THE ARTFUL MIND THE SOURCE FOR PROMOTING the ARTS SINCE 1994
MARCH 2016
Visual Artist ROBERT FORTE Photographer JANE FELDMAN
Kris Galli
Winter Hours: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday 11am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 8pm Closed Tuesday & Wednesday 70 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA www.Elixir.com organictearoom@gmail.com 413. 644. 8999
The Escape, Oil on Canvas, 9 x 12�
Represented by
Lauren Clark Fine Art
25 Railroad St. Great Barrington 413-528-0432
krisgallifineart.com
jane feldman photography www.janefeldman.com
janefeldmanphoto@gmail.com
MARILYN KALISH
Vault Gallery Great Barrington, MA. 413.854.7744 Lilly Clifford Gallery East Sussex, England www.marilynkalishfineart.com
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 1
ART
ARTFUL CALENDAR MARCH 2016
April 2016. Reception for artist: April 23, 5-9pm.
510 WARREN STREET GALLERY 510 WARREN STREET, HUDSON, NY 518-822-0510 Robert Forte’s first featured artist show in Hudson “Iconic Imagery.” The show begins March 4th with a reception on March 5th from 3 – 6 pm and runs until March 27th. April: Nina Lipkowitz; “Glyphs & Squiggles”, iPad paintings, Friday & Saturday, 12 - 6, Sunday 12 - 5 or by app 510warrenstreetgallery@gmail.com / 510warrenstreetgallery.com
CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH STREET WILLIAMSTOWN MA 413-458-2303 / www.clarkart.edu An Eye for Excellence, thru Apr 10, 2016
VAULT GALLERY 322 MAIN ST, GT. BARRINGTON, MA 413-644-0221 Marilyn Kalish at work and process on view, beautiful gallery with a wonderful collection of paintings
Debris Flow: a meditation on the Mill River Reservoir Disaster in 1874 R EBECCA M ULLER H ISTORIC N ORTHAMPTON • M ARCH 11 – A PRIL 3, 2016 O PENING R ECEPTION : M ARCH 11, 5-8 PM (A RTS N IGHT O UT ) P UBLIC TALK : E LIZABETH S HARPE : C APITALISM AND C ALAMITY: T HE M ILL R IVER F LOOD OF 1874, S ATURDAY, M ARCH 12, 2 PM
DENISE B CHANDLER FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY & PHOTO ART 413-637-2344 or 413-281-8461 (leave message) *Lenox home studio & gallery appointments available. February 2016 *The Good Purpose Art Gallery, Lee, MA…Mid-Winter Night’s Dream. Opening Feb 12 5:30 - 7:30pm *Exhibiting and represented by Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA *Exhibiting as an artist member/owner at the 510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson, NY
DIA ART 3 BEEKMAN ST, BEACON, NY • 854-440-0100 / diaart.org Robert Irwin: Excursus: Homage to the Square. Thru May 31, 2017 FRONT STREET GALLERY 129 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA • 413-274-6607 Housatonic gallery for students and artists, featuring watercolor & oil paintings by artist Kate Knapp
GOOD PURPOSE GALLERY 40 MAIN STREET, LEE, MA • 413-394-5045 Midwinter Night’s Dream, reception Feb 12, 5:307:30pm. Thru March 22 (9am - 4pm every day)
JOHN DAVIS GALLERY 362 1/2 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY • 518-828-5907 art@johndavisgallery.com Scrap Wrenn: Fall in to Whole March 5: Solo exhibition of the work of Scrap Wrenn. On display through March 27. Reception for the artist on March 5, 6- 8pm
LAUREN CLARK FINE ART 25 RAILRD. ST, GT. BARRINGTON, MA • 413-528-0432 Lauren@LaurenClarkFineArt.com www.LaurenClarkFineArt.com www.windowworldart.com Fine art and framing.
MARGUERITE BRIDE HOME STUDIO AT 46 GLORY DRIVE, PITTSFIELD, MA 413-841-1659 or 413-442-7718 MargeBride-Paintings.com FB: Marguerite Bride Watercolors Original watercolors, specializing in custom house and building portraits. Lessons in Watercolor technique. Gift Certificates. Now on exhibit: Winter scenes at Mary’s Carrot Cake Shop, Union St., Pittsfield. 2 • MARCH 2016 THE ARTFUL MIND
MIMI CZAJKA GRAMINSKI MILLBROOK LIBRARY, 3 FRIENDLY LANE, MILLBROOK, NY 845-677-3611 March 5 - 31, Opening Reception: March 5, 5-7pm MASSMoCA 1040 MASS MOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA 413-664-4481 Clifford Ross: Landscape Seen & Imagined, Thru April 17, 2016. Liz Deschenes: Gallery 4.1.1. Thru April 24, 2016. Artists' Choice: An Expanded Field of Photography, Thru April 24
NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM 9 MA-183 STOCKBRIDGE MA 413-298-4100 / www.nrm.org Masters of the Golden Age, thru March 13, 2016
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART STATE UNIV. OF NEW YORK, NEW PALTZ 845-257-3844 Among the exciting exhibitions planned for 2016 are: Made for You: New Directions in Contemporary Design, investigating the ways in which contemporary design objects are customized for the individual whether handmade or through 3D printing technology. Hours: Wednesday-Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm SCHANTZ GALLERIES 3 ELM ST, STOCKBRIDGE, MA • 413-298-3044 schantzgalleries.com A destination for those seeking premier artists working in glass
ST. FRANCIS GALLERY RTE. 102, SOUTH LEE (just 2 miles east from the Red Lion Inn) Friday thru Monday 10-5pm. Reopening in spring 2016!
THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA • 413-458-2303 An Eye for Excellence/ Twenty Years of Collecting, Clark’s permanent collection, thru April 10
THE GEOFFREY YOUNG GALLERY 40 Railrd. St, (above JWS Art Supplies) Gt. Barrington, MA The Bridge, a mixed media installation by John Clarke,
DEB KOFFMAN’S ARTSPACE 137 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA 413-274-1201 Sat: 10:30-12:45 class meets. No experience in drawing necessary, just a willingness to look deeply and watch your mind. This class is conducted in silence. Adult class. $10, please call to register.
MUSIC
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GT. BARRINGTON, MA • 413-528-0100 / WWW.CEWM.ORG “Fiddler Off The Roof”, explores Jewish music, April 17, 3pm; Mar 19:
SMITH COLLEGE EARLE RECITAL HALL, SAGE HALL, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA Exploring the Musical Language of Leos Janacek: Concert and Conversation. Sun March 6, 4pm
THE CRESCENDO VOCAL ENSEMBLE and SOLOISTS Directed by Christine Gevert, Friday, March 18, 6 pm First Congregational Church; 251 Main St., Gt. Barrington, MA; Sat, March 19, 5 pm. St. John's Church, 12 Main St., Salisbury, CT; Sunday, March 20, 4 pm; St. Michael's Church, 25 South St., Litchfield, CT
TALKS & READINGS
INQUIRING MIND BOOKSTORE 200 MAIN ST, SAUGERTIES, NY. • 845-876-7906 Talk and book signing by Lillian Rosengarten, author of, “Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi Germany to the Jewish Boat to Gaza,” Sat. March 12, 7-8:30pm
THEATRE & ENTERTAINMENT
A.P.E GALLERY 126 MAIN ST IN NORTHAMPTON • TIX: 413-586-5553 XFINITY Theater’s TODAY, conceptual Theatre Group uncovers humor and Melodrama - the coolest young theatre group in Massachusetts, -Hillary Somers Deely, Curator, Made-In -The -Berkshire Festival, April 7-9
COLONIAL THEATRE 111 SOUTH ST, PITTSFIELD, MA • 413-997-4444 www.berkshiretheatregroup.org Through The Looking Glass: Musings from Pens of Berkshire Women Writers, The Unicorn Theatre, Sunday, Apr 17, 3pm
ENDGAME CENTERSTAGE, 62 CENTER FOR THEATRE AND DANCE, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA Samuel Beckett’s groundbreaking 1957 drama, Mar 10-12, 7:30pm
WAM THEATRE The third season of WAM’s popular Fresh Takes Play Reading Series kicks off on April 17 with a reading of The Last Wife, by Kate Hennig, directed by Molly Clancy. We are returning once again to the gallery space at No. Six Depot Roastery and CafĂŠ in West Stockbridge at 3pm on Sunday afternoons starting on April 17 and including: May 15, Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, directed by Kelly Galvin; June 19, The Oregon Trail by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by EstefanĂa Fadul; August 21, Samsara by Lauren Yee, directed by Megan SandbergZakian; and September 11, Grand Concourse by Heidi Shreck, directed by Sheila Siragusa.
HELSINKI CAFE 405 COLUMBIA ST, HUDSON, NY 518-828-4800 info@helsinkihudson.com March 17: Aaron Neville; March 18: Lady Moon & The Eclipse; March 20: Blidestiff Family; Mar 24: Wanda Jackson
MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CASTLE ST, GT BARRINGTON, MA 413-528-0100 Bolshoi Ballet in HD: SPARTACUS, March 13, 1pm, pre-talk 12:40 by Jacob’s Pillow Director of Preservation, Norton Owen.
MASSMoCA 1040 MASS MOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA • 413-664-4481 March 19: Film and Live Music: William Tyler, Quindar, Nick Hallett; March 26: Music and Spoken Word: Work-in progress: M is Back Enough
JEWEL AND HAROLD WALKER, 6 AND 5 YEARS OLD, OKLAHOMA, 1916 PHOTO COLORIZATION FOR TIME MAGAZINE BY SANNA DULLAWAY, 2016 BRILL GALLERY PRODUCTIONS, MASSACHUSETTS COTTON MILLS SEPIA, BLACK AND WHITE AND MOVING ECLIPSE STUDIO MILL, STUDIO 190, 243 UNION ST, NORTH ADAMS, MA 413-664-4353 / WWW.BRILLGALLERY109.COM
SERIOUS PLAY’S NORTHAMPTON, MA • 413-686-1438 seriouslaytheatre@gmail.com Endgame Project. Directed by Sheryl Stoodley. Academy of Music, Northampton, MA: Mar 17-19, 7:30; Gateway City Arts, Holyoke, MA, Mar 31, April 1,2, 7:30pm, Mature audiences over 14.
THEatre COmpany presents... LAUREN CLARK FINE ART 25 Railroad St, Gt Barrington, MA 413-854-4400 for info. and reservations FROM DOOR TO DOOR, by James Sherman. A warmhearted, full-production play about three generations of woman spanning 63 years. A Mother’s Day Treat! Directed by Bruce T. MacDonald; Leah Marie Parker, Gayle Schechtman and Harryet Candee. May 6 - 8, 7pm and May 13-15, 7pm. Matinees May 8 and May 15, 2pm. Tix at door
WARNER THEATRE 68 MAIN ST, TORRINGTON, CT 860-489-7180 www.warnertheatre.org Gordon Lightfoot. Yes! Gordon Lightfoot! April 14, 8pm
Send in your events by the 5th of the month prior to publication. Welcome text files and images: artfulmind@yahoo.com Read back issues and new issues of The Artful Mind on ISSUU.COM
CLOSE ENCOUNTE ERS S WITH MUSIC PRESENT TS
F idd Fidd i ddler ler
OFF OF FF F F
Th T h e R oof oo f Jewish Music spanning a multitude of culturres and centuries: Gershwin, Bernstein, Mahler, Milhaud Mendelssohn, Bloch, Ravel, Max Brruch, D ZRUOG SUHPLHUH E\ 3DXO 6FKRHQäHOG D tou uch of Klezmer and more...
Sunda S unday, April April 1177 at at 3PPM M THHEE M MAHAIWE AHAIWE
GREAT G REAT AT B BARRINGTON ARRINGTON, M MA A
MIICHELE CHELE LEEVIN VIN, p piano iano PAAUL UL GR REEN EEN, cl clarinet larin i et ALLEX EX RIICHARDSON CHARDSON, te ten nor n or SAARAH RAH MCELLRAVY RAVY, v vio iollin in YEEHUDA HUDA HA ANANI NANI, ccello ello www.cew w ww.cew wm.org m.org | 800.843.0778 800.843.0778 TTickets: ickets: $45 $45 oorchestra/ rchestra//$ //$25 $25 bbalcony/$15 alcony/ y//$$15 A Age ge 30 30 and and und und der er 413.528.010 4 13. 528.010 00 0 or or w www.mahaiwe.org ww.mahaiwe.org
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 3
THE ARTFUL MIND ARTZINE March 2016
Please Sir, I want some more...?
