MICHIGAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, ART, and BOOKS
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ABOUT
Michigan Contemporary Music, Art, and Books was established to promote Michigan’s best creators and writers.
We are developing a network of newspaper and magazine journalists and critics who connect with us and share information about the most notable talent in our region. We are looking for individuals who show the most potential to grow into aware and insightful producers of music, art, and written works. We are searching for inventive individuals who are ready for wider attention from the press.
Michigan’s musicians, writers, and artists often struggle for any recognition. We advise them to make connections with local media and art organizations and how to pitch their talents along with showing them how to create their strongest presence on the Internet.
Mark Lindquist is our current featured artist/writer. His striking avant-garde sculpting convinced us to promote his work. His abilities make him a member of the vanguard. When his sculptures are viewed, you will know why we used the word vanguard. Mark creates sculptures that are "mathematically intelligent designs." This aspect of his work has no equal in the complexity of sculptures anywhere that we are aware of. Do an internet search and you’ll find nothing like these designs. They are constructed to be indoors and displayed in an atrium or any large open space. These are kinetic sculptures with slow movement provided by fans. They are built of steel tubes and aluminum ribbon.
There are six photos each of four sculptures as you scroll down to the KINETIC SCULPTURE section. The sculpture named Meme was entered in the ArtPrize International Art Competition in Grand Rapids Michigan and was on display at Waters Center/Suites by Hilton venue. The competition ran from September 13th to September 28th, 2024. His other kinetic sculptures were not entered in the ArtPrize competition but were shown at the same venue.
Scroll down for information about Mark’s album New Sixties Rock.
Janet Shay, Business Director
ALBUM/CD of Mark Lindquist
New Sixties Rock was a part-time project that took seven years. I wrote all the non-cover songs and performed all the vocal and instrumental parts along with being the engineer that produced the master recordings. About fifty songs were recorded and mastered. Only half made it on the album.
Rock groups in the 1960s usually promoted a single release and produced an album that all too often contained “album fill.” This pejorative term implies the mediocrity of many tunes on their albums—even some of the most popular groups.
I did the opposite. I took all the time needed to write and record songs that were good or very good without trying to have an outstanding single release. As said above, only half the songs made the cut on my album/CD.
I favor the sixties style and believe that this period should have a revival. I hope others will follow—most notably female groups because there were so few of them.
New Sixties Rock has songs that compare to the romantic rock tunes in the 1960s. Other songs sound like this period but have lyrics that reflect new arising subjects like realizing your life only happens in the present moment. Have you ever had an experience when it was not the present moment? Also, there are lyrics that reflect the emerging of Eastern thought in the USA.
You can buy New Sixties Rock by going to Amazon Music and searching for Mark Lindquist New Sixties Rock. An MP3 copy costs $9.49. It will download to a file folder. If you have an Amazon account, you should be able to listen to a few sample songs.
I will be giving away CD copies of New Sixties Rock at the ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids. I will not be performing classical guitar solo pieces at ArtPrize venues as I had planned. I have not been practicing during the last eight years because of my work on art projects. Three months of regular practice was not enough to perform. Check out my repertoire by going to: YouTube and search for Mark Lindquist MLsologuitar. There are nine videos, and all represent different periods and styles of music.
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KINETIC SCULPTURES
In 1993, I began making small-scale mobiles because my brother had made a few Calder-like mobiles. The elements of my mobiles were really sculptures that were balanced in sequence. There were three to eight elements (sculptures) making up each mobile. Not long after the construction of my earliest works, I realized a way to build kinetic sculptures with an added aspect that I call “mathematically intelligent design.” I consider this to be intellectual property.
This early period of building mobiles went from 1993 to 1998. During those years there were two shows in Michigan: one in Hamtramck and another in Pontiac. There were about sixty small-scale mobiles with sculpture elements created in those years. About forty were sold while others were given away. From 1999 to 2014 nothing was built.
On January first of 2015, I decided to work on a project to build large-scale kinetic sculptures. For several months I experimented and built eleven model sculptures. That spring I began constructing the first large-scale frame and later that year the ribbon was added. It was built from the design of a selected model. In the next three years, three more large-scale sculptures were created. By November 2018 all four were finished.
I waited until 2023 to look for buyers because I wanted to promote my artwork and album at the same time. Fourteen organizations were approached and some seriously considered a purchase.
Jennifer Kanyo, Senior Director of Museums at the Midland Center for the Arts said, "Your sculptural work and music (New Sixties Rock) are fantastic! Unfortunately, we are not able to represent artists..." She also said that they were having some remodeling work done at their museum and decided to decline.
