Party Line: Fun for a cause

Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo

Rapper "BigMac Jack" Fargotstein entertains the audience at the Invisible Children benefit.

Kasey Spilman wanted to raise money for Invisible Children, so she organized a rock and rap concert at The Abbey in Lifelink Memphis church in Cooper-Young. Invisible Children is a movement that seeks to end the conflict in Uganda and to stop the abduction of children for use as child soldiers.

"We've done a couple of fundraisers through the school, just like taking up donations at lunch, just little things like that," said Kasey, 17, who is president and founder of the White Station High School Invisible Children club. "This is our big event of the year. I just have a lot of friends who are in bands. I just thought it would be a good way to mix fun and entertainment and try to help somebody else."

The lineup for the Saturday show featured The Doorknobs, Moon Zoo, Whatsinaname, Room 25 and rapper Jack Fargotstein.

The concert, which began at 7 and ended after 11, was a success. More than 250 people attended, Kasey said. With a $10 ticket price, she estimates she netted about $2,000 for Invisible Children.

Asked why he attended, Kevin Gunckel said, "I like 'BigMac Jack' (Fargotstein). He's my guy."

And, he added, "I want to give money to the kids."

Ted Faiers opening

Lydia Faiers was at the opening reception for an exhibit featuring work by her father, the late Ted Faiers, on Friday night at David Lusk Gallery. "Ted Faiers: Flat Space, paintings and works on paper 1953-1956" features 10 paintings and 12 works on paper.

Asked what her father was like, Lydia said, "He had a great sense of humor and was able to laugh at himself. And it carries over into the paintings. Even these, you can see the humor and fun in them. You get into the '60s and '70s, you can really see his sense of humor."

As for his figurative works, Lydia said, "I can see him in them. I see my mom in them. But he got influences from all over. He was a keen observer of people. There were always magazine pictures cut out. The Commercial Appeal was a big influence."

Lydia also figured in his work. "There are some woodcuts of me. Some of the early paintings. There's a series of pictures of me as a baby. There were some prints from the '60s and '70s."

One of her personal favorite paintings by her dad was "Summer Evening," which he painted in the late 1950s. "It's got a yellow background and a black calligraphic line that looks like a tree. It really has a lot of movement to it."

The Ted Faiers exhibit runs through Jan. 28.

Diana Farr opening

Painter Diana Farr is self-taught, but, she admitted, she did take some art classes.

"I think I took lessons when I was probably 12 years old one summer for six weeks," she said. "She (her teacher) was an oil landscape artist. We had a big dispute over color and colors of mushrooms. So I decided to give it up."

Diana opened her recent exhibit of paintings, "Impressions and Reveal," with a reception Friday night at the Levy Gallery in the Buckman Performing & Fine Arts Center at St. Mary's Episcopal School.

The "reveal" in the title refers to the "little hidden things that are revealed" when you look at her paintings, Diana said. "That's the beauty of abstract expressionism. Your imagination is open to look for things. You find things every time you look. Some are purposely hidden, and some are just (left) to the imagination."

When it comes to painting, Diana often is like a medium at a seance. "I let them lead the way a lot of times. It goes wherever it goes. Sometimes I halfway finish, and it morphs into something else. I'm never quite sure. I'm just as surprised as everyone else what it turns out to be."

"Impressions and Reveal" runs through Feb. 10.

-- Michael Donahue: (901) 529-2797; donahue@commercialappeal.com

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