Dispatches from The Wall MUSIC IN COMMON builds connections for peace Nichole Dupont page 8 B. Docktor Photographer interview by H Candee Page 12 Robert Forte Visual Artist interview by H Candee Photographer: Jane Feldman page 20
Planet Waves Astrology MARCH Eric Francis page 30
FICTION: Please God Not Van Gogh Part III Richard Britell page 32
Grandma Becky’s Recipes Laura Pian page 35 Contributing Writers and Monthly Columnists Eunice Agar, Richard Britell, Nichole Dupont, Eric Francis, Laura Pian, Amy Tanner Photographers Edward Acker, Lee Everett, Jane Feldman Sabine von Falken, Alison Wedd Publisher Harryet Candee
Copy Editor
Marguerite Bride
Editorial proofreading Kris Galli Advertising and Graphic Design Harryet Candee
Mailing Address: Box 985, Great Barrington, MA 01230
artfulmind@yahoo.com 413 854 4400 ALL MATERIAL due the 5th of the month prior to publication
FYI: ©Copyright laws in effect throughout The Artful Mind for logo & all graphics including text material. Copyright laws for photographers and writers throughout The Artful Mind. Permission to reprint is required in all instances. In any case the issue does not appear on the stands as planned due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, advertisers will be compensated on a one to one basis. Disclaimer rights available upon request. Serving the Art community with the intention of enhancing communication and sharing positive creativity in all aspects of our lives. We at The Artful Mind are not responsible for any copyrights of the artists, we only interview them about the art they create.
4 • MARCH 2016 THE ARTFUL MIND
THE MUSIC STORE
As we anticipate the coming of spring, we are mindful that the benefits of shopping locally are many. And as more and more small, independent stores close we think how thankful we are for our many loyal and hugely supportive customers. We continue our support for many of our local schools' art programs and performance groups. And we are able to showcase some of the fine work that independent instrument makers and luthiers are creating one at a time right here in Berkshire County including: Brier Road's Guitars' gorgeous OM Acoustic Guitar made entirelyfrom fine tonewoods sourced in Berkshire County, - Undermountain Ukuleles' lovely A/E Flame Maple Soprano, a big voice in a small, appealing package - our own Dr. Easy's Drunk Bay Cigar Box guitars, simply the most amazing bang for a box ever heard and featuring six brand new boxes so far for 2016, - The Rowe Stick Dulcimers - strum sticks par extraordinaire, provided for sale and for donation to outreach and Veteran's programs, - lovely Stockbridge made Serenity Bamboo Flutes and Walking Stick/Cane flutes and- Whitmer acoustic guitars, lovingly made one at a time in Pittsfield from fine tone woods. The Music Store has, for fifteen years, enjoyed helping the community, near and far to make music. And this is a rewarding and satisfying enterprise for us. We look forward to continuing this mission into the second half of our second decade. And, as always, we offer wonderful musical instruments and accessories at competitive pricing. But there are just some things that we like to share with YOU, including support for our newest music makers, and Great Deals, Raffles and New and Used Instruments for everyone. Come and join the fun . . . We welcome the lovingly Berkshire County individually (not factory) made Brier Road Guitars, Whitmer Guitars, and Undermountain Ukuleles. Play and own an absolute original. Composite Acoustic guitars (the forever guitar) and their peerless travel guitar, the Cargo, a favorite of our own Dr. Easy, David Reed, made of carbon graphite and impervious to most changes of temperature and humidity. You can see it often in his hands in performance locally and abroad. Guild Guitars - light, powerful, affordable, beautiful.Terrific Ukuleles 60+ different models: Soprano, Concert, Tenor and Baritone, acoustic and acoustic/electric, six string, resonator, the Maccaferri-like Makala Waterman Uke (made all of plastic for easy portability almost anywhere!) the remarkable U-Bass, and the new Solid Body Uke Bass by the Magic Fluke Co. How about a Cordoba Cuatro? Or Guitarlele? Experience the haunting sound of High Spirits Native American Flutes. How about a West African Djembe with a smashing carry bag? Or a beautiful set of African Djun Djuns? Try a 'Closeout Corner' instrument to suit almost any budget. Alvarez guitars - great tone and great value.
Breedlove - beautiful, American, sustainable. And so many more brands and types, including Luthier Handmade Instruments from $150-$5000 . Ever heard of Dr. Easy’s Drunk Bay Cigar Boxes? Acoustic/electric cigar box guitars, exquisitely made, which bring the past into the present with a delightful punch, acoustically and plugged in! You can even hear them in concert if you catch Dr. Easy's act in local venues! Harmonicas, in (almost) every key (try a Suzuki Hammond ‘Mouth Organ’). Picks (exotic, too!), strings (!!), sticks and reeds.Violins, Mandolins, Dulcimers, Banjos, and Banjo Ukes. Handmade and international percussion instruments. Dreamy locally made bamboo and wooden flutes and walking stick flutes. And the new Berkshire County Rowe Stick Dulcimers, easy to play and adore, the sales of which benefit Veteran's homes and outreach programs. And there is more to delight the eyes, intrigue the ears and bring warm joy to the heart! We remain your neighborhood music store, where advice and help are free and music is the universal language. Working with local luthiers and repairmen we offer stringed and band instrument repair. And we just may have something you haven’t seen before (have you heard the Electric Cigar Box Guitars?). We match (or beat) many on-line prices for the merchandise that we sell, and do so in person, for the most part cheerfully (though we reserve the right to glower a little when asked if we can ‘do better’ on the price of a pick!)! *******PLEASE NOTE: We will be CLOSED for Vacation and Inventory from March 13 to April 8.******** The Music Store, located at 87 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, is open Wednesdays through Sundays and by appointment. Call us at 413-528-2460, visit us on line at www.themusicstoreplus.com, on Facebook as The Music Store Plus, or shop our online Reverb store at https://reverb.com/shop/TheMusicStorePlus
L’ATELIER BERKSHIRES
L’Atelier Berkshires is a unique art experience, with a novel contemporary art gallery and a working sculpture studio in a historic Great Barrington building. Recently opened by renowned artist Natalie Tyler, glass sculpture is made on-site, bringing about nostalgia for artwork made by the artist’s hand. The current exhibition includes encaustic paintings by John Ratajkowski, sculpture by Sarah Logan, Eva Connell and Natalie Tyler. During the winter, the gallery is open on weekends and by appointment. Originally from California, Natalie Tyler moved to the Berkshires after receiving a grant from Mass MOCA, encouraging contemporary artists to relocate to the area. Tyler’s sculptures draw inspiration from nature, as she casts its’ essence into the elements of metal and glass. Her work is truly inventive and original as she masterly casts bronze and glass. L’Atelier Berkshires - 597 Main Street, Great Barrington, Mass. For more information call 510-4695468, email: natalie.tyler@atelierberks.com, or visit website: www.atelierberks.com
FRONT STREET GALLERY
Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors…..abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting technique and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different. Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials welcome. Private critiques available. Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt. Perfect if you are seeking fresh insight into watercolors, and other mediums. A teacher for many years, Kate Knapp has a keen sense of each student’s artistic needs to take a step beyond. Perfect setting for setting up still lifes; lighting and space are excellent. Peek in to see! Front Street Gallery – Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell).
STEPHEN FILMUS COMMISSIONS
This favorite Berkshire hillside, loved by a Boston couple, was commissioned to mark their special anniversary. Giving a gift of art like this ensures that the essence of a special time and place will endure and give pleasure for years to come. “The commission process is collaboration between artist and client. Whenever possible we visit the site together and discuss the elements of subject, color, form and the “feeling” of the scene. The next step for me is to create a detailed color sketch that reflects the client’s vision and gives them a good sense of how the finished artwork will look. At this point the commissioner can give input and suggestions as I work toward the final design. “Lastly, I simply do what I know how to do - I sit at my easel and paint.” Stephen Filmus is represented by J. Todd Gallery in Wellesley, Ma. He is presently exhibiting several landscapes at the Bennington Center for the Arts and his work can also be seen at his studio in Great Barrington by appointment. Stephen Filmus - art.sfilmus@verizon.net / 413-528-1253, www.stephenfilmus.com
nina lipkowitz
Glyphs & Squiggles
Glyphs & Squiggles, iPainting, Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print, 30 x 23”
ipad paintings created on an ipad limited Edition archival pigment prints
April 1 - May 1, 2016
Artist Reception: Saturday April 2, 3 - 6pm ninalipkowitz.com
510
Vinyl, iPainting, Archival Print, 30 x 23”
510 WARREN STREET GALLERY Hudson, New York 518-822-0510 510warrenstreetgallery@gmail.com 510warrenstreetgallery.com
Hours: Friday & Saturday 12 - 6, Sunday 12 - 5 or by appointment
WARREN ST GALLERY
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 5
LAUREN CLARK FINE ART FRAMING ON THE EDGE
The art of picture framing is a collaboration between the artist or collector and the design team at any custom picture framing establishment. At “Framing on the Edge” our experienced and creative staff is happy to help you select framing for your painting on canvas, paper or other substrate, mirrors, or any other frame-able objects. Our extensive selection of frames includes classic favorites as well as fresh and funky designs from America’s top frame companies. Come in for a design consultation and we will guide you through the process of finding the best choices to compliment your art, style, and budget. We offer only conservation quality matboards that are acid and lignin free and alkaline pH balanced in a beautiful palette of colors ranging from classic neutrals to the latest color trends. We also have rag, linen, and various other textures, thicknesses and finishes to suit any piece of art you might present or purchase from the gallery. To protect our client’s artwork, we offer all types of glazing, including conservation and museum glass and Plexiglas. Please visit our website for a full listing of our services and to see photos of a few of our frame samples. Framing on the Edge @Lauren Clark Fine Art - 25 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, Mass; 413-528-0432, www.LaurenClarkFineArt.com If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. -- Vincent Van Gogh
MARGUERITE BRIDE MARGUERITE BRIDE, THE DUNGEON, WATERCOLOR
WATERCOLORS
Known primarily for her custom house portraits and watercolors of the Berkshires, Marguerite Bride’s repertoire includes far more than that. Take a look at her online portfolio (website) for a visit to Italy, Ireland, France, Mexico, England and other far flung destinations. You will also see lighthouses from near and far (even Lake Superior), quaint New England scenes, and some fascinating moonscapes. For the past two years Bride has been preparing for a special exhibit that will happen this August at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield….focusing on the influence Jazz has played in her creative life. This month-long exhibit will feature 12-15 new paintings, mostly watercolor on canvas, along with the exciting fine art jazz photography of Lee Everett. More details will follow but expect this to be a lively, dynamic and educational exhibit. Commissions are always welcome; a gift of art is suitable for any occasion. Over the years Bride has painted scenes from vacations, special occasions, and favorite settings...all from clients’ own photos. These have included scenes from romantic weddings and honeymoon trips, Tuscan villas, vistas from fabulous hikes, exciting canoe trips, scenes from family vacations and reunions, "once in a life-time" adventures, and more. Fine art reproductions and note cards of Berkshire images and others by the artist are available at the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop (Stockbridge), Lenox Print & Mercantile (Lenox). Seasonal scenes are always on display in the public areas of the Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield. Or visit Bride’s studio by appointment. Marguerite Bride – Home Studio at 46 Glory Drive, Pittsfield, Massachusetts by appointment only. Call 413841-1659 or 413-442-7718; margebride-paintings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.
NINA LIPKOWITZ
“BIG RED DOT” IPAINT ON MY IPAD ARCHIVAL PRINT, 30”X23"
GLYPHS & SQUIGGLES
Five years ago multi-dimensional artist, Nina Lipkowitz, painter, potter, sculptor and watercolor artist began experimenting with painting on an iPad. With no additional materials or supplies, Lipkowitz paints both abstract and realistic color-filled images; meditations which can be painted anywhere. With its back-lit screen she can paint in complete darkness, bright sunshine, freezing snow or rain. She creates these iPad paintings (she calls them iPaintings) with the touch of her index finger, turning the device into endless sheets of “drawing paper” painted in light with infinite marks, brushes and colors ultimately printed as beautiful, limited edition, archival, pigment prints on the finest watercolor printerpapers. Her latest exhibition at 510 Warren Street Gallery; “Glyphs & Squiggles”, will be her first show at 510 created entirely with an iPad and a printer. Lipkowitz sees her Glyph and Squiggle abstract iPaintings as being filled with sacred symbols and lines. They are filled with secret meanings known only to the artist herself. “I never meant to be a painter. it just happened. I learned about form and color during my years as a sculptor and potter. I carved marble and alabaster, created clay vessels; learned what makes colors sing and drew and drew and drew, slowly learning how lines twist and turn and dance across paper turning into forms, becoming sacred spaces containing endless puddles of color. Place one mark and then another and another, each building upon the next. Paint or pixels it’s all the same. Layer after layer the paintings begin to appear.” Matisse, Van Gogh, Klee, Miro, Kandinsky and the Fauves; all continue to inspire her. Whether painting watercolors, on paper or finger painting on an iPad screen her work is exquisitely her own, an exploration of line and color, pattern and light, density and transparency. There is no preconceived notion of where it is going or what it will look like when it is finished. ninalipkowitz.com / nina@ninalipkowitz.com
There are no shortcuts. We must do the work, naked to ourselves and others, through each thought, each action, each shared moment - the layers of the onion. -- bMac
6• MARCH 2016 THE ARTFUL MIND
JEnnifEr paziEnza PORTALE, work in proGrESS
jennpazienza@gmail.com http://jenniferpazienza.com/
ELEANOR LORD
RECENT PAINTINGS AT A SPANISH MARKET, PASTEL, 2016
Month of April, 2016 Artist Reception: Friday, April 1, 6 - 8pm
BUSHNELL SAGE LIBRARY, 48 MAIN ST, SHEFFIELD, MA ELEANORLORD.COM
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 7
DISPATCHES FROM THE WALL
The separation wall and watchtower outsdie the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, West Bank
MUSIC IN COMMON BUILDS CONNECTIONS FOR PEACE by Nichole Dupont
It’s a windy February morning, and I am hunched in my too-big office chair, coffee in hand, waiting word—any word—from the West Bank. I scan through my new messages and sigh, relieved.
