Friday, February 29, 2008

"All I want to do is sit in my studio and paint!"

Glen Rock painter to display his landscapes
Friday, February 29, 2008
Last Updated Friday February 29, 2008, EST 6:28 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH
WHAT: Art exhibit.
WHERE: Kurth Cottage at The Valley Hospital, 223 N. Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood. Call 201-447-8135 for more information.
WHEN: Saturday through March 30. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends.
HOW MUCH: Free.

Painter Peter Liman has always had wandering eyes. It wasn't until retirement that he put what he saw on paper.

The son of a steamship mogul, Liman traveled to the Caribbean at a very young age. He went to college in North Carolina and later traveled to the Mediterranean as a Navy officer. He's done a stint as a businessman in South Africa.

"You're working, and hopefully you enjoy what you're doing," said the Glen Rock resident. "But you still have things that you have an interest in, and you don't get to pursue them until you have the extra time."

Now when he travels, it's all in the pursuit of the next beautiful scene. Liman is exhibiting 20-plus canvases from his eight years of artful retirement at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood throughout March. Liman's work is mostly landscape, but the paintings show "anything from California to southern France to Norway."

"Any place you go has an inner beauty," Liman said. "Painting is just my way of capturing that memory, a little different from taking out your camera and snapping a picture."

Liman's studio is buried in the Catskills in Maplecrest, N.Y., an area favored by the Hudson River School of artists and full of seasonal beauty.

"To me it's the Shangri-La of the area," said Liman. "It's just so beautiful and peaceful, and it's just therapeutic."

But one painting in the upcoming exhibit, "Willows on the Pond," is of a less exotic location: Saddle River Park. It's Liman's tribute to the beauty around his home. He's also painted scenes from the area surrounding his studio, such as a skier from Windham Mountain or an antique truck permanently parked at the side of a road.

Getting involved in the community and giving back is a big part of his artistic life, Liman said. Every year, he organizes two Windham arts festivals, where visitors are invited to spend a weekend meeting the artists of Windham in galleries and in their studios. He also runs an annual sand castle contest at CD Lane Park in Maplecrest.

"My biggest difficulty is really finding time to paint as opposed to just organizing," he said. "Sometimes I say to myself, 'Heck, I'm helping all these people, when all I want to do is sit in my studio and paint!' "

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Viva Carlota!

Flamenco troupe pushes bounds while keeping tradition
Friday, February 29, 2008
Last Updated Friday February 29, 2008, EST 6:15 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH

Carlota Santana is the grande dame of flamenco, and this year is the 25th anniversary of her company, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. In the past quarter century, she's become a standard bearer of the art form in America. Before her upcoming Joyce Theater season, she spoke about the passion that drives her.

Q. What has changed in the years since you founded your company?

When we started in 1983, we were the only company in N.Y.C. doing anything. Now there is much more activity going on. There are festivals. There are other companies that come through. We do lots of arts and education. Young people are learning about flamenco. One of my fantasies is that one of these days there will be a whole bunch of little girls who want to wear dotted dresses as much as they want to wear the tutu and be the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Q. How did you come, initially, to flamenco?

What drew me to flamenco was the ability to express myself. For me, the female flamenco dancer is the most feminine you can get. You can be soft and sweet, and you can be tough and strong. Any emotion you can have, you can express. That's what drew me to flamenco.

Q. One of the new pieces this season, "Carmen: El Baile," is based on the story of Carmen. How is it different from the opera by Georges Bizet?

Carmen, of course, is a legend of a very strong female who runs around seducing men. Our Carmen is also a strong female. She is the epitome of the best flamenco dancer in the whole world, and people want to get her art. So people, in a sense, start seducing her. The men are after her, and are seduced by her, and the women also want to be like her.

A lot of the music is original, and then every once in a while you'll hear Bizet in there. ... The opera's so well known that you can't get away from that. People will hear that, and I think it will remind the audience that this is Carmen. Although I kept saying while we were rehearsing: "This is not Carmen the cigarette girl."

Q. And the choreographer of that piece, Pilar Andujar, is a rising young talent?

One of the missions of the company has also been to give opportunity to young and upcoming dancers and choreographers to do these works. To help develop the art form. There are not that many people choreographing for flamenco, so we're always looking to help people learn how to be choreographers.

Q. What is unique about the flamenco your company does?

My company has been founded with the idea of doing dances with story lines. Most flamenco dances [have] traditionally been just dances without a story line. It's more interesting for us and more challenging.

