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H. ARMENIAN
H. Armenian, Bay, 23 x 30cm, watercolor, 1997
Noah’s Ark Art Gallery Center Grand Park 2, Zoghbi St. B.B., Zalka-Metn, Lebanon Tel: +961 4-711-852(tel), +961 3-72-72-11 (mob), +961 4-711-552 (overnight)
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Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 1
Andrei
Andrei’s dramatic imagery delights in the luminescence of the objectified surface on which his imagination, suave line, and love of texture play and luxuriate to produce remarkably decorative
canvasses and prints. Elegance, a modern bravura of line, and a recalled iconic brilliance, gives the viewer a pleasure which is instantaneously graphic.
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Protsouk Dominating the composition is a palpable sense of gorgeous texture, and Protsouk’s superb mastery of the gifted line. It would be rash to define the collection of Andrei Protsouk as a fixed canon of sport for fashion, art and the “New City of Romance Collection”. He is an independent spirit, and an experimentalist whose talent challenges him every waking hour…
-Frank Palecondolo “Times Square” Oil on Canvas 60” x 50”
“Barber” 48” x 24”
“White Nights of Venice” 40” x 30”
“South Beach Rumba” 40” x 32”
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SPRING 2013 • VOL. 37 No. 2
www.fineartmagazine.com Burt Young, Page 7
Reason To Smile, Page 16
Nancy Hood, Page 41
Ed Heck, Page 25
Annie Haslam, Page 14
H. Armenian, Page 22
Art Fairs reviewed, Page 50 Diablo Cody at Athema, Page 17
Roger Earle, Kim Simmonds, Page 64 Jolyn Wells-Moran, Page 13
Catherine Sebastian, Page 12
Jeanette Korab, Page 45
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4 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2012
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contact info: — italew@msn.com • www.studioitalew.com 6 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Burt Young in his Port Washington, NY studio
Triple Threat Burt Young - Actor, Writer, Painter In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of ev’ry glove that layed him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame “I am leaving, I am leaving” But the fighter still remains — Paul Simon, “The Boxer” Ed. Note: The genius of Paul Simon in creating this character. “The Boxer,” makes you wonder how aptly it may or may not describe Burt Young. A legendary actor with a mile of major credits including all six Rocky movies, Burt has also seriously delved into art and writing. We at Fine Art first met him at Artexpo New York where he was exhibiting a collection of paintings and were re-acquainted in early 2013 at his studio in Port Washington for Jamie’s video interview and a few days later at his very well-attended and exciting art exhibition opening at The Dauphin book store, right down the street. Burt is a movie star, without doubt, but he carries himself with a gentleness that is genuine and endearing. The first thing one notices about him is his kindness. He is a special talent whose art has an energy and vibration all its own. Young’s paintings have been displayed in galleries throughout the world. He is also a published author whose works include two filmed screenplays and a 400-page historically based novel called Endings. He has also written two stage plays: SOS and A Letter to Alicia and the New York City Government From a Man With a Bullet in His Head. His new play Artist Found In Port Washington Flat is in production
BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES JEF: It was a girl you say, that started you off in acting and that was after you started painting at the age of 12. BY: I was pretty lonely and you know when you’re feeling lonely, you find a beautiful girl. You figure if you look, this person helps to solve your headaches. JEF: Did it? BY: It made new ones. (laughs) BY: When I got nominated for an award I got two telegrams. One… See we had a Bowling Alley me and Frank. One said, ‘If you win, mention Vinnie’s Hideout.’ And the second telegram was “Remember you owe everything to me, Love, Norma” JEF: So it was Norma who was checking up to make sure you remembered her? BY: Yeah JEF: Once you got into acting what doors did that open for you? How did that change your life? BY: It made me able to talk to people. In the old days I wouldn’t address anybody if I didn’t know you for years. I just was raised very closed-mouth. JEF: Well, your painting is very expressive. You have been painting since you were 12. Did the world of acting change your painting, did you develop your personality or what you had to say through your painting? Do you think you channeled yourself into your painting? BY: I think all communications go hand in hand. Whether your an actor, a musician, a poet, a believer. We’re all on the same trajectory and where we could all hold hands. Different forms take different forms. JEF: So, as long as people are communicating through their genius Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 7
PHOTO BY PAMELA COHEN - PERMINAK CONSULTING
Burt Young with Nick Korniloff, Partner/Director, Art Miami LLC
“I do run pretty deep… I lend my heart where I can.”
PHOTO BY VICTOR FORBES
–BURT YOUNG
Burt Young addressing the crowd at his opening at the Dolphin Bookstore and Café in Port Washington, New York 8 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
“I have been a fan and a friend of Burt Young for many years. I have been fortunate enough to spend many hours with him in his studio and review a body of his lifetime work as a visual artist. I have also had the opportunity to share a selection of Burt’s present and past work with prominent collectors and dealers within the art world. Their responses have been very similar — he paints in the naïve art format with an innocence that portrays his honesty and emotion towards the subject matter he chooses. There is no doubt that Burt is an amazing acting talent on the screen and knows how to push the buttons to bring out the best lifetime performances by some of his co stars— just ask Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, and Jon Voight. The most endering characteristic of Burt’s work is that it comes from deep down within his core. While he has been a trained actor for generations, he has been a fighter and self-taught painter longer. He continually utilizes the brushes to push the buttons within himself. In front of the canvas with his pallete, he is his own co-star. — NICK KORNILOFF
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Planet-Earth (Mom)
talent whether it’s acting or dancing or athletics or painting, they’re communicating. Do you think it’s from their soul or do you think it’s just from the intellect or just a combination? BY: I think it’s sensual. JEF: Really? BY: Yes I do. JEF: So life feels good to you. BY: Yeah. JEF: So when it feels good and you paint, let’s say you have the two blue boxers up there on what almost looks like a Mondrian-type background. The orange and the green and the white and the red gloves are placed strategically within the composition. Does it feel good? Do you know the moment you’re done? BY: A lot of times, I don’t know when I’m done. I had a critic in Montreal once—I don’t think much of my work and she said she’s ‘pleased that the picture first tells a story before the canvas, during the canvas, and after the canvas.’ I was flattered with that, cause that’s what it means to me too. JEF: It’s about telling the story. It’s a story of the heart, the mind, the combination. BY: I lend my heart where I can. I let projects or people borrow it. JEF: That’s generous. That’s very generous. BY: Very rewarding for me. JEF: The line of your paintings looks to me as if you’re accessing another space, a deeper space. BY: Yeah. We all are, if we leave ourselves alone and don’t do too much detriment. I do run pretty deep. JEF: They look to me as if they are a pure statement from an introspective or deeper personal space and they are unfiltered and
they take on the shapes and the persona of the space. BY: See that painting with the boat and the people with the hats? JEF: Yes, oh that’s brilliant. BY: They could be going somewhere, escaping from someplace, or trying to go someplace new. It’s a vision of us, the viewer where we place them. I hope they’re going someplace new. JEF: I like the way the leaves begin to reach the sky. BY: That’s a portrait of my mom. My momma died when she was 99 and I wanted to paint her, which I have before. I start with the blues, like the color of her eyes. But, then I felt she’s always going to be a part of an atmosphere and of the earth’s climate and so I just made the trees sort of defy gravity and lean in an odd way and that’s my mom. JEF: That’s beautiful. You grew up in Corona, Queens correct? BY: Yes. Later on, I had a restaurant in The Bronx on Gun Hill Road. JEF: Oh did you really? That’s an interesting neighborhood. BY: For 35 years. We had a big place, a lot of fun. I even did a play there with a friend of mine to bring some more business. Love Letters, you ever see Love Letters? Two people read and it’s quite gorgeous. JEF: Just recently. My daughter-in-law was recently in it in a theater in Newburgh. That is a beautiful one. BY: It’s written so beautifully, any two people can play it. In fact, they are gonna do it here at the local theater. JEF: You have an ingenious viewpoint and you have a multitude of talents. BY: I have a new play. It’s called Artist Found in Port Washington Flat. I shot a hologram of me, a full-length hologram. A beat-up looking guy. He’s the conscience. I come in the theatre and interact with my conscience, who is the hologram. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 9
PHOTO BY PAMELA COHEN - PERMINAK CONSULTING
At Bronx Day honoring Dion (far right), are Danny Aiello, Dominic Chianese, Ed Pinckney, Burt Young and Rita Moreno. Quite a line-up of immortal Bronxites further immortalized with their names inscribed on street signs marking The Bronx Walk of Fame, on the Grand Concourse, just outside the Bronx County Courthouse where the ceremony was held. A long fly ball from Yankee Stadium. Photos above by JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
PHOTO BY PAMELA COHEN - PERMINAK CONSULTING
Burt with Jean Claude and Christo
Burt with NicholasKouniloff and Jon Voight. at right: Burt with Fine Art Editor-in-Chief Victor Forbes at his one-man exhibition opening at the Dauphin book store in Port Washington, Long Island New York. 10 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
JEF: Yes. Greek theatre had the chorus. They had the other voice. BY: I don’t call him a chorus, he’s a… He’s a pain in the ass, I tell him. He don’t change. I’m the one that has to be bright. JEF: So what made you step out of the mold? I’m sure you’re different from the community you grew up in. BY: I’m a very courageous man. JEF: It takes a lot of courage to step out of the mold. BY: I’m a fighter… in all ways. JEF: And you have two new paintings upstairs for a poetry book. BY: Yeah. JEF: That a gentleman from Italy has come in to show you, is that correct? BY: Yes. JEF: So your pictures are going to be published in that poetry book? BY: Yeah. JEF: Where do you get the courage from, because it can be very raw to be in the arts and to say to people through your writing or through your acting, through your painting, ‘This is who I am.’ And you’re raw, you’re exposed, you’re nude, you’re on display. BY: Yeah. JEF: And you seem like you’re a very sensitive soul so how did that work for you? BY: First of all, I have a wonderful partner. And second, the children, my daughter, her children are great. And I have a pack of friends I have had for 60 years. They believe in everything I ever do. And again, I was a great fighter. Even before the marines. JEF: So when did you realize that you had this courage and that you’re going to have to step out in life? Was it painting that had shown you that you had something different to offer? What compelled you to step out? BY: I’ve been physically fit. I knew I could fight physically. And so it was an early step as a young man. Cause of my neighborhood we all could be scaredy cats. I realized you step to the plate and whatever comes by you can make the most of it. Whatever comes by. You don’t have to win at the plate, you don’t have to hit a home run, but if you feel the dirt and if you feel the tension, use it. JEF: What is so impressive is your courage as well as your ability. I know how hard it is to be in the arts, but I know people who are in the arts can’t do anything else other than be in the arts. They’re
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
The Beginning
Lisa and Burt
artists in their heart and their soul. So when they step out the door if they could do anything else as well they would do it, I’m sure. Did you feel any of that when you were developing your writing or painting or your acting? BY: Let me go backward from what you just said. I had the vigor before acting. I had the good fortune of studying with Lee Strasberg. He was my only teacher and mentor so to speak. From the same girl (Norma), she wanted to study with Lee Strasberg. She worked in a bar, she couldn’t get in. Lee was one of the foremost, from the Actors Studio, still one of the great teachers. So I figured I didn’t get in anyways. So I wrote him a letter—I have a memory, I don’t make it up. “Dear Lee, if an acting background is a prerequisite read no further. But if you’re still with me, acting—none, but life credits … a homicide indictment, assault, very flighty. Seriously Lee, I don’t know if acting has anything for me or vice versa, but I’m treading water. See me.” So he called me to his apartment on Central Park West. By now I knew he had Marlin Brando, Marilyn Monroe. I knew about him and found out how to reach him. In those days I didn’t talk at all so he sits me down and he’s trying to probe me and I’m answering one-syllable answers. I go “yeah”, just “yeah”, “no” “yeah.” “I don’t think you can be an actor,” he says to me. So I get up and leave. He slams the table. He says, “Sit down, I never saw such tension in a man’s face.” JEF: Oh, that’s interesting. BY: He said, “I feel you’re an emotional library. Will you work with me?” and I grunted “yeah.” And I never stopped. JEF: That’s quite a story, that’s amazing. So your chemistry for life, your ingenious qualities just attracted you to all these other rare geniuses to get out what you had to get out I would imagine. BY: Lisa included. See the entire interview at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mk1e4ccFdM Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 11
Catherine Sebastian Photos Highlight Impact of Elements By KAY CORDTZ
“Overdrive, Rt. 66”
“Lightning, summer storm” 12 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
A year after Catherine Sebastian’s participation in the Lambertville, New Jersey J.B. Kline Gallery’s Music Month exhibit in January 2012, the gallery hosted the grand opening of her one-woman show in December. But instead of the rock-and-roll photos that dominated Music Month, this show featured Sebastian’s non-music-oriented photographic canvasses. The show was titled “ELEMENTS” and included images of weather and storms, the moon and stars, wonderfully rusted cars— anything on which the elements might impact. During the three-hour opening reception, the gallery was filled with art lovers from New Jersey, New York City and the Philadelphia area, as well as from Woodstock, NY, where Sebastian resides. Adding to the festivities, a local acoustic band called Exile on Ferry Street provided rhythm to the lead guitar of Vinnie Zummo, whose solo albums and work with Joe Jackson are well-known in musician circles. Sebastian’s husband John, formerly of The Lovin’ Spoonful, sat in for a few jug band tunes as well. Sebastian’s art pieces were printed on large, museum quality canvases that showcase her distinctive eye for composition, color and depth-of-field. One photographic highlight featured the exact moment lighting struck in the horizon while she was driving! According to gallery manager Gary Cohen, “The ‘wow-factor’ of this and her other unique and inspiring photographic images kept the patrons engaged. But the real star of the evening was Catherine.” Cohen said that what made the gala so special, and prompted Sebastian to make subsequent weekend visits to the gallery before Christmas, was the personal interplay between the artist and the art-lover. “Catherine’s ability to engage the admirers in fascinating stories of the history of the locations, events and people in the photographs, as well as her ability to explain her techniques even to a non-photographer resulted in the gala and her weekends being filled with one-on-one sessions with so many people,” Cohen said. “All in all, ELEMENTS was one of the best received and artistically satisfying shows at the JB Kline Gallery.” Arthur Miles Saylor III, a Princeton, NJ writer who attended the show’s opening, observed that “her grasp of beauty and detail is intuitive and complete, her use of color and texture are stunning and the canvases can barely contain her vision. She has the curious, observant eyes of a child coupled with the artistic wisdom of an old soul. Too bad Catherine Sebastian and her camera can’t be everywhere at once.” Luckily for Lambertville art lovers, five of the canvasses from the J.B. Kline show are still on display at River Queen Artisans Gallery, and the J.B. Kline Gallery hopes to feature another show of her work next December.