I am now deep in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Tomorrow our IMMERSION program begins here, pairing students from a Jewish school and Bedouin school, with a full day of programming in each school. Thank God, I say out loud to no one, he’s in Israel finally.
He, Todd Mack, will tell you that this latest trip to the West Bank is not his first sojourn to the region. As the founder and director of the now 10-year-old Music in Common (MiC), Todd has made several trips to the Middle East to carry out the non-profit’s simple mission; to strengthen, empower, and educate communities, and especially young people, through the universal language of music. This means bringing programming to schools and community hubs in conflict areas from sub-urban California to Jerusalem. 8 • 2016 MARCH THE ARTFUL MIND
But this latest voyage was different. We all felt it. Too much has happened in the world. The streets of Paris have been stained, more than once. The bodies of toddlers continue to wash ashore on the beaches of Greece. The mournful stories of Syrian refugees in flight from their homeland are now more than whispers. Even on our home turf in smaller communities like San Bernardino and tightly packed urban centers like Boston, the tension builds and erupts, always in terror. “Things are very tense right now… particularly in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and we’ve certainly been seeing and feeling that first hand. We were based in Azyrea in Palestine - a small town that once used to be part of East Jerusalem before the wall was built. Since that time in 2005, those who live here and in the surrounding villages…are completely cut off. What used to be a 12-minute walk to Jerusalem is now an hour plus bus ride. After the wall was built, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were issued ID cards, much like the ones Donald Trump is proposing for Muslims living in America or the yel-
low Star of David Hitler instituted for Jews in Nazi Germany. If you are a Palestinian in the West Bank, the Israeli government only allows you two weeks of travel into Israel per year by permit and you are not allowed to stay overnight. Many of the people living in these parts have siblings, parents, children, cousins, and aunts & uncles whose houses happened to be on the Israeli side of the wall when the wall went up. They are only allowed to see each other in Israel during those two weeks of permitted visitation. Many here grew up in Jerusalem and moved here for one reason or another and are not allowed to move back.”
The image he has painted gives me chills. I feel the emotional pull of that horror as I watch my children grow up in a world poised on the edge of some post-modern fascism. He talks about the wall and I remember the concrete symbol of the so-called Iron Curtain laying in a pile of useless, spray-painted rubble. I was 12. The world was falling apart and coming together at the same time. Most of us just wanted peace. We still do.
MiC facilitator Jason Broome works with program participants from Power FM in the West Bank village of Beit Jala rehearsing their song
Sadly, the violence seems to only get worse by the day. Since arriving on January 16th, there have been eight terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Israel, each with a police or military response. The attacks seem to be following my footsteps with most of the West Bank ones occurring while I was in the West Bank and most of the Israel ones since arriving in Israel a week ago. Yesterday, I was wandering deep in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem right near Damascus Gate. An hour later, there was an attack at the gate. I could hear the gunshots and sirens from where I was sitting at First Station, just a 15-minute walk outside the Old City…You can feel the effects of militant style propaganda from the likes of ISIS starting to infiltrate the region. I suppose kids who have no hope or sense of purpose are prime candidates for taking up arms, and the killings are tragic for both the victims and the perpetrators.
“Todd is always saying that music is what connects us and we see that every day,” Lynnette says. “Today, with all of these issues of conflict and global tensions, they have become so palpable. We don’t know what to do. But MiC is hands-on. It’s a way to take action, to have something to do that’s positive in the world.”
The arc of the documentary “came quite organically,” even after pouring over hundreds of clips of MiC participants, and song riffs and recordings of deep conversations between Arab and Jewish and American teenagers poised over keyboards and guitars.
“The common thread was so seamless, it became
so obvious, the power of music. The truth of that just rose to the top,” she says. “It was unexpected because of how this all began.”
Music in Common was born in the somber aftermath of the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Daniel and Todd were good friends, often finding themselves jamming together—Danny on violin, Todd on guitar— in the living rooms and backyards of friends. Todd needed to do something with the grief that weighed on him, something that would honor his friend’s place in the world. Music was the only answer, and in 2005 the first of what would be several hundred concerts and programs across the world took place. Continued on next page...
Documenting peace
“Our shared stories are what give us a connection to one another; that’s why we’re doing this,” says Lynnette Najimy. She has been with MiC since 2008. Her official title is Associate Director, but as with most non-profits, the hat rack is full for her. Recently, Lynnette wrapped up tireless work on creating a short documentary, “From Madness to Music,” about MiC. The film is a labor of love, and of necessity, ten years in the making.
“At least a thousand hours of footage I had to go through,” she says. She looks tired. It has been a hard couple of weeks. We have been fretting from afar about the growing hostility in Palestine. But we know how important it is for Todd to be there, especially now. He is showing the film in Israel. She wonders how it will be received by audiences there. She has an artist’s anxiety about the quality of her work and its stateside premiere. On top of that is her knowing that the message of the film, of the organization, needs to be felt across the globe. The film is our in.
Students from Abul Tlul and Hashalom schools in the Negev Desert of southern Israel working together to write the lyrics to their song
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 9
MiC facilitator Jason Frydman works with program participants filming their video at the Awtar Center in the Palestinian city of Nablus
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve believed in the power of music to change the world,” Todd says. “But Danny’s murder was the catalyst to a much more direct, deeper call to action. I knew there was nothing I could do to bring him back, but there was something I could do to combat the hatred, prejudice, and violence that motivated his murder. It may have started as an informal backyard jam in his honor. But the goal has always been something bigger and that’s what Music in Common is.” Coming home
Once Todd announced that he was in Israel, I started to relax a little. Of course, I kept the number of the U.S. consulate on speed dial and trolled his and MiC’s Facebook pages to make sure things were going smoothly. I was glad to see pictures of landscapes, and street food, and best of all, young people in all kinds of clothing wearing headphones, heads bent towards each other in total concentration.
Our Immersion program down in the Negev desert was fantastic!...We paired Hashalom, a Jewish school in Mitzpe Ramon who was participating in our program for the first time, with Abul Tlul, a Bedouin school who has participated in our program three times now. After the usual initial tentativeness, the students really opened up, engaged in some great dialogue, and wrote & recorded a fantastic song under their chosen theme of friendship. We spent a lot of time discussing the ingredients of friendship both universally and ingredients that are particular
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to them as a result of living here…
One thing is for sure, most of those we worked with felt they have no voice because the world doesn’t know or care about their situation or that their voice can’t cut through the biases of western media. They were extremely grateful for this opportunity to be heard and took their task at hand very seriously.
“Were you as relieved as I was when he finally got out of the West Bank?” Lynnette and I are sitting in ‘the studio’ a.k.a unofficial MiC headquarters. The rain is driving down on every unsheltered surface, soaking the earth. “I couldn’t sleep. I was sick when I didn’t hear from him for eight hours. Just sick.”
Lynnette has already moved on to the next video project, not quite the undertaking that the documentary has been. This time she and Haley, the very capable MiC intern, are trying to find compelling clips from footage that was taking during a MiC Immersion Program that was delivered in early December in Laguna Beach, CA. Just days after the horror unfolded in San Bernardino. “Anything profound?” I ask her.
“We’ll find something,” she says, smiling.
“Todd said in his last email that this last trip to the West Bank has changed his life.” “I know it has. How much is the question.”
“Lynnette, what do think our greatest challenge is, moving forward? The world is so…hard.” I try not to choke up completely. I try not to think about everything we’ve seen in the news. The gut-punch panic sitting on the edge of the couch watching the latest attack unfold. She pauses. Lynnette is a thoughtful woman. The most thoughtful that I know, probably.
“Our fear,” she says finally. “If our fear motivates our actions then we are perpetrating what is already a negative cycle. We need to react by listening and understanding.” Nichole Dupont is a freelance writer and editor based in the Berkshires. She is also the president of the MiC Board of Directors.
The U.S. premiere of the MiC short documentary will take place on Saturday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. The screening is free and open to the public and will be followed by a panel discussion with Todd and Lynnette and State Representative William “Smitty” Pignatelli. A reception on the stage will follow. To register in advance visit www.mahaiwe.org/MusicInCommon . For more information about MiC go to www.musicincommon.org g
EDwarD ackEr photographer
Watercolors by Sue Maney MacVeety (Sumac) Member HVAL Housatonic Valley Art League
Time flies. Get pictures.
800-508-8373
EdwardAckerPhotographer.com
Paintings available at:
Rouge, West Stockbridge, Ma. Berkshire Gold and Silversmith, Gt. Barrington, Ma.
For more information e-mail suemacveety@gmail.com
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 11
b. docktor photographer
B and John Boy photo by Benita Kenn at Ashokan
B. Docktor photographer interview by Harryet Candee
Harryet Candee: Hi B! How in the world do you capture dogs and animals so well? I find it terribly difficult to make my dogs stay still for anything, B. Is it your conversations you have with them prior? Is it the camera you use? The animals you photograph seem to connect with you. B. Docktor: Great questions! When I am photographing any living being, I feel very concentrated and in-the-moment, and I believe the animals get a sense of my being focused on them. Your question about prior conversations makes me laugh. I do not have prior conversations, and I’m not a constant talker. I feel with animals, and dogs especially, that capturing their movement is essential to showing how they are. I love to move, myself, and I love to watch movement, and I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of capturing movement. Mostly, I try not to ask the dogs to stay still because it’s their action that I most want to capture. Yes, it is hard! It takes a camera
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that can focus fast, and it takes a lot of practice. I practice with my own dog, John Boy, a lot. I’ll throw the stick lefty and shoot righty. We’d be a funny subject of a little film, actually. This is me at right with my oldest brother Mark on the patio at our house in the woods In general, I think much of my success with animals is being agile and quick B: My father illustrated over 100 books during the myself, and being ready. I’ve learned that the farm 1950s and early ‘60s. He did a bunch of children’s animals are most curious when I first arrive, so I need books and my brothers and I sometimes modeled for to get out of the car with my camera ready. (The him. As Norman Rockwell did, he would set us up Coach Farm Goat Family Portrait is a good example and photograph us, and do his illustrations from these photos. We had a very cramped darkroom in our of this.) boiler room, and I got to see the magic of prints being B, you certainly send out this strong energy of the developed when I was three or four years old. I had love you have for nature. I am wondering, what no interest or talent in drawing, but photography atbrought you to choosing photography as your tracted me. I remember when I was little, going to my mother’s prime medium for artistic interpretation?
parents’ house in Philadelphia. They had these leather bound photo albums with family photos, my parents’ wedding, and I was always fascinated with them. We got Life & Look magazines, and I was mesmerized by the photos. I remember getting the book of the Family of Man exhibit that Steichen had curated, and that was when I started wanting to be a photographer and document the world around me. And as for the love of nature—I grew up in the woods—and the amazing thing is that these woods were in Fort Lee, NJ!My father had looked all over the NYC area for a house with a view, and he found this amazingly private house in the woods, with a view of the Hudson and the NY skyline.
Coach Farm Tree in Fog, B. Docktor
Never underestimate the intelligence of animals. Can you add to this statement? B: Since I’ve only lived with dogs, I’m only comfortable saying that I think they are wondrous creatures, and I am crazy about seeing interspecies love. I love the story of Koko the gorilla and her cats. I just read that she has two new kittens. So, how is photographing humans different than animals? B: The humans that I photograph usually speak English.
B, you were a genuine artist at the age of four. Your dad, Irv Docktor was an artist, too. Was he a direct influence on your creative development in the visual arts? Tell me about him, please. B: I was not a genuine artist at 4, though I like the sound of that! I was a model for a genuine artist at 4. My father was a huge influence, yes. His personal paintings were realistic, yet mysterious, and complex. They would include faces and figures and lots of hidden and intertwining figures that required a lot of looking into to find what was there. He would Continued on next page...
B’s barn in the blizzard, B. Docktor
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 13
B. DOCKTOR
Trees, B. Docktor
show me something and ask: do you see this, and do you see that? So he trained me to look. And when we did things away from the house, it usually involved museum-going.
