever? Few kids grow up aspiring to earn a living on the pole.

Timber Brown, 26, certainly didnt. With his background — an abusive childhood, alcoholic parents, a period of homelessness — hes lucky he grew up. He planned to be a Texas cop, right some wrongs, maybe help someone escape a hard life. The kind of life he knows all too well.

But Brown believes people are born with a purpose. Just as surely as some are meant to be doctors, lawyers, teachers or plumbers, Brown was destined to be a pole dancer.

It gives him a purpose the police academy never did. It also has been his savior, soothing him in a way nothing else has.

He knows that many people, the uninitiated, wont get it. But thats because they havent seen the things he can do on a pole.

If you could, he would make a convert out of you.

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Brown knows what youre thinking: A guy, on a pole? Weird. He must be a stripper.

He is a guy but he is no stripper. And weird is so subjective. Who isnt at least a little odd?

In Las Vegas, pole dancing is mostly associated with strip clubs or bachelor parties or bored housewives who take a pole-dancing class to spice up their marriages. While male pole dancers are uncommon, theyre far from unusual.

Brown prefers to be called a pole artist but he openly embraces the pole dancer moniker. You cant get away from the exotic roots of pole dancing, he says. And theres no shame in that background.

What he does is more of a cross between acrobatics and rhythmic dancing on a pole. Yes, thats very similar to what strippers do, but Browns style is less erotic with more high-flying acrobatic feats. He does flips 10 feet in the air and catches himself before falling to the ground. He slides head-first down the pole, twisting and back-flipping on his way to the floor.

My kind of style is a lot different than most, he says. Its painful.

It was five years ago, when Brown discovered his affinity for pole art, that a new method of performing began to take off. Members of the local pole-dancing community say it grew out of all those striptease classes. People wanted to make it less erotic and more sportlike so they adapted gymnastic moves usually associated with Chinese pole acrobatics, something not at all related to stripping. There is a Chinese pole act in Cirque du Soleils Mystere.

Pole fitness studios opened, promising to teach anyone how to use a stripper pole to lose weight, strengthen their core muscles and improve their self-esteem. This new breed of pole dancer began holding competitions. At first, it was all women, but over the years, men, such as Brown, joined in. Hes an award-winning pole dancer, named the 2011 Pole Athletes Champion at the International Pole Dance Fitness competition in Denver. He often teaches women how to be more athletic on the pole.

This thing has gotten bigger in the last few years. A lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon, Brown says.

Brown works as a freelance pole artist and aerialist, pairing with his girlfriend, Alyssa McCraw, on silks, trapeze and other flying apparatuses. Hes been in a few Las Vegas shows since moving here in 2007. He and McCraw were a featured act for several months on a cruise ship. They do a lot of convention and private vendor work.

But thats separate from his pole dancing/pole fitness work, which has become his driving force in life. He wanted to be a cop so he could help others. He is convinced there is a way he can help people through pole dancing.

I have a lot to contribute to the community, he says. I just have to figure out how to do it.

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Fearless. Unbreakable. Gravity-defying.

These are a few of the qualities that make Brown one of the best pole artists in Las Vegas, says Amy Gale, producer for San Diego-based Imagination Entertainment.

And they are the qualities that inspired her to hire him for his first pole gig in the summer of 2006. Gales company provided entertainment for SeaWorld . After watching his audition video, she cast Brown as a Chinese pole acrobat.

His video was so crazy and nontraditional as far as a gymnastics video,#xa0;Gale recalls. It was kind of extreme acrobatics. He was hanging on the rafters of his gym and dropped off. It was amazing, very impressive.

Brown was living in Texas at the time, attending the criminal justice program affiliated with the Fort Worth police academy. He wanted to be a Marine, like his father, but it wasnt conducive to his long-term plans for marriage and kids. He worked part time at Texas Tumblers, teaching gymnastics to kids. One of his friends recorded his crazy antics in the gym one day and persuaded Brown to send the video to Gale.

I grew up climbing everything. I did my homework in trees, Brown recalls of his childhood.

The past is not something he talks about a lot, not because it bothers him but because its just the way things were. It does no good to constantly rehash old hurts.

I know that he has a lot of hurt and pain, says his mother, Donnia Harris. She still lives in Texas. And I hate that. But he uses it to motivate him instead of letting it get him down.