Jolyn Wells-Moran
Out Of The Ordinary
Puesta del Sol
Temor Playa Cabo Pulmo
M
Montaña Terremoto
y artistic aim is to share the connection with the natural world as richly as I perceive it. I’ve been painting most of my life and am now excited about my expanding oil series of the mysterious, wild and pastoral places of Baja Sur, many painted en plein air. I have studied with Mitch Albala, Gage Academy of Art and Pacific Northwest Art School; Kathryn Stats of Texas; Camille Przewodek, Petaluma, CA,; Derek Buckner, a New York City artist; and many other fine instructors. A few years ago, I attended the Marchutz School of Drawing and Painting, Institute for American Universi-
Contemplation
ties, Aix-en-Provence, France. I minored in Art in college. My work has been shown in many venues and currently, at Gallery North in Edmonds, WA. I’m a member of the American Impressionist Society (AIS) and Plein Air Washington Artists (PAWA).
www.jwellsmoran.com
US Tel.1-206-935-0894
Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 13
Annie Haslam: Renaissance Woman The Sound and Colors of Love, Light and Peace It is very exciting to be able to share my new love — oil painting — with you. Color and sound are one and the same so in my case, my art is a continuation of my singing displayed on canvas. I have no preconceived ideas and the fifinal fioutcome is always a wonderful surprise. One way to describe my paintings is to think about a song that soars to great heights and then swoops down low. It is vibrant and colorful and moves swiftly through mysterious moods into intense brightness as soft as a whisper, tranquil like a stream or as bold as a snow-covered mountain. I believe the inspiration cones from deep within me, from deep inside the earth and far out in the universe. By MELINDA RIZZO Through her music and visual art, Annie Haslam embodies a 21st century renaissance woman. From the beginning of her long musical career as the lead singer for the 1970s English progressive rock band Renaissance, Haslam’s five-octave voice remains as clean and pristine today as it did when she first recorded the band’s signature, often haunting, melodic sound. H a s l a m’s v o i c e i s i m m e d i a t e l y recognizable to those who know it, and was a renaissance at the time of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. She is forever imprinted on such Renaissance classics as “Carpet of the Sun,” “Mother Russia,” “Ocean Gypsy,” “Northern Lights” and “Ashes are Burning.” If the titles of those hits resonate, look further, and a little deeper. On her website, anniehaslam.com, “Lost Kingdom,” “Blythe Spirit,” “Kingfisher” and “The Violinist” are among the titles of her paintings, whose exploration and melodic brush strokes push another facet of her creative endeavors. But what is remarkable about this Englishwoman, who quietly makes her home in bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is how she continues to grow into her own, evolving renaissance. 14 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Annie Haslam with one of her painted guitars
Haslam as few among us, is blessed to channel her muse in a variety of ways. Whether it’s her on stage presence fronting Renaissance, or behind the scenes, hand painting one-of-a-kind musical instruments with a new, visual song, Haslam’s abilities are perfectly pitched. On the surface, making music and creating visual art may not appear to have much in common. Closer inspection reveals how the two can dovetail, such as her work with C. F. Martin & Co., of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, a worldrenown guitar maker and manufacturer. Haslam has painted instruments for ‘Wood’s’ violins, private collectors, music industry pros, the NAAM music convention and “The Art of the Guitar”, an art show at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York City
in 2011. For the C.F. Martin & Co. Museum, she was asked to paint one of their signature guitars, the Dreadnought. The Dreadnought is an acoustic instrument with a rich, full-of-bass sound, favored for decades by a variety of guitarists across all genres. “It was an amazing experience to go to Nazareth and tour the museum and factory, and meet the people who make the guitars. It’s a very special company, and it was an honor and privilege to be asked to paint one,” Haslam says. According to Haslam, both music and art are rich, layered and bursting with color, all critically important to her personally and professionally, and she has found ways to fuse the two.
But underneath the skin, they’re not so very different, Haslam has discovered. “I used to think I could just do one, then turn that off and do the other, but I’ve discovered it doesn’t quite work that way,” Haslam says. Music and painting, music and fashion, or music as the call and response of the human spirit, can be successfully driven in any number of ways. Haslam recently collaborated for a fashion benefit event at the Baum School of Art in Allentown, as part of the “Frock and Roll” series of events hosted in various venues throughout the Lehigh Valley. One of her songs, titled “The Mystic and The Muse” inspired Pamela Ptak, an alumni of the Lifetime television hit show Project Runway, to create a gown Haslam will wear on stage. Haslam had dreamed about wearing her art on stage. Ptak made that come true after contacting dress designer Illeana Olympia, who is known for printing her own paintings onto silk. She agreed to print out The Muse. The dress will be debuted at the Fall Renaissance concert tour. Ptak is a fashion designer based in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, as well as a Baum School design teacher. Haslam originally was inspired to write the song after completing a painting of the same title, bringing the concept full circle. “Things will speak if you let them,” Haslam says. From her origins in oil painting, which she abandoned because as a novice, did not understand how toxic oils can be, to her method of recreating vibrant color without palette knife impasto techniques in acrylics, she continues to capture this world and its inhabitants on canvas, also channeling from the universe. “I was poisoning myself for hours at a time in the beginning, and I didn’t know it. I would have paint all over myself, and then clean up with turpentine, which was as bad, and I didn’t work with adequate ventilation. Finally, I realized what was happening,” Haslam says of the intensity of her work, and the double edged sword oil paints became to her. “I would get this intense, brilliant depth and flow with oils, and I was reluctant to give that up,” she recalls. Ultimately, Haslam found a way to work with acrylic paints and get the same end result she craved. When having the freedom to paint whatever comes, the end effect transports one to other worlds and energies.
The Muse Fine Art
“If I’m creating a commission, it ’s different. I have to be intentional about it, and about the person I’m doing it for,” Haslam says. Whether the client is asking for a painted instrument, like a violin or guitar, or a canvas from life, a photograph or a concept, Haslam says it’s important to pay attention and to be informed before the work begins. While Haslam is best known as the voice of Renaissance, her active solo career and work includes collaborations with Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Roy Wood, (The Move, Electric Light Orchestra), Steve Howe (YES), John Wetton (Asia, Uriah Heep, King Crimson), Pete Townsend (The Who), Phil Collins (Genesis), Tony Visconti (Producer) and Rave Tesar, among others. Haslam began painting in the early 2000s after becoming disillusioned with the music business. “I needed to do something creative and suddenly there it was. I began painting. When I paint it’s like a tap is turned on and it all pours out,” Haslam says. Issued in 2006, Haslam’s recording Woman Transcending also combined her music and art for the first time, making both available to the public. The recording benchmarked her ability to thrive in her new path as visual artist, while holding onto and growing her musical body of work.
Woman Transcending is a glimpse of 16 rare recordings, some of them never released before. Haslam’s disenchantment with the music business has softened over the past several years and along with original band member Michael Dunford has spearheaded a new incarnation of Renaissance with the recording of a new album of original songs to be released on the band’s own label, Symphonic Rock Recordings and is titled Grandine il Vento with all songs written by Haslam and Michael Dunford. Sadly Michael Dunford had a stroke and passed away on November 20th 2012, an unexpected tragedy. Annie has decided to carry on Michael’s legacy “It’s certainly not like it was in the 70s, our sound now is way better due to the technology available. This enhances the music dramatically with impressive life-like sounding orchestral instruments created by the bands two keyboardists,” Haslam says. Rather than walk away from the table satisfied, Annie Haslam embarks on yet another renaissance. For more information visit www. anniehaslam.com, or ‘like’ Annie on Facebook at www.facebook.com/anniehaslamart www.renaissancetouring.com, and www. facebook.com/renaissancetouring Melinda Rizzo is a freelance writer. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 15
PHOTO BY KEELA GRIMMETTE
Reason To Smile
Children at the Jambo Jipya School in Mtwapa, Kenya,
When Keela Grimmette, head of the organization Reason2Smile which provides food, clothing, education and health care to orphaned and at risk children in developing nations, came to give a presentation at Keene Central School, in Keene Valley, New York, she immediately had my attention. This was due in part to the personal connection I have with her cause, having been to similar areas in Kenya in 2005 when I was just ten years old, but also because of the love and passion Grimmette has for what she does. The name of her organization seemed to fit in so many ways. When the time came for me to decide not just on a cause to support through my Senior Legacy Project but on what my own legacy and chosen career path would be, I thought immediately of the children I met in Kenya and of the ones like them that Keela was working so hard to help. I know that not everyone will get the chance to have their life perspective so drastically morphed by such inspirational young people. Realising that this is far from possible, as is satisfying children’s hunger by giving away my lunch, or buying infinite numbers of rubber balls, broke me so deeply at such a young age that I will forever look at the world differently. I want to work towards an awareness of the poverty and insatiable perseverance which I saw. Hopefully my voice and my actions will someday encourage others around the world to positively impact their fellow cohabitants in a fraction of the way in which I was. My experience in Kenya, much like Grimmett’s, changed my life, making her the perfect mentor for my project. 16 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY SADIE HOLBROOK
By ATHENA PEPE
Athena Pepe and Keela Grimette at the Revovery Lounge in Upper Jay, NY fundraiser for Reason2Smile
I made contact with her through my senior seminar teacher and we recently held a fundraiser for Reason2Smile at the Upper Jay Arts Center, where we gathered people together to raise awareness for Reason2Smile. For more information on Grimmett’s mission, please visit http://www.reason2smile.org/.
ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL
A Celebration of Women and Leadership Now in its third year, the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York City celebrates the works of female directors, screenwriters, and producers. Diablo Cody served as co-chair of the festival, where Fine Art publisher Jamie Ellin Forbes caught up with Director for the Athena Center of Leadership studies Kathryn Kolbert and Melissa Silverstein, her co-founder of the Athena Festival, which is a joint project of both the Athena Center and Melissa’s blog, Women and Hollywood.
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES JEF: What inspired you to originally start the Athena Film Festival? KATHRYN: Melissa and I are old friends. We’ve known each other for years. Melissa organized an event at Gloria Steinem’s house to celebrate the film-making work of Jane Campion, the famous director. So we were there and I had just started as the new director of the Athena Center and heard many, many filmmakers tell the story of making great films, but not having a place to show them nor being able to break through with stories of courageous women into mainstream Hollywood. And we decided, “Let’s do something about it.” MELISSA: I spend my time working on a website Women & Hollywood which is on the Indiewire blog network and I meet and talk with a lot of women directors. It’s a big struggle for them, not only to get their work out there, but to also have strong female leads in films and get taken seriously to reach the next level. JEF: Why do you think that is? Do you think there is still a stigma women can’t control the money? Direct the guys? Direct the film? What can’t women do that men can do in this field? MELISSA: Women can do everything in the field. I think that there is somewhat of a historical problem in that there have been so few woman directors and only one woman who has won the Oscar for best picture with only four women nominated. It’s very hard for women to get to the top level in directing and we talk about directing, because directing is the leadership position on the set. When you have a woman out there as a leader, statistics show they hire more women at all levels. They also produce more work about women. These are some of the messages we want to get out. KATHRYN: Let me just say that Hollywood is no different than every other field. Whether a Fortune 500 company or a non-profit organization, women are not anywhere close to where they need to be in leadership roles. The general average is somewhere between 18 and 22 percent for 17 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
(l-r) Kathryn Kolbert Co-Founder of The Athena Film Festival and Director of The Athena Center; Diablo Cody; Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer of The Walking Dead and receiver of The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award; Debora Spar, Barnard President; Melissa Silverstein Co-Founder of The Athena Film Festival and Founder and Editor of Women and Hollywood
many industries and Hollywood is a little less than that. Besides the fact that women are not in leadership across the board, in this particular area I think that the people who control culture also control how we think of leadership and so from our perspective not only are we trying to ensure that more women rise up the ranks to become leaders in this field, but we want to change what culture says about who is an appropriate leader, what leadership looks like. That is why our work with the film festival is so important. JEF: Do you believe that women would tell a different variety of story? In some of the films you featured in the last two years, women are telling a slightly different variety of story than the type of blockbuster film that has easy funding out of the banking system or Hollywood. This would be the thing—it would be the money. The money isn’t coming, therefore the directors and the producers aren’t getting the films made and the stories would be different. Would they not? MELISSA: Well, yeah. I think part of it is about money, but also it’s a part of the thing people are drawn to. So where you look at the male directors and the movies that they make, a lot of them are action, superhero type movies. Maybe women are not drawn to those in the same way. There are many women who want to direct a huge super heroine movie or even a superhero movie, but they’re not on that list in Hollywood to get those gigs. But we have movies directed by men and women in this festival, which makes us a bit unique. What we search out for at Athena are films that can create a conversation about the culture at large and about women’s leadership. Because, building on what Kathryn just said, ‘When you control the culture, you control the conversations,’ and we believe through Kitty’s work and the work I do at Women & Hollywood that we need a larger conversation in all of our culture about
“What we are talking about here are the visions of both men and women directors, writers, and people in the industry who are telling stories of strong, bold, courageous women…” PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Manhattan) is the most sought out after women’s college in the nation and really is a great launching pad to help young women understand the importance of leadership and give them some both inspiration and aspiration for their own lives. One of the things we do very consistently is seek to not just to have audiences of filmmakers from across New York, but to have audiences that include younger women, who can be both inspired and can aspire to leadership as well. Kathryn Kolbert, Gale Anne Hurd, Melissa Silverstein at the Athena Awards
leadership. Film is so universal and all walks of the world people have access to films. So if we can have this conversation, using film, then hopefully it will break into other places in culture. KATHRYN: Let me just clarify that again because I think it’s really important. We are a film festival that shows the work of both men and women. The common denominator—the thing that is unique and throughout every film we show—is that they are stories of a strong courageous woman leader and somebody who has, or is, making a difference in the world… MELISSA: …and she can be a leader in her life, community, in politics. The lineup this year has a lot of young women and girls in works such as Beasts of the Southern Wild with that fantastic Quvenzhané Wallis, she is terrific. She was six when she made that movie. We also featured Ginger and Rosa, starring Elle Fanning, directed by the wonderful Sally Potter. Brave, the first animated movie from Pixar that stars a female protagonist, and Future Weather is a feature film about a young woman who is so concerned about global warming that she starts her own scientific experiment because she believes she can solve it. So this is a wide range and we also have, of course, adult women who are leaders. Hannah Arendt (one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century), which is Margarethe Von Trotta a prominent director in the New German Cinema movement and one of Germany’s best known and most successful female directors who has spent her career putting women leaders on screen. KATHRYN: These are the stories of women, women in leadership. What we are talking about here are the visions of both men and women directors, writers, and people in the industry who are telling stories of strong, bold, courageous women who are leading their communities, or their companies, or just making a statement with their lives and that’s what we’re after here—stories of leaders. MELISSA: Hollywood is not going to change unless guys get on board with us, because they have so much power. There are many men who make great movies about strong women; we need them on our team and we need people to be talking about this. We wouldn’t do this work if we didn’t think it would have an impact. We work really hard on this and we believe that the conversations are important. Many of these movies have been seen before at other festivals, some have been released, but when you put them together and you curate a piece and people look at the breadth of the piece, and they say, ‘Oh yeah. That is about leadership,’ or ‘I missed that when it was playing there, let me just go and check it out,’ it is very satisfying. We have many conversations with directors and other people who are involved in the issue to be a part of the festival also. KATHRYN: The other thing that is really important from my perspective an educator, is that Barnard College (the only women’s college here in 18 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
JEF: Well, that’s important. KATHRYN: Very important. JEF: What are your aspirations for 2013? KATHRYN: We actually have a couple of new things this year. The first is we are doing a full day of workshops for filmmakers, which we did last year, but this year the American Film Institute has come in and is sponsoring the Director’s Workshop For Women for 24 people who have applied to participate in the program. MELISSA: Right. This is the preeminent training ground for women directors and they do an annual event. In the afternoon there is a nuts and bolts on how to make a short, because that’s what you do at the AFI Directing Workshop For Women—make a short. We are also hosting an open house and hopefully get more people interested in the workshops. JEF: That’s fabulous. That’s a real cornerstone. MELISSA: Yes, we’re really excited about that. KATHRYN: The Ford Foundation Just Films has come in to sponsor that day long set of events, so that’s terrific. MELISSA: And this year we launched the Athena Global Shorts Program where we took four films from last years’ Festival and put them together in partnership with the United Nations Women. We’re distributing those films through the UN Committees around the world as well as to people in this country who are interested to create another conversation about women leadership. That is sponsored by ADP Foundation. KATHRYN: The nice part about that program is not only do we have an opportunity to provoke a conversation, but all of the groups that partner with us, and there’s now something like 15 or 20 organizations, get their members to come to some of the films. We will now make available this Global Shorts Program for their use. Our goal here is to increase the little ripples. JEF: How are you going to segue from this year into next year? Or do you just finish and pick up where your strengths lie and go to the next place? MELISSA: We access what worked and what didn’t. We feel very strongly about the core value which is that each film has to at its core have a strong female character and then we’ll move on from there. Each year has a different amount of movies that we show based on what’s out there and what’s available. This year we decided to expand our shorts program, because it’s always so packed. We have actually three programs of shorts, and last year we had two, so we’re actually going to show them twice over the weekend. Shorts are very strong—maybe because of the new technology that’s available for people to create—and also because shorts are a real great starting block for directors. We try to also have films from around the world as part of our festival, not just
English speaking films, and animations. JEF: That’s incredible.