Q. You've also used elements of Latin American music and dance in your pieces. Are there similarities between flamenco and those cultural traditions?

Since the days of Columbus they've gone back and forth between Spain and Latin America. There's been a mixture. ... And now in the world of Internet, there's influences of everybody on everything.

Q. When you consult older members of the flamenco community, what do they say about your new approaches?

In flamenco there are the purists who say this should not be done: It's losing its feeling. It's losing its tradition.

And there are those who say, because the world has gotten so small, and because there is now so much available to us, we want to do these new things, and we want to experiment. We want to push the envelope. We feel that this is a way to make the art form expand. And we don't lose the tradition; we still carry it with us.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Veggies Under Pressure

You won't miss the meat in this hearty Irish casserole
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Last Updated Tuesday February 26, 2008, EST 10:53 AM

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes," by Vickie Smith (Wiley, 2008)

Vegetarians may not find this book a good investment: There's a lot of chicken broth brewing in even the vegetable-heavy recipes of this pressure cooker collection. But for non-vegetarian home cooks who occasionally serve veggies, the book has a handful of meatless recipes. Brussels sprouts and potatoes feature prominently in these hearty recipes, including the traditional Irish casserole below.

-- Evelyn Shih




* Colcannon

  • 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 4 cups coarsely chopped cabbage
  • 2 leeks, white parts only, washed and thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup hot milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Pat of butter, for garnish

Add 1/2 cup water to a large pressure cooker, place the rack in the cooker and add the potatoes. Place the cabbage and leeks in a steamer basket and position it on top of the potatoes. Lock the lid in place. Bring the cooker to 15 pounds of pressure per square inch over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting to stabilize and maintain the pressure. Cook for 4 minutes, then remove from heat and depressurize.

Carefully open the lid after the pressure drops. Carefully remove the cabbage and leek mixture, drain the potatoes and set aside. Wipe the cooker dry.

Heat the butter in the pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened. Remove from heat, add the cooked potatoes to the pressure cooker and add just enough hot milk to mash them by whatever means you prefer. Leave the potatoes slightly lumpy rather than smooth and creamy.

Gently stir in the cooked cabbage and leeks, salt and pepper, adjusting seasoning to taste. Return the cooker to low heat and cook until just heated through. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with a pat of butter at the center.

Servings: 4 to 5.

Per serving: 310 calories, 8 grams fat, 5 grams saturated fat, 22 milligrams cholesterol, 54 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams protein, 391 milligrams sodium, 7 grams fiber.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Art for Money

Locals among those receiving NJ arts grants
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Last Updated Tuesday February 19, 2008, EST 10:15 PM
BY EVELYN SHIH

Three North Jersey residents were among the 30 artists recognized with 2008 Artist Fellowships by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

"My wife was more excited than I was," said winner Michael Dal Cerro of Lyndhurst, who received $12,000 for his work in prints. Other North Jersey winners include Dajhia Ingram of Fair Lawn ($6,800) and Claire Porter of Teaneck ($7,500), both for choreography.

(Left: "Convergence 2006," by Michael Dal Cerro. Woodblock print.)

"It means I can work less at my day job and more at my passion," said Dal Cerro, a 54-year-old printmaker who works part time for a trade show decorating company creating window displays. "I try to make art my full time job."

The trio received a portion of $225,000 in prize money handed out by the agency. Each year, the fellowships are awarded in different art categories.

This year's artists were chosen from a field of more than 350 entrants for potential in choreography, design, media, music composition, new genres in visual arts, painting and works on paper. Next year, the Council will award artists in the areas of crafts, interdisciplinary performance, photography, poetry, playwriting, prose and sculpture.

Dal Cerro, whose wife Patricia Dahlman is also an artist, isn't a Jersey native. But he says the Garden State has been a good home for them since they moved here in 1999.

"New Jersey's actually very supportive of its artists," he said, noting that his wife has gotten grants from other institutions in the past.

The Artist Fellowship program is administered in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in Baltimore. The cash award - which can be used towards purchasing supplies, attending a residency or renting studio space - can be secondary to the honor of the prize for many artists.

"It's the recognition that the award gives you," said Dal Cerro. "...It gives me more hits on Google, which is always good. It means I'm easier to find."

Monday, February 18, 2008

Gluten Minimus!

