Put a Tree on It

A party for the trees: Drought-ravaged treasures given their due in photographybash

Tomiko Jones, L'arbre du St. Ambreuil
Will Michels, Muir III
Colin Blakely, Lighted Tree

If there was ever any doubt that art could incite advocacy for causes outside of artistic pursuits, Houston Center for Photography's "SPIN8: Put a Tree On It" crowdsourcing party Friday night shot that myth to hell.

Part friend-raiser, part easygoing art exhibit and part crafty social, SPIN8 amassed 500 tree-themed photographs, mostly sized at 8 by 10 inches, submitted by anyone who heeded the call for submissions a month prior, conspiring with Trees for Houston to raise awareness about the city's canopy, which took a devastating hit after last year's relentless drought.

Yet all was blooming and verdant at this one-weekend show where everyone was a photographer and some distinguished themselves as artistes alongside others who were already well respected in the field.

Take Mike Marvins, who with his wife Mickey were top supporters of the event. He's a fellow of the American Society of Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, has traveled by car, on foot and on horseback to capture stunning images of Texas Big Bend. In Cypress, Marvins' seemingly symmetrical composition of side-by-side trunks as they rise to a clear blue sky with a fiery auburn backdrop nods to the destructive 2011 Texas wildfires that blazed through nearly four million acres.

In Will Michels environmental portrait Muir III, the artist plays with the effect of a ray of light as it suffuses thick foliage, reminiscent of a chiaroscuro technique, as if undisturbed by man.

Tomiko Jones' poetic L'arbre du St. Ambreuil sharply zooms in on the life source of arboriculture. Black-and-white ripples in a pool of water warps the reflection of a lonesome barren tree in contrast to a grayish, cloudy sky. Out-of-focus limbs and a person in the middle ground beg for a narrative interpretation and comment on survival amid a harsh and desolate environment.

Colin Blakely's Lighted Tree shows a sumptuous specimen bedazzled with lights complemented by a dreamy starry welkin.

In Will Michels environmental portrait Muir III, the artist plays with the effect of a ray of light as it suffuses thick foliage, reminiscent of a chiaroscuro technique, as if undisturbed by man. His Muir Series pays homage to John Muir, an American preservation advocate whose efforts contributed to saving the wilderness of Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park.

In the company of works by Sharon Stewart, Susan Hayre and Galena Kurlat, whose image served as the event's poster, Rebecca Finley's Armory NYC interposed nature and industrial development with an image of a tree that ached to endure despite being engulfed by commercial restraints. Melissa Noble's Untitled portrayed two musicians playing a Native American flute and a folk guitar while resting on the branches of a mature tree.

You may recognize Jenny Antill's name from her inexhaustible work as a social photographer. Yet in her Charles Tapley and a Rosebud at Tapley Tributary she memorializes an important Buffalo Bayou caretaker and architect who was a champion for native wildflowers and wetlands, and whose vision lives in the granite steps, seating areas and channels of the waterway's western sector.

An early photograph of the grounds at Discovery Green freezes two cranes lifting and moving a fully-grown tree in an attempt to safeguard it from improvements to the property.

It wasDavid Marks' GRB Live Oak Trees that resonated with Houston's spirit of conservation. An early photograph of the grounds at Discovery Green freezes two cranes lifting and moving a fully-grown tree in an attempt to safeguard it from improvements to the property.

As kids and adults perused the assemblage of photographs, they participated in a photography scavenger hunt for everyday objects that resembled letters of the alphabet, later to be collectively arranged to piece together words like foliage, leaves and Trees for Houston. Atop a large silhouette of a tree fashioned by adhering plastic tape to a wall, guests were asked to bring in photographs of close-ups of tree parts to contribute to a large communal tree collage.

Others chose to take in the theme more literally, posing with whimsical accessories in the Funky Monkey Photobooth and in a wedding-type arbor crafted with fabric and driftwood. Plenty of arts and crafts, food by Good Dog Hot Dogs, H&H Ice Cream and Firehouse Tacos food truck, drinks courtesy of Real Ale Brewing Co. and tunes by Gracie Chavez, morphed this opening into an active artsy affair that did its part to keep Houston beautiful.

Seen on the green scene were Jessica Keener, Randi Koenig, Blakely Bering, Len Kowitz, Cathy Hodge, Brooke Judice with her daughter Grace, Baylies Bering James, Ann Kasman, Michael Pearson, Patricia Eifel, Frazier King, Shelley Calton, Theresa Escobedo, Meghan Hendley, Patricia Eifel, Christopher Ashby, Natalie Zelt and Ken Standley.

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Movie Review

Denzel Washington brings new spectacle to the Colosseum in Gladiator II

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.

There are some films for which making a sequel is natural, and others where a follow-up is wholly unnecessary. Gladiator, which made both tons of money and was named Best Picture at the Oscars, told an impactful stand-alone story that ended with the protagonist dead and no real loose ends. And yet because there’s always more money to be made, here we are 24 years later with Gladiator II.

The lead character this time around is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a general in a North African army who becomes a prisoner of war when the Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) bests him and his troops in battle. Taken back to Rome, he is put in the pool of captured men forced to fight at the Colosseum for the amusement of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracella (Fred Hechinger).

Lucius is controlled by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an ambitious schemer who bets liberally on his prized fighter and always has an eye to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the sister of Emperor Commodus from the first film, is now married to Marcus Acacius and has a unique connection with Lucius that is fairly obvious from the get-go.

Directed once again by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, the film commits a number of sins throughout its 150-minute running time, the most blatant of which is that, aside from a few embellishments, it essentially tells the same story as the first film. Lucius, like Maximus, is a deposed military leader who’s out for revenge on the person who killed his family. Instead of one obnoxious emperor, there are now two. And the only way for Lucius to earn his freedom is to fight his way out.

Stories told in the same world can echo each other and, if done well, overcome those similarities. But Gladiator II is shockingly boring for a purported sword-and-sandals epic. Scott and his team try to introduce new elements to the fights, like a gladiator riding a rhinoceros or a ship battle inside the Colosseum (with sharks!), but most of the sequences are inert with no propulsion to them.

The action fails because none of the relationships in the film amount to much. There are stand-out characters like Macrinus and the twin emperors, but instead of creating antipathy or strong feelings of triumph or defeat, the story just kind of happens without any sense of excitement or importance. Much of that issue lies at the feet of Lucius, who simply doesn’t inspire in the same way that Russell Crowe’s Maximus did.

Mescal is a fine actor who’s done good work in more intimate roles, but he’s not up to the task of being an action star, at least not in this film. Any bombast he shows with the character feels forced, and the story doesn’t give him enough opportunities to counteract that lack. Washington, however, fills up the screen with his charisma, and it’s during his scenes that the film comes closest to being rousing. Quinn and Hechinger are a lot of fun as the twin emperors, but in the end they feel like retreads of Joaquin Phoenix from the original.

Any sequel should have a purpose that sets it apart from what came before, but Scott, Scarpa, and the rest of their team fail in that respect in Gladiator II. It’s a mostly lifeless film that delivers scenes that would be exciting if they had any kind of good story to back them up.

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Gladiator II opens in theaters on November 22.

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