The Artful Mind Feb/mar 2021

Berkshires artzine promoting and supporting the visual and performing arts since 1994

THE ARTFUL MIND February / March 2021

LEE AND JOHN CHEEK, BASS-BARITONE & WHITBY THE CAT Photography by Edward Acker

The Fine Art of Printing Fine Art. · Giclée Printing · Digital Reproduction of Paintings · Photo Restoration and Repair

“The prints have amazing clarity and are absolutely beautiful reproductions of the original works.

Clients are amazed with the quality.”

– Virginia Bradley

Playa Santa 22 — Virginia Bradley

Drop-off & Pick-up Available in Great Barrington, MA and Millerton, NY Studio located in Mount Washington, MA l berkshiredigital.com l 413 · 644· 9663

NATURE STREAKS oil on canvas 36”X48”

Ghetta Hirsch

website: www.ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com instagram: @ghettahirschpaintings Text or call : 413. 281. 0626

Carolyn Newberger Life drawing, collage, watercolor, portraiture and commissions

cnewberger@me.com www.carolynnewberger.com 617-877-5672 2 • FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

FRONT ST. GALLERY

ELEANOR LORD

Kate Knapp, 124 x 30” 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) www.kateknappartist.com

Landscape in pastel

www.Eleanorlord.com

Front Street, Housatonic, MA THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 3

THE ARTFUL MIND “To my mind one does not put oneself in place of the past, one only adds a new link.”

– Paul Cézanne

FEBRUARY DALE AND PHYLLIS WEBB / SHEFFIELD, MA INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE

/ MARCH 2021

MAGIC FLUKE CO.

/ PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDWARD ACKER...8

VIRTUAL GALLERY 2021 ...16 Plum Island

DYLAN W. KUBIS Inspirational, Sensational Photography Custom prints Images are available as greeting cards and can be printed on t-shirts.

Dkubis@gmail.com Instagram: DWKPhotos https://instagram.com/dwkphotos?igshid=1s9cnjy663wcm

JOHN CHEEK / BASS-BARATONE OPERA SINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDWARD ACKER INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE...30

ELIOT OSBORNE / JOINT CHIEFS / MUSIC

INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL COBB ...36

ROSELLE KLINE CHARTOCK BOOK: THE JEWISH WORLD OF ELVIS PRESLEY INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE ...38 SUSIE KAUFMAN / FICTION UNDERGROUND...42 RICHARD BRITELL / FICTION PROCTOR CRONK STARTS COLLECTING ART TORPEPART TWO...44MISS DOES...60 Publisher / Harryet Candee Copy Editor / Marguerite Bride Third Eye / Jeff Bynack Advertising and Graphic Design / Harryet Candee Contributing Writers / Richard Britell / Mike Cobb / Susie Kaufman Photographers / Edward Acker / Tasja Keetman ADVERTISING RATES for VIRTUAL GALLERY and Display please call 413 - 645 - 4114 artfulmind@yahoo.com issuu.com

/ instagram

FB Open Group: ARTFUL GALLERY for artful minds The Artful Mind Box 985

Great Barrington, MA 01230

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. All commentaries by writers are not necessarily the opinion of the publisher and take no responsibility for

4 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

their facts and opinions.

MATT CHINIAN American Social Realism

Virtual show@ at

mattchinian.com

#1743 Lake St. 12-19-20 16x18

#1754 Yellow flower in blue bottle 1-16-21 16x 12

Contact/studio visits: mattchinian@gmail.com #1751 Greenwood Ave. Mechanicville. 1-10-21 14x 16

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 5

CHINIAN, #1743 LAKE ST. 12-19-20 16X18 .TIF

#1754 Yellow flower in blue bottle 1-16-21 16x 12

MATT CHINIAN Like a reporter I record the time and place of my wanderings around Upstate New York and New England. I find places and scenes of fascination: quiet woodlands or gas stations, farmlands or industrial sites, places I see in passing, sometimes from the corner of my eye often easily overlooked by others. This is where I find beauty. This is where I find the sublime. mattchinian.com

KATHARINE DUFAULT British born Katharine Dufault is a New York Times-reviewed artist, curator and visual arts consultant. She has advised non-profit gallery boards, sat on visual arts panels and served as juror for several awards. Dufault graduated with honors from Columbia University, with a degree in painting and literature after studying visual arts, graphic design and photography at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, England.

For the past 10 years Katharine has honed her skills as a curator and art consultant. Now in the Berkshires and Columbia County, Katharine, uses her expertise and knowledge of the contemporary art scene to help clients select and acquire contemporary art - including paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures - for their home or business collection. She has an extensive and deep-rooted network of contacts in the visual arts field, and numerous professional sources. Katharine also offers home decor guidance with access to the design trade sector. She provides a complete service for residential or corporate clients which rely on outstanding presentation and satisfaction.

Contact Katharine to talk more about how she can help make your space State Of The Art. Katharine Dufault - (914) 484-0535; katdufault@gmail.com; stateofthearthome.com

6 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

KATE KNAPP

FRONT ST. 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.

Front Street Gallery – Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) www.kateknappartist.com

Wednesday with James by Alex Kamaroff

James Hendricks

It was four years ago. I had just gotten back from Paris when a strange email showed up on my computer. “My Orkin exterminator man said that you’re an artist like me.

Call me!”

His name was James Hendricks. He lived an hour from me in Northampton, so I figured I should visit him and say hello. The fact is that most people who try to paint are not that good. I figured he was just some second-rate painter.

The moment I walked into his house I knew how very wrong I had been. James was brilliant. I almost fell to my knees in awe. On one wall was a mind-blowing abstract painting. It was twelve by sixty feet long, the longest brush stroke in the world going across a mammoth canvas.

MILLENIUM EXPRESS was filled with daring images, intense color, and an eternal sense of outer space.

It turned out that he had exhibited at the Smithsonian.

We became close friends almost right away. He had been an art history and painting teacher at U Mass for over thirty years and had been friends with Chuck Close and de Kooning and other famous artists. If I had any formal training as an abstract hard-edge painter, it was from him and his mentorship that was invaluable.

I called it Wednesday with James. Every week for two years I sat with him in his studio and we would talk for hours and hours about anything and everything, without ever once repeating ourselves.

He always had his age-old scotch, and I had my beer and we both had our cigars. He taught me about every great modern artist and introduced me to many I never heard of.

He was my mentor, my friend and my guide.

As for his studio, it had a huge forty-foot high ceiling and easily a hundred square feet of space in which to throw

paint, much in the form of Jackson Pollock. But James used round canvases as well as the traditional huge rectangular nine by six footers.

Every week I’d bring in my latest creation and he would examine and critique it. Of course, I did the same for him.

One day I came in and saw that he had placed a red overbearing circle to the side of a painting he was working on.

I hated it and said so. When he had left the studio to refill his glass of Scotch, I brazenly taped a paper towel over it.

Sitting back in his broken-down chair he examined my idea and laughed his baritone voice booming.

“Better,” he exclaimed. “It’s much better!”

And that’s how we would start off a long day of talking about artists he had known.

Each time he brought up a new one I’d never heard about, I’d pull out my I phone and say “time to look into the magic mirror.” And off I went looking up the likes of Glarner, Bolotowsky, Goren and a slew of other modern artists, living and dead, that I had never heard of. I would then go home and steal motifs from these great works of art, applying them to my own canvas. And once more I’d bring it to James, hang it on the nails that protruded from his cement studio walls and listen to his comments.

He’d recognize the style of the artist I was stealing from and shake his head at how I took the motifs to another level.

Picasso put it best. “Good artists copy, but great artists steal.”

James died two years ago and there is still a hole inside me that doesn’t want to heal. He can’t be replaced.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t still talk to him. I do, and he answers me in my head, because I know what he would say. But there are times when I don’t know what he would say, and those are the times I miss him the most.

Glendale Brook Studio 27 Church St. Lenox, MA 01240 Or call and ask for Alex! 413-623-5081 glendalebrookstudio@gmail.com www.glendalebrookstudio.com THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 7

Phyllis and Dale Webb

DALE AND PHYLLIS WEBB MAGIC FLUKE COMPANY SHEFFIELD MASSACHUSETTS Interview by Harryet Candee

Harryet Candee: Magic Fluke Co.—the name alone is very interesting! What is it’s meaning, and how was it chosen?

Dale Webb: I have to blame my brother-in-law Jim Beloff for getting us into this business. He was a musician and guitarist working for Billboard magazine in LA when he found his soul mate in a Martin ukulele at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. At this time in the late 90’s, the ukulele was a footnote in history ending with Tiny Tim in the late 60’s. Realizing all the attributes of the uke and feeling the rumblings of a ukulele revival, he started publishing a series of “Jumpin’ Jim” how to play uke books under the company name of Flea Market Music. With increasing sales and a growing market for an affordable quality instrument, I collaborated on the challenge to redesign the basic uke which we named the Fluke. The word incorporates the FL from Flea Market Music and uke as well as one of its definitions being the triangular shape of a whale’s tail which the Fluke body mimics.

Photography by Edward Acker

Phyllis, can you give us an introduction into how Magic Fluke Co. operates?

Phyllis Webb: With three home built prototypes, and a handful of ukulele song books, we exhibited at the 1999 NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) in LA. As the only dedicated ukulele company present out of thousands of exhibitors. Retailers intrigued with our unusual, colorful instruments, we came away with a hand full of wholesale orders including some going overseas. As we continued to attend for the next 20 years, the popularity of the uke eventually grew to where sales outnumbered guitars. From the beginning we have distinguished ourselves with our unique designs and construction compared to the competition which mostly consisted of look-alike instruments where a $100 Chinese knock-off can look like a valuable rare vintage instrument.

We also have the ability to print custom full color images on the tops of our ukes using a process called dye-sublimation. Many examples of this can be seen on our Gallery page of the website.

8 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

Made in America has also always carried weight overseas.

Dale, how is one of your Cricket fiddle made in your shop?

Dale: The formula we have had success with involves utilizing local vendors who specialize in certain types of parts to make our components so we can concentrate on assembly. We try to stock parts for everything we offer so we can turn around an order in anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the complexity or number of instruments involved. The acoustic instruments start with an engineered thermoplastic injection molded body made locally. Most wood components are either CNC milled (using computer controlled machines) or cut on our laser at the shop. We prefinish most parts and utilize an industrial hot melt glue that speeds the process of assembly. Many fixtures and processes are specifically designed to get consistent, precise results. Any musical instrument requires meticulous

Photo credit: Harrison Levenstein

set up and dialing in to be acceptable by players purchasing sight unseen.

and Fluke Ukuleles but they each took it several steps further. Bill has given many as gifts and filled a staged music store in a movie with Magic Fluke ukuleles. Bette played a Swarovski studded pink and white Flea on her Vegas stage for two years and chose customized Fleas for her merchandise tables during her Divine Intervention tour. She had to have two of the Swarovski encrusted Fleas, one as a backup. When her show came to a close after two years, she gave one of them to the Obama daughters residing in the White House. Tony Danza plays a Flea Ukulele which he incorporates into most all his many performing endeavors.

Please tell us about the team of talented employees you have at the shop?

