The Monday Night Jazz Series on Oct. 25 at USF Tampa will have talented jazz guitarist Fred Hamilton as a guest star. Hamilton will perform alongside USF's own music students and faculty. Click Read More >> below for Jill Case's article.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Jazz up October
The Monday Night Jazz Series on Oct. 25 at USF Tampa will have talented jazz guitarist Fred Hamilton as a guest star. Hamilton will perform alongside USF's own music students and faculty. Click Read More >> below for Jill Case's article.
Music program alumni talks life after graduation
by Jamie Oakes
TAMPA, Fla.--Daniel Harrison, USF alumni of the Monday Night Jazz Series, was only a sophomore in high school, but he was well aware of what he wanted to do with his life—to be a musician.
Harrison, 23, first discovered his love of music when he and his friends would play music in high school. Although he did well in academia, he was bored with it. After all, he was a creative. It finally clicked for him. Harrison wanted to go to school for what he loved doing: playing the guitar. His parents thought otherwise.
“[My parents] definitely questioned my decision,” Harrison said. “They asked why not medical or law school? I told them it just wasn’t for me.”
Harrison has been playing the guitar since he was 13 years old. Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, he went to USF where he graduated with a double major in jazz studies and music composition.
Despite what one may think of majoring in the music program, Harrison said it’s hardly a walk-in-the-park degree.
“It’s extremely stressful program. It’s probably at the level of pre-med and electrical engineering, yet it’s such a lucrative field,” said Harrison. “You have to keep working outside of class, unlike other majors, like, accounting and business.”
Jim Hall and Peter Berstein, both jazz guitarists, are just a couple of his musical influences. His (and their) specialty is straight-ahead jazz, which is a style of jazz that encompasses the period of bebop and the 1960s.
“However, that’s not to be confused with smooth jazz,” he said. “That’s old-lady jazz, elevator music.”
Harrison is still living in the Tampa area, teaching and playing music at Tampa Guitar, though he detests the state in which he’s deemed “Mickey Mouse Land.” He plans on attending graduate school out-of-state.
“I decided to take a year off from school before jumping right into it again,” he said. “I’ve seen too many people burn out when they don’t take some time off. A break was definitely needed.”
Ideally, he would like to attend either University of Missouri, Kansas City or the University of Colorado, Boulder for composition and music theory. Instead of going to a larger, more prestigious school, such as Columbia, he wants to attend a smaller school. It isn’t too big of a campus where it would make him uncomfortable. Plus, he thinks attending a school that only accepts 50 students per semester, there’s a more likelihood of playing, recording, and getting heard.
All four years, he had been preparing for the recital, the big project for graduating seniors. When the students perform one last time for the panel of professors and get critiqued on their work. It’s either a pass or fail—no As, Bs, or Cs.
“It was extremely nerve wracking to perform in front of everyone, but I was happy when I saw the result. Now, I can’t wait to get out of Florida,” Harrison said.
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| Daniel Harrison. Contributed Picture |
Harrison, 23, first discovered his love of music when he and his friends would play music in high school. Although he did well in academia, he was bored with it. After all, he was a creative. It finally clicked for him. Harrison wanted to go to school for what he loved doing: playing the guitar. His parents thought otherwise.
“[My parents] definitely questioned my decision,” Harrison said. “They asked why not medical or law school? I told them it just wasn’t for me.”
Harrison has been playing the guitar since he was 13 years old. Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, he went to USF where he graduated with a double major in jazz studies and music composition.
Despite what one may think of majoring in the music program, Harrison said it’s hardly a walk-in-the-park degree.
“It’s extremely stressful program. It’s probably at the level of pre-med and electrical engineering, yet it’s such a lucrative field,” said Harrison. “You have to keep working outside of class, unlike other majors, like, accounting and business.”
Jim Hall and Peter Berstein, both jazz guitarists, are just a couple of his musical influences. His (and their) specialty is straight-ahead jazz, which is a style of jazz that encompasses the period of bebop and the 1960s.
“However, that’s not to be confused with smooth jazz,” he said. “That’s old-lady jazz, elevator music.”