What was one of your most remarkable memories, one you can see in your mind’s eye as if it were yesterday? What did you learn from the experience?
B: This is such a fantastic question. I wish I had an amazing answer at the ready. While I’m writing about my father so much at this moment, I’m remembering the first time I was at the ocean, being carried on his shoulders. Thrilling and scary, which is how I still feel about the ocean. I also remember being in our living room and, with my father, exercising with Jack LaLanne on TV. Jack made a huge impression on me, and I remember deciding to follow his advice
Paige Walsh at Buttercup, B. Docktor
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to exercise every day when I was about five or six. I have exercised almost every day of my life, and being able to move the way I do is a big part of the way I make my photos.
Has being a photographer been your sole means of monetary support? I am curious to know what other kinds of work you may have delved into over the years—whether totally unrelated to art, or somewhat related to art? I’m thinking in terms of what we love to do, and what, keeping “work” and artistic development separated in terms of what we love to do, and what we have to do to get to enjoy the time with art. We all wear different hats, do you as well? B: Yes. I graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in photojournalism. I wish I had pursued a career as a photojournalist with more ardor and confidence at that moment. I chose to follow love, and do my own thing freelancing. I ended up owning a small graphic design and production studio in NYC, and photography was one of the things I provided to my clients, but it wasn’t the main thing. I wasn’t in love with that business and it was very stressful. When I got to the point where I was able to get a weekend house in Ancram, I realized almost everything I really loved to do was up here in the country. I decided I had to do something else that felt more helpful to people. So I got out of that business, moved here full-time, and went to massage school. I’ve been a massage therapist since 1994! I never stopped photographing, but I stopped trying to make money at it. In 2001, I got very involved with working to stop the St. Lawrence Cement plant from getting
Portrait of my Father. We were in a restaurant in London when I made this—I was on the SU semester abroad program B. Docktor
built in Hudson. While growing up in Fort Lee in the 1960’s, I lived through the high-rise boom and the rampant, out-of-control development of that town. I was too young to do anything about it. So when SLC came knocking, I vowed—this time I’m not too young to do something. I realized that aerial photography was needed to explain what they wanted to do and why it was such a terrible idea. At that time I was still shooting film. I made the photos and knew we had to find a way to label them and get them online.
I met Tony Gravett, who was to become a great friend, and he taught me Photoshop basics, got the website up, and told me it was time to go digital. I obeyed! I was having a lot more fun photographing, and loved not having to be in the darkroom. It took me a few more years to come to it, but I felt I had to give one more try to supporting myself as a photographer, and that’s what I’ve been doing. And in the last few years, doing more photography and less bodywork.
Coach Farm goat family, B. Docktor
You mentioned having a darkroom in your home when you were growing up. For me, those early days of studying photography were fascinating mainly becuase of the process! That has changed so much since then...Thoughts? B: Yes the process of being in the darkroom was fascinating, but I don’t like to stand in one place. I’ve had a darkroom at every place I ever lived. But all my home darkrooms were not that well-ventilated, so Continued on next page...
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 15
B. DOCKTOR
Cedar Brook Flow, B. Docktor
I was thrilled to be able to sit in clean air and work on my photos. And the digital world blows my mind. The range of tonalities available, the ability to see the image so many different ways at the click of the buttons, the ability to remove distracting elements— I love all that. And the things we can make! I love to design albums. Having been involved in graphics from the days of the first computerized photographic typesetters and mechanicals to printing, I have a huge appreciation for being able to create the spectacular one-off albums I can make at affordable prices. And being able to make really large prints on canvas. ...There’s so much that we can do that I never even dreamed of making.
B, what is an average day like for you? If you were to keep a journal, what would you say about last Tuesday for you, for instance? (I like to pry into people’s private lives, it helps me to get a better idea of their reasons for creating art.) B: One of the best parts of my life is how varied my days are, that I’m the boss and don’t have to commute to work. A favorite quote is Garrison Keillor telling what the writer Collette said: I’ve had the most amazing life. I only wish I’d realized it sooner. Last Tuesday was a very interesting day. First I was putting the finishing touches on an 18-minute slideshow of my mom’s life for her 95th birthday party last weekend. My mom is beautiful inside and out, and between my father and me and my brothers who also photograph, we have hundreds of great images of her. I have a knack for doing animated slideshows with music—it’s my forte. It got everyone to cry when I showed it. So Tuesday, after the slideshow, I photographed 16 • 2016 MARCH THE ARTFUL MIND
cows at Fox Hill Farm in Ancramdale, which was really fun. Then I taught my Zumba class. Yes, I do that too. Then I photographed individually two friends of mine who serve on Ancram’s Conservation Advisory Council. February 21st, we’ll be celebrating Conservation in Ancram at the town hall, with a new exhibit by the wonderful artist Lynne Perrella. And I’ll be putting together a slideshow for that as well.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to your photography? Were there challenges you have put behind you to make room for new and different ones? Or are you still sculpting away at some life-force, artistic issues that will help in the creation of your life’s body of rewarding photography work? B: I’m fortunate that when I’m photographing, especially if it’s a family or a wedding, or some event that only happens once—I feel like I’m doing what I was put here to do. Being with people in a way that allows them to be uninhibitedly themselves, and having the intuition and ability to capture the moment that matters most—that’s what lights me up. Whatever I’m photographing—be it people, animals or nature, I feel that photographing makes me look at everything more intently and I so want to bring out the best in my subject. I want to create something that is compelling and makes people feel good when they look at it. For me, the best art is whatever moves me to tears. That’s what I try to do. Something I grapple with when I do a family session is that people come to me because they love the spontaneity and loving feelings they see in my photos—yet they often don’t allow me enough time with them to capture the real moments. I need to be more
persuasive about getting folks to let me spend more time with them. Being there to see the real expressions when people are just doing what they do together.
Are you actively involved in the gallery scene, or more so in client work? B: I don’t have a gallery representing me. I’d like one though! I have been showing a lot in the past few years, and I do enjoy getting my work seen. And seeing my work on the walls of someone’s home or office is very gratifying for me. I love getting the chance to design my work into a space to make it fit just right, seeing the transformation of a space. More of my time goes into client work though. And I’d like more of that too. What would be your dream shot if you could have the chance? How attainable is it? B: I don’t have a dream shot in mind. I dream of having families that want me to do for them what I do for my own family, which is document times together regularly, and make great images for walls, and albums, and spectacular slideshows that are the highlight of a party. At my mom’s party my cousin said to me, “Why don’t you just let the slideshow run continually through the party?” I said nope—it’s a group experience. There is something so powerful in having everybody sit and look at images of someone’s life all together at the same time. I dream of getting to photograph more families that really enjoy being together and doing active things together. I love to photograph sports, so I’d really enjoying photographing young athletes practicing and at events, and show the family there cheering
Milo Privitera, B. Docktor
them on. I also love to photograph dance and performance, so it would be wonderful to document at Jacob’s Pillow & Tanglewood. And I dream of having hospitals and healing places use my landscape and nature photos on their walls to promote healing, as I am often told how my photos have a healing, spiritual quality about them. I have been using them in my own massage room and I find that people never tire of looking at water and trees. B, what would your message in a bottle be? B: Imagine the world if each of us treated everyone as we’d like to be treated?
Do you have a favorite season? Tell us about what the seasons mean for you, and about the creative process and joy of living in the country. B: I love spring for the renewal and blossoming. I adore fall for our incomparable color. I especially love late August and early September for the fresh food and the way the air feels, and the cricket sounds, and being able to swim and ride my bike. I love the variety of our seasons and seeing the snow fall. I am amazed by how I never get tired of going to Bash Bish Falls, and watching it through the seasons. It always feels different, and the way the water falls truly is different every time.
Thank you, B! To reach B, try emailing her at bd@docktor.com / 518-329-6239 / bdocktorphotography.com q
The young writer/photographer with her first dog, Knight, photo by Dad.
THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 17
FINE LINE MULTIMEDIA LIVE PERFORMANCE PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO
Fine Line Multimedia provides single or multi-camera video of music, dance and theater performances. Services include: scripting and storyboard art, videography with professional high definition cameras, high quality audio recording, sensitive lighting design and creative editing with the latest non-linear editing system. For the past 45 years Fine Line Multimedia has provided audio/video performance production for The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, Berkshire Performing Arts Center, National Music Foundation, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, United Way of the Berkshires, Arlo Guthrie, Rising Son Records, Bobby Sweet, World Moja, Phil Woods, Grace Kelly, Heather Fisch, Opera Nouveau, Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company and many more. Fine Line was established in 1970 by Lee Everett in Lenox, Massachusetts. Everett came to the Berkshires after studying Advertising Design and Visual Communications at Pratt Institute and working for years as an Art Director in New York. He taught Art in local schools and began a full-service multimedia studio in Lenox specializing in the Performing and Visual Arts and other business and industry. With Photography, Graphic Design, Advertising, Marketing, Audio/Video Production, Website, Social Network Creation and Administration together under one roof, Fine Line can satisfy the artistic communications and promotional needs of a wide range of clients. Please look at some examples from our portfolios of work on our website and use the contact information on the site to get further information, to see more samples, photographs or video reels, for professional and client references or for a free project consultation. Fine Line Multimedia - 66 Church Street, Lenox, MA; www.finelinelenox.com Contact: Lee Everett, 413-637-2020, everett@berkshire.rr.com
JENNIFER PAZIENZA WORK IN PROGRESS
Home from the Berkshires and I am back in my New Brunswick studio. A painting break of a couple of months can be a bit daunting. The return to work usually involves a range of preparatory tactics. Most importantly, cleaning the studio! Dusting, sweeping, cleaning my glass palette and squeezing out colours are necessary preparations that let me feel my way into the space and take in my surroundings as they are now. Pacing, sitting, standing, looking, straightening, all of it an aesthetic ramping up. A lot like the rocking rhythm that precedes the successful execution of Double Dutch. The body tenses, the heart quickens, the breath is shallow, all senses attuned to just the right moment to jump in with both feet and begin. Begin. Begin what? I decide to paint my way into a work in progress. Finding my way back into a previous painting conversation is tricky. Will I be able to re-create the palette? I’ll be working wet into dry. What challenges will that pose? Will the paint slip? The artist Clara in the latest Louise Penny mystery, The Nature of the Beast, talks about paint slipping. In any case I began the painting in late Fall New Brunswick light. What effect will the winter light of mid-February play? Across the studio I build a fire in my wood stove then sit and take a breath. Patiently (Pazienza does mean patience) waiting I look and listen for the painting to show me, to call me, to answer my visual queries into how it is we shall again take up our exchange. Making a painting is such an intimate ritual. To interrupt that ritual, to resume months later, creates ambiguity and disorientation. I find myself in a liminal space—a threshold, or a verge—where how I once engaged the painting is made uncertain and its future thrown into doubt. Then magic! My scattered attention rests on a facet of the painting. I race to pick up a brush, load it with colour and begin just there. Jennifer Pazienza’s work is held in Public, Private and Corporate Collections in the US, Italy and Canada. She will have work in the 510 Warren Street Gallery’s June Invitational Show. Jennifer is represented by St. Francis Gallery in Lee, Mass., Art + Concepts Gallery in Fredericton, NB and The Jonathan Bancroft-Snell Gallery in London, Ontario Canada. Jennifer Pazienza - Website: http://jenniferpazienza.com/ Email: jennpazienza@gmail.com.
