Live Art & Sound Collaboration Norton Wisdom & Soundscape: Kevin Parker

Join rebellious Artist, Performance Painter, Activist Norton Wisdom and guitarist Kevin Parker as they get dreamy & ethereal in Topanga Canyon on Sunday October 26th in Topanga Canyon. Untamed & Raw live art experience!

Wisdom is a state of mind. Norton Wisdom lives beyond NoWisdom. Supporter of peace and expert mesmerizer, to find him or track his ever changing adventures is, as his artwork, continually moving. He travels the world gracing the planet with his constantly changing music inspired imagery through the live talents of musicians around the globe. Watch and listen as he profoundly interprets what he sees and hears live on stage with paint and passion.

Doors open at 5:45pm

FULL SUPPORT: GUARANTEED SIT-DOWN CHAIR SEATING: $20 or discount for 2 people $30

STANDING, GARDEN: $10

NORTON WISDOM began his artistic life at fourteen when he attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. A student of the luminous John Altoon (one of the preeminent artists of West Coast avant-gardism of the 50’s and 60’s), Wisdom was introduced, not only to the fundamentals of figure drawing, but also to the bold conceptual-based and humanistic thinking which would lay the groundwork for his future endeavors and Peter Voulkos premier Modernist ceramic sculpture and Painter.

Wisdom first began exhibiting his own work in San Francisco in the 1970s but withdrew all of his work from galleries in 1974 and spent the following eight years immersed in studio work. That same year he became a lifeguard and the endless hours he spent staring out at the ocean while working on the beaches of Malibu, Topanga and Zuma contributed to his minimalist vision as a painter. In the oct 1981 while in Germany for an exhibition, Wisdom painted over 150 meters of the East side of the Berlin wall during the night using searchlights to illuminate his work. He was subsequently arrested, detained, and sent back to the U.S. but the experience convinced him that he could no longer work in the static studio environment and soon he began collaborating with punk bands and working in a performative style. Wisdom has been painting to live music ever since with bands like Panic and Banyan along with musicians such as Ireesh Lal (Artronika), Nels Cline (Wilco), Mike Watt (Iggy Pop), and Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), Robby Krieger (The Doors), Rich Robinson (The Black Crows) Richie Havens, Kris Kristofferson and George Clinton to name a few. His live, improvisational paintings are temporary interpretations of music that only exist during the space of the performance.

Nels Cline and Wisdom have collaborated on the project ‘Stained Radiance’ for the last 20 years and have performed at the New York Winter Jazz Fest, The Fender 50 year Anniversary Celebration of the Jazz Master Guitar at the Knitting Factory (New York), Solid Sound Festival at Massachusetts Museum of Art, Crystal Museum of Art (Arkansas), Musik New Music Festival (Victoria, Canada) and the Big Ear New Music Festival (Knoxville).

Wisdom has performed around the world at venues as varied as the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to Coachella to the Butu Dance Company in Japan, and locally at the Walt Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles, Laguna Art Museum, the Skirball Museum, and more. He has been live painting with the Los Angeles Flypoet’s Showcase for over 25 years. His paintings and sculptures can be found in the permanent collections of notable museums including the Sheldon Museum of Art Nebraska, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, the Milwaukee Art Center, Wisconsin, The San Diego Museum of art and the Orange County Museum of Art.

KEVIN PARKER:

LA Based artist/composer kp (kevin parker) creates ethereal soundscapes and dreamy compositions that seek solace in a modern world. Sparse arrangements surrender to swelling walls of sound that are simultaneously melancholy and hopeful. Shimmering guitars echo over swirling loops as time moves backwards and forwards.