Dale: We feel very fortunate to have Hannah Schiffer and Michael Junkins as our core team. With everyone required to wear all hats, it takes at least a year to get up to speed with most of our operation, and everyone who succeeds here usually has some previous hands on skills as well as some musical ability and interest. Michael is an accomplished jazz guitarist with past experience as a guitar luthier, as well as small business management. Hannah has an extensive background in theater and music, and continues to manage Ancram Opera House productions. We put her What about sharing one of your fonmulti-talents to work covering the front dest memories with Magic Fluke Co.? end, managing production, our web site, Dale: Our second year in business, we shipping, and most customer corresponmade a trip to Hawaii for the annual Magic Fluke’s Cricket fiddle dence. We have also had a history of inukulele festival. One day I wandered terns who typically stick with us for years while working their way through down to Waikiki Beach to rent a surf board from a small rustic shack near high school and college. Phyllis leads the way with her exceptional customer the water. Upon returning, I was amazed to find the Hawaiian surfer behind service which has been our trademark since day one. the counter passing time playing our Fluke purchased from one of the many ukulele shops on the island. I was quite surprised and flattered to find our Phyllis, have you had the opportunity to meet famous people who have unconventional instrument thousands of miles away on the beach in Hawaii taken an interest in the musical instruments you sell? where the uke has such a strong cultural tradition. Over the years, they have Phyllis: Yes, we have been fortunate to have had some wonderful inter- popped up in many unexpected places including movies, magazines, and a actions with some famous folks. My brother taught William H Macy and MacDonald’s commercial!

Bette Midler to play ukulele. They both took to playing Magic Fluke Flea Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND

FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 9

Inside the shop, Bailey and Hannah busy at work

Where were you living prior to the Berkshires, and what attracted you here?

Dale: We started in our basement in New Hartford, CT in early 1999. After two years and a nearly 10,000 ukuleles shipped, we renovated and moved to a historic gas station down the road for the next eight years. With business increasing we needed more space and in 2011 started looking for a fresh start in a new area.

Having grown up not too far in upstate NY, the Berkshires was top of the list at less than an hour away and offering a healthy environment for our family with rural farmland, and a vibrant arts and music scene benefiting our business and in sync with our own interests. We were lucky to find the beautiful post-and-beam building we are in now – a perfect setting for the work we do. The Sheffield local community came pouring out to welcome us and couldn’t wait to take a peek at our operation and even take up the ukulele.

This is truly a very special place as we have settled into a community of like-minded, interesting progressive individuals. We share much in common with our neighbors, as advocates of the environment and supportive of our community, pursuing their dreams and living alternative lifestyles.

Is music often heard in the background while everyone is diligently working?

Dale: Listening to good music is a big perk in our shop and one thing you will almost never hear is corporate commercial radio on our audiophile quality vintage sound system. We support all the small local stations and enjoy most all the programming. The more eclectic the better, however lately we are listening to a variety of jazz with

Michael’s influence in the shop. You can find him practicing in our lesson room upstairs most days before work.

Do you think you have found a comfortable niche with Magic Fluke Co. before and during the onset of 2020’s pandemic? Have you had to change anything?

Dale: I think we have found our niche with our unique, affordable designs and the distinction of being made in the USA. We have been dedicated to keeping our operation as local as possible and enjoy working within our community. What we do is not easy and we have no desire to grow significantly without major changes in the way we operate. Our custom business has grown and helps keep us challenged and engaged. We are also taking on more repairs of all instruments.

With the recent loss of many small retail music stores, we are trying to fill the void by stocking common strings and some accessories for all musicians.

Phyllis, can you tell us about some of the people you are thankful for in terms of their help, energy, and support they’ve given you when a shoulder was needed to lean upon?

Phyllis: Dale and I share shoulders, we lean on each other. Our crew is great at listening and they are happy to share their ideas and inspire us. Our kids have been solid sounding boards over the years and have offered some very interesting advice, as well as modern day technical skills including CAD design and modelling of new parts, CNC machine programing, and website redesign.

I am also fortunate to be an alum (Nov 2017) of the Goldman Sachs 10KSB (10,000 Small Busi-

10 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

nesses) entrepreneurial program in partnership with Babson College. There is tremendous support from the program, especially through Covid and I am part of a small group of alumni from here to Hawaii, that meets monthly via Zoom (even before the pandemic) to support each other as we work on our businesses. It’s like having the best board of directors!

What has this year been like for you personally, and for Magic Fluke Co.?

Dale: A wild year indeed…we actually closed for a few weeks initially during the spring shutdown and all instrument orders came to a standstill.

Soon however, direct internet orders started to pick up and carried us thru the year. Wholesale did not recover until the holidays since most music stores had to close and it took them until the end of the year to figure things out. Instrument sales in general have been up as many found themselves at home with time on their hands to pick up an instrument and make music. The ukulele lends itself perfectly as one of the easiest and affordable instruments to learn how to play.

As our three boys; Joshua, Ben, and Sam, migrated home, we settled into an intimate family routine of work, play, and good food. We realize we were luckier than most as we all maintained our employment, and were able to spend much quality family time together on projects that normally would not have happened. We have been so incredibly fortunate to have experienced many silver linings.

Dale, all Magic Fluke instruments are portable and have crystal clear sounding quality, and is so easy for folks to carry them to their destina-

Dale, Phyllis and Joshua Webb

tions, near and far. What feedback have you heard from your customers that have enjoyed the easy access to these fine instruments while traveling and being outdoors?

Dale: One of our biggest pleasures and inspiration is seeing the videos and hearing the stories of customers playing our instruments in remote, unusual places. Our Cricket fiddle has been played while repelling down a shear 500 foot cliff, in subzero temperatures in remote Iceland.

From the start, our instruments quickly gained a reputation for being exceptionally durable and well suited for outdoor adventure.

Phyllis, I am wondering how have you coped during the Covid shutdown and what have you seen going on in the music scene during this time period that has affected all of us?

Phyllis: We are thrilled to be connected to the music and arts community and enjoyed gathering outdoors at our prized Dewey Hall here in Sheffield. 4 days and nights each week, there were top notch live music performances, jesting, storytelling and other unique ways to support our local talent and our historic venue. Michael Junkins and his jazz band offered top notch sound while we dined al fresco at the Red Lion Inn. WAM Theater, one of many local options, produced virtual theater with powerful and timely subjects easy to support from the comfort and safety of our home. Our own Sheffield Historical Society stood up to the challenge keeping us engaged virtually and at outside gatherings offering both musical and visual arts throughout the year.

At the end of a long day at the shop, what thoughts come to mind?

Dale: What’s for dinner? And who’s cooking?

We eat very well with lots of our own seasonal produce as well as taking full advantage of what our local farms have to offer. For most of this past year, with everyone at home and Ben’s contributions from the farm, we all share kitchen duties. Cycling is also a popular activity with Josh and I commuting year round, it gets the blood circulating and you arrive at the shop alert and ready to go – especially in January.

What do you like to do on your leisure time?

Are you a musically inclined?

Dale: Despite playing a little guitar in high school, I am not a musician and after a nasty accident five years ago with a power saw leaving me without any feeling in the fingers of my left hand, I have completely given up any attempts at learning to play, which frees me up to pursue other interests. As an engineer, carrying on a family tradition of self-sufficiency and frugality, I am burdened with the role of having to do nearly everything with nothing – which is exactly what it feels like. Having collected and inherited a barn full of tools and materials, we build, fix, redesign or repurpose most things, with buying new a last resort. At one point our running vehicles had represented each decade from the 1950s, to today, including a vintage VW based buggy still in the works. Weekends and evenings are filled with never ending home and barn renovations, furniture design, mechanics, and any other project that comes along posing a challenge. Much of the wood we currently use, including a lot of black walnut for our instruments, was harvested and milled from our family farm property in Amenia NY. More recently guided by

our son Ben’s expertise, we have been pursuing more serious gardening at home as well as hosting a flock of sheep and goats in the summer.

Phyllis, what would you consider to be a popular piece of music people love to learn and play on any and all of the instruments you make?

Phyllis: Perhaps one of the most popular medleys of all time is that of Hawaiian, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (known to many as IZ) beautifully threading together Somewhere Over The Rainbow and What A Wonderful World. These songs never get old to my ears and it is fair to say that when people think of learning to play the ukulele, there is a secret ambition to conquer that arrangement. You can play any genre on the ukulele, though some suggest you can’t play the blues since strumming the ukulele makes everyone smile!

A personal introduction to Magic Fluke Co. can only be a joyful experience. To learn more and get your feet wet with a uke or any other instrument sold by you, whats the best way to reach out?

Dale: Give us a call at 413-229-8536 or visit us on the web at www.magicfluke.com

Thank you, Dale and Phyllis!

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 11

BERKSHIRE DIGITAL MARGUERITE BRIDE, WATERCOLOR

MARGUERITE BRIDE WATERCOLORS I have recently discovered a funky way to take photos using something called a “lensball”. But I don’t necessarily use this just to take unusual artsy photos, I use it gather reference material and inspire new paintings. I recently created a couple of paintings based on some of my reference shots that will be auctioned at the annual 10 x 10 Real Art Party, the Berkshire Art Association’s yearly fundraising event. Always a hoot…and until this year it was held in person…for a $25 ticket, you are guaranteed to go home with an original work of art donated by a Berkshire artist.

A very worthwhile event…check out Pittsfield’s 10x10 events or the BAA website for more information. The live online auction is Thursday, February 18 and proceeds will benefit Berkshire County students through BAA Fellowship scholarships, field trips to Berkshire educational art departments, free admission for students to the Berkshire Museum, art supplies for students, teachers, and more.

As always, if you are interested in a painting (commissions or otherwise), or a fine art repro or cards, please be in touch.

Marguerite Bride – 413-841-1659 or 413-4427718; https://margebride-paintings.com/; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

12 •FEBRUARY 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done fine art printing for artists and photographers.

Giclée prints can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured in last Summer’s issue of PDN magazine in an article about fine art printing. See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website.

Berkshire Digital does accurate hi-res photoreproductions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites.

“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional or more enjoyable to work with. He came to my studio, set everything up, and did a beautiful job in photographing a ton of paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feeling to know I have these beautiful, useful files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d called Fred years ago.” ---- Ann Getsinger We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at BerkshireDigital.com Another service offered is portraits of artists in their studios, or wherever they would like, for use in magazines, as the author’s picture in a book, websites or cards. See samples of artist portraits on our website.

The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston, Stamford, and the Berkshires. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt Washington but drop-off and pickup is available through Frames On Wheels, 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing, 17 John Street in Millerton, NY (518) 789-3428.

Berkshire Digital - 413 6449663, or go online to www.BerkshireDigital.com

ELIXIR Greetings!

February is a favorite month of mine.Memories of deep snow and sunny cold days of sledding, skating on the pond, making snowmen, warming up with a hot chocolate :) and sitting by the fire reading or daydreaming or both! Presently I enjoy cross country skiing, but I have to admit, as of this writing (end of January) I have not braved the below zero winds to do that yet!

Another February pastime is getting out the seed catalogs and ordering way more seeds than I could ever use in one season…hope springs eternal! We grow our own herbs for Elixir and hope to be growing more each year!

At Elixir, in February we celebrate the Chinese New Year (this year on the 12th) followed by Valentine’s Day on the 14th. Make your reservation for our Chinese New Years menu of Dim Sum and more! 2 seatings 4:30pm and 7pm.

For Valentine’s Day, look forward to and reserve for our chocolate themed menu with seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm.

Take out will also be available with advanced notice as well. Call us for details!!

We are also running our 21 Day Restorative Cleanse as we did in January. Reset your body, mind, and spirit over this 21 days of pure nourishment & nurturing…make an appointment for your consultation and enter into the transformation of your life! Meanwhile, we are still mainly offering preorder take out and reservations for private parties until the warm weather allows outdoor seating and spontaneous visits. If you have never experienced Elixir, we use only the freshest, 100% organic ingredients, to consciously prepare delicious, nourishing, high vibrational food & elixirs for your health and well being and the health & well being of our planet and all who dwell here with us.

Nourishing, nurturing, and healing every aspect of our being is the intention of Elixir. We truly care!

Let the snows come, and the sunny days, and may the hot chocolate flow abundantly!!! We look forward to seeing you soon!

NancyLee chef/owner ELIXIR, 70 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, 413.644.8999 www.elixirgb.com Facebook: Elixir instagram:elixirtearoom

GHETTA HIRSCH UNATTENDED 2020 OIL AND WAX MEDIUM ON WOOD PANEL, 5”X7”

GHETTA HIRSCH This is one of my December paintings I particularly favor. I love the way underplaying tones of color pigments re-appear to the surface. It gives an illusion of movement in the light and the painting is not static when we look at it. I also like the tension created by the upper V shape of the sky: we are only allowed to guess the rest of the landscape or complete it anyway we like in our minds.