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
KATHRYN: The other piece that’s different from year to year is on Thursday night before the festival begins, or to kick off the festival, we do an awards ceremony and present Athena awards to women in the film industry who have done a tremendous job as leaders. This year Gale Ann Hurd, the producer of The Walking Dead, who also did Terminator, The Abyss, and a whole bunch of great action movies, is the recipient of the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, which we started last year. We are also giving awards to Ava DuVernay who is the director of Middle of Nowhere. Other awardees are Rose Kuo of Lincoln Center; film critic Molly Haskill; and Pat Mitchell, who is the president and CEO of the Paley Center. JEF: Oh, fabulous, so you have been busy. KATHRYN: We are busy. MELISSA: It’s pretty much a year round thing now. JEF: Do you work with New York Women in Film? MELISSA: They are a partner to us and Terry has been involved with us, so yes, New York Women in Film, Women in Film in LA, as well as a variety of other organizations around the country are involved with us and we’re actually with the Global Shorts—we are going international. We also are now partnered with other women’s film festivals around the world in a new network called the International Women’s Film Festival Network. The objective of it is to make the industry understand the importance of women’s film festivals, to help women filmmakers and to promote the understanding, the importance and the rewards of screening at women’s film festivals. JEF: That’s terrific and you have had great success in three years. KATHRYN: We have and the sky’s the limit. MELISSA: We’re idea people. I spend time seeing what’s going on in the industry with my website so we just kind of pivot on things that are happening. JEF: And if they want to reach you on your website how do they do this? MELISSA: blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood and www. athenafilmfestival.com JEF: So this is a great opportunity not only for young people, but for people entering, people established, people who want to be involved in leadership roles who are portraying women as strong people in film with a good story they can come to you and submit. You really made this incredibly accessible. KATHRYN: You know, my goal is to be as entertaining as educational, so this is just a great opportunity. If you like film, it’s a great weekend to come and hang out on a beautiful campus. Every film is within a half a block of the other, you don’t have to go very far. You can just sit there and watch films from Friday night all the way to Sunday evening. It’s a great chance to see some wonderful films.
JEF: What were some of the highlights of this year’s Festival? MELISSA: We showed 21 feature length movies, 24 shorts including some works-in-progress, over 4,000 people attended and we had 24 panels and discussions as well as workshops for filmmakers produced by the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women. Diablo Cody, our co-chair is a stalwart supporter who understands the importance of highlighting women’s leadership in film. We are becoming a year-round event, and already starting to think about what we are going to do for next year, how to grow the festival. Hopefully we won’t have a blizzard next year so more people can attend. We will continue with the leadership theme and programs 19 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Diablo Cody, Co-Chair of The Athena Film Festival 2013
“Athena is so cool, … (and) necessary because women are not being given the opportunity or accolades in the mainstream space.” —Diablo Cody
co-chair Athena Film Festival that allow people to have this very important cultural conversation. We’re also very excited to continue our relationship with United Nations Women with our global shorts program and to continue working with international women’s film festivals to help expand the reach. What has happened is that our awards celebration has become an event that people don’t want to miss. It’s a chance to see colleagues and friends and honor people whose contributions are vital. Gale Ann Hurd’s participated in our “Hollywood conversation” part of the weekend and lot of different directors were also here. It was wonderful to honor Gale, who is such a strong advocate for women’s leadership both behind the scenes and on screen. The Terminator might be about “the terminator” but the character that you remember most is Kathryn Connor played by Linda Hamilton. JEF: It’s a big energy, it’s a great time of the year, it’s a terrific festival. MELISSA: It’s cold so you get to be inside. JEF: What you had mentioned it’s so close, everything’s so intimate, and you really are rubbing next to the people who are involved. You’re really not removed from people. KATHRYN: The kinds of Film Festivals I like the best are when people who are at the movies talk to each other about what they’ve seen. ‘Did you see this? Do you wanna go see that? What are you doing next?’ It’s just a cordial fun time where people can share ideas and share the experience and the best is that it’s very close… each venue is close, so you don’t have to be outdoors a lot in the middle of the winter, which is always a good thing. MELISSA: We’re very proud and look forward to having it grow.It’s great that it is part of a campus that teaches young women how to be leaders, it couldn’t be a more perfect location for something like this. To view the interview in its entirety, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVhOQ8YzINQ
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Muse-inspired Art
Sandra Cointreau, John Anderson, Philis Raskind-Anderson and Peter Van Heerden, Executive Director at Westport Art Center MUSE exhibition.
BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
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earching for a puppy, I came upon Sandra Cointreau’s Stoney Brook Farm where she operates the Earth Lodge Healing Center and Earth Lodge Animal Herbals company. Sandra has been breeding one to two litters a year of Stoney Brook Standard Poodles for 15 years where she integrates “our happy freerange poodles into our daily lives with our horses and family activities in an energy-enriched environment. We have a beautiful line of high quality pedigrees.” Seeing her beautiful poodles displayed in all of their grandeur, I was drawn to her featured art, holistic healing certifications and engineering accomplishments to find a true Renaissance woman. Sandra is a civil/environmental engineer who has worked all over the globe on waste and water management projects for the UN. Her poodles, horses and all creatures who reside on her farm are imbued with the love and energies that emanate from this Reiki master and Shamanic healer. Her book, Energy Healing for Animals & Their Owners, herbal lifestyle and remedies is offered at www.earthlodgeherbals.com. After we spoke several times, bonding a friendship covering many of our mutual interests, I went to meet Sandra and was interviewed by all humans and poodles. That day my beautiful Lillyanna, the shy jet-black poodle, went home with me to become my girl. Upon saying goodbye, we decided to meet again to discuss art and life. Fast-forward two and one half years when I received Sandra’s e-mail invitation to meet Phylis Raskind-Anderson, a sculptor and her husband John Anderson. Phylis’s sculptures are featured in the Muse exhibition at the Westport (CT) Arts Center. This lovely couple were the new owners a lovely back poodle puppy boy, Heaven, also of Stoney Brook Farms. Westport Arts Center’s recent Muse exhibition featured paintings and drawings by Paul Cadmus and Jane Sutherland with works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Chuck Close, and sculpture by Philis Raskind-Anderson. In Greek mythology, muses were goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts. As inspiration feeds the soul, so the muse fuels the artist with a compulsive and obsessive need to create. The following interview was video recorded on the visit to the exhibition and later at the home Phyllis and John share where we spoke of art, life and our mutual love of animals. I am sure the currents of the universe that connect us all and the Muses that creatively flow were speaking through us this day. It is my hope you, the reader, may share this moment in time with us. JEF: Philis, you were in the show at the Westport Arts Center and 20 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
John you were the muse for Paul Cadmus and you did the sculptures (looking at Philis). PR-A: I did the sculptures out of there. JEF: And Sandra introduced us all. PR-A: Absolutely. JEF: And we have a love of Poodles. PR-A: Oh yes JEF: And that’s how we met, right? Poodle passion. PR-A: That’s a great name for the house. JEF: So how did you two meet (Philis and John)? PR-A: I started to study sculpture at the National Academy of Design in New York City. JEF: And when was this? PR-A: 1970 JEF: And… PR-A: And I walked into the room where there were students, teacher, and a model, and the model was John Anderson. JEF: I admire everybody’s mental versatility to embrace the moment and love each other for who they are. PR-A: That’s a beautiful way of putting it. JEF: Versatility and flexibility of heart and soul is a very wonderful thing. So how do you bring this to your art, because your sculptures are quite dynamic. PR-A: Thank you. It’s a terrific question. It probably was because almost instantaneously I saw John as my muse. Initially if anyone had said what will you be sculpting it would have been he body, but animals were my first love as a child. Then I saw this animal (points to John) on the model stand and it became a male nude. Male nude because I grew up in the ’30s and ’40s where men were the heroes, women were not heroes yet. JEF: So what do you think makes a heroine? PR-A: A heroine to me is a strong woman, wise, fearless. Everything the comic books did for Wonder Woman I thought was reality. When I was young, men were the achievers. They had the opportunity to achieve and I thought that women were child-bearers. They stayed home, the men went to war. What changed that is when I grew a little older, pre-teens into teens, I realized, ‘Oh, so the women are staying home, they’re having babies, the husband’s have lost their dream of achievement, they’re working hard for the house, the wife, the children, the new fur coat that came with every new child and I thought… that is not the life for me.” But I didn’t yet know what the life for me would be. Until I was in my 30s. JEF: And what muse spoke to you at that point? PR-A: What was my muse? Anything that I had a passion for, that was not human. JEF: And where did you live? PR-A: I was born in New York City and moved to Portsmouth Virginia during the years of segregation, ku klux klan, hangings. If a black man looked at you, it was not a good thing. If you were in the car with a black couple, police stopped you. It was an education of the mind and a terrible time. JEF: You and John met in 1970? PR-A: In New York City at the National Academy School of Fine Arts. JEF: John was modeling for Paul Cadmus and you were sculpting and you all became friends that led to a creative cohesive body of work. PR-A: Definitely. JEF: Sandra, how did you find your muse? SC: I don’t know if I have one. My first muse really was the horse. There was a time when my two horses had died and I didn’t have any horses left and I was busy working and I couldn’t have them. There was a period of time for about five years where I was horseless. During that time I started drawing and painting horses so that I would feel I was with the horse, which was very interesting because as I would draw and paint the horse I would feel I knew where the muscles were. I knew where the horse was sweaty, I knew where the horse had hardness, where it had chiseling in the bone structure under the eye because I had groomed and
felt my horses so much that when I started drawing the horse, the horse really was my muse until finally I was able to get some more horses and I didn’t have the need as much to be painting only horses. During that period, I could only do horses, because I felt such a huge gap in my life. It was the only way that I could be with them. JEF: Let’s give everyone a little bit of an explanation. You have an engineering background? SC: Yes, I’m an engineer. JEF: You work with the UN and you do water projects. SC: Water and waste projects. JEF: And you do them all over the world? SC: I do. JEF: And you breed horses as well as dogs? SC: Yes JEF: We all believe in the muse of the poodle right? SC: That’s how we met, through my poodles. JEF: Yes, we are all four poodle lovers here. SC: We are, and part of the reason I love poodles is they prance like Arabian horses. They move like Arabians and they are just so perfect when they move. JEF: I think your poodles are that way. SC: Well mine certainly do. JEF: You’re show at the Westport Arts Center… PR-A: It’s mainly a Paul Cadmus show. JEF: But several of your sculptures are there also. PR-A: Yes, four. SC: The name of the show is Muse. It’s really a show that features the drawings of Paul Cadmus and the sculptures of Phyllis Raskind and the muse is there for both. The centerpiece really of the collection is John. JEF: So John, what’s your muse? JA: My muse, I suppose, was music, singing. JEF: And did you sing? JA: Yes. I sang in clubs in New York and in the theatre. JEF: And you recorded?
Rodeo Horse
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Philis Raskind-Anderson and John Anderson with Cadmus drawing and Philis sculpture of John.
JA: I made a record, yes. JEF: And the name of the record? JA: Verboten. JEF: I like that. JA: (Laughs) You like Verboten? JEF: And Sandra your muse is the horses and your muse was John (Looking at Philis), but what other muses? P R - A : We l l , interestingly as a child, I thought if I could be anything, I could be a horse. JEF: Oh, that’s Sandra Cointreau’s Blue Gladiolas for Tracey Fein fascinating PR-A: I was riding from the age of three. JEF: Do you find riding to be artistic? Is it an artistic expression aesthetically through the soul? SC: For me riding is like being with a dance partner, because you have to flow with it and you never know what the horse is going to do so you have to be always observing its ears, its shoulder muscles, it’s eyes, because the horse can hear things that you can’t hear and it can see things that you can’t see and it might get alarmed and scared about something that you’re not aware that is going to happen. So you have to be very connected to every muscle in the horse, to every movement of the horse, to be ready to flow with it. It’s a total connection like dancing with a partner where you’re just following and for me watercolors is the same, because you have to let the paint flow. You go where the paint is going and with different papers they have different absorbencies and different ways of letting the paint flow. So watercolor to me is like riding a horse.
Sandra Cointreau at Stoney Brook Farm with the free-range poodles
View the entire interview at http://www.youtube.com/user/FineArtMagazine/videos?view=0 Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 21
H. Armenian
Expressions of Beauty in Wartime and Beyond
Beach
If it weren’t for the tension filled days of the Lebanese civil war would the watercolor artist have emerged in Haroutune Armenian? 1976 was a year of widespread death and destruction in Lebanon. It was a year when human values were sunk to their lowest; the start of an incomprehensible set of eruptions leading to a spiritual vacuum in the consciousness of disoriented and confused citizens. During those dreadful days, and at a relatively calm afternoon, a young professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) was painting the infinite depth of the sea and its gloomy mood at a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. Was that an escape from the irrational and absurd reality or was it a search of alternative truth? This is a stance, where a person with an artistic temperament could have discovered beauty and explored substance of life. Later on, Armenian would state, “ The truth is the legend that gives wing to our imagination”. Yes, the legend is the interweaving of the real and the unreal that provides wings to the artist’s imagination, and that helps him construct his world! A world, where the beauty, so admired by the public is still and will remain artist’s own unique configuration. Today, Armenian continues his artistic explorations and his creative life in California. Parallel to being a successful scientist and educator, he uncovers a second persona; that of the talented watercolor artist who may not be so well known by the international art-loving community. 22 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
He was born in Beirut while an intensive period of fighting was going on for the control of Syria and Lebanon during the Second World War. While in primary education at the Palanjian Jemaran, his art teacher is the watercolor painter Ms. Gulenia; heir of famous watercolor painters in Lebanon like Philip Moorani, Omar Onsi, but more so George Cyr. All of these proficient and talented artists were trained in Europe. Unfortunately, few in Lebanon would continue the wonderful watercolor artistic tradition of these masters and become artists of unique individuality. Armenian is one of those rare few. While the unending Lebanese civil war was in progress, and as a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, he had established residence with his family within the relatively secure boundaries of the campus of the AUB. The founders built the AUB in the XIX century on the shores of the Mediterranean and on a hill overlooking it. The University has one of the most luxurious and vibrant natural gardens of the region set in a wooded area. For Armenian, being locked-up on that campus because of the prevailing civil war in the city had its own attraction and inspirational dimension. Sometimes, ignoring the whistling noise of stray bullets, deadly bombs of cannons and rockets, he would find a lovely and welcoming corner on campus that he would record in watercolor for years to come with his vibrant and smooth sailing brushstrokes. His work, during that period was gradually moving towards the semi
abstract and sometimes even towards abstract phrasing. Parallel to the beauty of the surroundings, the eyewitness of the legend of the near past would transform the mood, feelings and emotions of the artist. Armenian was very much enjoying the creative opportunity that he was experiencing during this first phase of work. However, he was not content: he lacked the necessary know-how that will allow him express himself more fully and with better technique. That led him to a concerted effort of self-study. In order to find out the unknown in art, he would embark on serious exploration and learning. With all the study of the mystifying pathways of art and facing the infinite in art, he would sense his limitations. It was at a time of such predicament that Armenian was blessed to enjoy the friendship and guidance of a fellow resident on the campus of AUB: Provost and Acting President Samir Tabet. A well established professor and scientist; Tabet was a Renaissance man with a very broad horizon. He was also a recognized artist and had a wide-ranging knowledge of art history and philosophy. Having recognized the artistic talent and the urge for learning of Armenian, Tabet provides him with a lot from his years of cumulated experience and know-how. Although, at the time, he was moving almost towards abstraction, equipped with what he had learned from the professional guidance of Tabet, he would embrace impressionist pathways. At this point, an infinite potential of colors and hues are revealed for him. Having mastered techniques of colors and lines, Armenian starts picturing his surroundings with the transitions of delicate and transparent hues. Hues, that are harmonized and resonate with the smoothness of his brushstrokes. With fondness, he remembers the names of his teachers, Ms. Gulenia and Professor Samir Tabet, for letting him evolve to such a reality.