Be yourself! You cannot be anyone unless you become yourself first. -- Stella Adler
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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC YEHUDA HANANI, CELLIST
The fascinating phenomenon of Jewish music—spanning multitudes of cultures and centuries—its ancient roots, its meandering trails as it wends its way across continents, and its contribution to the American voice—takes center stage at a matinee performance Sunday, April 17 at 3 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. Works by Gershwin, Bernstein, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Bloch, and Max Bruch, (non-Jewish, but who adopted Jewish modes and themes), will be performed. And of course, expect a touch of klezmer, the toe-tapping Eastern European celebratory music imbued with spirituality. Medieval Iberian ballad repertoire will meet German Enlightenment (Bruch’s Kol Nidre and Felix Mendelssohn’s incomparable Piano Trio in D minor). The musical material has been passed from generation to generation, with adaptations, emendations, additions, and reinterpretations. Ravel’s rendition of Kaddish, which recycles the ancient chant in Aramaic for the departed dating back to the First Century, will be sung by tenor Alex Richardson, who this season appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Symphony, at Santa Fe Opera and Spoleto USA. The journey will include a world premiere of ZEMER for cello and piano by celebrated American composer Paul Schoenfield. Exemplifying the kaleidoscopic exploration of diverse traditions and the symbiosis of East and West, Schoenfield’s ZEMER is an adaptive reshaping of liturgical material to concert hall spirit, based on a melody by local composer Cantor Max Roth. Works from the world of klezmer include Divertimenti from Gimpel the Fool by David Schiff and Béla Kovács's Klezmer Medley, a tribute to Argentinian-born klezmer master Giora Feidman. Joining artistic director Yehuda Hanani and tenor Alex Richardson are clarinetist Paul Green, pianist Michele Levin and violinist Sarah McElravy. Mahler’s RückertLieder, popular songs by Gershwin and Kurt Weill, Kol Nidrei, Sephardic melodies by Paul Ben-Haim and Eastern European melodies by Joseph Achron offer a rich spectrum—but only the tip of the iceberg—of what constitutes Jewish music. Since in Jewish humor the answer to a question is always another question, “What Is Jewish Music?” raises many theories, but more questions. A superb time will be had seeking answers. Jewish music is the song of Judaism through the lips of the Jew. It is the tonal expression of Jewish life and development over a period of more than two thousand years.”— Abraham Z. Idelsohn, “Jewish Music: Its Historical Development,” 1929 Tickets, $45 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $25 (Balcony), are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office,413.528.0100. Visit our website at www.cewm.org
ELIXIR
Although we have had an unusually mild winter this year, and some of us are still longing for a wonderful snowstorm to complete our hibernation, spring will soon be upon us. ELIXIR can help you make the seasonal transition a joyful experience. Come in and ask about our 21 Day Restorative Cleanse that does just that…cleanses and restores!! If the commitment seems too much at this moment, remember we have delicious fresh pressed juices, enlivening smoothies, and an array of elixirs and tonics to help you move from winter to spring. We offer our cleanse people a 4 course luncheon of healing, balancing, whole foods that others may partake of, preferably with a reservation, or by chance. Everything is 100% organic, freshly prepared with love, intention and expertise, with your healing, wholeness and well-being in mind. Stop by for a soothing cup of tea in our quiet, calm, tea salon atmosphere. Reflect, read, converse, play a board game with a friend, draw, write… Later in March, look for your loose teas, herbs and spices from ELIXIR. Our shipment is on its way and we are thrilled to be offering these to our community. We invite you to future tea tastings. Think of having an ELIXIR Tea Party for birthdays, showers, anniversaries, or just for fun! Last but not least, check our facebook page for the wide variety of evening events we host from The Berkshire herbalist Collaborative workshops, to artist talks, and Musical Chordination interactive music workshops. We look forward to greeting you for all of these offerings. Elixir - 70 Railroad Street Great Barrington (next to the Triplex); March hours: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday 11am - 6pm; Saturday 11am - 8pm. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday; 413-644-8999, organictearoom@gmail.com, fb: elixir www.elixirgb.com
GOOD PURPOSE GALLERY PANDORA’S PATH, KAYLA CORBY
BERKSHIRE REVELATIONS
The Good Purpose Gallery has always exhibited artwork of local and international artists in a variety of styles and media. In March, the gallery presents Kayla Corby, a Berkshire local, who creates artwork that is beyond versatile. The exhibit, Berkshire Revelations, showcases Kayla’s oils, charcoals, and mixed media paintings: both landscapes and figurative. All her work conveys intense depth of emotion, spirituality, and movement. She has said that she “looks to find the light in the darkness and beauty in the chaos.” Join us for an opening reception on Friday, March 31 from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm. The exhibit runs through April 27. The Good Purpose Gallery and Spectrum Playhouse are professional venues that exist to offer students with learning differences real-life training, experience, and integration with the community. Both venues host professional artists and events on a regular basis throughout the year, including student events such as plays, performances, art exhibits, and more. Good Purpose Gallery - 40 Main Street, Lee, Massachusetts. The gallery is open 9am - 3pm Wednesday Monday. For more information on the Gallery, visit our website: Goodpurpose.org
DENISE B CHANDLER FINE ART LIMITED EDITION PHOTOGRAPHY
Denise B Chandler is a fine art photographer who has had her work exhibited at The Berkshire Museum, Sohn Fine Art Gallery, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, IS -183 Art School of the Berkshires, St. Francis Gallery, Chesterwood, The Hudson Opera House, Spencertown Academy Arts Center, and Tivoli Artists Gallery. In 2012, Chandler completed the Photography Residency Program at Maine Media Workshops & College. While in Maine, she was guided, encouraged and her work critiqued by renowned photographers: Michael Wilson, Andrea Monica, Peter Ralston, Arthur Meyerson, David Turner, Brenton Hamilton, David Wells, and Syl Arena. Chandler has continued her formal workshop training with master photographers, Seth Resnick, Greg Gorman, and John Paul Caponigro. Later this month she will once more train with Seth Resnick, John Paul Caponigro and Jay Maisel. Denise B Chandler is represented by Sohn Fine Art Gallery at 69 Church St. in Lenox, Massachusetts where various selections of her work can be seen throughout the year. Chandler offers private gallery visits at her personal studio/gallery by appointment only...please call either number listed below. A new member of 510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson, NY., her fine art photography can now be viewed Friday and Saturday 12 - 5, and Sunday 12-5 or by appointment.Denise B Chandler, Studio & Gallery visits by appointment only. 415 New Lenox Rd, Lenox, MA. Please call 413-637-2344 or 413-281-8461 (cell). Website: denisebchandler.com / : info@denisebchandler.com
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ROBERT FORTE Artist
interview by Harryet Candee Photography of Artist by Jane Feldman
Harryet Candee: Robert! We are both alumni from Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York City. I must pick your brain now. Have you been to any reunions? What were they like, if you did attend your year’s event? Robert Forte: Just one, in 2010. It was surreal. The reunion was held at the “castle,” the original location on Convent Avenue in the middle of City College campus. I was suddenly transported back to those glorious days steeped in the arts, when the halls were filled with energy and creativity. Some of my classmates had defied the years and were easily recognizable. Others really needed the large name tags. But when we all gathered in the auditorium to sing the words of our school song, written to Brahm's soaring melody from the First Symphony, we were all one and back home. The words that open the song are so poignant: “Now upward with wonder our distant glance is turning…” I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t feel a surge of nostalgia and a return to the beauty and idealism that M&A gave to us. It’s amazing that we attended such a dedicated
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school to the arts. Do you find the Berkshires would benefit from a similar kind of school? Or, being that the school is in the heart of NYC, would it never be the same if outside the big A? Robert: This is an easy question for me, because I am as passionate about music as I am about art. Therefore, I applaud any school that seeks to immerse its students in both. It's not where the school is located that counts (although the city is an arts mecca) but the goal of enriching academic studies with two of the most glorious means of self-expression.
So, after you went to H.S. of Music & Art, how did you end up being a lawyer? Why not pursue art in college? Robert: It was too early to make a life-defining decision. Instead, I opted for the best college education available, which I received at Columbia. And boy was that an eye-opener. I was thrilled by the variety and scope of the curriculum, and I was able to take courses in art history and music appreciation. So I really didn't leave either music or art. My decision to go to law school seemed then to be the inevitable path after having majored in American history with
a minor in government. I was also thinking about how I was going to support myself. In the four years away from M&A, I had changed quite a bit. I recall the first time I read a law decision. It was an old decision that relied heavily on British common law. I was fascinated. I think it was at that point that my mind was made up. There is just something about time-honored things and ways of thinking that always attracted me. Are you in touch with any friends or teachers from the old M&A school now? I ask you this because, since I got on Facebook, it’s been an online reunion for me almost every day of the week! Pops Peterson is a grad from Music & Art, a very good Berkshire artist! Robert: Now that I have returned to art I am meeting many graduates. Like myself, some did not pursue a career in art but felt the need to go back once their chosen careers had ended. I do wish that I had kept in touch with my own classmates. Once involved with college and law school, I simply moved on. I didn’t realize how much I had lost until the reunion. I just read Pop’s interview with you and really enjoyed it.
How do you feel about the new school at Lincoln Center? There was something about the old building in Harlem that helped the whole experience. Listening to the orchestra from the towers and being in art class was something unto itself… Robert: It is difficult to envision M&A in any other place than the original site. I am amazed that so much came back to me at the reunion. Dinner was held in the old cafeteria, which actually looked unchanged. Someone even reminded me about my difficulty in figuring out the change after I bought their milk. The auditorium and classrooms also seemed the same. In any event, M&A got a new persona when it merged with The School of Performing Arts. Do you remember what you drew for the entrance exam? Come on, tell! I drew a roll with butter and a knife in pencil, from imagination… Then—our first live model session was quiet the experience! Did you have drawing from the model in high school, or at another school? Robert: How could I forget? I had never drawn the model before so I thought, this is it, DOA. Of course, it was just the beginning. After that, I was sketching people outdoors, on the subway and wherever the
robert forte, lovers
opportunity arose. However, the rest of the exam is a blur. I do remember presenting my portfolio, and I was very proud of it. It had drawings that I did of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the collection of the Met. I also showed still lifes that I had set up at home. One in particular was done by candlelight, the light reflected in the glass dome of a clock. I tried to satisfy the requirement of one contour drawing, but I had no idea what that meant. The best I could do was a black and white landscape in ink. I was told that I had gotten it wrong, but my landscape was complimented anyway.
Robert, where did you grow up? It was New York City, correct? What kind of neighborhood? What were your parents like? Robert: I grew up in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Not much to say about it. Both the King's Bridge and the river traversed and had long since disappeared. It is close to Columbia's Baker Field, however. Otherwise, a fairly typical middle class neighborhood. My mother had a natural talent and always regretted that she never had the opportunity to develop it. When she saw my early interest in drawing, she
encouraged it. She gave me my first set of charcoals. I was very discouraged at first. I had been drawing everything with pencil and crayon. Charcoal was a challenge that I overcame only with my mother’s persistence. I soon got the hang of it and submitted charcoal drawings to three TV contests, all of which I won.
When you were studying law at Harvard Law School, did you have time to go to museums and galleries? Did you forget your first love for art while spending laborous hours studying? When escaping for a breather, where would you go? What would you do? Robert: There are many wonderful places to experience art in Boston and Cambridge. But if I were to choose the spots where I could snuggle up and stay forever, they would have to be the Frick and the Cloisters in New York. Again, that connection with old art traditions. My other favorite activity was to attend opera performances. At that time, opera in Boston was performed at the Back Bay Theater. It had no stage door. So the night I attended Rossini's "Semiramide,” I almost bumped into the prima Continued on next page... THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 21
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donna assoluta Joan Sutherland as she walked through the lobby. I had other wonderful opera and concert experiences in Boston, but Harvard posed a steep learning curve for me and I studied quite a bit. Harvard uses the case law approach, which emphasizes legal thinking rather than rote learning of laws and statutes. That requires a whole new way of thinking. The tension that built up before final exams was incredible.
So practical to become a lawyer, Robert. With an artist’s mind, how did you enjoy this career? You must be very smart! Robert: I don't know about "smart.” My mantra has been hard work and dedication. To that extent, both my law and art careers are similar. That said, I can't think of any aspect of my painting that has not required an entirely new mind set. But that is very good. I can now give life to aspects of my personality that never came into play when I was writing a brief or arguing an appeal.
I am wondering, because painting while under stressful job scenarios could be very therapeutic, did you escape to a quieter place at all? Was art
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robert forte, Hot Dog
in the picture in your heyday of lawyering? I tried to put "doing art" into the picture while I was practicing law. It didn't work out. I tried night courses at SVA but I missed too many classes because of court deadlines, and I had a hard time diverting my mind from the cases I was working on. But I did come to a crossroads. One arrow pointed to continuing down the lawyer’s road, the other the artist’s. This was in 1980, so I still could have made a change. The instructor at SVA said that I had the potential and he was willing to take me on and make it a reality if I studied art full-time. I do not regret the decision I made.
Do you have brothers and sisters? A large or small family? Robert: One phenomenal sister, Francine F. Abeles. Talk about "smart.” She recently retired from her position as Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Kean University in New Jersey, and remains active writing for prestigious mathematical journals. She also is an expert in the mathematics of Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll.
Did you travel to Europe at all in your earlier
years? What was that like for you? Robert: I traveled extensively during my vacations, mostly with groups of lawyers and judges. Although I have been to many European countries, other trips were more exciting: China, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. I loved going to exotic places and was mesmerized by the sights and sounds of India. By comparison, a sanitized Singapore proved most disappointing. I stopped traveling for the most part after 1990, the year I bought my house in the Berkshires. But in 1995, I went to the south of France and northern Italy. There were many art highlights, but the most personal experience was my visit to Genoa. A city steeped in history, it also is where my paternal grandmother was born.
So, you got back into art at long last! I would love to hear an actual experience you had during your transition. Did you have an epiphany of sorts? Did you get truly inspired by something you saw or heard that turned you back to art permanently? Robert: The transition wasn’t as difficult as you might think. Once I decided that 33 years of practicing law was enough and that I was going to retire,
robert forte, candy
I realized that I now had the chance to try out the career that I had rejected. The first step was relearning to draw, and what better place to start than with the nude model. For this I went one night a week to Spring Studio in Soho, where the director, Minerva Durham, took me in hand and I began the journey. There didn’t have to be an epiphany. The seed was there all along. Although I always dreamed of going back to art, another real game-changer was doing it as a second career rather than a pastime.