This painting will be viewed and discussed in a Virtual Zoom Presentation on February 5th through the Guild of Berkshire Artists. This event is called “Meet the Artist” . There will be a few different paintings featured and a “Question and Answer” time. You can view the event on February 5th at the moment of the interview at 5 pm or any other time by entering the Zoom information and pass the word. Enjoy!

Ghetta Hirsch — ghetta-Hirsch.squarespace.com Instagram@ghettahirschpaintings Text or call for questions or studio information at 413-281-0626

CAROLYN NEWBERGER REFLECTION IN TIME, 22 X 15”

CAROLYN M. ABRAMS THE POWER OF LOVE II

WATERCOLOR AND CHARCOAL

CAROLYN M. ABRAMS

CAROLYN NEWBERGER Carolyn Newberger is an award-winning artist and writer whose love of the figure is a natural extension of a career in psychology.

Her concern for people and their challenges informs her art, whether it be in the studio with a model or in the concert hall capturing a musician or dancer in performance. Her drawings express the essence of her subjects, with their rhythm, flow, character and intensity.

Carolyn Newberger - www.carolynnewberger.com

My vision as an artist and a Creative Spirit is one of unique individuality. Each moment, each inspiration, each creation is unique and special in its own way.It is one of a kind and brought through me in this one moment in time, in this breath, by this hand, through this medium. My work is focused on this same individuality by exploring being "in the world" and using techniques, materials and nature as my inspiration. I invite you to visit my website www.carolynabrams.com, my facebook and instagram pages and my studio by appointment. Come visit my studio in Brunswick.

Carolyn M. Abrams - www.carolynabrams.com; Facebook www.facebook.com/CarolynMAbramsArt

MARK MELLINGER

Art. Collage 1961 nfs Helen Kotaner Abducts the Hungarian Crown. Collage 2014

Painting - Collage - Construction 100 North St Pittsfield #322

914. 260. 7413

markmellinger680@gmail.com THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 13

DYLAN W. KUBIS CARDINAL

PHOTOGRAPH

DYLAN W. KUBIS

CRUSADE ACRYLIC AND CANVAS 60” X 48”

VIRGINIA BRADLEY, CATENA 3, OIL 48”X36"

GRAPHITE AND GOLD ON BIRCH PANEL,

MARK MELLINGER I live in two separate worlds. One verbal and one visual. What they have in common is an attitude of pushing into the unknown; of allowing unconscious elements to take form within consciousness. I couldn’t live without both.

Art came first, but after a while I began to feel self-indulgent and isolated. I wanted to address problems of mans’ impact on the environment. I went through careers in art, photography, carpentry, ecology and microbiology before landing in psychology at 30. 10 years ago, when we found a loft in Pittsfield, I returned to my first love, art. It’s not like riding a bicycle. I had to start from scratch. I feel I’m just now catching up to where I left off 50 years ago.

I’m not satisfied with a piece for a long time.

I’ll put it away and work on something else. I’ll look at it upside down and in a mirror, trying to get a handle on what’s wrong. It’s a very solitary meditation. I might gesso over everything except some small bits that are working; then start over from those. The viewer completes the process. It’s a collaboration. It’s a thrill when someone “gets” a piece, but I’m OK when they don’t. The connection with the viewer should be as rare and special as marriage. www.markmellingerart.com markmellinger680@gmail.com

VIRGINIA BRADLEY CATENA SERIES The final layer of Catena 3 became a field of transparent silver ice that bonds and seals the layers of turmoil beneath the surface. This painting evolved for months as it searched for a level solace through process.

Work on the Catena Series began in August 2020. I had been contemplating how the pace of life had changed during the COVID Pandemic. There were moments when time seemed to stand still … and other times when it seemed to race by.

The word “Catena”, which means related moments or a chain, spoke to me about my search for meaning and beauty through my painting process.

“Catena” seemed to describe the way my life was suspended in time … creating an alternate reality of sorts. I began the Series by transforming eight birch panels into new structures.

My use of alchemy and the transformation of materials is evident in the Catena Series. The Series is searching for reconciliation, contentment and beauty. Catena 1 is a mystic fog that slowly envelopes one in a “moment of solace”. Catena 3 searches for a “moments of beauty and solace”.

Catena 2 is a landscape of upheaval through which one negotiates to find a path between the “moments of solace and beauty” of Catena 1 and 3. Catena 2 relates to the anxiety and turmoil one needs to negotiate at times in life.

Four more panels of the Catena Series are currently in process – their destination is still unfolding.

Virginia Bradley virgbradley57@gmail.com www.virginiabradley.com

There have been many influences in my life: the imagination of Walt Disney, and his greatest accomplishment Disneyland, the landscape photographer Ansel Adams, filmmaker, Tim Burton and my Dad, who helped me write this narrative.

During my younger years my family and I traveled across Europe and the United States. This exposed me to the beautiful creations of art, and architecture; classic, impressionistic designed landscapes we viewed also impacted my special vision.

I started Inspirational, Sensational Photography (ISP) as a tool, a creative tool to allow me to share my special needs vision with you. My photographic visions are based on my creative spirit, and my desire to enlighten those that question people with special needs. People like me are creative, we can express creative thoughts, in words, paintings, drawings, design, and yes, like me photographs. We are creative souls just like you.

The photograph of the Cardinal has special meaning to me. My older brother Sebastian passed away a few years ago. He was always symbolized as a Cardinal and it seems nearly every time I am out creating artful photographic images, my brother’s spirit joins me.

Lastly, I am ready to assist the many online and print based publications to expand their stock libraries, create images for editorial use, assist the many regional companies to find the creative art that will inspire and motivate their employees and drive new business (via their advertising to a national and worldwide audience).

Are you interested in purchasing new art for your home, based on a theme that you develop?

Well, I am the one you should call first.

My images are offered as custom-made prints, screen savers, images that can be added to tshirts, merchandise and much more.

Reach out to me- Dylan at Dkubis@gmail.com; view my latest images on Instagram @DWKPhotos.

My website and Facebook marketplace will be ready later this month.

Email me to access to my e-commerce sites.

Take time to promote your art ... artful mind can help! artfulmind@yahoo.com

14 • FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

CLAUDIA D’ ALESSANDRO FOUR ELEMENTS SUNSET

CLAUDIA d’ALESSANDRO PHOTOGRAPHY

Through their seemingly endless synergy, the four elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air - have shaped our earth, and continue to guide its evolution. Though paradoxically each is a creative and destructive force, our very existence depends on the interplay among them.

Mythology has personified all of the elements, marking art in each of their unique forms. Whether inspiring, or terrifying, Fire, Water, Earth and Air not only support our existence, or endanger it, but also delight our senses. Universal colors, shapes, textures and forms appear in each, and are reflected in all: visual representation of the extraordinary balance among them.

The synergy of the elements forms the structure of our world as we know it, in a seemingly endless cycle of birth, death and re-creation. Separately - or together - each element represents a unique version of Nature’s extraordinary “Elemental” art.

Nature’s images remind me of the magnificent beauty that surrounds us, and the mighty power of the natural world which we inhabit. The air, the earth and the water serve as my canvas. I hope you will enjoy my “Elemental” images.

“Claudia’s photography touches our souls with deep joy!” ~ CHR “She sees with her eyes and feels with her heart.” ~ DKAH For more information on purchasing these, or other prints, - please email me at: cdalessandro26@gmail.com, - visit me at https://www.dalessandrophotography.com, or - follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cdalessandrophotography/ and on Instagram as: dalessandronatura.

Don’t forget to mention The Artful Mind for Preferred Customer pricing!

Cheers to all for a safe, healthy and inspiring 2021!

BRUCE PANOCK THE PROMISE OF LIFE

BRUCE PANOCK PHOTOGRAPHY I have been a student of photography for more than 20 years, though most intently for the last five years. I am primarily a landscape photographer.

Recently my photographic voice has migrated to the creation of work with reference to other art forms, notably encaustic painting and ancient Chinese and Japanese brush painting and woodblock art. My intention is to create with viewer a moment of pause and reflection; a moment to digest the image and find their own story in the art.

Each image is part of a limited edition. There are several sizes available. Each piece is priced according to size.

Images are unframed and printed on Hahnemuhle archival papers.

Bruce Panock bruce@panockphotography.com

MYLA JILL BLUM

PEACE

MYLA JILL BLUM Myla Jill Blum, native of Pittsfield and now “snowbird”, started painting when she moved to Florida 22 years ago. Even before then she dabbled a little here and there with painting.

Always creative, Myla now enjoys painting “outside” the lines and pushing herself with color, medium and boundaries.

She is grateful for all the support and “nudging” to finally “do something” with her art.

Myla Jill Blum - mileamin49@aol.com

Order from Online menus at www.elixirgb.com 413-644-8999

“Before I start carving the idea must be almost complete. I say ‘almost' because the really important thing seems to be the sculptor's ability to let his intuition guide him over the gap between conception and realization without compromising the integrity of the original idea.”

- Barbara Hepworth

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 15

VIRTUAL GALLERY FINE ART PAINTINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE

FEATURED ARTISTS: MYLA J. BLUM BRUCE PANOCK CAROLYN M. ABRAMS MARK MELLINGER GHETTA HIRSCH CAROLYN NEWBERGER CLAUDIA d’ALESSANDRO DYLAN W. KUBIS

Art is a sound investment and a lifetime of enjoyment!

For art sales contact artist directly.

To show your art on a gallery wall, contact: Harryet Candee at: artfulmind@yahoo.com Box 985, Great Barrington, MA 01230 FB: ART GALLERY for Artful Minds

16 • VIRTUAL GALLERY FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

MYLA J. BLUM

B Mixed media on watercolor paper 18x24” 2020 $175

A Mixed media on watercolor paper 18x24” 2020 $175.

D Mixed media on watercolor paper 18x24” 2020 $175.

CONTACT: C Mixed media on watercolor paper 18x24” 2020 $175.

VIRTUAL GALLERY

mileamin49@aol.com 786-303-8218 THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 17

Bruce Panock

Bruce Panock

THE PROMISE OF LIFE

LEAVES, VINE AND WALL

For this body of work, everything starts with the search for shapes and patterns in the landscape. When I get back to the computer I then mask out what doesn’t add to the subject. This could take days of effort.

When the shapes and patterns have revealed themselves, Then I begin thinking about the background, the colors and the textures. It all evolves….or fails magnificently. —Bruce Panock

18 • VIRTUAL GALLERY FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

BRUCE PANOCK

FANTASY BRANCHES AND LEAVES

Each image is part of a limited edition.

There are several sizes available.

Each piece is priced according to size.

Images are unframed and printed on Hahnemuhle archival papers.

ALONE BUT NOT LONELY

CONTACT: www.panockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com 917-287-8589

VIRTUAL GALLERY

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 19

Carolyn M. Abrams The Power of Love II 5 x 7 watercolor/collage Prints available

Carolyn M. Abrams Morning Talk 5 x 7 acrylic/collage Prints available 20 • VIRTUAL GALLERY FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

CAROLYN M. ABRAMS Carolyn’s work is intuitively created and inspired by nature and honors its beauty and Creative Spirit in us all.

Freeing her Spirit 5 x 8 watercolor Prints available

Love Nest 11 x 14 Mixed media $200 matted

Prints are available through the website: Www.carolynabrams.com http://www.healing-power-of-art.org/carolyn-mabrams/ Like my art on Facebook Www.facebook.com/CarolynmAbramsArt

VIRTUAL GALLERY

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 21

Mark Mellinger 10 x 10 Acrylic on Canvas $250.

I’m lucky to be able to work throughout this trying time, both alone in my art studio and remotely with my patients.

