Crayon/Blindspot

I recall the Autumn of 1989 after a jam session on vocals at a Kabrich Street house party (in Blacksburg VA) I was asked to join Crayon (later Blindspot) by guitarist Scott F.  and while I did not remain in that band for long, the free form jams and spontaneous art oriented approach of what the group did as well as adding my own poetry to that process for the first time made a lasting impact. I was asked to join a second time by singer/bass player and longtime friend Duncan but by then I was really determined to create my own version of that early band. I started building our first studio in a basement of a big house on 4th Avenue in Radford. I spent too much of my graduate school loan money buying a drum kit with no cymbals and a used microphone.  In Autumn of '91 Dirty Pictures was founded in Radford, which was alternaive rock mixed with poetry and art. The Spiritworld in ’93, Spectral Arts ’07 and Project Morning Star ‘18 all followed in the same footsteps of that original Crayon blueprint as well. The Spirit of Crayon bonded many of us together musically and helped our later projects to take form and gave us true vision and direction for future days.

-T. Byron Kelly

12/5/2025

RESPONSE FROM YURY OLSHANSKY TO THE VIDEO RECOREDED MEETING OF SATURDAY with Spectral Arts:

From Bishop Sigrist and the Transfiguration Fellowship-

I am taking the liberty of posting this also here as I think of general interest: from Yury, Author actor producer poet and clown resident in Rome sometimes New York....

"Thank you so much for sending me the link with recording of Zoom session. It gave me the possibility to "participate" in this meeting, which sometimes otherwise would not possible to attend, to listen to the beautiful poems and performance and to learn new things. This kind of performance could be traced to the ancient times, where music was often joined with the poetry complimenting each other. In this context I recall when we, with my brother Vladimir, (who is also an actor and clown) years ago, had participated in the similar format of the show with the composer and violinist Michael Galasso in Florence, in the performing space with belonged to the Carmelite monks. It was something which one would call "The Happening". We have been lying on the stage reciting the polyphonic poems in two voices in Russian and Michael would play his music and improvise. It was a memorable experience. Thanks again Best wishes Yury

Spectral Arts Program & Press Page

 https://sites.google.com/view/spectral-arts/spectral-program-press