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By Leticia Andreas

Flute Gatherings and Circles of the Native American Flute have been around for quite some time, and can be found in almost every US state. Their purpose is a coming-together of performers, makers and enthusiasts of the Native American Flute. Other musicians are always welcome, such as guitarists, other flautists (Western-European flutes, Ney-flutes, Shakuhachi-flutes, Dizi-flutes, etc.), percussionists, crystal bowl players, and everybody else wanting to spend a great, spiritual, peaceful day with fellow artists and musicians listening to wonderful music. Some attendants of these flute circles are not musicians at all, but enjoy the sounds and performances, spoken words, friendliness and open sharing of the people in these circles.

The last flute circle in Southern California was held on September 15, 2001, at the home of Guillermo, an accomplished flute and percussion maker himself, as well as a player. Guillermo lives in a beautiful area in the Cleveland National Forrest in Orange County. His backyard is large enough to hold about one hundred guests, and the backyard of his immediate neighbor is used as a marketplace for the various flute makers or craftswomen and -men, displaying their art for sale. A flute circle requires that you bring a vegetarian potluck dish, or drinks, so the buffet has a great variety and is loaded with food items. Most people also bring their own camping chairs for comfort.

Usually, most people arrive early to help with the set-up of the stage equipment and the buffet. A regular flute circle is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the prayer starting at 11 a.m. This time, I arrived at 10:40 a.m., just in time to put my salad and fruits on the buffet table, place my chair next to my friend Robert, and say hello to people I had not seen in a few months. Just after 11 a.m., we gathered around the medicine wheel in the backyard, and Robert began the prayer to the Grandfather, or Creator, by thanking him for everything that we have. Because of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Robert then continued to pray for all the people whose lives had been lost, and for everyone else involved, near or far. He reminded us that the “enemy” is also part of us, and we are part of the “enemy”, as we are all connected: all humans, animals, and plants on this earth. After that, Robert went around to each and every person with a shell full of burning sage, to cleanse and bless everyone in the circle, while Guillermo beat a drum and sang. The prayer is one of my favorite parts of the day, and I never miss it, because everyone is connected during that time, and you feel peaceful and simply happy for a moment, I guess. Guillermo closed the prayer circle with stating that since September 11, he had kept a small fire going in the backyard, and on that tragic day had also made offerings at the medicine wheel, especially towards the direction of East.

The prayer ended with everyone honoring the four directions, meaning everyone in the circle turned first to the East, remaining there for a moment and shaking rattles, beating drums, blowing conch shells; then South, and same here with percussion; then West, and percussion; then North, and percussion.

After the prayer, most of us disbursed to the buffet, grabbed a bite to eat, sat down in our chairs and began to watch the first performances. Young Evren Ozan played first. I believe he is 8 now, and has played the Native American Flute since he was 3. He has been invited to play at the Nammys (the Native American Grammys) this year, and wanted to practice the song he would perform there. It was a nice, contemporary upbeat dance song, keyboards played the modern background music, and Evren played his flute melody over it.

Evren Ozan

Performances continued throughout the day by whoever had signed up on the sign-in sheet. Always one of the highlights are Sarah Thompson and Gary Lemos, an extremely talented Native musician couple who play all kinds of Native American Flutes, and percussion instruments. An emotionally charged performance came from a man from Oregon, who is a policeman. He played his Lakota Warrior song as a tribute to all the policemen and firefighters who perished in the New York attacks.

Sarah Thompson and Gary Lemos

Around 2:30 p.m., the usual raffle was held, with tickets going for $2 each this time. The proceeds this time would go to the Red Cross in New York. My friend Robert Leon won an awesome gourd flute made by Guillermo himself, and an ecstatic Japanese couple won a cedar flute of Guillermo’s. Also raffled off were some beautiful Native American jewelry, and a painting of a Fancy Dancer by Terry-Anne. After the raffle, some people leave, and others hang out for a bit. I decided to leave soon also, before traffic would get the best of me on the hour-long ride back home to West L.A.

The Southern California Flute Circle is held only three times a year; the next gathering will probably be in January 2002. For more info on how to participate, please contact the author by Email: jingoforever@yahoo.com

Flute Circles and Gatherings have been held for years, all over the United States, and they meet on a regular basis. The need for those arose out of the renaissance of the Native American Flute – NAF for short -, and its many friends and followers. It has been said that a Flute Circle provides an intimate venue for people interested in the NAF, to gather and share their talents and experiences, and even to help one another musically, spiritually, and educationally.

The NAF had nearly vanished from this part of the continent during the assimilation period of Native Americans in the early 1900’s. Thanks to some Native peoples, the NAF and its music saw a revival in the 1960s to 1970s, when only a handful of original, elder NAF players were still alive and capable of passing on the art and music of the NAF to others.

The NAF is so popular due to its wonderful, haunting, meditative, and mostly pentatonic sounds, no matter which key the individual flute is in. The most traditional styles of the NAF are the 5-hole Lakota Courting Flutes, made mostly out of the traditional cedar. Now, many different styles and woods can be found, but all of them either 5-hole or 6-hole styles, with or without intricate carvings, fetishes, or adornments. The NAF, as a vertical flute, meaning it is played endblown, is easy to play, and is said to be a spiritual instrument with immense healing qualities. It has many legends of origin, but all of them similar and related to animals, nature, and their connections to humans.