Exploring new methods and media; experimenting with materials.

— Mark Mellinger

Mark Mellinger Agricultural Confrontation Construction of oak and found objects $4500.

22 • VIRTUAL GALLERY FEBRUARY/ MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

MARK MELLINGER

10 x 10 acrylic on canvas $250.

Transcendence of the Soul Construction of oak and driftwood $4500.

VIRTUAL GALLERY

CONTACT: 914-260-7413 markmellinger680@gmail.com THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 23

GHETTA HIRSCH

Patterns by the Pier 2020 Oil on Canvas 20X20” $750

First Snow (Berkshires view) 2019 Oil Impasto on Canvas 18X22” framed in white washed pine wood $800

“Vol d’Oiseau (Morning view at Pontoosuc Lake) 2020 Oil Impasto on Canvas, 24X36” $1,900

All paintings can be distance viewed and picked up in my studio in Williamstown, MA. I ship anywhere in the US with added fees. I can deliver locally as well and send more photos or details.

Venmo and PayPal accepted. -Ghetta Hirsch CONTACT: Ghetta-Hirsch.squarespace.com Instagram@ghettahirschpaintings ghettagh@gmail.com Please text or call 413-281-0626

24 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

VIRTUAL GALLERY

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

Why? Watercolor and Charcoal 24x18” $1800.

Yellow Nude Watercolor and Charcoal 22x15 $1800.

In a Mellow Tone 15x22” watercolor sold

CONTACT: www.carolynnewberger.com cnewberger@me.com 617-877-5672 Commissions Upon Request VIRTUAL GALLERY

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 25

Spirit of Fire

Ember Shapes

Water Color Abstractions

Picasso’s Bath

Elemental Through time, we have identified the four elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air - as the building blocks for our world. Their creative, destructive and infinitely inspiring many forms are "Elemental" to our world.

Images are 24x30 on Canvas. $199

26 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

VIRTUAL GALLERY

CLAUDIA d’ALESSANDRO

Roots Rock

Golden Geese

Rocktree

Sundog Dance

https://www.dalessandrophotography.com 413.717-1534

VIRTUAL GALLERY THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 27

My love for classic cars is what started me to think about my own photography business, I particularly love the stylized grills on many of the classic cars that I have seen and photographed.

Such a cool looking car, the grill and headlamps seem to be staring at me, asking me what am I doing?

On a cold and damp Saturday morning while photographing wildlife near Lake Pontoosuc, I captured this moody image of early morning rowers and the mood of the lake.

While in Maine, I visited Schoodic Peninsula, part of Acadia National Park. I was fascinated by textures, colors and the lighting of the rocks that define the coast of Maine.

28 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

VIRTUAL GALLERY

DYLAN W. KUBIS

I love the Disney film “The Lion King”, this tree from Plum Island State Park reminded me of the trees on the African plains, the movement of the branches captured my interest.

Bartholomew’s Cobble, Ashley Falls, MA. As my Dad and I hiked the Ledges trail we came upon so many hanging icicles, this set, with a drop of water ready to hit the floor was my favorite.

One of my first tracking photographs, the Canadian Geese came in from my right, I raise my camera, tracked the birds until they were just above the lake located at Plum Island State Park.

Any of my image can be converted into personalized greeting cards, interested email me at Dkubis@gmail.com

CONTACT: Instagram: DWKPhotos https://instagram.com/dwkphotos?igshid=1s9cnjy663wcm

VIRTUAL GALLERY THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 29

JOHN CHEEK BASS-BARATONE OPERA SINGER Interview by Harryet Candee Harryet Candee: What makes you smile when looking back over the years as a Bass-Baratone Opera singer?

John Cheek: My career has been a long journey.

I was lucky to have had several great teachers and others from whom I learned much. I’m grateful to have had many who offered encouragement and good advice. We performers are usually our own harshest critics, so I treasure the memory of performances in which I was able to do my best.

Tell us about your voice. Describe the quality and what you enjoy in terms of sound.

Loving one’s voice can be a danger as it does not sound the same to us as it does to those out in the audience. This is because much of our hearing comes from inside our head and not just though the ears. I’ve learned to find the correct sensations in my body as well as relying on my hearing. What makes me feel really good is when my voice comes out in an even and effortless flow with a sound that is uniquely my own.

What have you been through and may sacrificed to get where you are today?

Photography by Edward Acker

My path was not typical and quite rapid, perhaps too rapid in my early years. Making my Metropolitan Opera debut at age 27 was even more stressful than usual because I did not have much experience. My voice developed quickly but there were many other things that I had to learn like stagecraft and dealing with shall we say, big personalities. If there was sacrifice it was not having a normal life with a regular schedule. Every day, every week is different and there is much time spent on the road alone in hotels. While it sounds glamorous the reality is much more grueling. I became an expert at packing a suitcase and figuring out what to take on trips where the climate ranged from Arctic to tropical.

Describe to us what is it that makes you feel the utmost passion about Opera?

It is the music itself that excites me and fills me up inside. Making an entrance on a big stage filled with people and having the attention drawn to you is both thrilling and terrifying. One of the big supporting roles I sang early on at the Met was Don Fernando in Beethoven’s Fidelio. He comes to free political prisoners and to right terrible injustice.

30 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

The music is pure Beethoven, heroic and sweeping in its intensity. Because of the way things work in a big opera house, I had never been on this set before only on mockups in a rehearsal studio. In Germany they call this an Einspringen, a jump in.

From backstage I hear the music but not with full force. As I come downstage the huge crowd of choristers and soloists open up a path for me and I see for the first time the gigantic theater with 4000 people as well as the conductor and prompter. The music is at full intensity. All eyes were on me. It is quite a feeling!

When do you feel most confident and strongest about as an opera singer?

There is no doubt that I feel most alive as a performer in front of a live audience. The performance is usually the culmination of much practice, alone and with others in rehearsal. I love that process, but it is all in service of the final result where I have the opportunity to create something that moves people.

If you were to write an opera about a part of your life or someone else that you know, what

Mefistofele in Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele at NY City Opera

would the synopsis of the opera be about?

Well, we opera singers do have a reputation for outsized egos, but an opera about my life, probably not? The word, operatic conjures up something dramatic, larger than life. I would need such a character for an opera.

Do you have any upcoming performances in the works?

I am so fortunate to be mostly retired. Covid has of course been devastating for the arts. Most theaters including the Met closed down last March and may not open again fully until the fall if then.

The life of a free lance opera singer has never been easy. In the last 20 years or so it has gotten even harder. Pay has either stagnated or even declined. There are no benefits for free lancers and the cost of medical insurance has skyrocketed. I was lucky enough to make my living solely as a performer. That is nearly impossible now with the exception of a few superstars. But as for future prospects for me, I suspect that there will be opportunities in this area when the pandemic eases up.

Tell us about your greatest opera role, please?

I have several favorite roles, but perhaps the most memorable is the title role in Arrigo Boito’s opera Mefistofele. Boito who was also Verdi’s librettist wrote this epic setting of the Faust legend. The New York City Opera production was directed by the late Tito Capobianco and premiered in 1969.

It was one of the first operas to use multimedia projections, and the opera began in total darkness with fanfares from 4 brass choirs in each corner

From the production of Verdi's Nabucco at the Bregenzer Festspiel in Bregenz Austria on the shore of Lake Constance which is called the Bodensee in German speaking country that border the lake.

of the theater. At the rear of the stage, we see the swirling cosmos and creation itself. This prepares us for a dialogue between heaven and hell. The first Mefistofele was the great American bass Norman Treigle. He had a cavernous voice and was an imposing and balletic presence onstage. Many other notable basses had preceded me. I was never known for my terpsichorean talents, so the acting and movement demands were a huge challenge for me. Fortunately, the director’s wife Gigi Elena who was a former dancer taught me the movements. She was very skilled in working with singers who were not dancers. I had to do all sorts of snake like movements and roll around on the floor. The role was also very vocally demanding. I was exhausted at the end, but the roar of the audience at my solo curtain call always revived me!

How would someone take a classic opera and bring it into modern times? What work would be needed to do?

There are several ways of modernizing an opera.

Usually this is done by setting the story in a different time or place than in the original. One example that might be understood well right now was opera director Peter Sellars’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro that was set not in 18th century Spain but in Trump Tower. The story by Lorenzo Da Ponte was said to have been a call to the French revolution, a rebellion against the absolute power of the aristocracy. Like the original setting the new one pitted servants against their masters. The central driving force of that opera is the “Droit de Seigneur”, the right of the

Lord of the manor to sleep with the brides of his employees before their wedding night.

Verdi’s Rigoletto has been set in New York’s Little Italy and recently at the Met, in Las Vegas instead of Mantova, Italy. Some of these changes can illuminate the story for modern audiences, others just become silly.

One of the more successful modernizations that I have done was a production of Verdi’s Nabucco or Nebuchadnezzar, the story of the Jews in Babylonian exile. The Bregenzer Festspiele in the town of Bregenz on the shore of Lake Constance produces spectacular operas on a stage set out in the Lake. An audience of about 5000 watches from shore. The opera was set not in Babylon but as the founding of Israel. Sunken ships surrounded the stage which was dominated by a 10 story Wailing Wall. My character originally the prophet Zachariah was instead an Orthodox Rabbi. The stage had a platform leading to the shore that could be sunk out of view in the water. For one of my arias, I was picked up by motorboat and taken to shore. Under my costume I wore waterproof boots so that I could walk out on that platform which made it look as if I were walking on water back out to the stage where I sang with lights shining up at me. Nabucco the conqueror made his entrance on a hydraulic crane that came over the top of the wall. There were even divers in the water in case someone fell in, which fortunately no one did.

How has Opera, in your opinion, developed and changed in order to fit and work into Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 31

One of John’s Metropolitan Opera performances as Dansker in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. Dansker, the old seaman comforts Billy as he awaits execution photo: Ken Howard /Metropolitan Opera

today’s performing arts world? And, do you think today’s opera creators feel much challenge in order to remain strong and part of the top music venues for audiences worldwide?

Well of course updating the stories of older operas can help modern audiences relate. But the most important thing is to create new operas that dramatize current events. There was Nixon in China by John Adams and others like Dead Man Walking

by Jake Heggie which has had many performances since its premiere in 2000. Recently my wife and I saw “Blue” by Jeannie Tesori at the Glimmerglass Festival. The tragic story concerns an African American policeman and his concern for his son who is eventually killed by other police officers during a demonstration.

What was the best performance you’ve ever seen?

I saw and was in many great performances especially at the Met. The one that really stands out however, was of Puccini’s Opera Suor Angelica, the story of a young woman who has a child out of wedlock and is sent to a convent. Desperate for news of her baby, she learns from her aunt who visits that the child fell ill and died. Soprano Teresa Stratas who was a tiny person but with a huge persona on stage gave one of the most moving performances I have ever seen. In her aria Senza Mamma she laments that her child died alone without his mother. In desperation she prays to the Madonna for mercy and solace and at the end rips off her Wimple. I saw the dress rehearsal with many members of the company in the audience. Everyone was weeping!

Were you ever in the situation where you had to be blunt honest and tell a co-artist they had to do something differently?

I usually try to deal with difficult situations diplomatically. There is an unspoken hierarchy in opera. Superstars are generally at the top. Once as a very young artist I was doing the opera Luisa Miller with the great Luciano Pavarotti. Luciano had some sort of superstition against rehearsing death scenes. In the final act he had to kill my character the evil Wurm (yes that’s his name) by stabbing me with a knife. Usually, such scenes are carefully choreographed with a fight coach so as to avoid injury but that did not happen and the first time we actually did it was in a performance.

When he stabbed me, he left the knife in my coat which was dangerous because I had to fall down some stairs. Probably if I had been more experienced, I would have gone to his dressing room and said, “Luciano please don’t do that!” but instead I asked one of the assistant directors to tell him. I’ve had to ask fellow performers to not wear perfume as that can make it hard to breathe in close quarters. In most other cases we just work things out in a mutually acceptable way.