Harrison is still living in the Tampa area, teaching and playing music at Tampa Guitar, though he detests the state in which he’s deemed “Mickey Mouse Land.” He plans on attending graduate school out-of-state.
“I decided to take a year off from school before jumping right into it again,” he said. “I’ve seen too many people burn out when they don’t take some time off. A break was definitely needed.”
Ideally, he would like to attend either University of Missouri, Kansas City or the University of Colorado, Boulder for composition and music theory. Instead of going to a larger, more prestigious school, such as Columbia, he wants to attend a smaller school. It isn’t too big of a campus where it would make him uncomfortable. Plus, he thinks attending a school that only accepts 50 students per semester, there’s a more likelihood of playing, recording, and getting heard.
All four years, he had been preparing for the recital, the big project for graduating seniors. When the students perform one last time for the panel of professors and get critiqued on their work. It’s either a pass or fail—no As, Bs, or Cs.
“It was extremely nerve wracking to perform in front of everyone, but I was happy when I saw the result. Now, I can’t wait to get out of Florida,” Harrison said.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Support USF art research by starting your own (affordable) art collection
The University of South Florida's Graphicstudio is holding its annual Benefit Sale with discounted art by contemporary artists. Find out where it is and why you should go.
For Milca Rivera's spotlight on Trenton Hancock click here.
For Milca Rivera's spotlight on Trenton Hancock click here.
GRAPHICSTUDIO ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK
By Milca Rivera
TAMPA, Fla. – Fantastical, symbolic, colorful, narrative and abstract are just a few of the words that have been used to describe the work of Trenton Doyle Hancock.
Hancock, 36, said on Wednesday that making a mark on a piece of paper at the age of 2 or 3 got him interested in creating art.
Around the age of 3 or 4, Hancock realized he was skilled at art when people began to call his work “abnormal.” Compared to other children his age, he said, his cows looked like actual cows. From that moment on, what inspired Hancock to create art changed.
“When I realized I was good at it, it became about recording, remembering the things I saw – characters from movies, interesting animals,” Hancock said. “The more you draw, the more you add to your library of images.”
As an undergraduate at Texas A&M University, Hancock added to his library of images the work he is most well-known for today.
“When I was around 20, 21, I started figure drawing and trying to search a way to draw figure images that were important to me,” Hancock said. “I started plucking limbs off people and they became bowling pins, which turned into Mounds.”
Hancock said he started to add cosmetically to the Mounds and tried to figure out what Mounds were.
The unfolding saga of the half-animal, half-plant creatures called Mounds has evolved into an epic narrative that has come to include Vegans, the Mounds antagonists; Torpedo Boy, the mounds’ protector that has an inflated ego; Painter, a mothering energy; and Loid, a paternal energy.
“It morphed into something I truly didn’t anticipate,” Hancock said.
In 2006, Hancock was invited to work at USF’s Graphicstudio. Over the last four years, Hancock has collaborated with Graphicstudio to create several sculptural and printed projects.
A piece on display at Graphicstudio is Hancock’s “Flower Bed II: A Prelude to Damnation.” The work, a glow-in-the-dark sheet of wallpaper that is 27 inches tall by 5 yards wide, is a vibrant display of color and text that depicts the massacre of hundreds of baby Mounds.
Hancock said he created the work because he’s always been interested in environments and creating something that people can walk into.
“Wallpaper furthers images and allows me to make a module that I can replicate that creates an environment,” Hancock said. “Wallpaper does that successfully, and it is also a more expedient way to cover wall.”
Of “Flower Bed II,” Hancock said, “[It] allowed me to experiment with different ink, create blacklight and work with 3-D elements.”
Those planning to attend the studio’s benefit sale on Oct. 8 can view “Flower Bed II” through the 3-D glasses located on the table in front of the work.
Several of Hancock’s pieces are currently on display at Graphicstudio, and in January visitors to USF’s Contemporary Art Museum will be able to view a full collection of Hancock’s work.
For more information about Hancock visit the PBS ART:21 and Graphicstudio websites.
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