Delta
Parallel to scientific research and professional activities, painting is a basic necessity for Armenian. During his voyages in over 40 countries and in many of his destinations in the United States and Canada, he has always carried his box of watercolors and his brushes. With different series of watercolor paintings, he has recorded for the long term the scenic reality and interesting corners of the places he has lived in. Although, different in their external reality, these series are internally welded together by the style of Haroutune Armenian; characterized by the synchrony, grace, and the transparency of his palette. If a scientist, despite the fact that he has attained a distinctive place and recognition in his specialty, steadfastly continues to be creative and progressively perfects his watercolor paintings, we have to recognize the authentic artist that we have in him. An artist who is not interested in fame, material and moral gain, nor he is there for a game or pastime. This artist simply wants to explore beauty, and express genuinely inner flame. A flame that impels him to a most difficult medium of expression: watercolor. Having gone through the labor pains of self cleansing, and as an inducement from the subconscious, he now reenters the spheres of
Sevan
semi abstraction, where a flower can be confounded with sun, sun with blazing cloud, cloudy sky with panoramic scenery, and landscape with an infinite and unbound ocean. His paintings however do not represent chaotic conditions. As if, under the influence of the enchanted brush, natural phenomena are presented in their “corrected” and “edited” versions. All of these are assertive of long years of experience and a fine and instinctive sensitivity of colors, lines and specks. Here is an example of his personal thoughts that illustrates his considerable amount of love and reverence for the rich hues of color: “The blue, satiated with the green of unlimited depths; the bright green layered with rich hues of yellow; the spot of red that does not respect its limits; the topsy-turvy undulation of feelings and lines yet to be expressed; a round loop that represents eternity yet seeks its prey.” Such an interpretation by Armenian contains powerful poetry. It is not an accident that he is also a writer and a poet. It is also not by happenstance that each and every one of his watercolor paintings transmits the warmth, the taste and the immediacy of poetry to the spectator. Armenian has already had a few individual exhibitions in the USA and in the Middle East and has received high praise and wonderful response and appreciation. He has published two books of paintings and prose poetry: “Colors and Words” and “Past does not yet melt here”. A publication that will include a retrospective of his paintings will be available during 2013. The success of his latest exhibition of his paintings in Beirut has encouraged Armenian to forcefully move with new and fresh creative vigor, towards a vision of new achievements. —Movses Zirani, (Dr. in Arts)
Eventide Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 23
EC Galleries: Viva Las Vegas
City of Lights, Michael Florh
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ince its inception in 1993, Exclusive Collections Galleries (EC Galleries) has been inspiring and cultivating a passion for the arts with the goal of its founders to present the finest art in a forum that is both elegant and non-intimidating. Continuously on the lookout for great talent, Ruth-Ann and James Thorn seek out those artists who share their desire to provide collectors with the very best work in various genres. Before opening their own galleries, Ruth-Ann worked for one of the leading gallery chains and fine art publishing houses in the United States, while James, a war veteran, spent 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Eager to start a gallery of their own, they began by staging art shows at hotels across the country. Iin 1995, they opened their first gallery in Carlsbad, Calif. Soon after expanding La Jolla, where they were instrumental in creating the La Jolla Fine Art Gallery Association as well as the “First Thursday” art crawl. The success of their galleries and the artists they represent has spread throughout San Diego. “We took our entire life’s savings when we opened 1995,” explains James. “We had just enough for one month’s rent. It was a huge leap of faith, but we felt, nothing ventured, nothing gained.” After five successful years in La Jolla, the Thorns were approached by the Simon Property Group to open a second showroom in one of southern California’s most prestigious shopping centers, the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego’s Mission Valley. Opening in 2000, the new gallery ultimately became EC Galleries’ flagship location. Shortly thereafter the Thorns formed Crown Thorn Publishing to promote their artists. Initially representing painters Henry Asencio and Michael Flohr, Crown Thorn provided training, marketing, exhibition advice and consultation to galleries across the country, enabling them to display and offer these artists’ work. Since then, Crown Thorn has become instrumental in bringing fresh talent to the art market. Crown Thorn is the exclusive representative for Henry Asencio, Michael Flohr, Christopher M., Gloria Lee, Daniel Ryan and Michael Summers. In 2003, the Thorns opened their EC Gallery in the heart of San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District. In keeping with the character of the neighborhood, the new Fifth Avenue gallery was designed with an elegant, urban-retro flair. In contrast, when they opened their gallery in the more resort-oriented Seaport Village in 2009, it was created with a more natural, relaxed and slow-paced art experience in mind. When EC Gallery opened its Laguna Beach location in May, 2012 it was 24 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
inspired by the simple elegance of Asian design. “The rich amber wood floors, open spacing, and river rock wall at the entrance of the gallery speak to the elements of nature that inspire our artists to create,” noted Ruth-Ann. “Laguna Beach has been known as a bustling art community since its early beginnings, and Exclusive Collections is very excited to partake in the city’s rich artistic tradition.” The Thorns are thrilled to celebrate the one year anniversary of their Las Vegas gallery location, which opened in the spring of 2012 at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. “The gallery was designed with rich crimson and gold elements along with our signature artist stage for the best entertainment in Las Vegas — watching ECG artists at work,” continues Ruth-Ann. “EC Gallery in Las Vegas, as with all of its locations, brings artists to interact with their fans for exciting redcarpet shows and elite artist appearances by these national masters.” The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is the ideal location for Exclusive Collections Gallery. Known as the highest-grossing mall in America, The Forum Shops is a stunning work of architecture, spanning 636,000 square feet and containing over 160 individual shops. On par with some of the premier shopping venues in the world, the Forum Shops at Caesars have been compared to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Via Condotti in Rome. Its millions of visitors yearly makes it a strategic location for growing the EC Galleries brand. Still, it is only a beginning. Aiming to build a national‚ if not international‚ brand, the Thorns’ dream is to bring their passion for the arts to people throughout the United States and then the world. They have received countless professional accolades and their dedication to furthering the arts remains insatiable. James has been an industry speaker, and both he and Ruth-Ann freely share their knowledge and expertise with their peers in the industry. In addition, for the past five years, James has served on the panel board of the New York Artexpo. Together, the Thorns host numerous art shows each year to support a variety of local charities and organizations, including Angels Foster Care, The Alex Smith Foundation, Bridge of Hope, The Humane Society, ArtReach, The Wounded Warrior Foundation and The Salvation Army. Their ultimate desire is to inspire passion for the arts and offer the public a luxurious yet comfortable environment in which to experience art. Their true vision can only be realized over time and it is to this end they work devotedly. As Ruth-Ann asserts, “Our goal is to see your art collection and ours transcend us as individuals. Our passion is in purveying art that stands the test of time.”
Jazzy Dog
The Ballad of Ed Heck By VICTOR FORBES When Ed Heck gave up the secure confinement of his drafting table, skinny paint brushes, pencils, pen and ink-well that came with his position as illustrator at the world-renowned American Museum of Natural History, he could not have possibly anticipated that his transition to working artist with four inch brushes, a studio full of canvasses in progress and images of a special dog, dinosaurs and assorted creatures real and imagined would propel him into lofty heights of success heretofore reserved for the giants of this or any other era. His ascent to popularity and acclaim is earmarked by his more than cool persona, reflected in his paintings, books, and a myriad of products, not the least of which are his custom-designed art supply carts for children’s hospitals for the Surprise!Supplies ArtWorks program. Heck’s uncanny touch, his iconoclastic vision and his positive outlook in a difficult world have already secured him a vibrant spot in the annals of 21st Century Art History and with the first Ed Heck gallery store set to open in New York City in the Spring of 2013, this, most certainly, is only the beginning. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 25
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Pop Art
Edward William Heck Jr. known to his adoring and ever-expanding fan-base as just
“ED” is not your prototypical Ruler of the Universe kind of guy. BUT MAYBE HE IS. He is modest to the point of meekness; he is creating endlessly. He is fruitful. He knows how to mix colors. He knows about dinosaurs. He gives to those who ask.
cover and interior photos of Ed Heck: PETER BRAUNE Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 27
“There is no must in art because art is free...”
“If you work really hard and are kind, amazing things will happen.”
WASSILY KANDINSKY
FACEBOOK POST
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FEW YEARS AGO, playing on the boom box in our printing plant in Ronkonkoma, NY, was The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s classic East-West album. While that ensemble was known for the guitar/harmonica pyrotechnics of Mike Bloomfield and Butterfield, the supporting cast was nothing to sneeze at. Start with the rhythm section of bass man Jerome Arnold, Chicago all the way via Howlin’ Wolf, and drummer Billy Davenport whose percolating jazz/cha-cha beat to this iconic 13 minute raga-influenced title cut was both innovative and spectacular. The band was rounded out with the sadly overlooked and of Whippin’ Post before it underrated stalwarts: on guitar, segues into Mountain Jam. Elvin Bishop and on piano Now, you may ask, how does and organ, Mark Naftalin (for all that bring us to the subject point of reference, check out at hand, the artist Ed Heck? The Work Song here). The Sometimes, the longest skills exhibited by the members way ’round is the swetest way of this band was a sobering home. wake-up call to the Grateful Going back to EastDead, Jefferson Airplane, West, we so enjoyed Naftalin’s Quicksilver Messenger Service solo on the Allen Toussaint and Santana, among a host of song that we sat down and others. Many a musician of a wrote him a fan letter, via certain age will readily admit snail-mail. A response soon that the musical attributes of came back and we found out The Paul Butterfield Blues Mark was also a painter and Band caused them to take a lasting friendship was born. up an instrument. Coming One day we were invited out of a very gritty Chicago to a gallery on Columbus club scene in the early and Avenue on Manhattan’s West mid 1960s, Butterfield and Side to meet Mark’s friend, Bloomfield and the band are Tom Winer, who was gallery practically revered today by manager. As fate would have all but those who vote on it, Mr. Heck happened to membership in the Rock and be in the gallery at the time, Roll Hall of Fame, where dropping off a few paintings the PBBB was nominated for display. Tom liked one so twice—most recently this much, he immediately put it in the window. Ed left and year—to no avail. Well, it as we were conducting an took Albert King until 2013 interview with the gallery to make it, which is a good owner, we were still present sign. The Paul Butterfield when a client came in and Blues Band survivors will just bought the painting right have to tough it out although out of the window. About a Naftalin wonders why there second after Tom wrapped is even a nomination process it up and the new collector and stressful waiting period. walked out the door, we “Why don’t they just let you overheard this: “If you have know if you are in or out? It any more of those dogs, bring will alleviate a lot of tension ’em down....NOW!” for those of us who care about We never tire of telling such things.” Certainly the this story and as magazine showmanship executed by publishers who have been this aggregation during live privy to the inner workings versions of East-West, which of some of the great popular sometimes stretched to 28 art marketing successes of minutes on stage (www.wpc. Heck of a Hat recent times — Peter Max, Erté, com) with Bloomfield eating fire Dali, Warhol, John Lennon, while the acid-fueled audiences Marina and Pablo Picasso, Haring, Lempicka, Rizzi, Britto — it danced in raptured frenzy in clubs and theaters across the country is safe to say that in the year 2013, Ed Heck has earned his spot pre-dated the antics of KISS and inspired the dual guitars of the in that lofty company of mega-popular artists, bridging the deliAllman Brothers. Naftalin’s use of the famous motif from “Joy To cate balance between critical and popular acclaim, between art and The World” at the end of East-West was appropriated by none other commerce class, aplomb and a hefty sense of humor. than Duane Allman at the finale of their monumental live version 28 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Ed Heck’s studio/gallery in Brooklyn, New York
Over the years, we have seen the happy denizens of Ed Heck’s inner machinations of the art star World, or as the graphic says, The -making machine from Absolut to World of Ed Heck. Here we can Zaluski and one thing we know for play on Ed Heck rugs, sleep under sure: you can fool some people some an Ed Heck blanket between Ed times but you can’t fool all the peoHeck sheets. We can journey anyple all the time. Picasso ash trays, where with our Ed Heck luggage Peter Max on cereal boxes, John and never get bored reading our Lennon doodles as fine art prints, Ed Heck books. We can satisfy our Erté dress designs reproduced on hunger with an Ed Heck chocolate liquor bottles, apartment buildings bar and soon, if you are in a certain in Germany designed as faithful building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn replications of James Rizzi’s 3-D where Ed maintains his studio, be constructions—why not? It has able to drink out of an Ed Heck wabeen documented that at the height ter tower. We can follow monsters of his fame, Peter Max had over and monkeys, roosters and space 2,000 licenses for products bearing aliens; painterly penguins and a his name. Heck is well on his way big ol’ pooch as they frolic and figto that, but it may be one of those ure things out in the World of Ed unbreakable records. You can’t plan Heck, where somehow it all makes for exposure of that nature. It has to sense and we’re all gonna see a betbe a gift, a gift delivered via ceaseter day. less dedication, hard work, tireless By now, many of you know expenditures of energy, and as Ed Ed’s story. He was an illustrator of Top Dog says, “not a lot of sleep.” dinosaurs at the American Museum “My guru for marketing,” says of Natural History when he and his Heck, ever the rock and roller, “is Gene Simmons.” The reality star associate took an afternoon off to see the film, Jurassic Park. Ed and blood-spurting bass man has marketed just about everything quickly noted that as illustrators in the coming digital age, they imaginable, up to and including KISS Kaskets for your grand finawould soon be as extinct as the creatures they were watching on le. Heck’s product line hasn’t reached that point (yet) and we can the big screen. To remedy that, Ed re-visited his many sketchbooks only imagine what will be on the shelves when he opens up his first where he aired out the tightness of his day job illustrations with Ed Heck Store and Gallery this spring in New York City. bold colors in bouncy, seemingly simple and very lyrical sketches, Count us amongst the expanding multitude comprising precursors to what he is doing now. The silk screen studio at his
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Painting Studio Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 31
TYRANNOSAURUS BLUES The Paleolithic World of Ed Heck
City Walk
Ed Heck and dinosaurs go back a long way. Much of his work as a natural science illustrator has been on those creatures, highlighted by his illustrations for Michael Novacek’s Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs, which was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year” in 1997. Another book he illustrated, A Dinosaur Named Sue: The Find of the Century (written by Fay Robinson with the SUE Science Team of The Field Museum) teaches young kids about the job of a paleontologist. SUE, the most complete T. rex fossil ever found, is an amazing discovery. Ed also has the distinction of illustrating Willo, a thescelosaur, known as “The Dinosaur With A Heart” for possessing the first fossilized dinosaur heart ever found when a team of scientists in North Carolina and Oregon used medical technology to probe an iron-stained concretion Mononykus was the first feathered dino, illustrated by Heck for Natural History Magazine and Mark Norell, a inside the dinosaur’s chest. With the aid of scientist at the AMNH. It was the first time dinos were shown with feathers imaging equipment and software, they were able to reconstruct 3-dimensional structures through the interior of the concretion. The images reveal a heart that was more like that of a bird or a mammal than those of reptiles, adding substantially to evidence suggesting that at least some dinosaurs had high metabolic rates. The specimen is on permanent display in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Michael Novacek, Dean of Science at the American Museum of Natural History, was able to write Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs after the collapse of Communism which not only brought down the Berlin Wall, but also reopened the Gobi Desert, an Asian treasure trove of Cretaceous Period fossils. Closed to the West since the 1920s and opened only to Novacek’s team, the remote sands of the Gobi Desert constitute the richest fossil site in the world. Heck’s illustrations, technically perfect, help move the reader along in the day-to-day drama of field exploration recounting the remarkable discoveries that Novacek and his colleagues unearthed. 32 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
The Write Stuff
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Paint-by-Penquins
ne of Ed’s favorite places in New York City is Books of Wonder, New York’s oldest and largest independent children’s bookstore, where his books have been sold since he began writing them. Peter Glassman, the owner, focuses on selling books that encourage children’s imaginations and creativity. “Ed Heck is right in tune with many of today’s young successful talents like Mo Willems, Peter Reynolds and Patrick McDonald who combine humor in their work in a manner that is enjoyed by both children and adults to create books that are a wonderful shared experience. His use of bold colors, whimsical characters and outright humor is gripping, eye-catching and delightful for so many. People respond very strongly to his work both on paper and in book form. His board books are wonderful fun and his picture book, Monkey Lost, still sells for us. He is wonderfullly talented.” Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 33