Tell us about a teacher you had that lifted you off the ground.

I had some excellent teachers not only in voice but also in diction and acting. In college I was able to spend 3 summers in Siena Italy, one of which involved study with the great golden age baritone Gino Bechi who was also a star in Italian cinema.

From him I learned much about Italian style in singing.

32 • FEBRUARY /MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

Another great teacher for me was the director Jean Pierre Ponnelle. While he was not exactly diplomatic or warm and fuzzy, he taught me stagecraft in a unique way. He insisted that your character to have a focus even and especially when not singing. If he saw you being blank, he would crawl all over you and get you there. Rehearsals were very intense, but by the performance you knew exactly what to do. Ponnelle also knew and loved music, especially Mozart. He knew the full orchestral score but had everything memorized. All of the action came out of the music and flowed with it.

This is a difficult concept in opera that many directors trained in straight theater are not able to grasp. In a well written opera, the music tells you what to do and dictates the dramatic tempo. Your emotions must be synchronized with it.

The spark to perform and be a part of opera happened at what time in your life?

From an early age, I loved music, listened to records and learned how to play the piano and flute though not terribly well. But learning piano was incredibly useful later as a singer when I could visualize the keyboard while learning music. I came to solo singing in High School and immediately knew it was what I wanted to do. Of course, I had no real idea of what that meant.

What opera do you think would be a great introduction to those that are new to Opera?

Well, La Boheme often comes to mind as a first opera. It is very tuneful, has a powerful story of young love and is also rather short. I sang somewhere around 40 performances of this opera at the

King Basilio in Lew Spratlan's "Life is a Dream" at the Santa Fe Opera in 2010. The composer is professor Emeritus at Amherst College. The opera received the Pulitzer Prize after a concert performance of the 2nd act only in the year 2000.

Ten years later it received a full production at Santa Fe. The opera was written around 1975, commissioned from an opera company that went bankrupt and sat in the composer's closet for many years.

Met. My wife and her sister took our niece to see me when she was only four years old. They sat in the dress circle. In the last act as the bohemians try to take care of the dying Mimi, we see her hand slip out of the muff and fall lifeless at her side. My little niece saw this and said rather loudly, “Oh no, she’s DEAD!” and began to cry.

My wife and her mother began sniffling as did several people around them.

Are you teaching at this time? What have you learned from your students?

I’ve had a few students though teaching has not been a big part of my career. But recently a friend in Philadelphia has arranged a series of master classes via zoom. They are open to those that pass an audition. Four or five of us watch them sing an aria and offer musical, dramatic and vocal advice to them. Teaching definitely works both ways. It is difficult to articulate something that you can’t see, that is inside you and all tied up with the whole body. But attempting to do that and being reminded of old bad habits also teaches the teacher.

Tell us about one of your most happiest times in your life?

One of the happiest periods of my life were my college years at the North Carolina School of the Arts. For the first time I felt that my love of music was not some strange aberration, but a passion and life force shared by my fellow students in Music, Drama and Dance. My school also offered that wonderful summer session in Siena Italy, where I could experience Italian culture, music

Boston Lyric Opera production of Dvoŕak’s Rusalka John plays Vodnick or Water Sprite

and of course the wonderful food.

What was your childhood like? Tell us about your impressions?

I grew up in Wilmington NC a small city close to the beach where I would spend a lot of time in the summer. My parents were educators, my father a school principal and my mother dean of students at what became UNC Wilmington. Both parents taught French and Spanish. When I was about 10, we took a car trip to Mexico spending a month there. It was quite an adventure in those days where there were few big highways. But it taught me the value of travel and of language study. In later years I have realized how segregated the city was and how little contact I had with people of color. There were two high schools, one white and one Black. Just after I graduated, the school systems were integrated by building a new school and closing the Black one which caused much pain in that community. A classmate of mine has facilitated zoom meetings from the two schools and we have tried to understand each other and think of how we might have been friends rather than being separated so long ago. My college was fully integrated though there was still much prejudice all around us.

What role does studying foreign language play in your artistic life? Have you travelled much to use your language skills?

Language study is fundamental to opera singers.

I’ve sung roles or pieces of music in French, German, Italian, English. Spanish, Latin, Czech, Hungarian, and Russian. While I have some

considerable familiarity with the first four of these, the others much less so. But whatever I sing, I carefully translate each word and work in great detail on proper pronunciation. I’ve performed extensively in North America, Europe and some in Japan, China, and Taiwan. I spent about 6 months in Paris and the same in Nice with its beautiful 1890 opera house right on the Mediterranean. In the winter of 1999-2000 I spent time in Helsinki, Finland passing over the millennium singing a wonderful production of another setting of the Faust Legend, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust.

From your perspective, what lies ahead for the performing arts?

I have hopes for a good future, but this is one of the worst times perhaps in history for the arts due to the pandemic. Many institutions will struggle, and some will not survive, perhaps even some of the big ones. Even before the pandemic there have been challenges. The lack of music education in the public schools in many areas robs us of a chance to expose young people to classical music and theater. Audiences are not as faithful as in the past and arts administrators have had to find new ways to sell tickets. But I do think there is hope.

As I’ve said, new operatic works have brought new audiences into theaters and helped to throw light on important issues of our time.

I heard a story in one of your interviews about witnessing the great Leonard Bernstein driving his car onto the lawn of Tanglewood. What went on? Continued on next page....

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 33

JOHN CHEEK as Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weil's Street Scene produced at UMass Amherst in 2014. It was produced on broadway and is considered to be a blend of opera and musical theater. Many hit tunes as well as powerful operatic arias.

JOHN CHEEK as Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Orlando Opera.

As you may guess, he is not a nice man but a paid assassin.

John and Lee Cheek

1977 was a big year for me. I made debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and Tanglewood. In much of that summer, I was performing with the Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro Vt. I came down to Lenox with my friend and colleague soprano Benita Valente and we were to perform the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and the Bach Magnificat with Leonard Bernstein. Backstage we waited for Maestro to arrive and rehearse with the soloists. Suddenly we heard some murmuring from outside. There driving across the lawn which of course no one else was allowed to do was Bernstein in his Mercedes convertible. He was wearing a red lined black cape which was spread out over the back of the car, with a wide brimmed hat and smoking a cigarette in a long holder. People were literally coming out of the bushes up to him and crying Lennie, Lennie! He was impossibly glamorous and dramatic. This was my introduction to the Berkshires, now my full-time home of 25 years. We did have a small cottage across the lake from Tanglewood for 12 years before we decided to move here full time.

In 1983 I was a part of the gala celebrating 100 years of the Metropolitan Opera. The dressing rooms were crowded with many legendary performers. That summer I had again sung with Bernstein at Tanglewood and seeing him wanted to introduce my wife. He came by, dressed in his tails and red cape. I said, “Maestro I’d like you to meet my wife Lee”. He immediately swept down on one knee, grabbed her hand and kissed it. Lee just stood there in astonishment. Bernstein left to conduct Beethoven’s dramatic Lenore Overture #3, and we heard the roar of the audience when it finished.

What other kinds of music do you like to listen to?

While I mostly listen to classical music, I do enjoy other genres, like cabaret singers, Gospel, Jazz, etc. I’m not really a pop music fan, but I do love real singers who move me with their emotions and how they use language.

What brings joy into your life, John?

I love to travel and my career has given me a lot of opportunity for that. And because I generally spend considerable time in one place, I get to experience local life in ways that tourists usually do not. For over 20 years, I’ve gone with a group of local friends to the Adirondacks, White Mountains, and the North woods of Maine where we spend time in rustic surroundings and hike, canoe and just enjoy the beauty of nature. This really restores my soul.

My other big love is cooking and the enjoyment of the foods of the world. In my travels, I loved to visit local markets and to eat in local restaurants. All this fed my interest in creating delicious food for myself my wife and friends.

What is your favorite philosophy? How does this relate to your professional life as a singer?

Love life, people, and be prepared. For my singing career careful preparation was vital before I came to rehearsal. It made the process go smoothly and was a courtesy to my colleagues.

Real life is not much different.

What combination of meaning and emotion makes an opera great?

Opera is about life. It’s about looking into the soul of the character, their inner emotional life. Singing, especially operatic singing is very physical.

There are no microphones, you must project your voice in a large space and make a visceral impact.

Perhaps the most important thing about the opera or any successful theater is characters that you

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Photo: Edward Acker

care about and relate to. It can inspire empathy and promote change in us.

Are there certain types of performances that were challenging and that- when you look back on them - make you especially happy and proud?

A large part of my career in addition to opera was as a soloist with orchestras in Choral music. My summers were spent with orchestral festivals like Tanglewood, Ravinia in Chicago, the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, Saratoga, Blossom which is near Cleveland, Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia and many others. I appeared in 16 seasons at the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest choral festival in the Western Hemisphere which began in the 1860s. I’ve sung with every major orchestra in North America and many in Europe and Asia. Sitting enveloped in the sound of a great orchestra and making music with them has been one of my greatest joys! Most though not all the music is religious and that has had deep meaning for me.

Solo recitals have also been an important part of my career. It is so intimate and direct. The challenge of holding the stage for an entire evening with only the pianist makes for a huge challenge.

When I began studying singing one of the first songs I learned was a Schubert Lied. His songs create entire worlds in themselves and are filled with achingly beautiful melodies. My numerous performances of two of his great song cycles Schwanengesang (swan song) and Die Winterreise (winter journey) were among the most artistically satisfying performances of my life.

Thank you, John!

JENNIFER PAZIENZA Messenger Mary Oliver My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird— equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Jennifer Pazienza

Snow Day

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still half­perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here, which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body­clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug­up clam, telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.

Album cover by Avida Love Photography and Outpost

Visit my website, www.jenniferpazienza or IG@jenniferpazienza Jennifer Pazienza: 277 RT 616, Keswick Ridge, NB Canada E6L 1S2

From the Woods —Album by Jackson Whalan Available now on Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp and all major platforms Visit www.jacksonwhalan.com to listen and support

"Lilith with Silk Rose"

Julia Grey Archival Inkjet Print At Large Studio, Las Vegas,NV www.xgender.net THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 35

ELIOT OSBORN JOINT CHIEFS INTERVIEW BY MIKE COBB

Joy is the word I heard most in my conversation with Eliot Osborn, singer, guitarist, and founding member of the Joint Chiefs, an acoustic quartet based in Salisbury, Connecticut. “We’ve been at this for over 25 years, and the thing that keeps us going is the pure joy of playing together.”

For Osborn music has been a life long journey.

Born in New York City but raised in Salisbury, CT, he was brought up on his family record collection that “supplied an ever present soundtrack to our household and my childhood,” he says.

Picking up on his interest in music, Osborn’s parents provided piano lessons, singing in school plays and choruses. “When I was around 11 or 12, they gave me an acoustic guitar, which led to performing and songwriting. The thread that runs through all of that is a fascination and attraction to songs,” he adds.

A trip with his brother to see Joan Baez at the Pittsfield Boys Club when he was about 12 was a life changing experience. “She brought Bob Dylan out on stage, they sang some of his songs, and my mind was forever altered,” Osborn says.

Equally impactful was seeing The Ray Charles Orchestra. His father waited outside in the car so

that the boys could enjoy the moment for themselves. “He wanted us to experience both shows without squashing the experience with his presence. I have been forever grateful for that totally uncommon sensitivity, and I think it was very important in how it allowed me to set my sights going forward. All these years later, I think my writing is clearly rooted in those two concerts.

My lyric sense from Dylan, my rhythmic sense from Ray,” Osborn expounds.

