+++Sountrack to the Ant Girls exhibition Ant Farm out now on LP!!!!!

Elliott Schwartz & Big Blood - Ant Farm 

Released by Feeding Tube Records   

Get it HERE 

or

 HERE

LP Edition of 300. Numbered.

Soundtrack to the exhibition "Ant Farm:At the Nexus of Art & Science" by Rebecca Goodale, Colleen Kinsella, Vivien Russe & Dorothy Schwartz.
Review by Byron Coley

An incredible album of music, conjoining two different sonic aspects of Maine’s Strangeness. Big Blood are well known to fanciers of contemporary sub-underground sounds. The duo of Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin have been conjuring up rural-experimental ghosts for over a decade. Feeding Tube has previously released their double LP set, Radio Valkyrie (FTR 103) to rapturous acclaim. Their music embodies the mysteries of the deep woods better than any othe artist we can name.
Elliott Schwartz, meanwhile, has been composing and playing brilliant (often keyboard based) music for decades. His 1973 duo album with saxophonist Marion Brown (released by Bowdoin College, where he has been based for many years), is often cited as one of the primest examples of a free jazz/avant classical hybrid. And all of his records are quite killer.
This LP came together as the soundtrack for an exhibit called Ant Farm, organized to showcase the work of Maine-based art quartet, The Ant Girls. This visual arts group included Ms. Kinsella and the late Dorothy “Deedee” Schwartz in its ranks, so it’s perhaps is this collab less surprising than it might initially appear.
But surprising or not, the work is an incredible syncretic fusion. Although there are certain instrumental parts we might ascribe to one artist or the other, as the music unwinds these divisions melt and become all-but-imaginary. The blend of Big Blood’s psych-tinged free-folk improvisations and Schwartz’s aleatory work on keys and percussion is a ver righteous blast.
300 numbered copies exist on our planet. Don’t delay.

!!Ant Party!! 4.11.14

Ant Party April 11th 6-8pm USM Lewiston-Auburn Campus    directions here
Listen to "Ant Farm" composed and performed by Elliott Schwartz and Caleb Mulkerin with Colleen Kinsella here

Atrium Gallery Installation complete!

Working with curator Robyn Holman and Facilites Manager Randy Estes for the installation of the Ant Girls "Ant Farm" was a great experience. They were open to all our ideas and we problem solved any hanging issues. Thank you both for your tireless work on the lift and on the ground!

No Sad Songs + Dorothy Schwartz 1938 - 2014

   Friends and family are mourning the loss of our beloved Ant Sister Deedee Schwartz who passed away on March 3, 2014. The Ant Farm Project is a testament to her love of life. We began meeting 2 years ago thanks to Rebecca Goodale. At Deedee's suggestion we looked to E.O Wilson and the leafcutter ants because of their cooperative nature as a Superorganism. Working together ant-style our colony of 4 created works we never could have imagined or achieved on our own. Deedee worked with infectious enthusiasm, making beautiful woodcuts(see below) and co authoring a A MAC Artists in Commuinity grant with our honorary Ant Girl USM Curator Robyn Holman which we received in February 2014.
  Deedee had been sick since mid November but with her indomitable spirit continued, despite severe pain, to attend work meetings for our project. 
She died peacefully within days, surrounded by her loving family. We are all grateful for knowing Dorothy "Deedee" Schwartz. She was a force of nature. 
Her creative spirit was boundless, compassionate, intelligent and irreplaceable.
   Deedee and her husband, avant garde composer Elliott Schwartz were a creative team. They supported each others individual endeavors and  collaborated on "Darwin's Dream", 
a multi- media performance. Elliott will be composing "Ant Girls" with Caleb Mulkerin for the upcoming exhibit. She made it clear she wanted “No Sad Songs”, feeling she had lived a very full life, with so much joy. Dorothy was a champion of  literature & literacy. She established the Harriet P. Henry Maine Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress. A quote from a collague during her time as Executive Directeor at the Maine Humanities Council, " Deedee’s energy, commitment and vision enriched not only the Council, but the state of Maine.
 This past October in 2013 the Maine Jewish Museum held her solo exhibition "Dorothy Schwartz: Evolution of a Printmaker" , beginning from her days with Leonard Baskin  in 1958 until present . Printmakers everywhere have lost a edgy contemporary whose elegant and compelling  legacy spans 7 decades.