A new leaf: Antioxidant chili
Monday, February 18, 2008
Last Updated Monday February 18, 2008, EST 7:24 AM

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"The Gluten-Free Vegan" by Susan O'Brien (Marlowe and Co., 2007)

If you take away all animal products and all foods containing gluten, it might seem like you're not left with much. But cooking instructor Susan O'Brien makes it easy in her new recipe collection. O'Brien began eating a gluten-free vegan diet to control her high blood pressure. She felt deprived of her usual ingredients at first but eventually expanded her repertoire into different grains, spices and substitutes. The results are not only healthy and cruelty-free, but also flavorful. O'Brien keeps the recipes as simple as possible to get you in and out of the kitchen quickly. Soon you may be converting non-vegan friends to this simple new diet.

-- Evelyn Shih



Antioxidant chili

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large red onion, chopped
  • 2 medium-size carrots, chopped
  • 1 cup seeded and chopped green or red bell pepper
  • 1 pound extra-firm silken tofu, drained and coarsely chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
  • 1 can (28 ounces) organic tomatoes, diced
  • 2 cans (15 ounces) black or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • Freshly ground pepper

Heat a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Pour in the olive oil and, when it heats, add the onion and carrots. Sauté until the onion begins to soften, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add bell pepper, tofu and jalapeno, and continue sautéing for another 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, beans, cumin, chili powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Cook until the flavors are blended, about 45 minutes.

Servings: 4.

Per serving: 327 calories, 5 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 53 grams carbohydrates, 22 grams protein, 1,249 milligrams sodium, 18 grams fiber.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Magi-What?

MagiQuest casting a spell
Friday, February 15, 2008
BY EVELYN SHIH

My first clue that I'd entered another world was the doorkeeper, dressed in a brown velour tunic and leggings.

"Welcome, milady," he said, taking my plastic wand and scanning it over a reader at the register.

I was ready to play MagiQuest, a new electronic role-playing game at the Funplex entertainment facility in East Hanover.

The ticket to entering this live video game is a wand that you buy at the front desk for 60 minutes of play time, you are set loose in the facility - a land complete with dark woods, rooms designed to look like castle nooks, dungeons and a serene green forest.

The goal is to gather "rune" talismans, gain power and level up as a Magi, all by using your wand, which records your successes. On the way, you fight magical creatures and meet a host of characters, all animated or portrayed by actors on video screens. No one expects you to finish all the quests and become a "Master Magi" in one trip, but the wand "remembers" your identity for subsequent trips.

Though I was literally a novice, still waving my wand at every gold chest hidden in a dark corner and rune in the wall just to see them light up, I was about to get a tour from the most powerful Magi in the land - all 8,000 square feet of it.

The Enchantress looked quite humble dressed in a tunic of black and purple tatters, complete with a violet cape. But when she signed in to the screens at the Stonehenge-like Stone Circle to the left of the entrance with a wave of her wand, the system welcomed her as "Magi God."

Her name is Denise Weston, and she invented the game.

"Video games, although compelling, are isolating," explained Weston, of Rhode Island, a psychologist who studied play behavior in children.

Before she devised the game for entertainment company Creative Kingdoms, "I didn't see my own kids socializing, and I had a hard time connecting with them in their play," Weston added. "I thought, I can't stop my kids from playing [video games], but I can create an experience that feels like a video game and invite the whole family to play together."

Our quest brought us to the Goblin King's castle. Two boys of about 10 who had just failed at challenging the Goblin King stumbled out the gate, disappointed, as we entered. The Enchantress easily got past the animated goblin gate keeper by flicking her wand at two runes embedded in the wall. They blinked in response before sinking back into the painted gray concrete.

Once in, the Enchantress waved her wand at the large screen in the dark dungeon-like throne room, and the animated Goblin King woke up. He was full of PG-rated verbal abuse - "Puny human!" he shouted - but she tossed it off.

"Yeah, yeah," she said jeeringly. "Let's fight!"

Two columns on either side of the screen, one labeled "M" at the top for "Magi" and the other "G" for "Goblin King," lit up like three-dimensional health bars out of Street Fighter. The battle was on. The Enchantress whipped her wand at the screen over and over.

And then she made a hit. Blinding white lights flashed in the small throne room as the Goblin King roared in pain.

"Yes!" shouted the Enchantress, pumping both her arms down to the knee. The Goblin King's health dropped several bars.

The two defeated boys watched from outside the painted concrete doorway, hoping to learn some new tricks. It wasn't long before the Enchantress depleted the Goblin King's health and left him a smoking heap on the throne.

"Aim for the middle," she muttered under her breath to the boys as we strolled, triumphant, out of the throne room.