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alma mater, The School of Visual Arts, was the testing ground for purvey his goods, of which there are very many art-related prodhis retrograde efforts and the ensuing prints encouraged him to ucts, from dog toys and bowls to the aforementioned candy bars continue along those lines. The quick sale of that doggie in the and luggage. “I always liked merchandising, that’s why I always window on Columbus Avenue all but sealed his fate. So long dinoliked KISS. Gene Simmons is my licensing guru and there are all saurs, welcome canines. As for that dog, the one who is becoming kinds of areas to go into that make it fun. By nature, my work is internationally loved and recognized on a par with the great illuscommercial and some would criticize that, but I like seeing things trated dog of our day—George Rodrigue’s immortal Tiffany imon mugs.” Who wouldn’t enjoy Ed’s jovial nature and positive attimediately comes to mind. He is an entity unto himself, a universal tude with every sip and donut? There is nary a note of dissonance anti-caricature; a soulful mutt with feelings, and some skills — not in Ed’s milieu. If his success at Galerie Mensing, where clients and unlike his creator. collectors fell in love with his work ever since his first exhibition, “The dog that I do is kind of a generic Ed Heck dog,” said the is any indication, Ed will be sleeping even less. “They found me artist in a recent interview from his Brooklyn studio shortly before at Artexpo and began showing my work almost immediately. The the 2013 New York Artexpo. “I always had and loved dogs My wife owner, Harry Mensing, told me after my first show that I had done has a corgi and I just found a dog that kind of looks like my guy. better than any artist they ever had in their debut exhibit. His name is Max and I call him ‘Puggle’ — a cross between a pug “I hope it doesn’t stop,” continues Ed. “I know some artists and a beagle. His face with the floppy ears resembles my creation. have assistants to help with production but I would never want to Naturally and accidentally, I created him in a painting one day. I get to that point because I enjoy painting my paintings. Every work enjoy becoming known for it, giving him human qualities. Dogs of art is 100% hand-made and by Ed Heck.” wear their hearts on their sleeves...or their fur…and never hide Heck recently doubled his studio space so that he can ramp up their emotions or feelings.” production by working on a group of paintings at once. “Each color This nameless canine has evolved into the singular whitegets many, many coats and they have to dry so I can have ten eawith-big-black-spots perplexed-looking sels going simultaneously. Color is very fellow that he is, most always in precarious important,” adds Ed, who uses Liquitex situations with an occasional grip on life’s acrylic paint. “I never just paint a colreality. or out of the jar, every color is mixed. Heck’s secret is as obvious as his bold Trial and error gets me to what I see in colors and seemingly simplistic images: “If my mind. I don’t think I ever get there you give up sleep, that helps a little bit,” he 100% but I get closer and closer. I am says. “I can go for a couple of months and kind of an intuitive when it comes to then fall down.” He also clearly loves what formulating color from sketchbook to he is doing and it is conveyed throughout computer to printout. I can just look at his paintings and children’s books where a shade and mix it up and match it. I his words match his images with hopeful don’t know how I do it. I just figure out and encouraging messages in pages readily what color I need and I get it.” A huaccessible for small hands to turn. Ed has man Pantone swatch-book, that is Ed a dozen books in print that he has written Heck. and illustrated. “Monkey Lost was my first A self-described “kind of a workpicture book. In 2005 a publisher who came a-holic,” Ed can spend days at a time to Artexpo loved the paintings and asked if in full artist mode—painting—and like I had any stories to go with them...” Latmany creative people, sometimes even er, Ed took a master class at the Society of “forgets where I am.” One thing he Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators doesn’t forget is to be at his sons’ muwith Tomie dePaola — over 15 million sical events, especially when the boys copies of his books have sold worldwide. “I are playing Carnegie Hall. “My older Artexpo 2011 Jake and Eric really love his work and after the class did son Eric plays drums in Middle School a drawing and sent it to him as a little thank you. He asked if he concert and marching bands. He was chosen to be in the “Borough-Wide Salute to Music”, a New York City musical program could send it to someone who turned out to be one of the editors and played percussion on stage at Carnegie Hall. He will be playing at Penguin books and they asked me to do some books with them.” there again in April with the NY Pops Orchestra. He’s 13 and will Big Fish, Little Fish, and a series of board books—Ed Heck: Just have played at Carnegie Hall twice!” says Ed proudly. Jacob, is also Board—have been published to date. There are six in the series and a talented drummer and artist whose works can be found at his Ed came up with that title “but I didn’t they would go for it. Somedad’s Artexpo booth. The boys, like Ed, have enjoyed a relationship one liked the name.” Right now, he is working on new books for with the legendary rock drummer Carmine Appice from their days Scholastic, including his first chapter book with more words and building “Drum City”. less pictures. Carmine played a part in revolutionizing American radio proHeck goes about his business with a happy calmness, a truthgramming with the Vanilla Fudge’s version of the Supremes You ful modesty and great appreciation for his great success. “I’ve had Keep Me Hangin’ On which was at once vilified and lauded by the lots of successful people talk to me. Universally they say, ‘Do what music connoisseurs of the day, or at least the record-buying public. you love.’ Keeping up with demand and going without sleep is stuff After that gig, he landed a spot in a trio with none other than the I would do for free and the fact that I get paid for it—I’m pretty universally acclaimed guitar genius Jeff Beck as Beck, Bogert and damn lucky.” Appice. That erstwhile supergroup had its share of glory and anyEd has become a cultural phenomenon in Germany, a headone who can put on their resume “bandmate of Jeff Beck” is clearly liner of the major Galerie Mensing chain, and he is on the cusp in the upper echelons, he followed that with a stint in Cactus, feaof becoming one here in the US as well with the opening of his turing the great Jimmy McCarty, of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit new store/gallery. This April, The World of Ed Heck will land in a Wheels fame, on guitar. Appice took a liking to Heck’s boys and very populated and “happening” neighborhood in Manhattan, 799 gifted them with sets of custom drums. Heck can see the boys are Broadway and 10th Street, right at Union Square. There he will 34 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Master draftsman drafting success
likely to become like the Appice brothers who are currently touring Europe in “Drum Wars.” (Vinnie Appice is a top notch drummer best known for his work with Black Sabbath and Ronnie Dio, so Ed is not hanging with any lightweights). Even his kids are making it in dual worlds. You can start collecting Jacob’s work now... his prints are in the bins at the World of Ed Heck Artexpo booth. “I always had an interest in music and art,” Ed remarked. “I went to the High School of Art and Design on 57th Street and was always in bands. I often pondered which career I would probably make no money at but would be fun. Now I’m going to music through the back door. I met Carmine and some other great musicians through my art.” Ed recently invited “a whole bunch of my musical friends to do one song with me—a piece inspired by something in my books or paintings.” Ed is also noting his 10th anniversary at Artworks. “I have been with them at their launch. It’s a great organization whose mission is to celebrate the creative spirit of children and young adults who suffer through chronic and life-threatening illnesses. We work with those children and their siblings to bring in art supplies —
some of these children can’t share things. Instead of taking them sterile art carts, I painted some and work with the kids who have shows with their art work with singing and performing. Daniela Mendelsohn started this foundation so her cousin, Naomi Cohain, would never be forgotten. We began with plastic carts — it’s hard to paint on those — then kind of designed carts based on them and a furniture maker built them out of wood.” Now, in addition to Ed painting on them, the carts are wrapped with vinyl reproductions of his custom-designed imagery specifically for this purpose. “What I love most about this career,” concludes Ed, “is all the different avenues it can go into—it’s never the same. Last week I was in Las Vegas at a trade show with the next phase of my luggage line. I’m sending out artwork to another company that is doing a line of children’s hats.” To many, Ed is just what the sometimes stodgy and self-absorbed art world needs. To others, he’s just another guy out there doing his thing, on the cusp of “international phenomenhood.” Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 35
Launch of art cart at Komansky Center for Children’s Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center - sponsored by BlackRock
Art A La Cart — Supplies Delivered via Ed Heck’s Cheery Wheels By DANIELA MENDELSOHN
Launch of art cart at St. Vincent’s Hospital Patient taking her first art supply from the cart at The Brooklyn Hospital Center
Sakovitz Family at launch of the art cart sponsored by The Caroline Fund 36 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Receiving an art supply after the launch of Surprise!Supplies at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center
Surprise!Supplies is an Ar tWorks program that delivers custom built mobile art carts, designed exclusively by Ed Heck, to children suffering from chronic and lifethreatening illnesses. The carts, placed in hospitals throughout New York and New Jersey, are brought around to pediatric rooms daily where children are able to choose their own supplies to use and keep. Additionally, siblings who prefer to stay close to their parents have found Surprise!Supplies to be useful as it provides them with the opportunity to engage in diversionary and therapeutic activities. Over the past seven years, Ed has built an incredible portfolio of designs that are featured on the ArtWorks art carts. Every time a cart is rolled into a patient’s room or brought into a treatment area, children’s faces light up at the funny characters, bright colors and engaging scenes that adorn the cart. More than 25 carts have been launched since the program’s inception, providing thousands of children each year with the tools to express themselves through the arts. Many of our hospitals share stories with us about the impact of the actual cart’s designs on their
patients. Children will be feeling sad, lonely and distressed, but seeing that art cart rolling down the hallway and into their room always puts a smile on their face. It lifts their spirits, provides a distraction and gets them feeling excited. Some units in the hospitals, such as dialysis and oncology, keep the cart stationed in their treatment areas at all times so kids have something fun to look at and of course supplies readily available to use. Ed has been a tremendous friend and supporter of ArtWorks.We consider him one of our angels as he has stood by us for ten years, giving so much of his time and talent, and remaining committed to furthering our cause. We are honored to collaborate with him on such an amazing program and to be able to share his incredible talent with so many others who we know benefit greatly from it. He has put smiles on so many little faces who have little reason to smile at all. His designs have truly inspired our kids, giving them the motivation needed to grab some supplies from the cart and just create. If you are interested in sponsoring an art cart, please call us at 201-608-0146 or visit www.artworksfoundation.org.
Fully stocked art cart at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, NY. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 37
Studio painting on wall, Pods 38 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
“I PUT UP A NEW IMAGE JUST ABOUT EVERY WEEKDAY ON FACEBOOK.” “Each morning when I get into the studio, I sit down and create a new image and post it before I begin painting for the day. It is good to see what images get the most reaction.Often they are the ones that I would not expect. Most times, I do not know what I will post that day until I sit down and draw it out.” Visit Ed Heck on Facebook to see what he is doing next. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 39
Tankfull
TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THIS GREAT APPEAL OF YOUR WORK? • “If you do something you love and enjoy, it comes through.” • “I think I’m lucky that people just connect with what I do.” • “I do what I love and hope other people love it.” 40 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Dorothy Hood Revisited “As Orozco said to me in moral tones of integrity ‘tell the truth, Dorothy, no matter what the cost.’ So the truth was myself, recognizing myself should the results be beautiful or ugly, dark or light, assertive or peaceful.”
E
By SUSIE KALIL
continued to push and take risks in her art. Significantly, the book and very so often the world wakes up and realizes that an artist who was a familiar presence for many decades, right in our retrospective will examine the choices she made as a female artist in the Texas midst in the Southwest and was even widely respected, was “boys” club, even as she attempted to break through the New York gallery actually something more: a major figure in the canon of great 20th century system. Given the continued imbalance in the art world, for a woman to American artists. This happened in 2011 with the visionary painter Alexandre paint at all is still a political act; for her to do so in a gigantic cosmic scale Hogue, thanks to the retrospective organized by the Art Museum of South is almost insurrectionary. I have always maintained that Texas will never be Texas that made viewers aware of urgent environmental issues at stake in considered a major art center until its historical foundations are documented every seamless brushstroke. It’s happening again on a grand scale with the and referenced. There has never been a full-blown retrospective of Hood’s Houston painter Dorothy Hood (1918-2000). The monograph, (to be work – the AMST exhibition and accompanying monograph will force published by Texas A&M University Press), and retrospective, (organized by open the “regional” issue, settling Hood firmly as a major Modernist painter. the Art Museum of South Texas) – the first critical overview of Hood’s life Dorothy Hood was born in Bryan, Texas, raised in Houston, and and art – will firmly establish her as a vital link between Texas, Latin America, won a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in New York and Europe. the early 1930s, then The exhibition will include did some modeling some 65 paintings, in in New York to earn addition to 35 drawings money for classes at the and collages, gathered for Art Students League. the first time ever from On a whim, she drove important private and a roadster to Mexico museum collections across City with two friends the country and Mexico in 1941 and ended up City: the Museum of staying for nearly twenty Modern Art (New York), years. She developed the Whitney Museum close friendships with of American Art (New all the European exiles York), the Ev erson and Latin American Museum (Syracuse, NY), surrealists – artists, the National Gallery writers, composers (Washington, DC), the (Pablo Neruda wrote Museum of Fine Arts, a prose poem about Houston, the Dallas her). Hood married Museum of Art, the Santa Bolivian composer Barbara Museum of Art, Velasco Maidana in the San Diego Museum 1945 – they traveled of Contemporary Art, all over the world, but and the Museo de Arte once back in Houston, Moderno, Mexico City. she began to produce The exhibition will also the epic paintings that coalesce the expansive evoked the psychic void body of works from of space, years ahead Rending and Being Mountain, 1948, oil on canvas, 24” x 26 1/2”, Collection of William and Linda Reaves the holdings of the Art of NASA. Ver y few Museum of South Texas. The book and retrospective will trace the career of women worked in large scale throughout those decades – primordial the Texas artist, spanning the late 1940s until her death in 2000. seas, volcanic explosions, the space of the mind’s eye. She wrote in her There is a paradigm shift occurring in American art – what it was, journals: “Almost everything in life can be imagined as receptacles, is, or could be. Categories and distinctions are being dismantled, thereby vessels, and with reverence, chalices. In plastic art, form is the shadow providing a perfect time to examine Dorothy Hood’s life and art. The history of an essence that has gone on to meet a new function. Light is the of abstract painting and Hood’s place in it face certain revision and appeal measure and the return of the gift of magnetic fields; space extends itself to a new generation of artists, collectors and viewers. Her mature paintings over and is the breath of every essence. The eye is our own earthly right – mystical, cosmic works – are cross-cultural hybrids that presaged many of possession of the cosmic orbs. There exists spaces in the mind’s eye. current concerns in abstract painting. Dorothy once confided to me that as a If this kind of space meets cosmic space, then it is as though the mind’s young girl growing up in Houston she stole two gold titles from paintings at eye orbits into the realm of stars.” the Museum of Fine Arts, then buried them under her house. In her dreams, For Hood, the “void” represented the contemplative and meditative, they became lambent jewels – more important, the experience stimulated a but also of far broader implications – not just a black hole of despair, lifelong quest of subterranean explorations. The book and exhibition will track but a space of potentiality – a kind of silent scream, a pitch so high the development of Hood’s unique spatial context and psychic orientation that it shakes the very ground you stand on. It’s a space left behind, that evoke vast energy fields with vertiginous ruptures of hard-edge, opaque but also a space of the psyche, a conduit of energy and memory, of passages and sensuous veils of color. Throughout her formative years, Hood other realities. The limitlessness of space, the phenomenon of light Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 41
Night Totems, c. 1965, oil on canvas, 70” x 60”, collection of Matthew and Cindy Taylor