In general, what are your passions, aside from art? Cooking? Gardening? Theatre? Robert: I love the theater, but my second great passion is opera. And by this I don't mean opera productions. I am referring instead to the art of great singing, of which there is little evidence today. So I turn to my recordings, through which I can revel in the voices of Caruso, Gigli, Ponselle, Muzio, Leider, Flagstad, Nilsson, Tebaldi, Price and Sutherland, to name just a few. When I am in New York, which is usually two weeks a month, I try to see a play. I have never lost the thrill of attending live performances. One of the best times I had in recent memory was attending a performance of Twelfth Night. It was
performed as it would have been in Shakespeare’s time. All the female parts were played by men and they were amazing.
And are there any philosophical or spiritual theories that you like or follow? Why? Robert: I spent a year at Columbia studying Oriental religions and philosophic thought. I loved the study but I am unaware of any particular body of thought that influences my daily life. My only philosophy could be labeled pragmatism. I believe in achievement, which for me means setting goals and sticking to them through hard work and dedication. I also believe that there are acceptable and unacceptable ways of doing this. The end, in other words, does not necessarily justify the means. I hope that whatever I have accomplished and will accomplish will be done with humility and respect for others. How do you feel when you are in the city compared to when you are in the Berkshires? Does one locale inspire you to paint more than the other? Why would that be? Robert: The city recharges my batteries. A round of art and music-going provides both exhilaration and
relaxation. I also take advantage of the opportunity to keep up with my drawing of the nude model at Spring Studio. When I get back to the Berkshires and re-enter my studio, I am raring to go.
What was the greatest or most devastating situation you’ve ever been involved in? We all grow from certain landmark moments and times in our life. Can you share your thoughts on this? Robert: Interestingly, as much as I wanted to retire from the practice of law and plan for my new career, I had a terrible time adjusting. With the removal of structure and professional status from my life, I became quite depressed. It wasn't a devastating experience, but I learned things about myself that had only previously been hinted at. Some good, some not so good, but all of it heading for the canvas. So, you have these marvelous canvases, filled with big, bold, colorful shapes that create a landscape. For instance, Coney Island is a very exciting painting, full of movement yet very stable, expressing feelings with use of hot colors… What is your style about? How did you get to this place Continued on next page...
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of expressing an event such as this? I love it! The Coney Island painting is pure fantasy, based on my childhood impressions of that place. I wanted to express the heat of a smoldering sun, the rollicking of ocean waves, the olden days of walking with a parasol, and last but certainly not least, the fear and ugliness sensed from the exploitation of deformed human beings; hence, the clawed hand. For me, the canvas is supercharged. There is a dialogue going on with that fantastical person that tries to find some equilibrium between sensory pleasure and fear. The surface is placid yet roiling. The expression is calm and beatific, but the clawed hand strikes out. This emotional tightrope is a theme that has begun to pervade my work.
Compared to your older work, how have you developed and what has challenged you in painting? Robert: When I started painting full-time at The Art Student's League, I studied with a wonderful painter, Cornelia Foss, who placed great emphasis on spontaneity coupled with close observation. It seems incongruous but it works. I developed well under her tutelage. The day she told me that she had taught me everything she could and I should go out into the
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robert forte, coney island
world and find my own voice was the game-changer. It was difficult to do because my experience was reality-based, but my inclination was to incorporate a strong emotional component. It has taken a while, but more and more I find that painting for me is meaningful only if it has a cathartic element.
Your art work is unique, I would say. You see things not in a purely realist way, and not in a totally abstract way… but something in between that really works. Does it all depend on the subject matter that this comes through? Robert: A great deal depends on subject matter. I am choosing subjects that trigger an emotional response from me, and I care less about conventional images. My hope is that the viewer will have an emotional reaction as well, good or bad, but at the very least question what I am trying to convey. Those who have seen this painting Coney Island liked it and had a variety of interpretations, asking particularly about the hand. For me, this is success.
Not one muddy color, I must admit, so, you never overwork a painting. Now, in the painting of the two lovers, are you intentionally leaving white
space around the hand of the female, or is it unfinished? I love this let-go-of-it feeling. It brings the painting to life – as if you had this need to get this on canvas at this somewhat fleeting moment in time. I love this painting. Robert: The white is intentional. It captures the heat of the moment because it uses the crude sketch lines for the painted image, In addition, the painting is about sexual ambiguity—the viewer doesn't really know whose hand it is—and about primitive emotions. The pleasurable act of love-making is rent by the contorted figures and the movement of the stark whites. I don’t think I could have gotten these effects with oils. I worked with acrylics for the first time. It was intense, quick and thoroughly exciting. Do you have any paintings that are from the imagination? Or are most from observation? Robert: Right now, my paintings are either entirely from imagination, e.g. The Ice Cream Man, or they start with an observed image such as the flower that I placed in two imaginary underwater settings. The odd thing is that if you asked me this question a couple of years ago, I would have told you that I don’t have an imagination. The truth is that I only now
robert forte, fire island #2
have the insight and courage to use it.
Why have you landed on oils as your preferred medium, as opposed to, say, pastels or watercolor? Robert: I love the malleability of oils. I used acrylics for the first time in The Embrace (discussed above); quick dry, no extenders, just raw passion. I loved it and have to do more. Watercolors are beautiful to look at but the process for me is too controlled. I find them unforgiving. You really have to master the techniques so you get what you want right away. I do love pastels. They are soft and blend exquisitely. Just moving them around with my fingers is exciting.
Do you consider yourself a quick painter? Do you make many preliminary compositions to get the idea down for proportional purposes, and then go at it with paint? What is the method to your madness in the studio? Robert: First I immerse myself in images from a variety of sources. One of my favorite places is the Strand bookstore. There you can find art books of all descriptions, exhibition catalogs and photography. It is a bit overwhelming but things do seep in. I also
look at newspapers and magazines, and keep my eye attuned to everything around me. I go through a period of angst, but if I relax and take a day to think, the images that excited me begin to emerge and a painting starts to take form in my mind. After making a series of preliminary sketches, I compose the painting on the canvas and begin to paint. I do consider myself a quick painter but it doesn’t always work out that way. Every artist has frustrations with certain aspects of creating art. What might some of yours be? Is there an experience you can tell us about when you overcame a difficult passage of expression— with technique, seeing, connecting, or making the oil work for you? Robert: I think that frustration for me is the result of an internal conflict or an uncertainty about what I want the painting to say. If I have a clear image in mind, I like to say that the painting has painted itself. This doesn’t mean that things don’t evolve as I work. To the contrary, I am now in a place where I am receptive to any idea or sensation that emerges as I go along. This is the excitement that makes painting a fantastic voyage every time I pick up my brush. If I
feel an ambivalence at the outset, I won’t get far and I will wipe out what I have done and take a breather before I am ready to begin again. One frustrating experience that comes to mind concerns my painting of a jazz singer, which I call Singin’ the Blues. The figure is a composite, drawn from multiple sources. The problem arose because she occupies the right side of the canvas only. Since my original intent was to paint an audience on the left side, the position of the singer was okay. The audience idea, however, didn’t work. What to do? After two weeks I was ready to give up and put the painting aside. On my train ride back to New York I was still thinking about it as I looked out the window. I suddenly realized I was staring at the answer: the graffiti that was plastered on walls and overpasses along the train route. I couldn’t wait to get back and try my idea out. I think it worked. I just needed the connection between my imagination and the real world. Who has been your mentor, or mentors, with regard to painting? Robert: My principal mentor was Cornelia Foss. I studied with her at the Art Students League for five Continued on next page... THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 25
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robert forte, self-portrait
years. I began her classes because I was so impressed with her work. I stayed because she also proved to be a marvelous instructor. Her husband was Lucas Foss, the composer, conductor and pianist. So yes, very interesting and intimately connected with classical music. Before Cornelia, I worked with Minerva Durham at Spring Studio. In addition to her uncanny ability to draw the model, she took me under her wing and reintroduced me to painting with oils. I must also mention a workshop that I took with Philip Pearlstein. It was memorable for several reasons. First I lacked the experience of the other participants. Second because by the end of the workshop, he concluded that I had done the only successful painting. Talk about cloud nine! What kind of art bores you to tears, or makes you want to steer clear of it? Cubism? Graffiti? Do you consider some art to be not even art? Robert: I would like to meet the person who knows what “art” is. Once you get beyond the truly inept, I don’t think anyone should be presumptuous enough to say that something is or is not art. The type of painting that leaves me cold is photo-realism. I greatly admire the craft and patience that go into the
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work, but one look and one “how did he or she do that” and I’m done.
Now, with music, what is the importance of music in your life? Does it overlap into the painting world for you? Robert: Music, classical and operatic, are literally essential to my being. My love of opera began when I was seventeen and remains to this day. That will never change. It gets me going in the morning and it consoles me when I’m down. However, I cannot work and listen to music at the same time. That’s because I give each the most intense concentration. People do say that there is music in my work. I think it does seep in subconsciously. Robert, how do you see the art world treating you and other artists these days? Is it a hard-sell time? Why do you think that is, or does it vary from artist to artist depending on where they are showing and promoting? Robert: I have given up trying to work out the answers to these questions. Speaking only for myself, I have no problem with the way the art world has treated me. I have to thank Kate Knapp for introduc-
ing me to the Berkshire art scene in 2012 by giving me a solo exhibit at The Front Street Gallery. In that same year, Peggy Reeves curated a show for me in Great Barrington. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, I participated in the summer group shows in New Marlborough and became friendly with artists Elizabeth Lombardi and Abbe Steinglass. Since the end of 2014, I have exhibited at 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY. This month, I was welcomed into the fold of Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea in New York City. If I were writing a legal brief with these facts, I would have to say that I would win the case. Should artists living in Berkshire County pursue galleries in big cities? I know of some that have promoted their work successfully in Europe! Robert: Absolutely. The greater the exposure of your work the better. The prospect of a new and diverse audience should be every artist’s dream.
Some artists go from gallery to gallery in the Berkshires. Is there something right or wrong with doing that, you think? Robert: I don’t think there is a right or a wrong. Much depends on the geographic area you are talk-
ing about. In the case of the Berkshires, you are talking about a very special place. It draws so many people from so many different places and really is an art mecca. If you are lucky enough to exhibit in multiple galleries here, by all means do it.
Are you a sentimental type of guy? I mean, do you love reading poetry? You seem like a contemplative person. Robert: I would say that both adjectives apply, although poetry is not one of my favorite art forms. I read a great deal and I like taking long, solitary walks to enjoy the natural beauty here. My reading encompasses both fiction and non-fiction. Right now I am reading Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, on which the hit musical was based. Up next is the twovolume anthology of books by female mystery writers. I really have very eclectic tastes in reading. It takes a certain type of person to be all gung ho on promoting one’s art. And it’s generally a lot of work! How have you successfully promoted your work over the years? Robert: My website, www.robertforte.com has been expertly managed by my niece, Evelyn Abeles Wag-
robert forte, man in white Shirt
ner, is a wonderful means of promoting my work. I recently sold two paintings to people who viewed them there. There also is the advertising connected with my exhibits in Hudson and New Marlborough, much of which has been presented beautifully in The Artful Mind. From gallery experiences you’ve had, can you recall a really great experience? Or one that made you feel galleries were zoo-like and uncomfortable to be in? Would you ever consider opening up an art gallery yourself? Robert: The only time I have ever felt uncomfortable viewing art has been at a blockbuster museum exhibit in New York. As a rule, galleries are lovely and serene environments after opening day. Ownership has never entered my mind.
One thing good about hanging your art in a public space, you can see if you need to fix or touch up anything! It’s not always a permanent situation! Have you ever changed anything after it was hung? Robert: I think once. That was because I had last minute jitters and made a change which proved to
be unwise. I avoid the need to make changes by constantly placing my canvas on my studio wall as the painting progresses. After I think it’s finished, I will not look at it again for several weeks. At that point, I will make as many changes as I think necessary to make the work presentable. In connection with this question, I wonder if you saw the biographic film on Turner. He, of course, was a notorious last-minute fixer-upper. There is a sequence in the film in which he is shown exhibiting a masterful seascape. It is all blues and greens. It hangs next to a large painting by another master who has chosen red as a dominant color. Well, Turner takes out his paints and proceeds to apply a dab of red on his “finished” canvas, to the absolute horror of the other academicians. Turner then moves the red blob with his thumb to form a buoy and suddenly the painting explodes with new life. A lesson in the art of self-criticism, use of color and, with respect to the red-obsessed painter, the putdown. When at gallery openings where you have art hanging, do you keep an open ear for comments by people who are standing in front of yours? Continued on next page... THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 27
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Some comments must be very enlightening to you. Robert: Not an open ear, just an open eye. I try to resist the temptation, but I can’t. I do not like interfering with the viewer. Hopefully, the viewer will not want any interruptions. If there are inquiries, I am only too glad to respond.