Los Angeles based author Leticia Andreas plays Flute and Saxophone.

Is there such a word as Muralist? We talk to a man who does things to walls.
An interview with Michael Gullberg by Jeffrey the Barak

The wall featuring “…and Then The Goddess Began Conjuring Herself Up Out Of The Palm Of My Hand.” by Michael Gullberg.

What is the full title of the piece seen above?

…and Then The Goddess Began Conjuring Herself Up Out Of The Palm Of My Hand.

Where is this mural located?

2317 Lakeshore Avenue in Echo Park, just west of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. It’s on the side of a house.

There’s a brick wall in the photograph which gives us some sense of scale, but exactly how big is it?

Fourteen feet high, eleven and a half feet wide. There’s actually some rocks and stuff down below which help to put in perspective.

How long did it take to paint this work?

I started at the end of October in 1996 and I had an unveiling party on May 18th 1997. That’s seven months.

While you were painting the mural, was the public passing by, watching you?

Yeah, people would come by and I would be in my own world. People would sit behind me for a while and I wouldn’t know they were there for a long time. Then I’d notice them and say “Hi.”

What kind of paint is it? What’s the medium?

Well it’s actually house paint. Behr exterior latex acrylic semi-gloss paint from The Home Depot. The background surface is Stucco, primed.

What is your current project?

It’s long one. Forty feet long and about seven and a half feet high.

It must be easier when you don’t have to climb up ladders all the time.

Yeah, it’s a little bit easier. I still need to get a stool to reach the top two feet. This one’s gonna take a while. I probably not going to be done with this one for another year or so.

Is there such a word as Muralist?

Yeah. Diego Rivera was a Muralist.

Upon who’s house is Goddess painted?

The current owner of the house is John Duffy, but when the work began, the owner of the house was a woman who owns about four of my smaller painting, Carol Sherman. It was her wall and originally she was thinking about simple silhouettes or something like that. And then we started kicking around some ideas. There was some Indian imagery that she liked and I think that’s where the Goddess came from. Carol was very much into the Goddess aspect of the feminist movement also.

So the Goddess was more of a symbol of empowerment than an actual God-like potent being?

It’s not a specific, it’s an all encompassing universal female/feminine energy.

What’s the difference between painting a large mural and painting something two feet wide?

It depends on the artist! For me, what I have found is that with smaller canvases I was cramming a lot. I was putting a lot into one small painting. Somebody said to me once, you’ve got to start painting bigger. This was after I had painted Goddess, and I started to notice the difference. There’s a lot of emotion and energy in my work and I pour that emotion into it. A lot of big emotion, and I think the extra space affords you more freedom with that. I express myself more fully on a large space. So it’s not just a case of it being larger so you can see it from further away, there’s something more to see if you are close to the piece. From every perspective, from far away, from up close from the sides, from the top. That’s the whole thing, I’m creating other worlds.

Have you ever thought about camouflaging a building and making it blend into its background?

Even though this mural sticks out, it’s colors blend into the hillside. The painting is affected by all of its surroundings. This is more apparent in my current work. I’m affected by all the surroundings, even the insects. One of the things that I started to understand when I first started painting this mural, is I’m actually painting landscapes, other worlds, on top of the ants’, insects’ and spiders’ world. They’ve actually visited while I was painting. This one spider which looked almost futuristic and robotic, with things like wipers on it’s eyes, came into my field of vision and looked up right at me, and I realized at that point that in creating something like a mural, you are also destroying something. On my current piece, the lizards come out of the drain. I disrupt the ants many times. Ants are crazy, they get right in the line of the brush, they’ll come right up to the brush and sacrifice themselves for the beauty of art. I’m in touch with the animals and the insects too. Murals have brought me back to that kind of stuff. I was raised in the woods in the rural areas of Pennsylvania.

What about decay and maintenance?

That’s one of the reasons I use Behr house paint. It has a fifteen-year guarantee. I also use a clear coat, a graffiti coat I’ve been watching this mural for the past three years. With the amount of paint I’m putting on, I could literally peel that thing right off the wall.

So it’s like a big latex skin on the wall.

Yes.

Like a condom.

It’s like an art condom.

Do you have to keep stepping back to have a look at the piece?

I walk all the way up the street, walking backwards, holding my paintbrush. There are a lot of varying perspectives.

Do you use an outline first, or a slide projector?

No, no, no. This mural was strictly out of my head. The planning and design elements were as I was going. I used tape for certain perspective lines. At an early stage in this piece, carol said, “You know what, I like what you paint, I like your style, so just go ahead and paint whatever comes to you.” And I did. A lot of my work evolves as the paint is being moved around. All of a sudden things reveal themselves in the paint. I let go enough to allow the paint to kind of show me what to paint, basically.

You sign your work “Michael”. Is that your artist name?

It was, now I’m thinking of using my whole name, Michael Gullberg, but the single name Michael looks better as a signature on the paintings.

What would you like to say about being a Muralist?

Buy more murals! No reasonable offer refused.

See more of Michael Gullberg’s art at http://michaelgullberg.com/

Article/interview by Jeffrey the Barak