Archive for the ‘Artist Spotlight’ Category
Spotlight on Deb Caney
Deb Caney is Luna’s resident costume designer for the 2011-2012 season.
Deborah Caney has been a professional costume designer for over 20 years. She has designed costumes at regional theaters all over the country, off Broadway and been an Associate costume designer for Broadway. She has designed costumes for big lavish musicals, period dramas, Shakespeare plays and modern comedies.
Originally, Deborah studied studio art. She has a fine arts degree from Wesleyan University and has studied painting, drawing and print making in schools in the South of France and Florence, Italy. She has always loved fashion and fabrics and has studied fashion design at The Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York. However, she has always had a passion for theater fostered by parents who took her to Broadway shows, both extravagant musicals and challenging dramas, from an early age. So, after college she attended Mason Gross School of The Arts, Rutgers University where she received an MFA in costume design.
For Deborah, theater is most exciting and fulfilling when a group of artists come together to create an artistic whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Rather than painting alone in a studio, it’s much more meaningful to be part of a collaborative art. Costume design for her, is a way to help make the director’s vision, come to life. Her work adds layers to the actors’ performance, and helps the audience visualize the world of the play.
Another joy from her work is research. She loves delving into historical research, and discovering exactly what people wore in different eras. Research is the basis of all of her work, whether the play is set in the 17th C. or the 1980’s. It’s fascinating to look at the different layers of clothing from period underwear and corsets to hats and shoes. Class differences also define the look and style of the character in a play. All of this is taken into account when she designs her costumes.
Deborah is very proud to be the costume designer in residence for Luna Stage. Working with Luna is especially satisfying artistically. She gets the pleasure of collaborating with other dedicated artists as well as the chance to work on exciting new plays. She enjoys the opportunity to go from a complex period drama such as Ben Clawson’s The Dangers Of Electric Lighting, to the bright colored fun of Mi Casa Tu Casa.
Deborah has two beautiful children, Zoe, 9 and Jacob, 7, who, are her other “job”. Her kids, love watching Mommy draw her designs, and often sit at the table beside her and draw as well. Her husband, Derek, makes her career possible, by being astoundingly supportive of her desire to be a professional working artist.
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GREAT COSTUME REVIEWS:
Review of Ain’t Misbehavin’ in NY Times
Review of The Heiress in NY Times
HIGHLIGHTS OF CANEY’S COSTUME WORK:
A costume sketch for Thomas Edison in Luna's production of "The Dangers of Electric Lighting"
Caney's Costumes for "Ain't Misbehavin'" at Crossroads Theatre
The costume sketch...
...the costume!
The costume sketch...
...the costume!
Spotlight on Deivito Garcia
Deivito Garcia is one of the creators of Mi Casa, Tu Casa, Luna’s 2011 & 2012 Holiday Offering.
Deivito” Garcia (pronounced “Dave-ee-toh”) is a singer/songwriter, and collaborator, who specializes in a unique brand of music he calls “Spanglish “Guajirobilly.”
His sound, be it alternately in English or Spanish (or both), is an ambitious blend of the rural folkloric styles of Pan-Latin America – ranging from Mexico to Cuba to Puerto Rico to Colombia and Bolivia – along with his own original tunes as influenced by American Roots music, Southern Blues, Doo Wop music, Rockabilly and Outlaw Country music.
His approach is, not so much to push boundaries but to represent the very living, breathing, and evolving frontiers of overlapping cultural identities. His own reflection of this happens to emerge as an circuit between the rich histories of his own Caribbean, North American, and South American background.
It is Deivito’s belief that the deep introspection involved in personifying all of these culminating voices is the most open and honest way to live as an artist; as if by living as the sum of one’s ancestors and influences, one’s individuality emerges with the impetus of legacy.
With an ear open to the foundational influence of the past, Deivito’s artistic pursuits seem varying, and many strokes apart, yet they are at end all branches stemming from the same deep root-motif: “We are all one.”
His musical performances on acoustic guitar cover folk music from the Americas and original “Spanglish” works that are a sort of historian’s walk through Latin American gems emerging as new songs with the spirit of the old. He also has written a conceptual work entitled “The Black Spaniard” which presents such songs as a woven tapestry of one long song comprised of many.
Deivito performs solo and with friends such as Michael Aquino of the Sirs, Jodi Mozeika, and Heriberto Ramos. He was born in Elizabeth, NJ, has had cartoons published in Raygun Publishing’s Bikini Magazine and in the printed edition of Jersey Tomato Press, a short story published in Dirt Press: Volume One. His story “Word Is Bond” was shortlisted for the 2009 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. He is also a muralist and painter, and co-founded the annual Boro 6 Indie Music fest in Montclair. In good weather he can be found on Church Street in Montclair, serenading the birds.
Learn more about Deivito on Facebook and Reverbnation.
Watch Deivito’s work on YouTube:
“Invisible Threads” (Black Spaniard Intro)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1kRb75Roc4&feature=related
“Al Vaiven de Mi Carreta”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQ6l1tBCwI
View some of Deivito’s art below:
"Yemaya" by Deivito Garcia
"Mother Myth" by Deivito Garcia