Frankly, I'm not sure I have what it takes to become a Master Magi, let alone a Magi God. But according to Weston, the game is a great equalizer that has gotten families playing together at other, larger MagiQuest locations in the Poconos and at Myrtle Beach.

"Girls play as much as boys, and adults play as much as children," she said. "Once you catch on, you get kind of addicted to the play. But you're doing it with your friends."

For this Magi, it's never lonely - not even at the top.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Friday, February 8, 2008

I Love Herby

A new leaf: Herby veggie and pasta bake
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Last Updated Tuesday February 5, 2008, PST 10:08 AM
Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"The Omega 3 Cookbook," by Michael van Straten (Kyle, 2008)

If you're vegetarian or vegan, you've probably heard that nutritionists suggest omega 3 supplements. The fatty acid comes mainly from fish, so if you don't eat it, you're a little out of luck. Plant sources are not nearly as efficient, writes Michael van Straten. However, this recipe collection contains more than a handful of recipes that deliver the omega 3s without fish. Check it out to find some new sources of the nutrients.

-- Evelyn Shih




Herby veggie and pasta bake
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups soy milk
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 tablespoons flax seed oil, divided
3 zucchini, diced
1 eggplant, diced
3 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato purée
3 tablespoons fresh oregano, finely chopped
14 ounces boiled lasagna sheets
3 tablespoons freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
6 fronds fresh dill
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter gently in a large skillet. Take off the heat and stir in the flour and cumin. Return to a gentle heat and cook, stirring continuously, for 2 minutes. Gradually add the soy milk, stirring until thickened. Set sauce aside.

Sweat the onion and garlic gently in 2 tablespoons of oil until soft. Add the zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, tomato purée and oregano, continue cooking for 5 minutes, and stir continuously.

Grease a wide, shallow pasta dish with the rest of the oil. Put in one layer of lasagna sheets. Spread on half the vegetable mixture and a third of the white sauce. Add another layer of lasagna, follow with the rest of the vegetable mixture and another third of the sauce. Add the final layer of lasagna and the rest of the sauce, making sure the pasta is well-covered.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove, scatter Parmesan and dill over the lasagna, and return to the oven for another 5 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbling.

Servings: 6.

Per serving: 523 calories, 21 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 23 milligrams cholesterol, 70 grams carbohydrates, 17 grams protein, 160 milligrams sodium, 9 grams fiber.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Command Performance: A Completely Unnecessry Story About Being a Sports Fan

When football fans fumble their priorities
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Last Updated Sunday February 3, 2008, PST 7:45 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH

Are you ready for some football?

Shortly after 6:17 tonight, the Giants face off against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. A Big Blue victory would be one of the biggest upsets in postseason football history and surely warm the hearts of many Giants fans.

Here's an important question: Are North Jersey pigskin fans ready for life after football? Especially if – and we say this in the most hushed of tones and with the utmost reverence for our hometown heroes – their beloved Giants lose?

Believing that wearing the same unwashed team jersey every weekend will keep a winning streak alive never hurt anyone -- although it may cause those with more delicate noses to leave the room when you enter. But marriages, family ties and mental balance may all be in jeopardy if you see exclusively through the blue-tinted glasses of Giants mania 24/7.

"It's like religion," said sports psychiatrist Dr. Ronald Kamm of Oakhurst, describing the human fascination with sports. "You're part of something bigger than yourself."

Don't forget your other

As a result, psychiatrists offer the following advice: It's important to take a step back and realize it's just a game. Life will go on tomorrow. And you need to be mindful of your significant other (it's almost always a wife or girlfriend), including the weekends when you're MIA, feeding your sports obsession.

But that's easier said that done. A highly identified fan – or HIF in sports psychology jargon – may become estranged from loved ones when the emotional roller coaster of game-watching gets too addictive. Not only do some fans spend too much time watching, but their mood also will be affected for days afterward.

"If the team loses in a particularly gut-wrenching way, they can be depressed for a day or two," said Kamm. "Whereas if the team surprises them with a win, their chest puffs out, they're in a good mood for days."

For Philip Zito of Nutley, watching a Giants game can be more painful than going to work on Monday, and it's not because this true-blue fan is afraid his G-men will lose.

"Even sometimes when they win – it's what they put you through to get there," he said. The win over the Green Bay Packers two Sundays ago, for example, played out in a series of preventable errors before the final victory.