After college, Osborn lived in Western Massachusetts and Maine. He recounts, “My musical odyssey was expansive. In my twenties I was touring up and down the Eastern Seaboard with The Outerspace Band, and I began taking acoustic musicians throughout the developing world with Project Troubador before eventually moving back to Manhattan to focus on navigating a pathway into the music business. Once my wife and I started having children, we embarked on leading a straddled rural/urban existence before eventually finding our way back to the Northwest Corner to raise our family.”

A cause true to his heart, Project Troubador reflects Osborn’s belief in music as a force for global good. It’s also a non-profit corporation

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with a website, www.projecttroubador.org, that states its mission clearly. “Project Troubador works to bridge cultural, racial and ethnic gaps by modernizing the ancient concept of the troubador. By sending musicians, dancers and mimes to developing areas of the world, we strive to provide another view of America through our performance and interaction with the audience.”

As the founder and artistic director, it’s taken him, his family, friends and musicians around the world from Latin America, Africa, Europe, China, and beyond. And it’s a two way street. The group brings their experiences back home to American audiences where “we hope to raise the public's awareness of distant nations and cultures with new ways of integrating the ‘world family,’” he says.

Osborn also teaches music to children and adults and has worked extensively with the blind.

Some of his students formed Los Ciegos del Barrio, loosely translated as The Neighborhood Blind Men, a salsa band whose video “Mama Used to Say” can be enjoyed on YouTube.”

In non-Covid times, Osborn regularly reconnects with his long running group The Outerspace Band, an in-demand jam band who have opened

Project Troubador in Morocco Photograph by Chris Yerlig

Joint Chiefs

for B.B. King and once played Susan Ford’s prom at the White House. “We can touch on the magnificence of playing for 52 years and counting,” he says.

These days Osborn’s main focus is the Joint Chiefs, the band name clearly a humorous take on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose work could not be more diametrically opposed, but also perhaps a cheeky reference to being bosses of local venues and maybe a whiff of Litchfield County’s greenery.

The group has an emphasis on “tight harmonies and loose attitudes” so well described by WAMC’s Michael Eck. Osborne is accompanied by his wife Louise Lindenmeyr on mandolin, accordion, and vocals, and old friend George Potts on fretless bass, guitar and vocals. The group added percussionist Diane Herald in 2010 and has been a quartet ever since.

Together they’ve played venues great and small, from backyard parties to Norfolk, Connecticut’s Infinity Hall. But perhaps the place they feel most at home is...at homes. “You can probably get the truest sense of us when we play unplugged house parties, rather than being amplified through any kind of sound system. We

find that the dynamic changes and people tend to listen more when we’re not too loud,” he says.

But Osborn is unconcerned with venue size, the number of gigs played per year, or other traditional measures of success. “For us it’s all about the sheer joy.” In terms of connecting to audiences, he says, “I think of music like creating ripples. If you can make a wave and it extends, reaching people, you know you’re doing something right.”

Though the group eschews any fixed descriptors, Osborn says “I guess you could say we fall loosely under the adjective Americana.”

“Sending Up A Flare” is a recent recording that exemplifies where the group is at today. “Sonically, it exemplifies the song based, three part harmony, acoustic timbre, and rock sensibility.

Lyrically, it touches on themes that are autobiographical...an aging rocker, running on fumes, still gigging cuz he can’t really do anything else,” Osborn adds.

Luckily for listeners, the Joint Chiefs can often be heard locally on 98.1 WKZE, on their website www.jointchiefsmusic.com and hopefully live in concert soon again.

When asked how he’s coping with the pan-

Photograph by Chris Little

demic and what he hopes lies beyond Osborn says, “Like everyone else, I look forward to playing out. What’s important is how we all participate in establishing the path forward. Sing in the shower. Sing lullabies to your children. Whistle to a bird. Snap your fingers. Play an instrument purely for your own enjoyment. We need to keep a musical thread in the fabric of our lives. That’s how music began. It’s magic we are all capable of producing. This is our opportunity, and it will be a pure pleasure to embrace it.”

For audiences and musicians alike, a return to joy will be a most welcome thing.

Mike Cobb is a creative based in Norfolk, CT. Check out his writing and photography at www.mc-obb.com and his music at www.soundcloud.com/mscjr

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 37

According to Jewish law, Elvis is a Jew even though he never practiced the religion or attended synagogue. His great, great grandmother, Nancy Burdine, came from Lithuania to Memphis and married Oscar Tackett, beginning the matrilineal line that led to the birth of Gladys Smith Presley, who bore Elvis. She apparently sat him down when he was a boy and told him they had Jewish blood but not to tell anyone, “because people don’t like Jews.” Later on, after he became famous, Elvis had a Star of David placed on his mother’s gravestone near the Cross.

ROSELLE KLINE CHARTOCK BOOK: THE JEWISH WORLD OF ELVIS PRESLEY Interview by Harryet Candee

Harryet Candee: So this rock and roll icon actually had a heart of gold?

Roselle Kline Chartock: Yes! Along with evidence of Elvis’ affinity to Jews, as well as his own Jewish heritage, there is evidence that he was one of the most generous of men, a true humanitarian. While it is well-known that he was extremely generous to his friends, giving them Cadillacs and sometimes even houses, there is the lesser known fact that Elvis gave generously to dozens of charities. Among them were St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, the Memphis Jewish Community (which had given him a free membership when he couldn’t afford it), as well as many African American causes, and so much more. In fact, included in one of the exhibits at Graceland is a large plaque containing the names of over fifty recipients of his “heart of gold.” There is also evidence – as reflected in Elvis’ own words and actions – that leaves no doubt that he was a sensitive, intelligent, and unprejudiced person, in addition to being a musical genius.

What prompted you to write this book on Elvis? And when were you in the midst of researching and writing?

It was 2014, and my book about the history of Windsor Mountain School (The History Press) had just been published, and I kind of missed doing research, the fun part of doing a book. So I started looking around for a topic that would excite me, that would grab me and keep me interested. So one night I was lying in bed thinking random thoughts and what appeared in my mind’s eye was Elvis Presley in a plaid jacket, a ‘50’s look. Now one thing you need to know is that I love vintage clothing – ‘40’s and ‘50’s vintage - and so I think that’s why Elvis came to mind. He was an amazing dresser, and I’m not referring to the bejeweled outfits that came later. I mean the plaids, the snazzy pants, the leather coat with the fur collar. So I grabbed my iphone and wrote: “Elvis Presley’s tailor?” and what came up was “Lansky Brothers.” I thought, “That’s a Jewish name; so he had a Jewish tailor.” That’s not unusual, of course, but I was intrigued. So I

38 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

googled “Lansky Brothers,” and read everything I could find about the clothing store and Bernard Lansky, the owner. The most significant fact I discovered was that Elvis didn’t just become a major customer of the Lanskys – even before he became famous - but that he and Bernard developed a close and special friendship that lasted from the time Elvis was eighteen to his death in 1977 at the age of forty-two.

I always taught my students not to make assumptions about people or to stereotype, and yet here I was assuming that Elvis never had any close connections to Jews. I based that view on knowing he came from a poor fundamentalist Christian family from the Deep South, an area sometimes known for its anti-Semitism. So that night, after reading about his unusual friendship with Bernard Lansky, I asked myself, “Did Elvis have any other close friendships with Jews?” And so began my search and my extraordinary discoveries. Within weeks of beginning to research that question – it was now the spring of 2015 - I had begun to peel the onion and learned of dozens of

Elvis Presley with his date, Bobbi Owens at the counter of the Jefferson Hotel coffee shop, Richmond Virginia, June 30, 1956. Elvis was to perform two shows at the nearby Mosque Theatre.

Alfred Wertheimer / Getty Images

Hal Lansky and the author stand in front of a photo of Elvis Presley with his arm around Bernard Lansky, Hal’s father and founder of Lansky Brothers Clothing in Memphis. The store is like a pilgrimage site: before they go back home after visiting Graceland, fans want to shop at the store where Elvis shopped.

his relationships with Jews in Memphis, with an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and with Jews in the music and movie industries. I might add here that I have written on Jewish topics for many years, my major focus being on how to teach about the Holocaust – so this was likely one reason I was interested in Elvis and Jews. But here was a topic that was compelling for vastly different reasons.

And so that night while lying in bed, I knew I had found the topic for my next book.

Was it fun doing all the research? What did you have to do to get all of your curiosity satisfied? Tell us about your adventures and some key interesting experiences you had, Roselle!

I had SO much fun doing the research. In fact, I often said, as I was busy writing, that even if the book was never published, it would have been worth it for all the fun I had and all the wonderful people I met either in person, on email, on the phone or in books - very often in their memoirs about their relationships with Elvis - or in documentary films, some of which I mention in the book.

Where do I begin! Well, I’ll share stories of three of my most fruitful research adventures. As I began to uncover information, I learned that within Elvis’ inner circle, called the Memphis Mafia, were six Jews. (That fact was one of the most amazing discoveries!) Among them was Larry Geller, whose books revealed his importance in Elvis’ life. It was Geller who introduced Elvis to Eastern and Western philosophies and to Judaism and Jewish mysticism, or Kabalah.

When they first met – Larry became his hairdresser -Elvis had indicated to Larry that he was on a spiritual quest and, as it turned out, he read all of the books Larry shared with him, and often wrote in the Left to right: Wally Gold, Aaron Schroeder and Abby margins of a few. Very long story short Schroeder Aaron and Wally co-wrote Elvis’ number one hit, (it’s all in the book), I was able to locate “It’s Now or Never” the contact information for Geller, called him, and that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Larry is one of the a glimpse of this iconic “king of rock ‘n’ roll.” most generous people, and whenever I called or While in Memphis, I was able to interview Hal emailed him with a question, he was right there Lansky, the son of Bernard Lansky, mentioned to clarify and illuminate. I integrated relevant ma- above. Hal is the owner of not only Lansky terial from his books about his relationship with Brothers (Clothier to the King), but also four Elvis as well as material I learned during our other stores. He was so generous with his time, communications. After my book got printed, I not only sharing so much rich information during sent a readers’ copy to Larry so he could review our interview, but offering to take Alan and me it. When he praised the book, I was elated. I en- the next day – on a tour of major Elvis landmarks, joyed writing the detailed profile of Larry Geller including, Humes High School, Sun Studios, that appears in the chapter about the Jewish Lauderdale Courts, the public housing complex members of the Memphis Mafia. (Also included where the Presleys lived for a short time and among these profiles is Patti Parry, a little-known other sites. That trip to Memphis remains a memJewish member of the group and the only fe- orable one, not just for the material about Elvis male.) that I gathered for the book but for the material A second key experience: I dragged Alan (hus- about Memphis Jewry (Chapter 3). I was stunned, band) down to Memphis in 2016, because I knew for example, when I discovered that the largest – I couldn’t write this book without visiting Grace- or one of the largest - Orthodox congregations in land. I’ll just say that I loved the whole thing. the country is located in Memphis.

Maybe it was because of all that touristy kitsch Though there are so many other fascinating that I began to feel Elvis’ presence, or maybe it experiences I wish I could share here, I think I’ll was the mansion, Graceland, with its gates, the tell you about the one that links Elvis to Great unique rooms, the small pasture with horses next Barrington. Did you know that one of Elvis’ to the mansion, the exhibits; it all provides the Continued on next page... visitor – and there are over 600,000 a year – with THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 39

Elvis receiving a polio vaccination from Dr. Harold Fuerst and Dr. Leona Baumgartner at CBS Studio in New York City. Seymour Wally /Getty Images

songwriters lived in Great Barrington? Not just one of his dozens of songwriters, but one of his top songwriters, the late Aaron Schroeder. Alan and I got to know Abby and Aaron Schroeder back in the late ‘70’s. Someone told us then that Aaron had written the B-side to an Elvis hit record. And that’s what I had remembered when I called Abby in 2015 to interview her about the relationship Aaron had with Elvis. What she told me made my jaw drop. Aaron hadn’t just written the B-side on a hit record of Elvis’, he wrote FIVE number one hits for Elvis, including Elvis’ favorite, “It’s Now or Never.”

