ntertainment EDITOR KHETHIWE RUDD THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011 7 Would-be composers get break on contest deadline Songwriters worldwide can work on their original pieces until Nov. 1 By PATRICK JOHNSTON ramblings of the mind.” Design student Kyla Thibert, 26, not only writes to express herself, she’s also thinking about entering the International Songwriting Competi- tion. The competition has extended its deadline for submission to Nov. 1. There’s a grand prize totaling $45,000 in cash and equipment. Thibert said songwriting appeals to her because it “helps release random things con- stantly going on in the mind.” The 10-year-old competition, based in Nashville, Tennessee, has many judges lined up, including musicians like Tom Waits, Tegan and Sara, My Morning Jacket and Kelly Clarkson. According to Thibert, the writing pro- cess demands an effort from the writ- er to find words which explain their emotions and ideas. It’s also about understanding the roots of her ideas and connecting them to what is going on around her. “Tf something comes into my mind, I like to find the metaphor of it for my life,” she said Thibert’s classmate Lysha Wong feels “a good songwriter translates feeling and emotions into words.” Though she doesn’t write songs any- more, she said she tried when she was young. “You're little, you explore.” First year arts and science students Spencer Holloway, 17, and Saif Al- Sedi, 18, said they imagine a winning song has to be “pretty original.” Songwriters should pay close at- tention to the tone of their lyrics — it should match the style of music, said Holloway and Al- Sedi. In addition to the grand prize, the competition also features first, second and third place prizes in 22 categories rang- ing from adult contemporary to blues, country to children’s, with many others in be- tween. Interested applicants should go to the International Songwriting Compe- tition website. S: wirting “expressesles] the LYSHA WONG Design student STUDENTS OF STUDIO 58 PRACTISE TAP DANCE FOR UPCOMING FINAL EXAM Carlisle Richards photo Studio 58 practices tap dancing yesterday in preperation for a final on Dec. 12. The instructor Frankie Kerr leads the group in class. Students in the class, who sometimes have no experience, learn a full tap dance routine by the end of term. Art talks begin at Langara Vancouver artist discusses public art, the first in a series of talks By MATT HYNDMAN neouver artist Kathleen Ritter kicked off this year’s Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces speaker series Oct. 12th. Ritter has curated exhibits like How Soon is Now and WE: Vancouver, both hosted at the Vancouver Art Gallery where she currently serves as the as- sociate curator. Ritter spent the hour discussing her own thoughts on the definition of pub- lic art and the purpose it can serve in cities like Vancouver. “T think artists look to find gaps within the social fabric through which they can intervene, [allowing them] to reveal something about a social space, about politics, about society, that we may not have seen before,” Ritter said. She began her lecture with a story about a man she saw sitting in an air- port, asleep in a chair with a disem- bodied mannequin head resting on his shoulder. She wondered, was it some sort of social experiment? Was he genuinely unaware of the bizarre image he was creating? Ritter thinks these are the sort of thoughts that artists who work in public spaces want their audiences to have. “T think as soon as you step outside the doors of the gallery, you no longer have that frame around the activity. It’s not just this idea of taking art and putting it into public space, but the process by which ideas enter public consciousness.” Ritter cited as an example, Diane Bor- sato’s 2003 project in which she spent a day invading the city’s collective personal space by walking around and touching 1,000 people on the arm. The reactions of the confused, unwitting participants were recorded on video. She also praised works created by artists like Ken Lum at the VAG out- door space Offsite, located next to Living Shangi-La in downtown Van- couver. Lum installed three driftwood huts modeled after ones destroyed on the Maplewood mudflats in North Vancouver in 1971. Lum used the public, outdoor loca- tion to provide a striking contrast be- tween the humble huts and the tallest building in Vancouver. It also exposed people to this lesser-known story in Vancouver’s history, which involved the huts being burned down by the dis- trict after hippies took up residence. Tomo Tanaka, the division chair of creative arts at Langara, said the speaker series is part of the college’s goal to bring more about awareness to art in public spaces and expand the curriculum offered at the college. EXT art Ik talks 1 Nov. 8, Samuel Roy- Bois who creates art installations will speak about the how entertwined identity and fabula- tion are, at 7 p.m. in room A122a. Dec. 6, Claire Doherty, curator and writer will speak about a new vocabulary for artists and their everchanging work at 7 p.m. in room A130. Langara grad wins big at art competition 66 Iwas deal- ing with somebody [who] had a lot of technical ability TIM NASH Former art student wins $25,000 for her oil painting at this year’s RBC Canadian Painting Competition By RUMAN KANG won the $25,000 top prize for this year’s RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Brewer’s work, entitled Beuys Paint- ing, was selected as the winner out of the 15 pieces that were chosen for display in this year’s competition. The competition had over 500 entries from across Canada. The oil painting awash in golden Ler graduate Rebecca Brewer hues and heavy grey accents depicts the silhouette of a man wearing a hat, and is Brewer’s vision of German art- ist and theorist Joseph Beuys. Brewer said, in a Globe and Mail interview, that the painting describes her love-hate relationship with Beuys and his work. RBC in conjunction with the Ca- nadian Art Association created the painting competition to help promis- ing new visual artists. The competi- tion showcases the selected artists on a national scale while providing financial support through monetary prizes. Brewer told the Globe and Mail that she is going to use the prize money to pay for a larger studio that she has always dreamed of having. During her time at Langara, Brewer was enrolled in the fine arts diploma program. In her second year Brewer won a printmaking award for her work. “Right from Rebecca’s first project it was apparent that I was dealing with somebody that had a lot of technical ability as well as a wide conceptual reach,” said Tim Nash, fine arts in- structor at Langara. Nash declined to comment on Brewer’s Beuy’s Painting. Since finishing her diploma Brewer has furthered her artistic education. She has earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Emily Carr and is currently working on her master’s degree at Bard College in New York. So far, two prizewinners have stud- ied at Langara since the competition began 13 years ago.