Jennifer Wcisel, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Grand Rapids Art Museum said, "We do not have room for your large sculptural works."
Sarah Cohn, Director and Curator of the Flint Institute of Arts said, "I couldn't find where they might fit into our collection so I must respectfully decline." Others had similar floor-space issues for declining.
Through the “art grapevine,” Michigan Contemporary took a look at my sculptures and album. After this, we made a connection.
MEME
TWIST
LOPSIDES
SKYSCRAPE
except for those with a severely impaired mind.
BOOKS
As a writer, Mark Lindquist has self-published two novels—Synthedroid Saviors and Mutinous Mother. One non-fiction work was self-published in 2014 that is no longer available. Also, he acts as a freelance writer by offering articles and op-eds to newspapers and magazines.
His book, Uncommon Spiritual Sense: A Self-evident Path, is almost finished after ten years of periodic work. We believe that this effort will produce a published book that will end the need for self-publication.
Synthedroid Saviors was Mark’s first novel. It is science fiction that weaves Eastern thought with social and political satire. Educators and scientists grow a human brain without a body. It becomes a mystical mind that transcends spacetime and permanently alters humans who make physical connections with it. A few evolving humans become synthedroid saviors and give a chi-like energy to growing numbers of converts who are “awakened.” The new physical sense of “viboid” creates good vibrations of comic madness. Original concepts surface intermittently. The book begins and ends with the last surviving gorilla speaking in sign language. Finished in 2007, it reflects his political views at that time.
You can purchase a paperback copy of Synthedroid Saviors by sending $12 for the book, handling, and postage to: Michigan Contemporary, 11924 Belmont Ave., Warren, Michigan 48089.
His second novel, Mutinous Mother, is also science fiction with shades of Eastern philosophy and social/political satire. Published in 2013, this book is a prescient look at climate change in the 2050s. The Earth, in that decade, is projected to be one filled with massive human migration in the hundreds of millions, great deserts becoming farmlands, solar panels providing most of the world’s electricity, an attempt to make a human-like chimp, and human hybrids replacing Homo sapiens while colonizing the Moon. Throughout the book, Mister Goebbels injects an extraordinary brand of unstable wit. Mother Earth rebels against humans with a rare natural occurrence.
You can purchase a Kindle e-book copy for $3 at Amazon.com or other internet sellers. You can read a longer book description on Amazon.com before buying this book.
The best preview for Uncommon Spiritual Sense: A Self-evident Path is the author’s current preface and chapter titles which are the following:
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
CHAPTER 1- SELF-HISTORY AND INDOCTRINATION
CHAPTER 2─ MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
CHAPTER 3─ TRANSCENDENT NON-CONCEPTUAL INTELLIGENCE AND RANDOM NON-INTENTION OF A TELEOLOGICAL DESIGNER (cool title)
CHAPTER 4─ DIRECT EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER 5─ IMPERMANENCE
CHAPTER 6─ PRESENT MOMENT/ETERNAL MOMENT
CHAPTER 7─ SELF-IMAGE
CHAPTER 8- DUALITY/NON-DUALITY
CHAPTER 9─ A SELF-EVIDENT SPIRITUAL PATH
CHAPTER 10─ NOTEWORTHY ELEMENTS OF MAJOR RELIGIONS
CHAPTER 11─ SOURCE
CHAPTER 12─ ESSENTIAL POINTS OF CHRISTIANITY AND WESTERN THOUGHT
CHAPTER 13─ GNOSTIC GOSPELS, THE BIBLE, AND KORAN
CHAPTER 14─ POLITICAL AND MILITARY SENSE USA
CHAPTER 15─ ASTROPHYICS, MATH, AND ONTOLOGICAL SPECULATION (another cool title)
CHAPTER 16─ EARTH, CLIMATE, AND EVOLUTION
CHAPTER 17─ CHI, BREATH, SPIRIT
CHAPTER 18─ THE ABSURDITY OF IT ALL
CHAPTER 19─ VARIOUS FINAL VIEWPOINTS
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CONTACT
Michigan Contemporary Music, Art, and Books michigancontemporary@gmail.com
11924 Belmont Avenue
Warren, Michigan 48089
Janet Shay, Business Director email: janetjshay@hotmail.com
ph. 734-301-0959
media research staff michigancontemporary@gmail.com
featured artist, Mark Lindquist email: linkmlnow@yahoo.com
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