This book was my fifth, and all of them have dealt with at least one of three major research areas I have focused on during my 45-year career as an educator: interdisciplinary approaches to teaching (the topic of two of my books), topics related to prejudice and Jewish history, (including the Nazi Holocaust, the subject of my first book) and American/local history. My fourth book – about Windsor Mountain School – integrated all three of these interests, and, interestingly, so does the Elvis book. I am a curious person and love making discoveries, and I like sharing my work with others who may benefit from it or enjoy it.

Why is this book important for people to read in your opinion?

While I was working on the book, every time I mentioned to people that my thesis was that Elvis Presley had an affinity to Jews, they were shocked and would say, “I had no idea.” So the book provides material that is both new and eye-opening in terms of that affinity, and, in fact, it’s the first book to bring together in one place the many pieces of Elvis’ Jewish world.

Roselle, how do you find the publishing world treating you? Maybe you have had agents, or are you self-published? How does one of those ways work for you and are you happy with the results? I must mention, this book on Elvis is for sale on Amazon.com, by the way.

All of my books have had publishers. This book, which I have published with Amazon, is doing well, and I’m hearing from people across the country who have discovered it as a result of articles that appeared in several newspapers, among them the Jewish Daily Forward, the Berkshire Jewish Voice and The Berkshire Edge. In addition, I did an interview with Joe Donahue of wamc which was broadcast a few weeks ago and which is available by going to wamc.org. And recently I gave a Zoom talk for Osher Lifelong Learning (OLLI), which, according to its director, Megan Whilden, had an audience of over 600 people around the country. The hour-long talk is now posted on youtube. So far I’ve been happy with the response the book has had.

Can you share with us some details/facts you discovered along the way about Elvis that really surprised you? Can stoke the fire by dropping some eyebrow raising info you found, that way we will all want to get the book!

The truth is that everything – the Preface, the nine chapters and the Appendix, and even the endnotes – contains jaw-dropping and eyebrow- raising information about Elvis’ relationships with Jews and the Jewish religion. Even after five years of working on the book, I’m still amazed at what I learned. This stuff simply leaves me, and has left readers saying, “I can’t believe that…. That’s incredible”…Feedback from those who have already read the book confirms that common reaction.

How many books so far have you written, and what has been some of your interests that lead you to writing and publishing for years?

Aside from being a writer, researcher and loving wife and grandmother, you are also an artist who works in mixed media. I was just wondering, have you used any of your artwork for book jackets that you wrote? How do you display your artwork, and lets look at one of your recent pieces of work, please?

I haven’t used any of my art for bookcovers, al-

40 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

though I usually have input as to the design and content of the covers. As for displaying my artwork, I have, over the last decade or so, had solo shows in local venues and exhibited in local galleries and in the annual shows organized by the Housatonic Valley Art League.

Are you creating new artwork these days?

Over this past year, it seems like many people are discovering talents they have put aside for that rainy day. What are your thoughts?

That’s a great question! I have, in fact, discovered a totally new pastime as a result of the pandemic.

I was missing the joys that come with travel abroad or that come with frequent visits to New York City, so I decided to see what I could discover in my own backyard, that is, locally within an hour’s radius of my home. So for nearly a year – and almost every day - I drive along major roads looking for side roads and roads off of side roads.

And when my instinct tells me, “There’s a good one,” I make the turn, park the car, and walk up to four miles. And every single time, I discover incredible sights. I photograph them and post them on Instagram along with brief comments.

Not only do I love the sights and sounds on these walks, but the exercise is so good for me.

Roselle, you are also gifted in playing music, is that true? I recall you were in the Austerlitz Historical Blueberry Festival. Tell us about it, please! What is going on with The Ramblers?

Is there a book in the horizon on the historical side to all this?

While I’m not a gifted guitar player, I love to sing and have been a part of The Berkshire Ramblers, a folk-singing band organized by Alan, who plays banjo and sings. We play mostly for not-for-profit organizations, including The Guthrie Center, where we do an annual concert, the last concert of their summer season. The best parts of our participation in the annual Austerlitz Historical Society’s Blueberry Festival are the blueberry pancakes and hearing the audience join us in singing Pete Seeger songs. (Alan hasn’t learned a new

From Roselle Kline Chartock’s Discovery photographs: Promenade Hill in Hudson, New York at the bottom of Warren Street

Roselle Kline Chartock “Ah, Women!” (2020) Mixed Media Collage

song beyond his Pete Seeger repertoire, and he has forgotten the words to many of them.)

Did Alan, your husband help out? How was he supportive to you?

The book speaks to that, as I dedicated the book to him and wrote in my acknowledgments that he is the source of my inspiration and continues to be my “good luck charm.” He was always there with good advice whenever I wanted to read a section to him. His own writing is a model of incisiveness and wisdom, and I valued his suggestions along the way.

Roselle, I am curious to know a little bit about your childhood. And how you became interested in writing.

I grew up in Hudson, NY in a Jewish family with origins in Hungary and Poland. My paternal grandfather, Samuel Kline, started one of the first shoe stores in Hudson in 1900, and I was familiar with that history; so perhaps that was the beginning of my interest in history and immigration and Jewish identity.

As far as my interest in writing, I recall that I started writing poems as a child and often entered local essay contests; and, of course, as a high school student, I was able to develop research and writing skills.

How did you meet Alan?

There are some interesting unprintable aspects to

this story, but I’ll stick to the printable. During my junior year at Skidmore College, a friend of mine announced that her friend, Alan - whom she’d worked for on a Fire Island newspaper – wanted to come and visit. He was, at the time, in Albany working for state senator, Manfred Ohrenstein.

Alan told my friend that he wanted to meet some of her friends. So she gathered six of us in the living room of the dorm one evening, and in walked Alan. He regaled us with stories that made me laugh. He called her the next day and told her that he really liked me, but I told her – and I’m embarrassed to admit this – that I thought he was too short. That was our first meeting, and a year later I met him again at my friend’s wedding. It was then that I recognized his unique personality and his brilliance; and he was a guy with lots of thick dark hair, horn-rimmed glasses and a cute smile.

We began a four-year courtship while living in Manhattan.

How did you end up settling in the Berkshires?

Following in the steps of some friends, we bought a small house in Alford (we weren’t yet married), so we could come to the Berkshires on weekends.

A year after we got married in 1970, we decided we were ready to leave New York, so we moved into that house fulltime. I had gotten a teaching job at Monument Mountain and Alan commuted to his fulltime teaching job at SUNY New Paltz.

And now fifty years later we’re still here, thankful

for our good choice.

What is it that you and Alan love so much about the Berkshires?

We love the beauty, the way the mountains embrace the area, and we love the culture that surrounds us, the music, theater, film and dance. I had grown up in Hudson and had rich memories of coming to the Berkshires as a child and going to Tanglewood and the Stockbridge Playhouse (now the Berkshire Theater Group)and Jacob’s Pillow, even staying on weekends at Blantyre and Wheatleigh, which at the time, were down and out, and thus affordable. And Alan had been a head counselor at Bronx House Emmauel Camp in Copake, and he, too, had fond memories of the area.

Thank you, Roselle!

Amazon.com

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 41

FICTION visited with Jack, her husband dead 22 years. They laughed at life and talked about Balzac.

“I want to go to Safeway and the library on Marin.”

“Today’s not a good day for that, Mom. I’m working on a song and the band’s waiting for me so we can figure out the set we’re going to do next weekend. I can scoot to the store real fast and get whatever you need. Orange juice, toilet paper?” Daisy was an aspiring song writer and part-time weed dealer. She and her two kids lived in Charlotte’s North Berkeley house virtually rent-free and she drove her mother’s car. Quid pro quo, though her brothers didn’t quite see the equity in it.

Jesse, in particular, had a way of suggesting that she had the deal of the century.

“You don’t know what I need. I don’t know what I need till I get to Safeway. I like to look at all the frozen dinners.”

Underground Susie Kaufman

The thought occurred to Daisy, as it did several times a day, that her life would likely end in an ass over teakettle tumble down the basement steps. The steps were dangerously steep, littered with dirty towels and children’s underwear midway on the road to the washing machine.

They were slick from fifty years of contact with the grime of family life. The light switch at the top of the stairs was fussy, sometimes refusing to illuminate the cellar. And even when it did choose to work, Daisy tried to look straight ahead, not to the left where moldy boxes stacked at precarious angles contained the archaeological record of four generations of Siegels. Some day, Daisy and her brothers would have to get rid of all this junk. There was a time when she envisioned a great festive sorting, Jesse uncovering his warped tennis rackets, David his 8-tracks, but lately she imagined an enormous, mechanized shovel scooping up the rodent-nibbled mountain of Siegel stuff and taking it someplace where it could decay without sentiment.

Daisy passed the laundry area and walked into her mother’s bedroom without knocking. It was 8:30 in the morning and Charlotte Siegel had moved from her bed to the table off the kitchen to eat her breakfast, leaving several day’s worth of balled up tissues around the pillow and trailing along the floor. Daisy found her mother idly turning the pages of The Chronicle, chomping on a bagel laden with cream cheese. On the table, the remains of yesterday’s breakfast, lunch and dinner decorated old newspapers, bills, and advertising. An array of pill bottles glared at Charlotte while she tried to interest herself in the probability of Hillary Clinton running for president. Charlotte had been born during the first FDR administration and had always taken pride in her political savvy. But now, the various blood pressure and cholesterol medications, as well as pills for her lower back pain, seemed to overwhelm the space, both on the table and in her mind. She refused on principle to take the antidepressants.

Dr. Ling seemed like a decent person, gentle and attentive when Daisy took her mother to Kaiser for her check-ups, but, really, what did she know about how Charlotte felt when she woke up yet again in her cave-like, windowless bedroom and contemplated another day. What did she know about this endless running out…running out of milk, running out of Depends, running out of energy and something to say.

Daisy wanted to know how she slept. She slept just fine. She slept day and night, in her easy chair, on the couch, in bed. When she slept, she 42 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

Daisy sighed. By the time her mother got dressed and they did the grand tour at the supermarket and the Alameda County library, half the day would be gone and the boys would be racing in the front door, cheerfully combative and ravenous. Charlotte exchanged her soiled pajama bottoms for a pair of stained pants. She turned her back to Daisy for help hooking her bra and bent with difficulty to put on socks and shoes. They looked around for the cane that was always in hiding behind a bookcase and went out the front door and up the driveway.

The drought had brought spectacular weather if you weren’t a farmer or someone who hoped to be able to afford lemons and tomatoes next year. No more morning fog over the bay. Just a robin’s egg sky overhead and spring flowers, spiraea, California poppies and a bush with red blossoms, leptospermum. Daisy turned on to Shattuck and breezed down to the store. There was no point trying to help Charlotte with the shopping. Daisy had to remind herself every time that in the supermarket aisles her mother was a hunter gatherer stalking and harvesting. She could not be disturbed and could not be hurried. Forty minutes later, the trunk of the car overflowing with nasty smelling cheeses and packages of microwave pork enchiladas, they made their way to the library.

Here, after the brief intermission in the car, Charlotte turned up the heat on seek and ye shall find, combing the stacks for books that were worth reading but not too long. Coetzee, Naipaul, William Kennedy. Some part of her mind, which remembered nothing that anyone said to her, nothing about what pills she was supposed to take morning and evening, nothing about what her grandchildren were interested in, still resonated with language, syntax, the great parade of words.

Charlotte had wanted Daisy to be a reader, a thinker, but the clothes didn’t fit. She was what they call a people person and this very quality, her gift for empathy, her love for the rough texture of the life around her, made her a songwriter. It made her vibrate with the longing, the regret. It also stuck her with all the caregiving, her father Jack gone, her ex re-married on the other side of the country, her brothers working full-time.

Daisy sat at Jack’s old baby grand upstairs and listened for the song.