When the Giants do lose, it matters how they lose. "It either bothers me for five minutes because they got slaughtered and were never in it," Zito explained, "or it bothers me for two days because they screwed up."

Give him space

Women attached to men who are HIFs need to be understanding if postgame depression hits, said Dr. Richard Drobnick of Teaneck. Drobnick's clinic practices the philosophy of his mentor, Dr. John Gray, best-selling author of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus."

"If a man feels that depression, a man may need 'cave time,' " Drobnick said. "He may need some alone time to deal with the loss of his team. And for a while a woman should not run after him to talk about it because it will make him feel worse. ... A woman has trouble understanding this, because when a woman talks about her problems, she feels better, which is opposite of a man."

But there comes a time when a lady in waiting needs to kick down the door. "He can't just go into his cave and stay in there," Drobnick said.

Unless he is, in fact, a bona fide cave man, a mourning male fan should tell his significant other that he needs time alone. After he returns to his normal state of emotional balance, he should make up for his time away by being an attentive mate, advised Drobnick.

Bouncing back

Some Giants fans, however, won't have the luxury of that buffer time.

"I don't shut down for three days," said Capt. John McLoughlin of the Englewood Fire Department, an avid fan. "In the fire business, you have to keep everything in perspective. Twenty minutes after a game you get calls for house fires."

Nevertheless, the reality of his job doesn't stop him from buying season tickets every year and spending 10 hours at the stadium tailgating and screaming along with other true-blue fans.

Men aren't the only ones who fall into fanaticism, but female fans are less likely to wrap their egos in the fortunes of their favorite teams, said Drobnick.

"If a man is obsessed with sports to the point that it takes him away from his girlfriend or wife, she'll feel like she's low on his list of priorities," he said. The long-term cost of a man pulling away from his significant other to watch sports games can be resentment on the part of the woman. While men may see a big event like the Super Bowl as a chance to go all out with their fanaticism, it may in fact be the last straw for their chronically frustrated partners.

Family bonding

What superfans need to do is find a way to balance their loves.

Fathers and sons and growing numbers of fathers and daughters may find national sports a good way to bridge generation gaps and even physical distance, Kamm said. In fact, the sports team you support may have more to do with whom your family supports than where you live. Joining together against a common enemy is a fun way to connect.

Paul Sarlo, assistant majority leader in the New Jersey Senate, agrees that watching sports can be healthy recreation.

"The economy is perhaps close to being in a recession," he said. "There are health-care issues. There are so many things on people's minds in this day and age. [Sports] takes their minds off some of the other stuff that is happening around them that may be stressful."

Despite the fact that he is a Wood-Ridge native who ushered at the Meadowlands as a college kid, Sarlo has to keep his head in the game of politics. Should the Giants lose, he won't have the luxury of cave time. But the senator, like most Giants fans, will be connecting with family through football this weekend.

"My 7-year-old son is just getting into it," he said, "so I'm excited to watch it with him."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Friday, February 1, 2008

'Fraid of Your Own Shadow? Then Dance.

Dance drama "Glow" comes to The Kitchen
Friday, February 1, 2008
Last Updated Friday February 1, 2008, PST 3:56 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH

In Disney's "Peter Pan," Peter has to fly back to the Darlings' house to find his shadow. The liberated shadow refuses to reunite with its owner until Wendy Darling sews it back onto his toes.

"Glow," a dance piece by the Australian company Chunky Move, is also a drama featuring rebellious shadows and their owner. Artistic director Gideon Obarzanek and technology designer Frieder Weiss put together a light projection system that reacts to the movements of a solo dancer onstage, an experiment that took a turn for the metaphysical.

"The light gives the sense of her body glowing from within, visualizing her internal emotion," said Obarzanek. Infrared information from the dancer's body, read by a device, is instantly projected back in different light and shadow patterns that respond to her movement.

But in the second half of the work, the shadows disperse all over the performance space. "They start moving on their own, so that she is reacting to them," Obarzanek added. "These are images that come from an instantly replayed memory of movements she has just completed. The shadows appear to have come from her, despite being semi-autonomous.

"It's quite scary," he said.

"Glow" debuted stateside last year in Pittsburgh, but this will be its first New York appearance. Those who venture out for this experimental dance experience at The Kitchen in Manhattan will have an intimate experience in a space retooled especially for the performance. The dancer performs on the floor, and seats on all four sides allow viewers to look down on her.

