Celebrating local art
By Melinda Harrell
Published in News on December 16, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jovane Holland, left, local model and consultant, laughs with Maximillian Mozingo, local painter, during the Art of Expression Holiday Showcase Saturday night at Chef Herb's Bistro Saturday night. Mozingo's work was featured during the event as well as other artists, including poets and a filmmaker during the event.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jamela Lrato recites one of her poems during the Art of Expression Holiday Showcase. She said she never knows what poem she will present until she gets in front of an audience.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Nicole Alvarado, 16, left, and Makaila Colebrook, 14, listen to a poetry reading at Chef Herb's Saturday night. The two girls attended the event for a modeling casting call, but stayed around for the performances.
Poets, musicians and artists gathered at Chef Herb's Bistro to display their talents Saturday night, but for most of those artists it was a showcase of their personal experiences of love, pain and healing.
Maximillian Mozingo, a local artist with a focus on Afro-centric painting, helped organize the Holiday Art Showcase with owner of Chef Herb's, Herb Herbst.
"It's an Art of Expression Holiday Showcase," Mozingo said.
"We teamed up with Chef Herb to display local talent. Actually after my exhibit at the Arts Council we decided to keep the momentum going so we talked with Chef Herb. So it kind of came together."
Herbst said his goal in hosting the showcase was to bring artists together and offer them a platform to present their talents.
"The concept of our restaurant was to allow local artists to come in and display their art," said Herbst.
"Whether it be in print or vocal -- spoken or sung. This is our third exhibit that we have had in here and we teamed up with Max and brought these in. Our whole intent is to bring the community together to experience art and the talents here in town."
Mozingo's work lined the walls of the softly lit restaurant, popping with bright yellows, reds and greens.
Mozingo described his work as an avenue of healing and therapy.
"I am not classically trained," Mozingo said.
"A lot of my art came from -- I have only been painting since March -- but a lot of my art came from suggestions and what I have been going through -- it's a side of me that I can latch on to. It was kind of like therapy. I went through a relationship, I was homeless at one time. I was at the bottom of the barrel. I started painting as therapy. It kind of turned into something I could not turn off."
He was not the only artist to use the event as a show of personal expression either.
Jamela Lrato, local poet, came out to the showcase to support her friend, Mozingo, she said.
"I was asked to perform for my awesome homie Maximillian," she said.
"I generally never know what I am going to do. My poetry comes from pain and it turns into healing."
When Ms. Lrato stood behind the microphone she peppered her introduction with humor and as the audience warmed to her the audience -- many already knowing her talents, shouting out names of poems that they wanted to hear -- she began her impromptu recitation of one of her works.
She chose two pieces she had written, one about a relationship and one about her relationship with writing, but both powerful, rhythmic and passionate.
Robert Jownsbey-Taylor, another local poet, said he was new to presenting his work, but he had been writing for a long time as a form of expression.
"My poems are about personal experience, my life, my struggles," he said.
Art came in more than one form during the showcase, and it was Robyn "Jae Jacob" Jacobs film that offered a more unique way to meld poetry, imagery and filmmaking.
Her short film "Open" is about a dying relationship, and Ms. Jacob said it is something that everyone can understand.
"My film is about two people holding on to a relationship until the woman finally lets go of it," she said.
"It shows the man's journey after the relationship ends. Everyone over 30 have been in a relationship with a person and they knew it was over. (This film) is about trying to figure out how to move on."
"Open" featured a cast of three local performers with the no direct dialogue, but a voice over of a poem and as the poem progresses the relationship crumbles.
Jovane Holland also sought to recruit modeling talent during the showcase for the "2016 Look Book" project.