FROM BLOGVERSATION 2012: SOME ARTISTS WHO INSPIRE ME

Over at Newvine Growing, Colleen Newvine is running Blogversation 2012.  Each week, six women (myself included) write a response to a question posed.  This past week, the question we wrote about was "Who or what inspires you?"  Here is my response.  Please check out Newvine Growing for other responses, and feel free to add your own thoughts to the original post!

Eleanor Traubman Says:
February 9, 2012 at 1:31 pm

There’s a bunch of artists who inspire me. Here are some of them:

Faith Ringgold – maker of storyquilts and children’s books
Keith Haring – pop artist
Missy Elliott – rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer
Maira Kalman – designer, writer, illustrator
Eva Zeisel – design legend
Women Film Directors – Nancy Savoca, Allison Anders, Karyn Kusama, Gurinder Chadha, Kasi Lemmons
Jim Henson – King of the Muppets, tv and film pioneer
Questlove – drummer for The Roots and King of Twitter!
Julie Taymor – Director of theater, opera, film
Rokafella – Female breakdancer, Director of the documentary of “All the Ladies Say”
All the women in Creative Conversations, the women’s artist group that I help lead

MISSY VIDEO OF THE WEEK (WHO CARES IF IT'S OLD - IT STILL KICKS A**)

LET'S CELEBRATE MISSY, A PIONEER

Missy Elliott is a pioneer in hip hop and in the aesthetics of music videos, busting out of the decorative function of women in video. So let's celebrate her NOW!!! Make sure ya watch VH1's Behind the Music special on Missy.

HEARTBREAKING ELIMINATION ON AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW

The members of Supreme Soul looked heartbroken when they were voted off America's Best Dance Crew tonight. At least one of the crew's members was in tears as Mario Lopez broke the news.

The show's judges were visibly irked by the fact that the voters had put this dance crew in the bottom two groups to begin with.

In their final performance, Supreme Soul simulated an ice hockey game in a totally creative, engaging way.

I am excited about next week's challenge, one involving Missy Elliott's music videos. Ms. E herself will be there on the show! Missy has been a pioneer in music videos in terms of the way she combines particular kinds of visual imagery and choreography. By the way, I think she would make a grade-A judge for this show. Other folks who would make great ABDC judges are choreographers Hi-Hat and Fatima Robinson.

Photo by Ewan Burns