Tina Dico

Thank you to all who viewed and posted comments on my first blog entry! It is so encouraging to get feedback!

Although this blog will focus mainly on visual arts, I just have to post about an awesome singer and songwriter I had the pleasure of seeing at a live show recently. I first became aware of Tina Dico a couple years ago when I heard a song of hers on KGRL, an iTunes radio station that features female artists and female-fronted bands. She is a very talented independent artist from Denmark. Her lyrics and songs are so honest, sad, clever, and thoughtful, and her voice is AMAZING! 

I was checking out Dico's website, http://www.tinadico.com , and noticed that her tour dates included a Chicago show March 22 at a bar called Schubas. In addition to the bar, inside the building there is a restaurant, Harmony Grill (yummy food!) and a seperate room for live shows that is a small, intimate concert area illuminated by large candles that line the walls. A monday appointment I had in Chicago coincided with the Sunday concert date, my parents offered some of their "points" toward a free hotel room (thanks mom and dad!!), and my sister Jennifer and I were off to see Tina! I was thrilled to get the opportunity to see her perform live. Her talented bandmates include Dennis Ahlgren (her longtime collaborator and co-producer), and Helgi Jonsson (an Icelandic singer who has a beautiful and interesting voice and who also records his own music http://www.myspace.com/helgijonsson ).

Some of Tina's live videos: http://www.tinadico.com/video/live/ 

After the concert, the band graciously chatted with fans and signed the copies of their cds (Tina's is a box set of three, entitled "A Beginning", "A Detour", and "An Open Ending"). We got the chance to meet Tina, and I probably sounded like a bumbling starstruck fan (I was!) but she was very friendly and down to Earth. The photos I took at the show turned out very blurry, however, I found some very nice photos online from the same show that were taken by another fan of Tina, Patrick (who had travelled from Minnesota to see the show). He has generously given me permission to post his photos. Thank you Patrick! He also recorded some videos at the show and you can check out his YouTube channel to see them: http://www.youtube.com/user/Pj311foo 

I also love the visually engaging and moody photography and graphic design used on the cd covers and lyric booklet. The photography is by Martin Dam Kristensen, and the sleeve design is by Sara-Jane at Bureau-8.

(By the way, the graphics that look like "pins" that I created for the photo collage above were completed using an Adobe Illustrator technique described by an incredible graphic/web designer from Belgium, Veerle, who shares so many useful tips and tutorials on her blog. Here is a link to the post:  http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/creating_pins_in_illustrator/ 

A bio about Veerle and links to some of her work: http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/about/ 

Quite a cool designer, huh?)