"If I used a vertical screen, the dancer would be fixed to the floor by her feet," explained Obarzanek. "With the floor, the body can float within the image." Vertical screens, he added, are a more familiar way of viewing performances because of television and movie mediums. With the horizontal frame, Obarzanek tries to make the experience less familiar -- and more interesting.

The "Glow" project began as a challenge from Obarzanek to Weiss. He wondered if Weiss could design a lighting system that responded to the performer onstage, instead of creating a lit space to which performers confined their movement.

Weiss could and he did. Over a six- to eight-week period, Obarzanek and Weiss worked together to coordinate choreography and technology. That may seem like a short creative gestation, but Obarzanek usually finishes a piece in half the time.

"One of the inherent frustrations is that programming is painstakingly slow," he said. "It's incompatible with working with a dancer in the studio. ... You may discuss a small change with Frieder, and it will take two days to do."

But on the whole, the experiment was more successful than either imagined, and it is still evolving. Obarzanek has just finished debuting "Mortal Engine," a piece for six dancers using the same technology, in Australia. " 'Glow' was a very literal relationship," said Obarzanek. "The projected light simply lit the body, using algorithms to accentuate and interact with it. But 'Mortal Engine' has a more sophisticated life and decay to it, so that the shadows seem more autonomous."

A little rebellion, it seems, may be coming to a full-on mutiny.

Will Obarzanek be bringing the big light show to America?

"I certainly hope so," he said.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Too Soon

A fuller portrait of Debee Cornell's talents
Friday, February 1, 2008
Last Updated Friday February 1, 2008, PST 3:53 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH

The first time Debee Cornell's artwork was shown publicly, she was in elementary school. Her art class had a showing at the Cottage Place gallery in Ridgewood.

Her mother, Susan Cornell, remembers a drawing of a vase and flowers that a kindergarten teacher had her do. "I assumed the teacher did the vase, because the lines were so straight," she said. "But no, Debee did that."

In a portrait of a friend that she did at age 14, titled "Summer Love," Debee's early promise shows in the pregnant expression of the subject's mouth and the almost touchable interplay of light and shadow in her hair. Throughout her childhood, Debee's unusual eye for detail was apparent.

But the second time her work was shown publicly, those eyes were closed forever. Just shy of 17, the young artist had succumbed to an overdose of heroin. Susan and husband Gene displayed her work at the memorial.

On the first anniversary of her death today, they are opening her third art exhibit, a more comprehensive collection of her drawings and poetry.

"She excelled at black and white pencil and ink pen or marker," said Susan Cornell, who also paints. "Her detailed line drawings were what she was best at."

"She just didn't miss anything," added Gene Cornell.

The Ridgewood teen was a natural talent, self-taught in everything from drawing to poetry to songwriting. Her art was compulsive and introverted, an outlet for expression during her troubled adolescence.

"We were close as a family, but she was very alienated," said Gene Cornell. Of African and Hispanic descent, Debee was adopted when she was 5 1/2 weeks old into a Caucasian family. She changed her given name of Deborah to Debee and had unanswered questions about her own identity.

Susan Cornell said, "I think she always felt loved ..."

"... but she always felt different, and it really upset her," Gene Cornell finished.

A drawing on her Web site, hateworthy666.deviantart.com, depicts a fetal figure hugging a red heart and weeping straight blue lines as colorful figures out of Keith Haring do cartwheels on its head and walk into the distance, leaving tiny footprints. Titled "My Inner Picasso," the drawing was "a little insight into being me," according to Debee's caption.

About 25 to 30 art pieces will be in the exhibit, as well as many collected digital works presented in a digital photo frame, said Gene Cornell. Some of the original pieces are lost forever, but Debee diligently scanned much of her work, leaving a digital trail on the blogging site Xanga and the art hosting site Deviant Art.

Her parents have been working on the exhibit for quite some time. "It's been a terrible time," said Susan Cornell. "I suppose the art show is one way for us to deal with it. It gives us a chance to celebrate her creativity."

Just like a year ago, when the Cornells hosted a separate teen memorial for Debee's peers, there will be a separate teen reception on Feb. 12. Last year, her classmates asked for a chance to commemorate Debee on their own terms.

"The kids initiated it," said Gene Cornell.

"That was very comforting, as well, for us," his wife added. Many neighbors have also reached out to the Cornells in emotional support during this difficult year.

But a year out from Debee Cornell's death, her parents believe it is time to share her full story alongside her substantial talent.

"We've been very direct with the world and the circumstances of Debee's death," said Susan Cornell. "Maybe it will help somebody."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com