and strange new terrains or galactic visions — precipitous and jagged shapes in thin greys, golds and blues are pitched against raw surface, seemingly tearing open a space in the brain beyond all that may be imagined. Hood’s most successful paintings are enigmatic, rhythmically probing harmonies and dissonances. Broad flows of color — magenta, orange, cream, purple and green — are counterbalanced by luminous encrustations, glass-cut lines and terrazzo-like configurations. Hood’s technical command enabled her to move quickly from shifting planes and limpid washes of poured pigment to intricately defined passages of minute details and “fencing” strokes. Hood always acknowledged her formal sources and influences — Gorky, Brancusi, Ensor, Matisse, Redon, Ernst — as well as intensive studies of myth, science, nature, and spirituality (Christianity and Hinduism, in particular). I first met Dorothy Hood in the early 1980s and spent considerable time over the years at the Heights studio discussing her art and life. Nothing, however, prepared me for the multi-layered complexity contained in the archive AMST acquired from the Hood estate: three pallets, six feet by six feet each, hundreds of boxes with thousands of pages of letters, personal journals, notebooks, cards, photographs, records, family history, scrapbooks and clippings from the early 1900s until her death in 2000. The Hood that emerges here is often different from the artist I knew. In the AMST archives, Hood digs deep into a more personal, often darker terrain. The thousands of pages of personal journals have moved me with the rawness of their exposure, the fearless image of human life experienced close to the bone. She explores themes of transition from upper worlds to nether worlds, from the rational to the spheres of the subconscious. Hood’s diaristic “narratives” and poems are wholly caught up in the instability of shifting references, in the complex magic of cognition. The overall view of Hood’s long trajectory resembles a journey bound for redemption and ecstasy. Her subjects and accounts extend to what she had seen, sensed and imagined to include everything from abstract surreal renderings of feathered creatures and voyaging souls to poetry of the broadest human and metaphysical significance. What these hundreds of boxes mainly reveal, however, was the constant percolating character of Hood’s creativity and intellect. The archive contains surprising discoveries and information that not only document 42 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Hood’s development in the burgeoning Texas art scene, but also track her persistent goal to stake a presence in the New York art world. Included are several decades of correspondence between Hood and Houston art dealer Meredith Long, who “discovered” Hood in Mexico, subsequently supporting the artist through regular exhibitions and sales. In the process, we are given first-hand observations of both regional and national contexts from the mid 1940s through the final decade of her life. These include 28 years of correspondence between Hood and Dorothy Miller, renown curator of MoMA; reams of letters and paperwork between Hood and Marion Willard (Willard Gallery, NY) as well as Tibor de Nagy. Included are letters of support from Philippe de Montebello, former director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Lengthy correspondence between Hood and preeminent critic Clement Greenberg includes insightful comments about the artist’s painting style during the heyday of Color Field painting. A gold mine of letters from directors, curators and major figures gives a rich picture of the times: James Harithas, E.A. Carmean, Patrice Marandel, William Agee, Sebastian “Lefty” Adler, Henry Hopkins, Dominique de Menil, Joan and Walter Mondale. Artists with whom Hood frequently corresponded include: Anthony Caro, Jules Olitski, Leon Kelly, Walter Darby Bannard, Mark Tobey and Elizabeth Murray. Throughout the decades, Hood traveled extensively to Latin America, New York, Boston, Connecticut, Africa and Europe. On several occasions in the 1970s, Hood was invited by Teto Ahrenberg to work at his atelier near Geneva, Switzerland, where she met Tobey, Jean Tinguely, Arman and Christo. The overall picture from Hood’s journals is of a highly disciplined, risk-taking artist who established national and international contacts in a quest to get her work seen in the larger arena. With such prestigious names lending encouragement and support, why wasn’t Hood on equal footing with other recognized women artists of the period — Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler? Certainly, Hood was a vital force in the growth of Houston’s art community, but her controlled streams of paint with carefully veined sections of inner thoughts or an astronaut’s glimpse from the depths of the cosmos, should have rivaled the best colorists. What were the choices she made as a female artist living in Houston, and as primary caretaker of her husband, Bolivian composer Velasco Maidana? It’s all about her place as a woman within her larger culture, requiring enormous courage and commitment simply to be who she was, doing what she was doing, when she was doing it. At the core of the archive – and Hood’s body of work – is the 20 year period (1941-’61) in which she was front and center to the cultural, political and social crossroads of Mexico and Latin America, a time and place where intellectuals gathered and traded ideas. Hood’s circle included the Spanish novelist Ramon Sender, revolutionary writer Victor Serge, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, playwright Sophie Treadwell, the surrealist painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, as well as Rufino Tamayo, Jose Luis Cuevas, Mathias Goeritz and Jose Clemente Orozco, with whom Hood developed a deep friendship. The lively and intellectual atmosphere proved vital to Hood’s development as an artist. Personal journals describe meager living conditions, but also vibrant exchanges on the zocalo and market, daily passage of natives, her association with the younger Mexican painters who formed the first Proteo Gallery and the first salon of international experimental art. Included in the archive are boxes of letters, correspondence and personal entries with detailed descriptions of meaningful events and meetings. At every turn, Hood brings to life a period of intense, creative ferment. She wrote of her introduction to Orozco: “ I was brought to his studio by the Latin American poet Pablo Neruda during the year of 1943. His studio was an apartment of very large rooms above his house. The walls were painted an austere off-white, and there was no visible luxury. Carpenter’s tables, on wooden horses, were at one end of the painting room, with glass jars on top of the earth’s pigments which he mixed himself. There being no ornaments, one had the impression of the rooms being a hulky frame for discoveries of a monastic realm. It spoke of a purifying element and of a man who had not left the earth’s
Given the continued imbalance in the art world, for a woman to paint at all is still a political act; for her to do so in a gigantic cosmic scale is almost insurrectionary. substance for the mind’s substance.” In Mexico, Hood was surrounded by artists and writers who lived in the world of ideas where everything was challenged dogmatically – even violently. She aimed for honesty, purity and freedom to think and paint as she pleased, thereby developing a profound affinity with the powerful mix of Indian and Latin cultures, the spiritual and subliminal. It’s important to note that Hood was just 20 years-old when she arrived in Mexico City – truly her formative period. She participated in a crossfiring of ideas among an influx of European ex-presidents, European writers and Surrealist artists. Dorothy and Velasco lived on very little money and moved frequently between Mexico City, the nearby San Angel art district and the city of Puebla. Due to limited studio space, Hood produced small paintings and gouaches, choosing to concentrate on incisive pen and ink drawings that explore organic shapes and strange figures as Field Plexus, 1971, Oil on Canvas, symbolic content. Significantly, Hood had D. and Barbara Hines (Referred begun a series of anti-war drawings at the Dorothy who considered this one time of the Spanish Civil War. She was looking at Pre-Columbian sculpture, archaeological sites, folk art and vibrant street life. She referred to the Mayan and Aztec hieroglyphics and symbols as “events,” which became the core foundation of her paintings. Hood was “en confianza” in part because of her love and admiration for anyone who had the strength to impose his/her beliefs on local perimeters through work and life. They were all searching for truth. We can only imagine the provocative, engaging dialogue when all of them got together at cafes, bars or homes. Orozco told Hood that he had “made an experiment of his life.” She wrote in her journal: “Now what the people, or the public, feels in my work may well be that in each brushstroke, the color and mood, the shock, the readable signs of struggle, discipline and truthfulness in the beginnings of the form and the statement is honest. As Orozco said to me in moral tones of integrity ‘tell the truth, Dorothy, no matter what the cost.’ So the truth was myself, recognizing myself should the results be beautiful or ugly, dark or light, assertive or peaceful.” In my opinion, there was less stylistic influence but more exchanging of ideas between artists, writers, poets, composers - more humanistic concerns. Hood clarified that Orozco was a realistic observer of the Mexican Revolution; he was also of it. He was in it. He had a strong moral drive. Hood saw great similarities between Gandhi and Orozco. She wrote: “I like those, who trying or failing, seek to turn the world around. For he who is a humanist is a believer.” An interesting sidelight from the years Hood was working with the artists’ group associated with Jose Luis Cuevas - at a gathering Cuevas told Ambassador Quinanilla that he depicted the lunacy in an asylum while Hood drew what went on in their minds. Hood took it as a dubious compliment, her one experience with machismo in Mexico. However, the statement does pinpoint Hood’s ongoing development of an abstract surrealist style. The significance of Hood’s Mexico period cannot be overemphasized. This is open territory, serving as a potential bridge to new relationships and scholarly research between Texas and Mexico. By her own admission, Hood’s paintings didn’t begin to really “fly” until the late 1960s. The work as a whole reveals her strong roots to Texas with its seemingly infinite expanse of sky and special quality
of light. The paintings break loose in the 1970s – the period of her strongest efforts, during which the artist aims to sustain a unique visual language. Important works produced include Haiti (1969), My Sumptuous Lion in Space (1972), Zeus Weeps (1972), On Untrodden Paths (1972), Extensor of the Sky (1973), Sea Elegy I & II (1972) and Outer Space Field (1975). Again and again, broad fields of modulated color give breath to light surfacing from beneath. Cross-sections of metamorphosed rock are intercut with geomorphic shifts, causing surfaces to radiate or split, revealing soft skies beyond or dark crystalline caves within. In other works, lightning bolts seem to crack through to an unknown infinity, relating a more universal inner experience of the forces of nature. Hood didn’t adhere to linear development. For the most part, Hood’s painting style and thematic currents usually changed every ten years, sometimes revisiting earlier concerns. Hood rarely dated the backs of 90” x 70”, Collection of Gerald to in a personal notation by her works; a major task in the organization an “especially fine painting”) of book and retrospective is to develop a chronology through personal journals, notebooks and exhibition records. In late years, Hood’s style became looser, more lyrical, and often celebratory, stimulated by trips to India, but also by visualizations of closely held thoughts. Important works produced during the 1980s include Subterranean Illumination (1982), Samba (1982) Max’s Moon (1982), and the explosive, gravity skewing Halley’s Comet series. Inspired by Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, bars of color and forms with razor sharp edges seemingly float like monoliths, polarizing the canvas as zones of light and dark. Some canvases feature connective hair-like tissues or extended filaments that seem volcanic or part of an enchanted sea – an electrifying X-ray of a marine organism. Hues of deep blues, black, strips of white and red reveal a decalomania process, fretted areas that glow with the luminosity of secret grottos and gardens. The monumental Plexus and visceral flower paintings are important examples of this late period. In these, the rhythm – more gestural – flow relaxed and confidently throughout the canvases. More nuanced shades of color and more varied textures seem to appear effortlessly. At the final turn, Hood opens up full throttle, turns decisively away from the work by which she became known and moved boldly into new territory. Throughout, Hood prized, above all, the ability to follow her own light in ways that challenged the institutional infrastructure of the art market and unmanageable complexities of theoretical discourse. Rather, she spoke directly to the need for communication about the spiritual experience. But the crux of Hood’s art is one that we all confront at one time or another: the world is not ordered as we thought it was. Her work comments on the dangerous human tendency to take refuge in certainty when the truth may be more complicated and elusive. Necessity motivated Hood to stretch her vocabulary, sometimes going to the edge, sometimes going over into new domains. It is this kind of obsession to show us in any way she could – peacefully or with dissonance, through the otherworldly and the magical, that seemed to propel Hood throughout her lifetime. Toward that end, Hood’s paintings and works on paper serve as a metaphoric visual opera, propelling us across the emotional, psychological and physical landscapes of the human condition. With this retrospective, Hood emerges as a powerful, unique voice in American art. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 43
ON A MISSION By CAROLYN FARB Dorothy Hood was one of the first female artists who soared with her monumental and majestic works of art. The world embraces her paintings that delve into one’s soul and being.
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n 1985, I served as the Executive Producer on the major awardwinning film, “The Color of Life,” which focused on Dorothy Hood’s lifelong commitment as an artist. The film was shot in exotic Latin American locations as well as in her intimate studio in Houston that literally enveloped one. Now, it’s time for Dorothy, through the definitive monograph to be published by Texas A&M University Press, and retrospective at the Art Museum of South Texas, to establish her place as a major 20th century American artist. The exhibition will share the intellectuality of her work, probing both the primal and the cosmos. The retrospective will open at the iconic Phillip Johnson designed museum with the Ricardo Legorreta wing in 2015. The dream list of travel venues are the major museums on both coasts and Mexico City. Without a doubt, I have been a strong advocate and patron of Dorothy Hood’s for nearly three decades and continue to do so—it’s called absolute belief. I remember Dorothy as if it were yesterday. I first became acquainted with her in the 1980’s and frequently visited her studio, watching her paint, and listening to her musings. A profound thought for all of us to consider is that we would not have the need for museums or galleries without the work of artists who generously share their gifts and creativity. Dorothy was on the faculty of the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum School of Art for many years, mentoring young artists who would become brilliant artists in their own right. Now, it’s our turn to reciprocate, firmly settling her legacy. It’s all about her place as a woman with her larger culture, requiring enormous courage and commitment to be simply who she was, doing what she was doing, when she was doing it. Dorothy Hood was an artist ahead of her time and one of the Carolyn’s Flower, 1986, oil on canvas, 62” x 72” Photo: Eric Kayne
Dorothy Hood
first abstract surrealists. She was part of an elite group who was forging their own expression. At that time, women were not recognized as they are today as artists. Therefore, Dorothy was not embraced with the early recognition she so richly deserved. Her work endures, elicits a response, evokes an emotion, and a thought from anyone who is fortunate enough to come face to face with one of her paintings, drawings, or collages. Her most successful works take viewers- physically and psychologically to worlds unknown. She called her paintings, “the landscapes of her psyche.” 44 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Dorothy Rose Hood was a tenacious young woman who left Houston with a four year scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design tucked in her handbag and a very clear idea of what she was meant to do. Hood knew the kind of painter she would be- the Gauguin/Tamayo sort whose colors massed in big solid blocks with razor sharp outlines. Leaving New York and driving to Mexico began the most significant chapter in her life. Being in Mexico City in the 1940’s was like Paris in the 1920’s. Hood thrived on the gathering of intellectuals and the sharing of ideas. Within her circle was English born surrealist Leonora Carrington, the Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo and German born artist Mathias Goeritz. Other defining influences were Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and Jose Clemente Orozco who was very generous in the way he interacted with Dorothy. In 1946, she married Velasco Maidana, the famous Bolivian conductor and composer who was the love of her life, and perhaps, a father figure who encouraged her work. Later, she returned to Houston, and the 70’s became her decade. Dorothy Hood loved to wear fanciful clothes, hats and carried herself as elegantly as a fashion model. Her art and presence helped define the character of Houston, a place of sharp contrasts. When you are in the presence of one of Dorothy works, it is as if you are engaging in a metaphysical and cosmic conversation with her. Even today, I feel her presence. The work that artists create lives long after they are gone and becomes their eternity. It has been my mission to elevate Dorothy Hood to the height that she so richly deserves, and we find ourselves in the midst of a new generation of cheering fans rooting with all their might for this to happen – to shatter the myths about Texas and women artists.
Jeanette Korab in “Wine, Women and Art”
(above) Jeanette Korab, K, Ruth Baron, Mary Ellen Hicks and Catherine Mahon-Gunnell at the Wine, Women and Art opening at the Domaine Wine Company to benefit the Dallas Women’s Forum, Jeanette’s original mixed media and photographic art can be found at www.jkorab.com Corks, mixed media.
Jeanette Korab, Dr. Carolyn Farb
Colorful Corks, mixed media Right: Tuscan Grapes, mixed media, from Jeanette Korab’s new series of “Destination Paintings.”
Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 45
THERE IS NO TIME WITHOUT A MIND
Soundless View
Clocks are churches to venerate Time. They are built for minds bewitched by the illusion of its power. Humans hurry their existence, they know more about hours and minutes than what they do, facing new years as new worlds to count. Time measures stars to fit them in space of minds. Clocks tick away the rest and labor, love and hatred, horror and joy in the same way because they come and go as the same units. They give the same minutes to be born and die. It was no time before I opened my eyes to see the world. My heart started my clock and my time began. My days are as long as I move. Thoughts are years. Minutes of hate are shorter than seconds. Minutes of love and thanks longer than my existence. I cannot be late for myself -- I am always on time. My mind is the only time machine which takes me everywhere -- ignoring millions of years. I could see my life as one day, but I need centuries to understand a minute. When my heart stops my time, no one will be there to rewind it.
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VERA NOVA
• WWW.NOVATOWNSITE.org
Sculptor Morgan Donohue at a ceremonial Neolithic site in Co. Meath, Eire.
