Erie painters get the spotlight in Tom Weber's film "A Few Things About Artists"

Watch Tom Weber's fascinating hour-long look at the stylistically diverse group of visual artists working in Erie, Pennsylvania.  

Here's the scoop...

"A Few Things About Artists" is an hour-long documentary by Erie, Pennsylvania filmmaker Tom Weber that explores the lives and works of many of the area's leading visual artists, namely Susan Kemenyffy, Fran Schanz, Kris Risto, Shelle Barron, Karen Dodson, Tom Ferraro, Brad Lethaby, Suzanne Proulx, John Bavaro, Jeff Kuntz, Evan Everhart and Bob Jensen.

Weber's previous films aired on WQLN include "1000," a collaboration with poet/activist Abdullah Washington about Erie people striving for excellence, and "The Trouble With Poets" (2014), which examines Erie's community of performing poets such as Sean Thomas Dougherty, Monica Igras and Chuck Joy.

"I have a deep and abiding interest in artists of all kinds," says Weber is a former newspaper reporter who has taught filmmaking at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Point Park University and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. "Artists take ideas and emotions and express them in tangible ways through their work. Their stories need to be heard."

Two beautiful places created by artists are featured in the documentary, which is accompanied by an original musical score created by Erie guitarist Joseph Allen Popp.

Time-lapse sequences filmed in metal artist Evan Everhart's Millcreek sculpture garden -- which includes both real trees and fantastic metal replicas standing side-by-side -- are seen at the beginning of the film. 

"Raku Place," the expansive Japanese-inspired garden in McKean Township built by Susan Kemenyffy and her husband Steven, is the subject of an extended montage that ends the film. Raku Place is listed in the Smithsonian Institution's Archive of American Gardens.

A number of the artists discuss how their need to create art helped them through life-threatening events.

John Bavaro, interviewed together with his wife Suzanne Proulx, recounts how he struggled to recover from a debilitating stroke by exploring new digital painting techniques. We see actual CAT scans of Bavaro's brain, which he converted to digital images of fantastical "brain trees" made up of veins and capillaries.

Jeff Kuntz, an impressionistic painter who is recovering from heroin addiction, openly discusses his struggle and the importance of making art to his recovery. Kuntz is a graduate of Edinboro University's art program who studied with several of the other featured artists, and offers some candid observations about the need for art education in schools.

Other artists talk about how they use art to understand themselves and their lives, what they do when inspiration isn't flowing, and how they sustain their work while making a living.

Weber, a one-man crew who shoots and edits all his own footage, has been producing independent documentaries and concert videos since 2002. These include "Troubadour Blues" (2011) a film about hard-traveling folksingers like Peter Case, Mary Gauthier and Chris Smither, and "Over The Pavement" (2015), a concert video with some of the world's best improvisational musicians filmed in Detroit.

Help finish the documentary Troubadour Blues

For the last 10 years, Pittsburgh-based indie filmmaker Tom Weber has been working on a documentary called Troubadour Blues about contemporary singer/songwriters including Peter Case, Mary Gauthier, Dave Alvin, Chris Smither, Gurf Morlix, Anne McCue, Slaid Cleaves, R.B. Morris and others who've spent their lives playing music in small clubs, living rooms and street corners.
Having seen some of the raw performance footage of Peter Case, Troubadour Blues is certain to be an extraordinary study of a dying breed of road-warriors with something relevant to say who are willing to travel long distances alone, sometimes for whatever comes back in a passed hat. But Weber, who teaches video production at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, needs a little help with production costs to finish up and get it out this summer on DVD. That's where Kickstarter and roots music fans come in.

Here's Tom Weber's pitch:

When I set out to make a documentary about traveling singer-songwriters, I simply thought that it was a story that needed to be heard. Nearly 10 years later, my primary goal remains the same: to ensure that this compelling story reaches as wide an audience as possible.

 Music has been a central part of my life since childhood. Although I grew up in a classically oriented household, the music that spoke to my heart was more rough-hewn: Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams. Later, I was blown away by the Beatles, learned the blues from the Rolling Stones, traced their roots back to black American blues and soul. Later, I immersed myself in folk and bluegrass, had a long romance with reggae, then gravitated back to rock & roll.

In the tradition of music films like Don't Look Back and Heartworn Highways, I took a fly-on-the-wall approach to filming Troubadour Blues. Peter Case, Chris Smither, Mary Gauthier, and the other artists in the film are gifted storytellers, and the best thing a filmmaker can do is to try to stay out of their way. I shot by available light, captured performances from an ordinary audience seat, and conducted interviews in comfortable settings. The troubadours tell their own stories, without narration.

I want the audience to engage with these artists as I did, seeing them on a stage and then gradually getting to know them. As Francis Coppola has observed, technology has taken the professionalism out of movie making, freeing filmmakers to tell smaller and more personal stories. Troubadour Blues is one of those stories.

ABOUT THE FILM

On a highway not far from where you live, a solitary musician with a guitar and a box of CDs is driving to another gig. No tour bus, no band, no road manager, no crew: just a need to make music and a bag full of songs based on hard-lived experience. That night, in a bar or coffeehouse or church basement or living room, the troubadour will create magic, sharing those songs with a room full of people. For awhile, time will stand still. Then a round of goodbyes, a night in a spare bedroom or a cheap motel, and it's time for another drive to another town and another room.

Troubadour Blues is the story of these modern-day wandering minstrels who ply their trade outside the media spotlight and far from the glitzy world of pop stardom. They are modern-day equivalents of the medieval troubadours who brought the news from village to village, the broadside balladeers who sang about epic battles and public hangings, the itinerant bluesmen and folksingers who hopped freight trains and hitched rides across Depression-era America.

Today, this way of life is threatened. Live music venues are closing, or turning to dance music, karaoke or cover bands. People don't go out as much; they get their entertainment delivered to them by Internet and cable. When they do go out, they don't spend as much money. And they certainly aren't spending their money on records; CD sales are at their lowest point since the '70s. Many troubadours worry out loud about the future of their craft; they are running harder and faster just to stand still.

Troubadour Blues is intended to expose these great musicians to a larger audience, and to make up for the lack of attention paid to independent artists by mainstream media. With your support, I can complete the film and take it out on the road for a series of intimate screenings all over the country -- building an audience the way that troubadours do, one town at a time.    

Tom Weber

As of today, there are just 9 days remaining in Tom Weber's funding drive for which 86 backers have already pledged $7,841 towards his set goal of $12,000. Those interested in contributing to Weber's project can check out the Troubadour Blues page on Kickstarter right here for more information.

An update: With only five more days to go, 116 backers have now pledged a total of $10,127 which means Tom still needs another $1,873 to reach his goal. Here's hoping!

There's four days left and 127 backers have brought the total pledged to $11,052 leaving Tom just $948 short of his target. It looks like it's gonna come down to the wire.
 
Three days to go and 141 backers have now pledged a total of $11,672 which is only $328 bucks shy of the target. We're on the homestretch now and the finish line is in sight. Tell a friend.

PROJECT FUNDED! As of May 28, 146 backers pledged a total of $12,176 to surpass Tom Weber's $12.000 target to complete Troubadour Blues! Great news for everyone who supports roots music.