There are also commissions… have you done any? They’re a whole other ballpark. I think your portraits are exquisite, and I love the one of you, the one of Ruth… how do you begin to approach and capture a person on canvas? Robert: I haven’t had or sought out any commissions. Ruth Kolbert is a beautiful person and wonderful artist. I first met her at one of my exhibits and we became friends. So the painting evolved in that way. I also did a pastel portrait of her which I like even more because the softness of pastel captures something mystical. In the case of my self-portrait, you are actually referring to my second effort. My first one was so disliked by some members of my family that I removed it from my website. I think that illustrates the problem with commissions: Do 28 • MARCH 2016 THE ARTFUL MIND
robert forte, indian river
Has your artwork ever been reviewed by a wellrespected art critic? Just wondering. Robert: I am hoping that will come about when I start exhibiting in New York City.
city living. Noise and crowds are my biggest complaints. Screeching sirens, honking horns, the megadecibel cacophony in most restaurants; I think you forget the sound picture. The offset, of course, is the availability of so much art, music and theater. I use the word “availability” advisedly. You always have to take into account the impact of so many people seeking out the same things.
Robert, what are your pet peeves when it comes to life in the country as apposed to life in the city? Robert: My peevishness is pretty much confined to
Robert, tell us about your upcoming show at 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY. Speak your mind, entice us all to come to the opening! Robert: It is called “Iconic Imagery” and in my opinion, boasts some of my most daring work. It is bold Continued nextmusic, page... and colorful. The images are drawn on from
you strive for an idealized image or one that probes beneath the surface? In the latter case, you achieve an honesty that may not be as pleasing to look at.
The key is to enjoy what you’re doing. At all times. That goes for… everything! Do you agree? The Agony and the Ecstasy… why do you think that title is so famous? Robert: Painting is a unique experience. I am not sure that the word “enjoy” applies. It is a passion that can border on the obsessive. That, I think, is the significance of the title. When things go well, the emotional high is like none other. When there is a struggle, it can be of titanic proportions and be truly agonizing.
Where do you buy your art supplies? Any favorites you’d like to share? Robert: New York Central has been around for many years and has a certain cache that none of the big suppliers can claim. It is an artist’s oasis. If not there, I order materials online from various vendors. Since my studio is here, I am unable to bring much with me from the city.
food, amusement parks, and subliminal childhood emotions. It is definitely my world on display, and my hope is that it will be entered into by those who come to see it. Try to recall your first ride on a roller coaster. Remember the aroma of mother’s apple pie. Think about the admonition often spoken by your parents, “Never take candy from a stranger.” If you recall these and more from your own background, I think you will enjoy my show.
What might be your future artistic goals? Robert: Actually, I have articulated my principal goal already but it is worth repeating. I want to create a vocabulary in paint that creates a unique world that is unlike any other because it is an expression of everything that makes me who I am. The sum total
robert forte, leeks and other Vegetables
of my emotions, experiences, background, etc., incorporated into a work of art. I was introduced recently to the paintings of Martin Wong. He succeeded in creating very personal and exciting pictorial images. I also love the paintings of Philip Guston for the same reason.
On being a happy camper, any final thoughts? Any short stories you’ve taken in on the train or at a restaurant that might be worth your time in sharing? Any quotes or views to share on the world as it is today? Robert: I consider myself to be an inquisitive person, and it is very important that I maintain a broad base of knowledge and interests. I am a “happy camper” when I can do what I love and experience what I
love but can’t do. Equally essential is having a supportive life partner and close family. No stories to tell, only paintings to paint. As for what is going on in the world today and in American politics in particular, I have a great deal to say but none of it printable. Indeed, to avoid the meanness, intolerance, hypocrisy and blind avarice and ambition that threatens our very existence, I would proudly declare myself an ostrich, albeit a voting one. Robert Forte’s first featured artist show in Hudson “Iconic Imagery.” The show begins March 4th with a reception on March 5th from 3 – 6 pm and runs until March 27th. 510 Warren Street Gallery, 510 Warren Street, Hudson, NY. 518-822-0510. k THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 29
Planet Waves by Eric Francis ARIES -- You may have the sensation that you’re sitting out in a lobby of a theater, while the most fabulous show ever is going on right on the other side of those doors. Yet you may feel like you can’t find your way into that other room, the one where all the action is. Here’s a clue: it’s inside you. That other space, or other dimension, is your own imagination. You are not missing anything at all; what’s happening is that your potential is expanding quickly, and will continue to do so until you can’t contain it any more. This may take a few weeks; then events will begin to manifest rapidly. The best thing you can do for yourself is to stay in touch with your inner life. Recognize that the ideas you have are excellent, though they may be in nascent form. They will require development, and this will take patience and persistence. You need to have enough faith in what you’re creating to stick with the plan for long enough to get results, which will only be the beginning. Rather than slow down, the way to proceed is in tangible steps that you accomplish one at a time, which lead you forward in ways you notice. Patience and taking the long view may not be your strong suits, though there are rewards for developing these skills. TAURUS -- Hold the space open around you. You’re likely to be drawing a lot of attention; and if you’re not conscious about how you handle this, you may start to feel crowded out of your own life. The focus that others place on you can be helpful, but only if you manage it carefully. It’s necessary to know who are your friends, who are your allies and who is unhelpful -- and treat everyone accordingly. You seem to be developing a more self-sacrificing way of living, which is a beautiful thing, as long as you understand why you’re doing it and maintain your sense of balance. For you, the important reality checks mostly involve whether your bodily needs are taken care of, beginning with rest, nourishment and time to contemplate your existence. Your life will have a ten-
For MARCH 2016
dency to go in the direction that it’s already going, so it will be helpful to intervene as soon as possible and make sure that the mixture is correct. At a certain point you’re going to let go into what may become a rapid flow of positive creative developments. This is a form of nourishment by itself, but you know that you’re not really happy unless you’re rested, washed and fed. To that I would add giving yourself some space and time that is all your own.
GEMINI -- As you know, it’s easier for you to have wide, general goals rather than specific ones. Yet in recent years, a few special ambitions have manifested and taken up a life of their own. Events this month, including a total eclipse in the house associated with your highest calling, can propel you to a new kind of success. This is, however, the kind of success for which there is no formula. Yet several things are clear. You must strive for what is important to you now. It’s easy to get caught up in old goals, or outdated images of yourself. Stay in the moment. What comes your way may be something you’ve never considered before. Real opportunities can be total surprises. You may not feel ready or creative enough; you may feel overwhelmed. Let none of that deter you. Many of the greatest successes in the world arrive at odd or inconvenient times. Many people discover talents they never would have considered unless the circumstances presented themselves. I suggest you use this extraordinary time as an opportunity to set aside your expectations, whether negative or positive, and rise to the occasion of what transpires. The world is a strange place right now, and the quantum idea that life is a dream we create was never more obvious than it is today. Dream beautifully.
CANCER -- One of the most brilliant inventors of the 20th century, Buckminster Fuller, was born under the sign Cancer. What drove Fuller was his desire to take care of the world. He devoted his life to improving life on Earth, as someone who created technology that solved enormous problems. You have a strong, urgent streak of this drive to nurture the world. The truly unusual astrology of the next few weeks manifests in the most creative, passionate and Comfortable Walking and Hiking Shoes visionary angle of your chart. This is for Men and Women the super-alignment in Pisces, comWaterproof styles, too! plete with a total eclipse of the Sun. Consider this a dimension opening to some potential version of yourself that you always knew you could become. When it happens, it’ll feel like it was always there, right within you. Yet in the transition between now and that moment, I would remind you of a few things. One is to stay close to your erotic feelings. The sensation of yearning, craving and desire is your psychic fertility. Invite this into everything you do, and notice how you respond to every person in your
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environment. Next, I suggest you be aware of the power of flexibility. Any truly creative environment is dynamic: there are many variables acting simultaneously on one another. The most important one is your own awareness. You don’t need to be in control. You merely need to pay attention. LEO -- Clinging to yourself, your ideas, your ideals, your money or your energy does not help. Your life is a collaborative venture, and there seems to be some rapidly growing influence to get more involved, and to take this to a new level. Yet in order not to be swallowed by your circumstances, or overwhelmed, you must loosen up and invite progress, healing and pleasure into your environment. Many people have something to offer you right now. Without alienating anyone, I suggest you choose carefully in terms of who has the thing you need the most. It might not be your official partner. It might be someone you hardly know, or someone who mysteriously arrived in your life. It might be someone you’ve looked up to for a long time and now you know you’re ready for this particular form of exchange. Be open and keep a loose grip on your reality. This will be mostly true on the level of what you think is important. You may need to rearrange your priorities, and more than that, act boldly on them when you figure out what’s true for you. It’s important that you do this before you feel the influence of others. This way you will recognize what is possible, and know that the motivation to change and grow is coming from you and not from others. That will be your basis of real trust.
VIRGO -- You seem to be in a situation where you must handle the changes someone close to you is going through in a fully conscious way. Yet you don’t need to confuse those changes with how you think someone feels about you. Seek and you shall find the truth of that. You may have to wait a little while, and you would be wise to be supportive and refrain from judgment if any unusual events unfold. The thing to do is look for the opening, where what seems to be one thing leads to something else. Your whole environment has that potential -- of a portal through the illusion of something and into a reality that corresponds only because it was previously concealed. Use your intuition, instincts and your senses and see the world around you as it is. This corresponds closely to a world within; they are like holograms of one another; a fact that’s always true but is now becoming increasingly obvious, if you slow down enough to notice. Given that, I would suggest you take as your personal motto, “When in doubt, tune in.” Listen and feel. Your ability to influence the flow of your own life comes in your knowing when you’ve reached a point of decision and then using your power to choose. Nothing is destined. Nothing is fated. You remain the center of your reality. LIBRA -- Put your health and wellbeing first, and all else will flow from there. There are, to be sure, times a person’s gotta do what they gotta do -- such as when duty calls. But this is theoretical if you lack
the power to respond fully, and that is what I suggest you preserve and cultivate. You are sensitive right now; your emotions and the health of your body are more closely linked than ever. It’s for this reason that I suggest you tend to the needs of your body -- for nourishment, water, rest and, most of all, pleasure. You have a lot to do; the environment in which you must perform has many variables, some of which have not manifested yet. Yet you can rise not just to the occasion of your circumstances but also to the occasion of your purpose. You are closer now to that purpose than you’ve been in a long time, despite the sensation that it’s difficult to grasp. The purpose of all your creativity is to develop your own original existence. Categories like art, work, personal, business, home, office, artist, craftsman and many others are blurred in your life to the point of being meaningless. You get to explore all of these things and develop them in ways that suit the purposes that you decide are valid. You are creator and created; be bold and loving as you may.
SCORPIO -- We have all read that Scorpio is the most sexual sign. If there’s one thing that everyone knows about astrology, that would be it. What’s not known is how other signs arranged around the wheel facilitate this, the most significant being Pisces. Your creative zone -- the do it for fun, get out the paints and the champagne, the cameras and the models, let’s get this art party going -- is Pisces. This stokes your imagination, melts your tendency to be restrained, and gives you a place to get into the flow of life. And this whole region of your consciousness is not only calling you, it’s like the raging river on a glorious spring day inviting you to shoot the rapids. Here’s what I suggest. Rather than telling yourself how creative, or liberated, or experienced you are, approach life as a newcomer. You’re aware by now how much has changed around you, and how nearly every previous expectation you’ve encountered has melted, faded away or exploded. Approach your existence as a learner, always seeking permission to be a little more free. It’s true that you have to let go in order to do this, but you’re not dropping anything more than a shell you no longer need, and that never really protected you. Above all, I suggest you forget psychology and any any form of rationalizing, take a deep breath and give yourself permission to feel.
SAGITTARIUS -- You seem to be alternating between the feeling of wanting to run coast-to-coast, and that of being backed into a corner. The first is a more accurate representation of your true state. The bit about being stuck or held down is merely because you have not yet figured out how to make the most of your circumstances. This, in part, is about an emotional quagmire connected to your family. There’s no version of ensnared as effective as the emotional dysfunctions of close relatives. What happens over the next few weeks is akin to a drain opening up at the bottom of your psyche, allowing you to drain one particular emotional pool associated with your distant past. This might even be your ancestral past. You came into this life a different person from your relatives, with a different mission and your own set of unique and vital assets. Don’t let anyone convince you that someone else’s problems are your own; but -- closer to the point -- don’t convince yourself. It will take some focus to step out of those influences, though the most effective way will be to step into
your own life: your highest goals, your unusual style of leadership and your willingness to serve. Others who are obsessed with their problems live their way; you have your own agenda and every right to live fully.