His father, a former Marine, drank a lot, Brown says. His mother abused drugs and alcohol. Both are sober now, but Browns childhood was chaotic and unsettling. He ran away from home at 15 after butting heads with his father one too many times. He stayed with a friend for a while before trying to live with his mother, but life was too uncertain with her. Brown found a boys home that agreed to take him in, the Anchor Academy for boys in Montana. He lived there until he was almost 17.

It was for troubled teens, he says, but he wasnt troubled. Just homeless. After that, he moved to Texas to live with his mother, who had remarried and was newly sober. His alternative high school in Texas introduced him to organized gymnastics.

These kinds of things hinder people, Brown says of his upbringing. I feel really blessed to have done the things Ive done and to do what I do now. It didnt seem like anything like this was ever in the cards for me.

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Alyssa McCraw, 27, was first attracted to Browns enthusiasm.

They met at SeaWorld in 2006 where they were both part of the high-flying entertainment. A seasoned performer in her early 20s, McCraw was struck by Browns gleeful approach to their act.

You could see he was definitely different from the rest of us, she recalls. He was full of excitement, even after long, exhausting months of rehearsals. He was almost childlike.

He reminded her of just what she loved about performing. They started hanging out together. Soon, they were dating casually. Then they were living together. At the end of the SeaWorld contract, they decided to leave Southern California for the more affordable Las Vegas. Work was plentiful and housing cheaper. McCraw does not share her boyfriends love of pole work. She dabbled in it during circus school and thinks its impressive but its not something she aspires to do, mainly because it hurts.

I have a lot of respect for it, McCraw says. Its neat to see that its grown so much as a separate entity. I just dont enjoy doing it.

Brown is exuberant. Involved. Committed to his pole artistry. He is driving his girlfriend crazy. She can ask him 100 questions but he wont have an answer to any of them, unless they involve poles.

Brown knows he is a pole-aholic.

She is not very supportive of me and my pole endeavors as far as the pole dancing side of it, which makes sense because I have been involved in quite a few events that have ended up costing me money, he explains.

Its not that she isnt supportive; she thinks he is immensely talented. Pole work is in his blood, she says.

McCraw just doesnt want him to put all his eggs in the pole-dancing basket.

He has such a passion for it and I do want to support him, McCraw says. I have to play devils advocate and bring some reality to him, though. He has a hard time letting some things go.

There are so many other interests he could pursue, she says. McCraw is afraid he will miss out on them with all this focus on poles.

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Pole dancing lets Brown indulge his creativity. He loves to think about tricks and routines.

I had this dream of doing an act with one pole, a spotlight and a woman in a chair playing a cello, Brown says during rehearsal one day. He dreams a lot.

Pole artistry gave Brown so much. He has been able to earn a living with it and its given him a sense of peace. He feels as if it has healing properties. Because he has gotten so much from his art, he wants to give back.

There are still issues I have from my childhood, I know. I just feel really fortunate. I dont think a lot of kids will end up being as fortunate as me, Brown says. I wanted to do something with kids whove had lives like mine. I just have to figure out how.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @StripSonya on Twitter.

Betty Moon moved from Toronto to Los Angeles less than two years ago, but her sound seems bred perfectly for LA clubs–dark, heavy guitar with bold and slithering vocals, all marked by the artist herself, a woman in fishnets, strong makeup, and tattoos.

Her new album (her fifth) Rollin Revolution, begun in Toronto and finished at Sage and Sound Studio in Hollywood, explores the contradictory realm of artistic life–the confidence, honest righteousness, the excess, the loss, the starting over.

Despite calling to mind the tailored screeches of Janis Joplin and Patti Smith, and incorporating Black Sabbath-like bass with Iommi-influenced heavy guitar-driven choruses, Moon’s record transcends the obviousness of such a lineage. The album’s a blend of crunching and liquescence, a neon look into the dive bar soul of a sensitive but strong-boot-heel female artist.

The lead track, “Captain Hi-Top,” frazzles the nerves with the right kind of soaring power chords and personal manifesto lyrics that, if it wanted to, could be the coolest song on any modern rock radio station in the nation.

To balance the heavy black-tongued songs like “Captain Hi-Top,” “Trouble Loves Me,” and “Rollin Revolution” she does a couple slower, jazzy laments. “Drink Your Fears Away” reminds of the opening to Rollins Band’s “Liar,” and “Elegy” carries a rainy sound that lays the foundation for Moon’s searching lyrics and vocals.

