SHARING `STORIES' FROM WITHIN.Byline: Reed Johnson Reed Cameron Johnson (born December 8, 1976 in Riverside, California) is an outfielder for the Toronto Blue Jays of the American League East division of Major League Baseball. He weighs 180 lb (82 kg) and is 5'10" tall. Daily News Staff Writer Another person might have committed suicide. Deborah Lewis decided to commit art instead. What choice did she have? When Lewis ran away from a sexually abusive stepfather at age 14, she quickly learned how to put food on the table and a roof over her head. It was only later that she discovered something equally essential: that she wasn't alone in her suffering. The more Lewis contemplated the 1,000-year-old saga of a Hindu woman, ``The Rape of Draupadi,'' the more she found spiritual parallels, karmic coincidences. ``It so correlated to my own experiences that I took it and I wove wove v. Past tense of weave. wove Verb a past tense of weave wove, woven weave it with this kind of semi-autobiographical story of mine,'' says the 38-year-old performance artist. The resulting synthesis is Lewis' solo show ``Love Stories From the Quest,'' which arrives for a single performance tonight at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions or LACE is an art exhibition space in Los Angeles, California which was founded in 1978. Beginning in the middle of the 1970s, artists started living in downtown Los Angeles in large, low-cost loft spaces, and LACE was located in in Hollywood. ``Love Stories'' combines poetry, dance, spoken word, mime, and Middle Eastern and avant-garde music by the likes of Dead Can Dance. In addition to playing herself at ages 8, 14 and 30-something, Lewis also portrays her mother and stepfather; the heroic Draupadi and her husband; and Krishna, the flute-playing Hindu avatar. Perhaps the key figure, both in the piece and in Lewis' persnal odyssey, is an elderly Jewish man named Sam Lewis (no relation). A grandfatherly grand·fa·ther·ly adj. 1. Characteristic of or befitting a grandfather. 2. Having the qualities of a grandfather. figure, he became Deborah Lewis' instructor in Sufism, an eighth-century strain of Islamic mysticism mysticism (mĭs`tĭsĭzəm) [Gr.,=the practice of those who are initiated into the mysteries], the practice of putting oneself into, and remaining in, direct relation with God, the Absolute, or any unifying principle of life. , as well as her spiritual mentor. ``He really started me on the spiritual path. But I thought the spiritual path was getting everything you wanted in life. Ha!'' She quickly learned differently. In fact, the impulse to create ``Love Stories'' came six years ago, after Lewis and her husband went bankrupt from a failed business venture. (Today, she says, she and her spouse are ``A-OK'' financially and otherwise.) The resulting emotional upheaval of that period dredged Lewis' painful childhood ghosts to the surface. She resolved that it was time to confront them, once and for all. ``I could literally say it exploded in my face,'' she says. ``I've made lots of other pieces of choreography, but this is the first piece (in which) I've really exposed myself.'' First performed last year at the Marsh in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , ``Love Stories'' snared positive words from Bay Area critics. Writing in the San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. , Stephanie Salter salt·er n. 1. One that manufactures or sells salt. 2. One that treats meat, fish, or other foods with salt. Noun 1. wrote: ``This piece of dance-performance art is the antithesis antithesis (ăntĭth`ĭsĭs), a figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure. Parallelism of expression serves to emphasize opposition of ideas. of angst angst 1 n. A feeling of anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression. angst 2 abbr. angstrom , anger, victimhood or the worst sin of all, whining. Lewis drives home her belief that love and trust of self and God ... will enable a human to survive the worst ordeal.'' Lewis says she's now able to view her traumatic past with a degree of detachment. In a paradoxical way, she says, she's grateful for the role that her background played in shaping her spiritually and artistically. ``I would never wish anything like that on anybody else,'' she hastens to explain, ``but because of the fact that I was in so much pain and the way out was not anything that I would expect, I was very thankful. ``There are two paths to God. One is the path of love, and one is the path of pain.'' THE FACTS What: Deborah Lewis performs ``Love Stories From the Quest.'' Where: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd. When: 8 tonight. Tickets: $12, $10 seniors and students. Call (213) 466-1767. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Deborah Lewis: ``I've made lots of other pieces of choreography, but this is the first piece (in which) I've really exposed myself.'' |
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