Wendy Bugatti, Chris & Ann Plata and Jo Gabriel

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, November 11, 2005

An evening of folk/punk/roots performance.
The legendary Cris and Ann Plata will perform Mexican Roots music and will be joined for some of the set by Wendy Bugatti who will follow with her solo material. Opening for a 30 min. set at 8pm is Jo Gabriel - local newcomer - who's voice and keyboard expression are deeply provacative and beautiful.

Wendy Bugatti is the front woman of Madison/Midwest rock staple Bugatti Type 35 performing solo - and her material is just as passionate, jagged and political without the power trio backing. Originally from New York City, this midwest transplant has been performing and producing records at her legendary analog recording studio, Coney Island, for almost a decade. This is not a navel-gazing, wallflower acoustic guitar-strummer- Wendy is rocking and raw. She will be releasing a solo EP in the spring of 2006.

---Though not at all bluesy in a stereotypical way, something of that intensity, a coiled sense of tension and urgency, breathes through the music, expressed not in flailing catharsis but as a sense of the damage a body can hold, a sense that can be purified into usable anger and determination---
- Illinois Entertainer

Cris & Ann Plata play original songs from his South Texas roots and what they like to call Mexican roots music!

Originally from New York, Jo Gabriel is best known for her intuitive control of the piano, her ethereal voice and the unique depth of her songwriting. Often assumed to be a classically trained pianist, Jo is completely self taught. Her music stands in the genre of ambient, romantic wave-pop and gothic/neo-classical and is often compared to the likes of Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, and Laura Nyro.

Her current album Island was released worldwide on July 19th through Kalinkaland Records in Germany (known for international bands such as Chandeen and Idaho), and through Projekt Records in the United States. Her previous two albums were released on the indie label FaithStrange, Tinderbox and The Unreachable Sky. Jo contributed her song "Amnesty" to the powerful anti-war cry CD compilation No Camouflage, which featured many top Madison artists.