She ends the record with its thesis, a cover of the Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” done the way it deserves to be tried: made boozier, more amphetamine than peyote. The first nine songs are originals, all carrying variations in tone or content on the theme of: “When the truth is found to be lies / And all the joy within you dies / Don’t you want somebody to love / Don’t you need somebody to love / Wouldn’t you love somebody to love / You better find somebody to love.”

It does debase the music to suggest that Betty Moon’s Rollin Revolution merely collages hard rock, punk, jazz and the tradition of bold female frontwomen.

The album does something very difficult, which is reinventing sounds that are entirely familiar in an unfamiliar way.

She’ll make you search your mind for a precedent that doesn’t exist; her style fits a space that feels so natural it’s probably existed in the modern listener’s subconscious for a decade or two, and Moon is the one to make it manifest, as an artist does, bringing forth shapes and colors of the soul.

Moon’s songs have been getting significant airplay on the radio, including on Rodney Bingenheimer’s Rodney on the ROQ on KROQ, and she’s sold out several shows at LA clubs like the Viper Room.

She and her band will play another sold-out show at the Key Club in Hollywood on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 8 pm

Reach Michael Juliani here.Follow him on Twitter here.

The singer said her exit was not some huge bloody deal. She added: Its not
the end of life. Music never stops.

The teenager, from Omagh, Northern Ireland, said her creativity had been
stifled on TV and claimed she had held back her real talent because she was
saving it for fans who came to her gigs.

She said: I wish we would get more of an opportunity to be musicians and
express our artistry.

Janet, who was accused of being too predictable by Gary Barlow, claimed the
music she preferred was too alternative for the show. What I bring is the
music that I like, which is quite underground, she said.

Student Janet forgot the words to the Hansons Nineties hit MMMBop on
Saturday, claiming she felt sick. Her second song ? Red Hot Chili Peppers
Under The Bridge ? was not enough to save her from the axe on Sunday.

More than 14million viewers watched Sundays results show.

TI and Eminem share a connection that goes beyond respect for each others artistry. In late 2010, TI sought advice from Eminem when struggling with a similar drug addiction.

After being released from his first prison stint for federal weapon charges on March 26, 2010, TI took to prescription pills — oxycontin and hydrocodone — to relieve the pain he derived from a hefty amount of oral surgeries. Unfortunately, what started out as medical aid quickly turned into an addiction.

Exclusive: TI Talks New Album, Working with Usher | TIs 10 Biggest Billboard Hits

Fearing he had a developed drug problem, TI reached out Eminem (who has famously dealt with addiction himself), for advice. I asked him how he knew he was an addict, TI told VIBE in 2010. [He said] basically, if you put yourself in harms way if you risk that, youve got to assume that there is something fundamentally wrong with your thought process.

TI told Billboard.coms The Juice that, alhough he has yet to connect with Eminem since he was freed from his second prison stint on Sept. 29, 2011, the Detroit rapper continues to be an enormous supporter.

I havent had a chance to speak to Em since Ive been home, TI said. I heard that while I was down, he was trying to get in contact with me, but I dont know if the dots just didnt connect. [Eminem] overcoming his own adversities, winning the battle against his own demons and continuing to break the mold and re-set the standard of what it means to be the most successful hip-hop artist in the game … I salute that to no end.

TI continued to pay respect to Eminem and his current projects. I love what hes doing with Slaughterhouse. I love the move that he made to sign Yelawolf. And the record with him and Royce da 59 … that record is going ham. He killed that BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher. Ive been peeping the move[ment].

Eminem Signs Yelawolf, Slaughterhouse to Shady Label

Now that hes clean and somber and living postively, TI shares words of wisdom to those struggling with drugs or having a difficult time staying out of trouble.

It starts with you on the inside, he said. I can give all the advice in the world, but at the end of the day you just got to make that decision internally with yourself. You have to see that you are ready to make a change. Until that moment comes, all advice in the world is going to be in vain cause Im going to be talking to a brick wall.

Everybody can tell you what you need to do, how to do it, when you need to do it, how bad you need to do it, TI continued. But until you get that right ass whipping, as they say, and until you have hit rock bottom or have seen something in yourself that is so out of character and it displeases you so much that you just have no choice but to change it … then you aint going to see it.