CAPRICORN -- Your chart looks as if you’re writing the greatest novel ever created. However, if that’s not exactly what’s happening, you might pay closer attention to the idea dynamo that is your mind -- and show it some authentic respect. Rather than your usual concepts of propriety and integrity, however, this is the respect that an artist in her studio would demonstrate for an infinite supply of paint and canvas: the willingness to hang loose and experiment. The ideas you’re thinking, feeling or at least capable of are not anything that’s been thought of before. What you express, therefore, has no need to be based on anything tried and true, certified wholesome or subject to the rules of grammar. You are safer in deep water than you are near the rocks and shoals of others’ expectations (or presumed expectations). The days of living up to your parents are long since gone. That revolution has happened, though freedom makes people nervous. Have you noticed that? Most people don’t trust themselves actually to be free, and so generally choose some form of confinement (usually mental, and often sexual). That policy will not facilitate the cosmic explosion going on in your mind right now -- though you must. Do yourself a huge favor and face your own infinite potential. Give yourself permission to take the chance. Make up the rules as you go, the most important of which is some form of YES. AQUARIUS -- It’s time to take a step financially. However, for this to work, you will need to make contact with money as the expression of something else, perhaps several other things; and you would decide what they are. It would seem that your fortunes are intimately intertwined with those of someone else, but that is the nature of any economic system; you are not walking around gathering nuts and berries (and even that was done with collaboration). Your own sense of your value to the world is what to focus on first. In the vast exchange process that is the whole world right now, you are giving up something
old for something new. Look carefully for some element of your values that no longer works, and update it for something that is about right now: the world the way you know it is today, and who you know yourself to be today. Figure out exactly what you have to offer, from the core-center known as your soul, and then notice who will benefit from that quality. This is your point of exchange. The most vital conducting medium will be service rather than money, though correctly financing the venture is clearly in the stars. Remember at every single turn that this is about you, and it’s also about a heck of a lot more than you. That is happy news.
PISCES -- You will live a year or two this month. It’s as if you’re entering an acceleration chamber, where you will be taken from where you are now, through many changes, to a new place and time. It’s therefore essential that you know the direction you’re headed, and have some idea where you want to go. This means focusing goals in tangible language. Work from your highest priorities, and put some thought into what they are. Eliminate goals that are no longer actually on your agenda. Then you might revisit certain desires, ambitions and objectives that you let go of in the past, whether because they seemed impossible or because you were not ready. You will find that some of those things seem much more practical and attainable now. The whole world is in a phase of acceleration, moving so fast that people don’t have time to think. You, however, must take the time, and consider where you’ve been, where you are, and what you want. This will invariably lead to considering who you were, who you are and who you want to be. Remember that the feeling tone of those destinations is as vital as the specific facts: tones and shades such as relaxed, loving, spacious, creative, erotic, exciting, alive, engaged, successful -- mix and match your favorites, then feel your way there.
“Everything you can imagine is real.” -Pablo Picasso
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Please God Not Van Gogh! PART III
Richard Britell
Rose explained to Coromo what she planned to do to the dining room, and her explanation gave him some insight into why she wanted to include his paintings. “We will replace all of the chairs and tables with much more rustic items, no chrome, no Formica, and no plastic. Every section of wall will be a different color, and some walls will be two or three colors where patches of one color show through another as if by accident.” “If you go down to the village just a mile from the resort you will see this color idea used on all of the buildings completely by accident. A wall is painted yellow one year, and then green at another time, later the wall is covered over with a rose red, and then one color breaks through another in the most sensuous way.” “The mixture of many random colors only works if time and the weather work on them. If one is to imitate this effect every color must be selected and adjusted with great care, only an artist’s eye such as you have can accomplish this task.” Rose then applied her theory to Coromo’s paintings, pointing out how he may have painted the grass pink, and the lion’s face purple, but it was not just any pink, and it was not just any purple. The delicate adjustment of these tints was what made Coromo’s paintings wonderful, because, she insisted, he was a natural born colorist. “As far as your ideas and subject matter you chose for your paintings, about that I have nothing to say,” Rose pronounced. “You are like Magritte or even Salvatore Dali in that no one could guess where your ideas come from. But if you just keep on doing what you have been doing, in time I expect you will make a name for yourself.” Coromo did not believe any of this. What did, “make a name for yourself” mean, he wondered, and who were Dali and Magritte? He had no idea. Nothing Rose said to him was able to dislodge his sneaking suspicion that it was all a nasty trick being played on him by a malevolent force bent on leading him to some unforeseen destruc32 • MARCH 2016 THE ARTFUL MIND
tion, probably as a justified punishment for fooling around with that third sister he still could not stop thinking about all the time. He may have been in his mid-twenties but in many respects he was just a child. His childishness expressed itself in many ways, one of which was his desire to paint pictures, but also in his simple idea of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. To put it simply, Coromo believed that there was such a thing as truth and falsehood, and these two things were obvious and understandable to anyone. For example, let’s say it is raining outside. Everyone can agree on the truth of this statement. The truth of a present downpour was simple, obvious and incontrovertible, and so not subject to dispute or discussion. To Coromo the same simplicity applied to his pictures, they were either good or they were not good. It was as simple as that. Obviously there were people who knew about pictures and they would know the incontrovertible answer to the question, “Are Coromo’s pictures good or are they bad?” His opinion was of no account. If you have painted pictures yourself and had the misfortune to overhear other people talking about them, you know what I mean. Here was the difficulty: he had the opinions of three people about his pictures. Rose VanDusenberg thought that they were good, good enough to take responsibility for putting them up in the dining room of the resort. Tallulah thought they were good, good enough to actually purchase them. But the hotel manager though his pictures were bad, so bad that they were deserving of ridicule. Rose’s observations about his use of color did not impress him either, the fact that there were walls down in the village painted all sorts of colors, and parts of these walls were crumbling and falling apart was in no way beautiful or picturesque to Coromo. On the contrary it was just decrepit. He was unable to see his surroundings with a stranger’s eyes. It was too familiar to be interesting. His real suspicion was that it all had nothing to do with his paintings, it was simply that old ladies like Rose and Tallulah always liked him, and as a result were sure to like his pictures no matter what they looked like. This was no comfort to him, because he felt his pictures were about to be thrust into the real world where the truth would immediately come out. The restaurant manager’s opinion would prevail, and he would end up being made a fool of, to the manager’s delight. He made up his mind to hang his pictures in the restaurant as Rose had commanded him to do, but under no circumstances was he going to take credit for them or tell anyone he had painted them. The manager knew, but he could do nothing about that. A week later, after dinner, a crew of painters and decorators invaded the dining room and worked all night and through the following day. At dinnertime the room was ready for business. All the walls were transformed with various colors, and all the furniture was replaced with rustic chairs and tables, It was a shocking transformation, but what followed was even more shocking to Coromo. What followed was — nothing! The guests of the resort seemed to have no reaction at all to the room’s transformation. They neither commented about the color, nor remarked about the change of the furniture. No one took the least interest in the new pictures. Coromo’s paintings were not subjected to ridicule, on the contrary, it was as if his pictures were not there at all. Nobody looked at them. Coromo soon realized that the redecoration was a success however. The patrons all stayed longer in the evening than they had before, and their liquor tabs increased significantly. The change was subtle, but one thing was noticeable. The color of the walls reflecting in the guests’ faces made everyone looked more vibrant and
lively. “Those tan and gray walls were deadly,” he thought. “Rose was correct. Color transforms everyone emotionally, if only they are perfect colors.” He found himself in a peculiar situation. His pictures were all on one wall of the dining room, and along that wall were six tables all of which were in his section so he was the waiter for the patrons sitting next to his paintings. None of the resort guests had any idea that he was the artist who had painted the pictures, and he had no intention of informing anyone. None of the clients paid any attention to the pictures in the dining room at first, but after a few weeks he began to notice that there were exceptions to the aesthetic indifference of the resort clients. Every once in a while one of the guests, after a long expensive meal and several drinks, would totter up to one of his pictures and make an obscure comment. But Coromo was coming and going about his duties and what he heard was invariably just a half a sentence. There were a lot of art works in the restaurant but it was Coromo’s pictures that were commented on, everything else was passed over in silence. What were these people thinking? What were they saying? He had no idea. The situation was nerve wracking for him. Then one day he sold another painting to one of the tourists. This is how it happened. There was a family of five, a mother and father and three children two boys and a girl. The children were all under ten years old. It was their last day at the resort and they were trying to decide what to purchase to take home as a keepsake of their vacation. All of the children wanted to buy one of Coromo’s paintings, the one of the black and white striped tourist bus with the dog-headed passengers. Since Coromo was waiting on their table, they asked him if it was possible to find out if the picture was for sale. He said he had no idea but he would find out from the manager. He was willing to sell his picture to the family, as long as he did not have to admit that he was the person who had painted it. The manager agreed to let him sell the picture right off the restaurant wall, and so he had to decide on a price for it. All of his previous sales had been to Tallulah, and he had charged a dollar for each one. Now he was emboldened by the new interest in his work, and so he decided to double his price to two dollars. The tourist family did not haggle over the price and so they took the picture off the wall, wrapped it in a towel, and took it home with them the next day. ~Richard britell
Our perception of the world is modified by the ways we rationalize our behavior. Seek those rationalizations which color the character's motivation; which actively drive the character in his or her quest for love, power, wealth or justice. -- BM
FRONT ST. GALLERY
Sam by Kate Knapp
CLASSES! CLASSES! CLASSES! Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field. Also available for private critiques. Open to all. Please come paint with us!
gallery hours: open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) Front Street, Housatonic, MA
Denise B Chandler Fine Art Photography
©Denise B chandler, 2014
EXHiBitinG and rEprESEntED by:
• Sohn fine art Gallery 69 church St., lenox, ma
• 510 warren Street Gallery 510 warren St., Hudson, nY
510
The Good Purpose Gallery 40 Main Street, Lee, MA Invitational Group Show February 12 - 22
www.denisebchandler.com info@denisebchandler.com
WARREN ST GALLERY
Mary Carol Rudin
“Let Them Eat Cake, Chocolate”
www.mcrudin.com mcrudin123@gmail.com THE ARTFUL MIND MARCH 2016 • 33
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Grandma Becky’s RECIPES by Laura Pian
Kasha Varnishkes
Kasha, Oy, I know, I know! Kasha, from the buckwheat family of whole grains and often served as a cereal, may have found its origins in Central and Eastern Europe. But lucky for me, it settled its way from my Grandma Becky’s Russian home in Shepatovka all the way on to our table in the Bronx. A miracle!
I always knew when Grandma Becky was visiting. I’d smell her cooking before I’d see her face. Coming home from a long day at school, I’d take the elevator up to our 5th floor apartment. What a thrill it was when the elevator door opened up and I immediately smelled an entire hallway filled with BECKY LOVE! Kasha can be served as a side dish or a healthy main meal. Grandma Becky would be surprised today to learn that kasha is gluten free, high in fiber, high in important B complex vitamins such as riboflavin and niacin, as well as other important minerals like copper and magnesium. Nevertheless, Kasha is a heartwarming dish full of love, and always smells like being at Grandma’s. Put a plate of kasha varnishkes on the table, and you will find it pleases everyone at any age – from Bubbe to Baby. It works well hot or cold, and compliments well with any addition (chopped mushrooms, edemame, peas, sliced carrots, celery, spinach, etc). After all, it made it thru many a war. Grandma Becky originally prepared this dish with not only tsibelach (fried onions), but also with schmaltz (chicken fat). For those of us who are not looking for a heart attack served in a bowl, we’ll just stick to low-fat chicken broth for our purposes here. She served kasha varnishkes as a side dish to a hot, sliced, juicy brisket, roasted chicken – or she made a one-dish meal by rolling kasha and fried onions into a doughy bletlach (what we now call crepes) into a most delicious “kasha blintze.” Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked Kasha (I use medium granulation or course ground) 1 medium onion (diced into medium sized pieces) 3 tablespoons oil for frying onion 2 cups chicken broth 2 tablespoons butter or margarine (optional) 1 egg Salt & pepper to taste 8 ounces bow tie (egg) pasta – or any pasta would work
Directions: Cook pasta in boiling water until done (keep aside). These are your “varneshkes” Fry diced onion in oil until soft and slightly browned (keep aside). These are your “tsibelach”. Bring 2 cups chicken broth to a boil. Add butter (optional). Turn heat down and keep warm. In a bowl, lightly beat egg with fork. Add uncooked kasha to egg mixture and stir to coat well. When kasha is fully egg coated, add into in a separate, medium sized skillet. Cook over medium to high heat for approximately 3-4 minutes stirring constantly until egg has dried on kasha and the kernels are separate. Reduce heat to low. Be careful not to burn. Quickly stir boiling broth into kasha/egg mixture. Cover tightly; let simmer 10 minutes or until the kasha kernels are tender and liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Makes about 4 cups. Fluff the tsibelach (fried onions) into the kasha, add the varneshkes (bow tie pastas). Mix well, season with salt & pepper to taste. Esn gezunt! (Eat well!) Comments? e-mail Laura at artfulmind@yahoo.com
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