by Lorie Lewis Ham
It is once again Rogue Festival time and one of the first things that happens is the reveal of this year’s Muse. The reveal took place on January 29. KRL took a moment to chat with the driving force behind choosing this year’s Muse, Vince Warner. He is also Co-Director and Tech Manager of the 2019 Rogue Festival.
KRL: What is the process that you go through in picking a Muse for Rogue?
Vince: The Muse is meant to be a visual symbol of the artistic spirit of the Rogue. Over the 16 years that the Festival has been going on, we’ve used a different Muse each year; created by a local artist and selected by the Rogue staff to be used on the cover of our Program Book, T-shirts, and other promotional items.
KRL: How many submissions did you get this year?
Original Muse 2019 Image by John Alden (Marcel Nunis)
Vince: This year, we decided to go with a commissioned piece rather than select from submissions, because I wanted to honor the original Muse himself, our Rogue Festival founder and guiding light, Marcel Nunis. I asked local artist, musician, businessman, and professional photographer John Alden to create the piece, and we brought Marcel in for a photo shoot to begin the process. As with all shoots, many, many photos were taken, but one really stood out from all the others, perfectly capturing Marcel’s beautiful and positive spirit; with a light in his eyes which seemed to reflect the original vision he used to create the Rogue Festival. I selected that photo as our final, and John took it from there, using his own vision to turn the photograph into the final work of art we are using as this year’s Rogue Muse.
Here is what Muse artist/photographer John Alden had to say about his career, being chosen, and the process:
If I go way back, then I have to touch on my “High School” years, when, in my favorite class, photography, with Miss Walls, I created my ?rst image in the darkroom. It was a lesson in luminance, and I photographed my sister by the light of one candle.
Later I sold my ?rst photograph of an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair, with a small American ?ag attached to chair, at an outdoor Doobie Brothers concert at Fresno State College and it turned out to be my high school’s (Clovis High School) school librarian’s grandfather. She was thrilled and so was I to get my ?rst paycheck from a photograph.
Fast forward 40 years, a career as a professional photographer, Adobe enthusiast, artist, illustrator and one who dreams in pixels and millions of colors, and now, asked to create the Muse for Rogue 2019. I could not have been more honored.
Working from the concept that the founder of Rogue be the Muse led me to relying on the Muse himself, to guide me in this creation. I struggled with it for some time until finally, I fell back on all the tools I have used in the 40 years of photographic work and let the muse do his work.
I see in this the creative talent that this Muse inspires in so many, ?owing so colorfully and endlessly from Marcel. What must have been his muse so many years ago that continues on today?
Rogue 2019, the legacy continues.
The Rogue Festival takes place March 1-9. Watch for a lot of Rogue Festival performer preview articles to go up this month here in KRL. You can also check out our Rogue Festival news and performer event page. Marcel actually has his own Rogue show again this year and fellow performer Mallory Moad wrote about it last month.
0 Comments