Sculptor Finds His Roots Exploring Ancient Irish Methods Morgan Donohue, is an accomplished sculptor and sculpture maker, creating sculptures designed by Otterness, Shapiro, Oldenburg, Noguchi and Nancy Graves, to name a few. Donohue has also worked on many monuments, including the FDR and Korean War Memorials, located on the Main Mall in Washington, D.C. as a lead sand mold maker for the cast bronze pour at some of the most prestigious art foundries in the world. Born to first-generation Irish parents in The Bronx, New York, Donohue made his first trip to Ireland in August 2012, where he visited many Stone Age sites, including Loughcrew in Co. Meath. Inspired by his ancestors’ lasting work, Donohue, who has 26 years of casting bronze sculptures under his belt, came back to his humble backyard atelier in Beacon, New York and began creating in a new medium: stone. His most important new work is a sandstone plinth carved with spiral lines similar to those in the owl deity, at Kings Mountain megalith in Co. Meath, Ireland. Donohue Donohue inside the Loughcrew passage tomb circa 3000 BCE. made his piece in an authentic Neolithic method using rocks as his only tools. He rough- faced the plinth with a fairly flat piece of granite, fine-dressed the sculpture with phyllite, and used another chisel-like piece of granite to shape the outer edge of the piece. Finally he worked a very sharply pointed granite shard to etch the designs, finishing them with an aluminum oxide stone. He began his foray into his new medium with by creating a Stone Age mace, made from upstate New York river phyllite, rounded by the water rushing off Mount Beacon, within walking distance of his home. Two smaller stone monuments, featuring spiral designs similar to the plinth, complete his Stone Age oeuvre for the moment only. He is often inspired by explorations and sketches in old books: all things that call to him lately are of Celtic or Viking heritage, like himself. Currently, Donohue can be found in Dutchess County, New York roaming streambeds and mountainsides for new tools for additional stone works. For more information contact: rhondahillnolan@msn.com Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 47
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International Honors Proferred on Charles Carson
anadian artist Charles Carson was triply honored this past December, in a ceremony organized by the cultural association “Italia in Arte”, in the southern Italian city of Lecce where he received the “NEPTUNE 2012”, the “SPARTACUS, Human Rights Award 2012” and the “SOGLIANO CAVOUR”, awarded to personalities in the fields of art, science and culture. The Canadian laureate was acknowledged for his contribution to the development and affirmation of culture on the world stage. “Your artistic talent has been recognized by the editorial team of our association and by numerous experts in arts who also took into account the recognition received from national and international magazines that published articles about you (such as, Fine Art Magazine, NY – Arabella Magazine, Canada – Drouot Cotation, Paris – Académie des Beaux-Arts du Québec – Magazin’Art, among others). “The awarding of these prestigious prizes is amply justified by the artistic path you are following. In recognition of such creativity, talent and genius,” noted the proclamation, “the cultural association Italia in A r te o f Brindisi, Ital y is proud to present Master Charles Carson with the The Spartacus award declaration following awards: NEPTUNE 2012 / SPARTACUS 2012 / CAVOUR 2012.” Named for the God of the Seas and Lord of Water, the Neptune prize honors significant contributions in the fields of Art, Science and Culture. Carson was cited for his “exceptional body of work, leading to the creation of a new ‘ism’ – Carsonism – at the international level and for his cultural engagement by virtue of which a new page may be added to the annals of Modern Art…”
Charles Carson au Grand Jury d’Italie 48 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Sogliano Cavour
Nettuno Award, 2012
Further accolades describe the significance of his “ Thematic Pictorial Articulations presented in the field of the visual ar ts, fruit of indisputable intellectual intuition and cultural awareness.” The “SPARTACUS 2012” Human Rights Award, emblematic of the idealistic hero able to carr y out titanic battles in the name Charles Carson with his award of freedom, was also awarded to Carson. “In recognition of individual engagement, social and professional, prolific, critical and innovative, revealing the essential message of peace and freedom to future generations, we also award you the “CAVOUR 2012” prize, on behalf of the commune of SOGLIANO CAVOUR (1862-2012). The department of Culture bestows the honorary title of Artist emeritus of the City of Sogliano Cavour (Lecce) established on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the ministerial decree giving the City of Sogliano the status of “Cavour.”
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VER THE YEARS as both printers and journailsts, we have become acquainted with some exceptionally talented people in a variety of fields. When we operated our printing plant, we learned more about an artist’s way with color that many a well-schooled art critic would never see, unless they worked on a printing press and saw colors go down many thousands of sheets at a time. Same holds true when you write about an artist. Often, it comes back in interesting ways. When we composed this paragraph in last Winter’s issue interview with Charles, we wondered if he had ever read Hemingway, and then, how would Hemingway read in French? Charles’ native tongue. So as a picture’s worth a thousand words, here is a recent photo of Charles standing before Hemingway’s Key West hideaway where there are still descendants of his cats living on the premises and you
Carson in Key West at Hemingway’s home can look out the same window that Hemingway looked out from, toward Havana, 90 miles away, standing before his typeweiter, on the attack. “As Hemingway developed a new style of writing that is often -appropriated, never attained, Carson has created a new way of painting that takes a similar heightened position in the mainstream of contemporary art, a form that is universally accessible but impossible to be duplicated by another human being. A language all his own forever to be known as ‘’Carsonism.’’
Réveil tropical - 102x152cm - 40 x 60 po - Acrylique - Carsonism Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 49
Art Southampton donates use of pavilion and infrastructure to help spearhead fundraising initiative surrounding Southampton Hospital’s 55th Annual Summer Party
Presented by Art Miami - Premiere International Contemporary and Modern Art Fair Returns to Hamptons for Second Edition The inaugural Art Southampton last summer proved to be a game changer on the Hamptons’ cultural landscape. For the first time, Long Island’s East End hosted an art fair that catered to an underserved group of serious international collectors, and the response was astounding. From the opening-night VIP Preview benefitting Southampton Hospital, word of mouth was extremely positive, and what had been termed the art event of the season became the event of summer with attendees calling it “a not to be missed experience.” The 2012 VIP Preview attracted more than 3,600 collectors, art advisors, curators, designers and Southampton Hospital supporters; the overall five-day fair attracted more than 11,500 attendees. Art Southampton, the premiere international contemporary and modern art fair for acquiring fine works of art Hamptons, will return at the height of the social and cultural season this summer, July 25 through 29. The fair will again take place in a spectacular 100,000 sq. ft pavilion on the grounds of the sprawling 18-acre Southampton Elks Lodge adjacent to the Southampton Golf Club located directly off Route 27 A. The fair’s exclusive VIP Preview on July 25, allowing VIP guests 50 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
the first opportunity to acquire works, will once again benefit the Southampton Hospital and provide the perfect backdrop for this very special art event in the Hamptons. The invitation-only evening will also serve as kickoff to the Hospital’s 55th Annual Summer Party “Magical Madrid” on August 3 which will move for the first time ever to the Art Southampton pavilion. The move is a bonus for the gala supporters who will enjoy the party of the season in air conditioned comfort and will have the luxury of on-site contained parking. Once again Jean Shafiroff, who broke fundraising records helming two previous summer parties, will chair the event and Audrey Gruss will be the Honorary Chair. “Southampton Hospital is delighted to join with Art Southampton in strengthening the collaboration we began last summer, and we are thrilled that they have again chosen us to be the beneficiary of proceeds from their opening-night VIP Preview. Even more exciting, the Art Southampton pavilion will serve as the 2013 site for the hospital’s 55th Annual Summer Party, proceeds of which will benefit the Jenny and John Paulson Emergency Department and the new Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart and Stroke Center,” said Bob Chaloner, President and CEO, Southampton Hospital.
The pavilion will offer amenities for all guests and a unique ambience and design that is unrivaled. The proximity of the Art Southampton pavilion will provide convenient access for residents and collectors living on Long Island, the greater New York area and the Tri-State who visit the Hamptons frequently during the summer. “We are extremely excited to again partner with the Southampton Hospital for our VIP Preview and to host the second edition of Art Southampton. The ability to donate the infrastructure of the Art Southampton pavilion allows our organization and exhibitors to support the Southampton Hospital in its fundraising initiatives that will ultimately benefit everyone who lives, vacations or visits the Hamptons,” said Nick Korniloff, Founder, Director and Partner, Art Southampton. To learn more visit: www.art-southampton.com For more information about sponsorship opportunities contact Pamela Cohen, VIP Relations, Marketing, Sponsors and Partners perminak@comcast.net (T) 561.745.5690 (M) 561.322.5611 To be eligible for VIP status during Art Southampton, please register online at www.art-southampton.com Art Miami, LLC is a partnership consisting of art and media industry veterans Nick Korniloff, Mike Tansey and Brian Tyler. Art Miami, LLC also produces Art Miami (www.art-miami.com), Miami’s longest-running contemporary art fair, CONTEXT (www.contextartmiami.com), Art Wynwood (www. art-wynwood.com) and the recently acquired Aqua Art Miami fair.
Steve Bernstein, Pamela Cohen, Nick Korniloff, Bob Chaloner
Art Southampton - a memorable art fair experience Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 51
At Art Wynwood Galleries Report Record Sales The second edition of Art Wynwood‚ hosted by Art Miami LLC, closed its doors Feb. 18, following sales by more than 90 percent of participating galleries and more than 27,500 visitors. Held in the 100,000-squarefoot Art Miami Pavilion in Midtown Miami’s burgeoning Wynwood Arts District, the five-day international contemporary art fair drew widespread support and attention for its impressive cache of cutting-edge and modern works including paintings, photography, sculpture, art video and new media, conceptual art and street art by more than 1,000 celebrated and emerging artists represented by more than 70 galleries from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Venezuela and the United
Silos
States, once again proving that there is a vibrant Julie Blackmon Stock Tank, Catherine Edelman Gallery2012 international collecting audience year round in Miami. “Art Wynwood satisfied contemporary art collectors at all levels and continues to take on its own identity as it complements the surrounding Midtown and Wynwood Art District. We look forward to Art Wynwood’s further expansion in the 2014 edition,” said Nick Korniloff, director and partner of Art Miami LLC. “Art Wynwood was filled with visitors from the minute the opening started to the final hours,”said Nancy Hoffman from the Nancy Hoffman Gallery. “The heightened level of humanity and the heightened interest in art point to great promise for the future.” More than 6,200 collectors and art enthusiasts attended the VIP Preview and the night had a celebratory air due to the exciting works on display and the dedication of the fair to the late Tony Goldman, the urban pioneer who created Wynwood Walls and transformed the area to the epicenter of art, fashion and dining. Art Wynwood’s opening featured two special projects commissioned by Jessica Goldman, CEO of Goldman Properties. The highlights included a stunning wraparound installation suspended above the VIP Lounge by famed artist Jesse Geller. Additionally Wynwood Hiding in the City, Lisa Bolin, photograph, 44 x 59 inches, Eli Klein Gallery. Walls commissioned a curated exhibit by Meghan Coleman feaArtists participating included: Retna, Aiko, Ron English, Logan turing specially commissioned lenticulars with original paintings Hicks, Futura, Swoon, Kenny Scharf and How & Nosm. by selected artists installed in the pass-through areas of the fair. 52 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Art Miami atmosphere
CONTEXT, sister fair to Art Miami, is committed to the development and reinforcement of emerging and mid-career artists. The Fair’s open atmosphere creates a meaningful dialogue between artists, galleries and collectors while providing the ultimate platform for established and emerging galleries to present cutting-edge and emergent talent.
Record-Breaking Sales for Art Miami and Context Fairs In its 23rd year as the anchor fair to the city of Miami, Art Miami, the premiere international contemporary and modern art fair and its new sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami closed with record breaking attendance and sales in excess of $46 million with many galleries selling important works to major museums, private foundations and international collectors. Within hours of the opening, gallery owners were reporting extraordinary, unprecedented 6 & 7 figure dollar sales with a number selling out their booths before fair’s end. Over 60,000 international collectors, museum professionals, art world luminaries and enthusiasts visited Art Miami and CONTEXT Art Miami throughout the week with over 11,000 patrons attending the exclusive VIP Preview that took place on Tuesday Dec 4 which benefited the Miami Art Museum. New on the scene, Art Miami’s sister fair, CONTEXT Art Miami in its inaugural edition proved to be one of the strongest markets to acquire emerging and cutting-edge art with several galleries selling out their booths. “We have been at every Art Miami and this was probably the best of all. We do several prestigious fairs around the world and for the second year, Art Miami was the best,” Peter Osborne, Gallery Director of London-based Osborne Samuel. Jamie Smith, Partner and Director of CONNERSMITH. referred to the fairs as the strongest Art Week in the past decade and added, “This week at Art Miami and CONTEXT Art Miami, we have made the largest volume of sales that we have ever made at any fair in Miami since 2002.”
Newcomer to Art Miami, Michael Lyons Weir of Lyons Weir Gallery enthusiastically stated “This was our first year participating in Art Miami & CONTEXT. We were delighted by the quality of the attendance and extremely pleased by the brisk sales.” The fair aisles continued to overflow with copious numbers of museum groups and collector tours through-out the week including The Phillips Collection, Washington DC - Director, Dorothy Kosinski, Curator at Large, Klaus Ottmann and Chief Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Vesela Sretenovic; lead a delegation of trustees and high-level collectors. The Frost Art Museum, Director Carol Damian conducted a tour for trustees, donors and Fair VIP’s, Groups from HSBC Private Wealth, Vivian Pfeiffer of Christie’s lead a group of international collectors, The Smithsonian Institute, Curators from Apple North America and Latin America, Bass Museum, Miami Art Museum, San Antonio Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, American University Museum, International Center of Photography, NY, Museum of Art | Ft. Lauderdale, Sternersen Museum, Norway, Artadia, Cobra Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Modern Art, Franklin College of Switzerland, The Wolfsonian, ArtTable, Museum of Modern Art, NY, Museum of Modern Art, North Miami and Los Angeles, Museum of Arts + Design, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Bechtler Museum Group, The Fine Art Fund, The Collectors Fund Among the many spectacular highlights at this year’s fairs were the display of five of famed graffiti artist Banksy’s works presented by Art Miami and I PXL U, the new photo sharing platform. Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 53
Daria Bagrintseva, Solo
Ken Keeley, Solo
Jane Seymour, Red Dot
Samir Sammoun, Solo
Hassam. Solo
Joe Nuzzalo, Pres. Dali Society, Red Dot
Huckleberry Fine Art. Red Dot
Isack Kousnsky and Jamie Ellin Forbes, Red Dot
Sculptor Sol Rabinowtz (right) Red Dot
RED DOT MIAMI Red Dot Art Fair will retrun to Miami Dec. 3-8, 2013 in the heart of the Wynwood Art Disrrict, concurrent with Art Basel Miami Beach with an opening reception to benefit Million Trees Miami, a community wide effort to plant a 1,000,000 tree canopy to cover 30% of Miami Dade County. Red Dot, in its seventh year, hosted some 25,000 visitors with dealers recording strong sales in the $2,000 - $250,000 range at their 2012 fair. 54 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Artexpo Returns, Paired With Miami [Solo] The 37th annual international Artexpo will return to Miami in 2013 featuring a juried selection of fine art from an international slate of artists and galleries. Artexpo Miami + Miami [SOLO] will take place alongside the powerhouse shows of Art Basel, Art Miami, Scope and Miami Project, providing dealers with access to thousands of innovative works and bringing the best to Miami’s newest hotspot arts district, Midtown Miami. Centrally located, Artexpo Miami is part of a strong contingency of shows in Midtown that draws huge crowds each year. With every passing year, there are more and more art-fueled events, ancillary fairs, parties, dinners, and VIP previews during Art Week Miami. Last year, collectively Art Week Miami drew in 100,000 attendees in 2012 and Artexpo-Miami + Miami [SOLO] will benefit from its key location – across the street from Art Miami.
Max Fishko, co-driector of The Miami Project
Miami Beach Convention Center Photo by Kevin Tachman for Art Basel Miami Beach 2012
View of works on display at Art Public during Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. Photo by Kevin Tachman for Art Basel Miami Beach 2012
Art Basel’s Second Decade in Miami Beach Praised by critics, exhibitors and visitors as Art Basel’s most serious presentation in Miami Beach to date, its galleries across the board reported consistent sales throughout the week. The show again attracted generated an attendance of 70,000 over the five show exibition. Art Basel in Miami Beach was visited by over 130 museum and institution groups from across the world. Renowned private collectors from the Americas, Europe and emerging markets returned, and were joined by new collectors from around the globe. As Art Basel marked its second decade in Miami Beach, more than 250 leading galleries from 31 countries from North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia presented the highest quality of work at the show, underlining its seriousness. Given a particularly strong representation of Modern material at the show, as well as the entry of a dynamic selection of younger galleries - including nine that were newly accepted to the fair from NADA – visitors explored 11 decades of art history within the Miami Beach Convention Center. Additionally, collaborations with local and international partners ensured a diverse and deep program of art events, from Art Basel Conversations and Art Salon to Art Public, rt Video and Art Film, making this edition a celebration of the artists and their galleries.
Miami Project, the newest addition to Miami’s contemporary art scene, debuted in a 65,000 square foot tent in midtown Miami featuring curated presentations from 65 galleries, exhibiting leading emerging and mid-career artists from around the world. The Fair’s selection committee is a who’s who of art industry figures from across the U.S. including: Trish Bransten (Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco), Catharine Clark (Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco), Andrew Freiser (Fredericks & Freiser, New York), Kerry Inman (Inman Gallery, Houston), Sally Morgan & Jay Lehman (Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York), and Randy Sommer (ACME, Los Angeles) Conceived of and launched by experienced fair organizers Max Fishko and Jeffrey Wainhause, the duo –managing partners of artMRKT Productions– run several fairs throughout the year, including artMRKT San Francisco, Hamptons and Texas Contemporary -- all of which are well-received by exhibitors and visitors alike. The same is expected of the artMRKT’s newest production in Miami. “What sets our fairs apart from others is our intimate scale and dedication to showcasing emerging and established artists in a relaxed, welcoming environment,” says Fishko, “We serve the ever-growing market for art and still appeal to the more seasoned collector.” Miami Project’s open layout and intimate scale will create a welcoming and engaging atmosphere for visitors while offering unique surprises throughout. One such example: Leveraging the national food cart zeitgeist, GastroPod, along with the popular Panther Coffee and tasty Real Sorbet to create a culinary experience fit for foodies. Wainhause adds, “Our aim is to create an enjoyable experience for our clients and to make the Fair easily accessible. The venue and layout of the fair enables the galleries and artists to be the true stars of the show.” Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 55
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
Miami Project Launches
ArtHamptons Makes A Splash Eye-opening performance art adds to the action at ArtSouthampton
6th Annual ArtHamptons Returns to the Spectacular Sculpture Fields of Nova’s Ark; Opening Night to Benefit Venerable East Hampton Arts Center, Guild Hall Now in its 6th successful year, ArtHamptons has established itself as an event of the Hamptons in which the East End community comes together to celebrate its long history as an art haven for the creation and patronage of art. ArtHamptons has not only become the quintessential Hamptons art/social event of the season, but also blossomed into the nation’s premiere summer fine art fair in terms of quality and quantity of fairgoers and exhibitors, art sales generated, as well as media coverage and museum participation. In 2012, a record 12,000 Hamptonites generated millions in art sales. Fairgoers experienced the finest in contemporary art from 78 respected national and international galleries. The Sculpture Fields of Nova’s Ark is a pristine 95 acre bucolic nature preserve, featuring a dramatic sculpture park, galleries, horse pastures and polo fields with unforgettable sunsets. The property, known as the site of the celebrity driven Super Saturday charity event, is one of the most dramatic art fair locations in America. Surrounded by posh homes in the multi-million dollar range, the location is the epitome of luxury and wealth. It is centrally located, one mile from the center of Bridgehampton village. ArtHamptons’ opening night is a respected and glamorous Hamptons tradition. It attracts 3,000+ art cognoscenti, and will 56 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
benefit the elite center for the arts, Guild Hall of East Hampton. Simultaneously, the VIP Lounge will be alive with an explosive opening fest hosted by Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Magazine. In 2013, ArtHamptons will again unite with a multitude of local and NYC based museums, arts institutions, charities and media empires. Events already scheduled include Hamptons Magazine’ 35th anniversary bash, Larry Rivers 90th anniversary birthday celebration, the Empire State Pride Agenda Tea-Dance (the premiere LGBT event of the summer Hamptons), the prestigious Young Presidents Organization/World Presidents Organization Art Reception, and Sotheby’s Preferred Reception for their NYC top buyers. In total, an unprecedented number of important art organizations and charities are expected to embrace, promote and support ArtHamptons this summer. The floor plan has been redesigned this year to assure a more cohesive flow and viewing experience for galleries and collectors alike. The Selection Committee is presently accepting and reviewing exhibitor applications. In addition to standard size booths, the 2013 edition also offers a couple of smaller/less expensive booth options such as the Focus Booth (solo artist) and the Fahrenheit Booth (small space for hot new start-up galleries), as well as the fair’s own curated Sculpture Park. For more details, contact Group Sales Director Rich Ferrante at rich@hegshows.com
www.fineartmagazine.com
Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013 • 57
PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
On Stage at the Capitol, hitting Broadway April 15
The Rascals Reunion: Two Hours of Groovin’ in A Peaceful World was struggling at the end of How Can I Be Sure, the audience rose Steven Van Zandt — Little Steven, Miami Steve —is going to their feet as one with a standing ovation cheering him on. It was to be remembered for a list of accomplishments a mile long starting so powerful, so beautiful, so encouraging to see these men (with with his stint as the guitarist in The Dovels (Bristol Stomp) on the only a keyboard, bass and trio of background vocalists) perform. oldies circuit to his current starring roll in Lillyhammer (a Netflix only series that is more than worth a monthly subscription). Over The Rascals not only made hit records, their timeless classics made the years — and he is still at the peak of his creative powers — he them elders of a musical generation that set out to change the world. has been and still is Bruce Springsteen’s right-hand man on stage and Their soulful singing, exemplary playing and brilliant songwriting in the studio; a top-notch actor as a mobster secured their place in musical history. This on The Sopranos; outspoken champion of civil show will make the band bigger than ever. As rights (Sun City); host of the wildly popular Vince Pastore, who narrated the show via the internet radio phenomenon Underground video, so aptly put it: “We need the Rascals now Garage (“playing the coolest songs ever made”); more than ever before.” Pastore, celebrated for leader of his own successful band, The Disciples his short-lived Sopranos role, performed his of Soul; and who knows how many other part brilliantly. He’s casual, he’s real and most hats he wears. But for many of a certain age, definitely a fan. Van Zandt peppers his script he will never be forgotten for performing a with equal parts hilarity and poignancy. There miracle that will most certainly qualify him for are four actors who portray the Young Rascals canonization: reuniting the Rascals. as they make their way up the musical ladder, For Steven, it all started sometime in 1965 refusing Phil Spector’s demand to produce at a skating rink in New Jersey where for $2.50 them and arguing slightly with Laurie Burton he saw a live performance of the Young Rascals, and Pam Sawyer whose I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out as they were known then. “I’ll never forget My Heart Any More was to be spoken by Eddie, it. It was the most exciting night ever. They not sung. “Who speaks lyrics?” Eddie asked, were phenomenal live, really quite different a generation before rap came into being. At than anybody else. And very, very influential Steven Van Zandt at the Rascals performance one point, the young actor who plays Eddie of Once Upon A Dream at the Capitol Theater describes an episode where he was unwittingly to this day.” This day came to pass December 14 when shot by his brother David, the “fifth Rascal”: “It the reunited Rascals — Dino, Gene, Eddie and Felix (are last names only hurts when I laugh. Unfortunately, the world’s a funny place.” really necessary?) — took the stage of the redecorated Capitol Theater With so much going on with Brickman’s exciting and timely in Portchester, New York and rocked the house for six sold-out nights. video production on the big screen behind the band, this is a show The show, consisting of a backdrop multi-media presentation (written you have to see more than once, if for nothing else than to keep by Steven with stage, video and light design by Marc Brickman) your eyes on Dino who never lets up for a moment on his drum set . featured the Rascals performing live for about two hours worth of Van Zandt brings it all home with his summation, delivered their classic unforgettable songs, most of them big hit records in the with class, precision and dignity by Pastore, that segues neatly to the 60s. This band was memorable in so many ways, from their impeccable finale: a rocking version of See. “For one precious, glorious moment musicianship and vocals to their stand on not performing anywhere we really thought it would happen. No more war, no more prejudice, unless they had an African-American opening act, that to describe no more fear, no more hate. We were the Love Generation. We this event in mere words does not come close to doing it justice. almost got there. We just ran out of time. But in dreams, there is no Let’s start with the music: simply put, they are playing better time. As long as we can dream together we can still get there. And than ever. The vocals are on the money, and when Eddie, suffering wake up to that beautiful morning. Because once upon a dream… from the flu and not being on stage in such a way in over 40 years, the Rascals are back!”. —VICTOR FORBES 58 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
Once Upon A Dream
We have learned that in every moment of light and darkness there is a potential rvelation. So the Rascals --Odyssey continues. Opportunity and challenge remain. Understanding and unity will transform the world and we can all live in the presence of justice. — DINO DANELLI
Once Upon A Dream album cover construction by Dino Danelli 59 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Dino Danelli became the “Unofficial official Art Director” of the Rascals ever since the Once Upon A Dream cover, which won all kinds of prizes internationally. “I took over everything,” he recalled in a recent interview as he was getting ready for the Broadway opening. “They were all saying ‘Whatever you want to do Dino, you got it.’ The ironic thing about those sculptures is as I was making those boxes, Felix and Eddie were writing this album, Once Upon A Dream. We had no contact whatsoever. I was in my apartment for weeks at a time isolating myself from the world to go into heavy, heavy concentration. Concentration so deep you don’t even talk to anybody for weeks. Then we went back into rehearsals for some gigs, and without knowing it, the sculptures that I was making for the cover was so in tune with their lyrics it was almost telepathic. Those boxes pertained to dreams of the Rascals and what we were thinking about at that time. It was uncanny how the songs coincided with the things that I made, things that I found and painted. The front cover was reproduced all over the world and here we are 40 years later and Stevie writes Once Upon A Dream from the idea of the record. Ironically the song Once Upon A Dream was sung by Dave— he was like the fifth Rascal. He had a beautiful voice and the song just fit him. It’s an interesting title for the show. Stevie was looking for a way to create this and Once Upon A Dream came full circle. Those boxes don’t exist today. They were very delicate and destroyed in one of my moves around New York City.
“TIME PEACE,” continues Dino, “is a cover I created with the fabulous illustrator Antonio Lopez. He was a major fashion illustrator in the 70s and 80s for Vanity Fair and Vogue and was just a fabulous draftsman. I learned a lot about drawing from him.” Dino took some photos of the guys — those particular images that made up that cover — to his studio and they collaborated. “We decided it would look great with some dots like Lichtenstein and then we colored it. The design went through it’s changes as we built it from the ground up with layers, colors and dots. In those days, without computers, we worked on plastic overlays. You would draw on plastic, layer it and on top of the layered cover, you put a sheet of dots, building up layer upon layer to create anything you wanted. We cut it out and did it manually, starting with a photograph in black and white. We did two covers,” continues Dino. “I have one of the originals in my possession. Both are pretty identical with the type a little different on the second one that I have. It was interesting. I can’t tell you how good he was. He’s all over the place. A singular human being and a fantastic illustrator. He hung out with Halston, the Studio 54 crowd and died of AIDS. Antonio was great - he lived in the Carnegie apartments on 57th Street, he made a lot of money and was the first guy I ever saw with a white apartment. You had to stake off your shoes the minute you walked in. The walls the ceilings, the floors—it was like being in a snow drift. This became popular later on but in those days, this was unheard of.”
See
Things ain’t like they used to be Love’s the only thing I see Wings of life are taking flight From the darkness to the light — Felix Cavaliere
“For SEE,” said Dino, “I wanted to use a Magritte. I was a huge Renee Magritte fan. Everybody knows Magritte so I went digging. Ahmet Ertegun (head of Atlantic Records) was a big art collector. His collection would knock your eyes out. Originals. He had a bunch of Magritte’s so I went through his slides. There was another one, Liberator, a very strange painting, but decided to go with Le Grand Family. For years I thought I made the wrong decision but it was a good bad decision....We had a song called See - so it was a great choice with that big bird over the water, the sky. It was and still is gorgeous and represented where we were at that particular point in time as a band,and it is how we close the show now with this crazy fast song, very wild.” Album artwork courtesy Joe Russo www.therascalsarchives.com 60 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
The Rascals: Felix Cavaliere, organ; Gene Cornish, guitar; Dino Danellli, drums; Eddie Brigati, vocals and percussion
“For FREEDOM SUITE, I worked with a very popular photographer Ira Masur, who lived in New York City. Originally I was planning on a silver cover and wanted to put an envelope on it that was closed so you could’t see what was in it. Basically a silver envelope flap on the front. Atlantic said ‘Everybody’s gonna rip off the cover’ so I sat down with Ira and the four photos. Everyyone had a different feeling: Felix was very peaceful, soft; Gene is a little made up. looks kind of pretty and we washed his face out. Eddie had that hat on like a Harpo Marx imitiation. Me? I’m kind of cute; a pop idol kind of look. We put the four photos together and airbrushed them on top of the silver background in keeping with the original color. The imahgery had nothing to do with any of the content of the record at all it was just the cover.We cut the individual photos out and airbrushed them so they would softly flow into each other. I still would have preferred that envelope but the shrink wrap would have been ripped off and I had to listen to what made sense, though all I was thinking about was the art.” 61 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Q: What’s it like being in the Rascals today? A: We’re much older now and appreciate the opportunity to be doing this. The people who came out show their appreciation and that love comes right up on the stage so powerfully. It is just amazing for us to be able to reciprocate that feeling. In the old days we were 20 and it was a whole different world. We were in a blur of life. This show is different — what Steve calls a ‘Bioconcert.’ It’s not like the ‘Jersey Boys’ and not like a concert. It’s great when we’re sitting up on stage and all that stuff is going on behind us. The songs are the songs and we play them as we played them in the old days and the people just react, giving us individual standing ovations starting with ‘A Girl Like You’ and ‘How Can I Be Sure’ for Eddie. It is an amazing experience, just knocking us out. In the old days, it was a lot of girls; a lot of screaming. It’s different now, you appreciate everything more. It has some meaning to it. —DINO DANELLI
Yes it can
At Bronx net TV taping with Bob Lee, Bronxnet DJ, Hylton B, Victor Forbes
John Salvo and Mike Ernst, Soho NY Snowy day in Elizabethtown, NY
Hylton B’s duet, Hold Me Tight, with Jessica Star will be released this spring on the SunStorm label
Ita Lew Bullard at the Airstream Showroom, Plattsburgh, NY,
At Mike Ernst’s Studio, Long Island, NY mixing & recording new tracks for Jonah
Professor Mark Naison, Fordham University 62 • Fine Art Magazine • Fall 2011
Addressing the Black History class with a song on Marcus Garvey, Fordha Universoty, Bronx, NY
On The Road With Hylton B “The time it takes to sit and wait, you can take the time to do something…” —Life Can Be Sweet, Hylton Beckford With that lyric in mind, Hylton Beckford took a trip from the warmth of Florida to the frigid environs of the Bronx, New Jersey, Long Island, Newburgh and the Adirondack Mountains in the middle of a cold and snowy winter to finish up production on his long-awaited solo album to be released on the SunStorm label this spring. A final mix and mastering on Trenchtown History were competed on the superb board at Showcase Studios in New Jersey where the likes of Keith Richard, Eric Clapton, Leslie West, Kim Simmonds, Hubert Sumlin and so many others recorded. Mike Ernst added a classic keyboard track and mix at his Long Island studio to Hylton’s version of the Jamaican pocomania church classic Jonah, which he learned from his mother, who preached up and down the East Coast of the island for years. We travelled with Hylton to the Newburgh Actors Studio to set up a special gig for late May and to Fordham University in the Bronx where Professor Mark Naison, Chairman of the Bronx African American History Project invited “Prof. Beckford” to address his class during Black History Month. Hylton entertained them with his new version of “Do You Remember” a history in song written by his old bandmate and friend, Ras Abraham about Marcus Garvey. Prior to that, Hylton was a guest on Bronxnet Televisions’ “Open” show hosted by the very entertaining Bob Lee, which can be found on bronxnet. org (be sure to catch both parts). We then hit the road for the high peaks, spent some time at the new Plattsburgh NY Airstream showroom enthralled with the idea of taking one of their campers with the professional twelve burner stove on the road for reggae shows served with Hylton’s own style of special Jamaican cooking. The most fun for me was watching the great movie Rockers with Hylton B giving a blow by blow description of each scene, as he knew all the players. He is a treasure trove of musical knowledge and his new recording is sure to please his millions of fans from his days as lead singer of The Slickers who are known world-wide for their hit Johnny Too Bad from The Harder They Come soundtrack. —VBF
Jamie Ellin Forbes and Hylton B
The writer of Johnny Too Bad, Oyster Bay, Long Island, 1977
With Moody at his Record Shop, Bronx, NY
above: with NIGJT, at TUFF CITY, Bronx, NY left: engineer Josh at Showplace Studios, Dover, New Jersey Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2011 • 63
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T O H S ING
PART ie Goodman Arn
Kim Simmonds at the Iridium losing his hat on the encore - watch it at this link: http://www.livestream.com/iridiumlive/video?clipId=pla_5af620ff-d397-41b4-bc68-35d6d159763d&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
Kim with Savoy Brown bandmate Roger Earl,later of Foghat
64 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Kim inducted by Michael Packer
At The Iridium in NYC on Feb 15 , 2013 Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown was inducted into the New York City Blues Hall of Fame by Michael Packer. Simmonds and his band helped launch the 1967 UK blues boom movement that brought blues music back to the USA, touring relentlessy from coast to coast as stalwarts of the Filmore East and Filmore West and hundreds of stops in-between. At this show, Kim was reunited with former bandmate, drummer Roger Earl who helped rock the sold out house. Joining in on harmonica was Jon Paris. They performed songs from the Street Corner Talking Album – Wang Dang Doodle, I Can’t Get Next To You, Tell Mama, the classic Hellbound Train along with songs from The latest CD release Voodoo Moon, closing out the night with The Savoy Brown Boogie at which Kim paid tribute to his heroes and friends including John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Paul Butterfield, Brian Jones, Chris Youlden and others. —KIRK YANO