That’s how she thought of it. The song would tiptoe in and introduce itself when it was good and ready. She needed to be patient. This seemed to be the message she was getting from every direction. Be patient with your kids. Be patient with your mother. Be patient with your songwriting. The first few lines had shown up unannounced over the weekend… “How can the days be so long and so short? Why is the night never coming? When will I get back the life that is mine? la la la la la la lala. Iambic pentameter, Charlotte called it.

She answered the phone.

“I need to see Dr. Ling.”

“We just went to Kaiser last week, Mom. What’s going on?”

“I can’t walk. Why can’t I walk?”

Daisy didn’t want to tell her what the doctor had suggested…that Charlotte was forgetting how to walk and would one day forget how to swallow.

“Dr. Ling says you need more exercise. Tomorrow we’ll walk up Mariposa and look at the wisteria, ok?”

“OK, Daisy Duck. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”

The song wasn’t coming. It was stuck in the pipeline. She needed some kind of creative drano, something that would flush the gunk out of her brain. Daisy decided to visit Jack’s tree in Live Oak park. When her Dad died, painfully, witheringly, in 1993, the city said Charlotte could plant a Japanese maple in the park in his memory. The tree had survived even though it never rained and no one ever weeded or fed it. It was hardier than Jack, but nowhere near as clever.

Daisy sat on the dry grass and let her mind wander over to her father.

There he was in his mustard colored bathrobe, chain-smoking Pall Malls in the old days, flipping pancakes and downing his fourth cup of sludge. He was a jazz musician pretending to be an academic, her Dad. All that smart patter, that deconstructionist rat-a-tat-tat was really a repurposed saxophone riff. He was 60 when the melanoma caught up with him, but he never seemed to age. Everything was new for him.

First life, then death. They all died young anyway, the greats. Mozart, Charlie Parker, Lenny Bruce.

“When will I hear different drumming”?

OK. But Jack never seemed to be waiting for something to happen, never seemed to be expecting anything. He just took each Tuesday as it arrived and squeezed the nectar out of it. He hit that tennis ball. He drank that gin. When he died, the family scattered like so many pool balls at the break, Jesse marrying a girl from Kansas, Daisy falling in love with another woman and following her to LA. David kept one eye on Charlotte, but it wasn’t easy to figure her out. She seemed to be running on inarticulate rage, scraping the bottom of the personals barrel, picking out the most awful, incongruous men, just to stick it to Jack’s memory, just to let him know what a shit he was to disappear on her when she was only 58.

Better. More presence. Less yearning. Daisy poured a glass of California malbec, got in a few deep, satisfying breaths, went down to see her mother. Charlotte was dozing in her favorite chair, her legs up on a hassock, Evelyn Waugh open on her lap. Charlotte was receiving instructions direct from Jack and following them to the letter. She kept telling them to leave her be. Live their own lives, her daughter and her two sons. It was just that vigilance and living in the moment didn’t mix all that well. Daisy couldn’t seem to stay in her life and keep one eye on her mother at the same time, wrap her arms around the present without being paralyzed by the fear of the future, Charlotte falling, having a stroke, dying for God’s sake. This was not an hallucinogenic nightmare, the product of a fertile imagination. People die. Her father, for one. Blood coming out of his mouth while the family looked on, none of them able to breathe in this sacred moment as if continuing to inhale and exhale were somehow in poor taste when Jack was no longer able to do it. She had been an expert witness, she and Charlotte and Jesse and David. They had all stayed with him until they heard the gate slam closed behind him.

Daisy crumpled the lyrics into a grapefruit-sized ball and tossed it into the trash. Her boys would be impressed by her hook shot. Her boys would come home from school, demonstrating their soccer footwork, complaining about playground outrages. They didn’t spend much time with their grandmother. She was too slow-moving, too hard of hearing.

She didn’t have their goofy, free-form energy. Daisy was the intermediary, the ambassador. She decided to start on a dinner that they would all enjoy. Got the chicken parts out of the fridge, pressed a lot of garlic on them and sprinkled the top with lemon juice. She put up some rice and poured another glass of malbec. There was plenty of chicken and rice and plenty of wine to share with her mother. But Charlotte, she knew, would not want to climb the stairs to eat with them. She would rather taste Daisy’s caring for her from down below in her own silent space, savoring the warm goodness of it underground.

-Susie Kaufman

What would Jack have done if fortune had reversed itself, if he had lived to watch over Charlotte in her decline, preside over this advancing disorder, inside and out? Daisy knew what he wouldn’t have done.

He wouldn’t have fussed over her. Charlotte hated being fussed over.

“Don’t go out without your cane, Mom. You might lose your balance and take a flop. Don’t eat too many cashews, Mom. You know how nuts make you constipated. Don’t lose your hearing aids, Mom. Those things don’t come cheap.

Jack would have concentrated on the remaining party. Dim sum, wine, maybe a toke or two. He would have elevated the conversation like the day he died when he wanted to talk about ancient Egyptian art. Jack would have pestered Charlotte to live until the living was done. Daisy knew this message from beyond the grave was meant for her, too. Not that her Dad wanted her to be reckless. He just wanted her to appreciate it, for the love of God, the nasturtiums in the garden, the noise of her children. How he would have loved them, her cocoa-colored boys, athletes, jokers.

“Here where the sun does its dance on the bay. Whispering, singing and weeping. Gentle the light at the start of the day. Lifting me out of my sleeping.”

seventysomething9@gmail.com susiekaufman.blogspot.com facebook.com/seventysomething

THE ARTFUL MIND FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • 43

Proctor Cronk Starts Collecting Art Part II “Would you be willing to sell me this print of the Madonna and Child, you have here in the black frame?” Proctor asked the junkman.

The junkman replied, “Five dollars.”

“And what about this print of the Andrea Doria in the frame with the broken glass?”

“Both for ten dollars,” was the reply.

“All right then how about the Andrea Doria, the Madonna, and this old painting on wood here for twenty five dollars total?”

“If you want the icon it would be seven hundred dollars by itself,” he replied. “Don’t you know that these icons are very valuable objects, and these prints next to it are worthless junk?”

This was exactly what Proctor expected the a junkman not to know, this is what Proctor wanted to magnanimously point out to him, but instead he was made to feel foolish, and ended up buying the Andrea Doria, the Madonna, and an old photograph of a soldier in a small frame with a moth-eaten black velvet mat.

Later Proctor discarded the picture of the Madonna, and also the print of the Andrea Doria, but in his room there was a fireplace mantle for a nonexistent fireplace, and on the mantle he put the picture of the soldier. The faded soldier’s new function was to constantly remind Proctor of his experience trying to get rid of his old Plymouth at the salvage yard, and gradually this recollection turned itself into the desire to create his own collection of bizarre unrelated objects.

Proctor sold his car for twelve hundred dollars, and with the money in hundred dollar bills in an envelope he took the bus and paid another visit to the salvage yard, having decided to buy one of the icons.

There were three icons in the tarpaper shack. One was a painting of some figures on a ladder ascending into heaven. The other two paintings were stiff, formal, but touching portraits of some saints holding the various implements they had been martyred with.

Proctor looked carefully at each of the three, and after serious consideration took the picture of some figures on a ladder down from its place on the wall and put it on the edge of the desk. He took out his envelope of money and began counting out some new hundred dollar bills and at the same time asking, “Seven hundred, you said seven hundred?”

“The martyred saints are the good ones,” said the junkman. “Saint Sylvester is seven hundred, and Saint Jerome would be seven fifty, but I couldn’t possible sell you thing you have in your hands for anything more than a hundred dollars as I only paid

twenty-five for it, because it was only painted last year at the Russian Orthodox monastery not far from here.”

“You see, if I charge you more for it, eventually someone will point out to you the difference between it and the old icons from previous centuries,” he explained.

With that he turned the icon over and showed Proctor the back of the painting which was a plain piece of pine plywood. Then he took the others off the wall and turned them over also. The backs of the old icons were more intricate than the fronts. In an effort to keep the old wood from warping the entire back was carpentered with interlocking slats of walnut, hand carved with great care.

Again Proctor was made to feel ignorant about something painfully obvious, and although he preferred the new cheaper icon, he had made his trip to the salvage yard to spend seven hundred dollars, and so, in a rather confused way, he changed his mind and decided to purchase the Saint Sylvester.

He was victimized by the superior knowledge of the seller and discarded his initial feelings out of a kind of intellectual embarrassment.

The junkman could see that Proctor was uncomfortable with his decision, which expressed itself in this question: “How is it,” Procter asked, “that this icon being new, is all pitted and worn out and looks as old as these icons painted hundreds of years ago?”

“Because I sandblasted it, and rubbed it down with dirt and axle grease,” was the reply.

He then gave this elaborate explanation.

First of all how is it that I came to have all of these things here in the first place? People bring me their dead cars and I dispose of them. Now, with sudden death of a person, often the fate of the car the person owned falls into limbo. The family will often times bring a perfectly good older car to my yard without even looking it over. In those cars one frequently finds amazing things that may have been in the trunk for years. This is how I came to have the icons, these oriental rugs, and the brass lamps with the greens shades.

Also I acquired these etchings, this collection of books and almost everything else you see in my office here is the result of fifty years of accidental collecting. It is all the result of living in a town with a huge university, and the absent-minded professor types the place generates. It is the university that has created my collection, a collection of forgotten and neglected items.

Someone who saw the icons in my office told me there was a Russian Monastery not far from here where the art of the painting of icons was still practiced and so I went out there especially to see if I could buy another one.

Since I didn’t know anything about it, I imagined that the new ones were bound to be better than the old ones which were all chipped, broken, cracked, faded and rubbed-out looking.

I found the monastery without any difficulty. A Russian monastery is a strange sight here in Upstate New York. You think, “Yes, it’s a monastery, but there is a Ford Mustang parked in the driveway, next to a Pontiac.” And the parking lot is blacktop with no parking signs and a reserved-for-handicapped parking space.

You climb the steps to the porch and ring the doorbell, and you wonder if a monastery in Russia would have wrought iron railings from Home Depot, and doorbells that ring with that electric sound like a house in the suburbs.

There was a small room just off the entrance to their reception hall with a little sign that announced it to be their gift store. What a dis-

44 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND

appointment that gift store was. What did I find it that room? Plastic statuettes of important saints from their list of martyrs with a magnet for your dashboard, gilded plastic Orthodox crosses on little mahogany bases. A small model of a church with a golden onion dome with a slit in the roof so it could be used as a piggy bank, and numerous icons, hand painted on slabs of plywood.

The icons reminded me of those lacquer boxes with painted geometric designs that are sold everywhere that an ethnic eastern look is desired.

There were also those babushkas, the little wooden grandmothers that nestle one inside the other. Even though I was so disappointed with the cheap, mechanically painted icons that looked like they had been created on an assembly line down in Mexico, nevertheless it did cross my mind that the icons I had at home perhaps had looked very similar two hundred years ago.

I tried to imagine what these new icons would look like if someone were to bury them in the ground and then they were exhumed many years later. The surface would be all eaten up by worms.

Half the surface might have disappeared. Those parts that were silver would be that purple black tarnished color. Perhaps the earth would transform those icons from cheap mechanically produced images into austere works of art.

I purchased one of their icons for twentyfive dollars, and when I got back to my office I compared it to the old icons I had found in the trunk of the art department director’s car. It was then that I decided to sandblast the surface of the thing until most of the image was destroyed. After that, what was left was still too new looking so I rubbed the thing down with some axle grease mixed with dirt.

When I rubbed the grease off I couldn’t tell the difference between the old icons and the new one.

You couldn’t tell the difference unless you turned them over and compared the backs. It is the back of an icon that establishes its identity and its value. Like the appearance of gold, nothing can substitute for the look of the care and devotion the carpentry of the back displays.

“It is unnecessary for a person to know anything about art or art history to instantly appreciate the significance of the back of a genuine old icon. I swear even a junkman like me would see it!

Then, after a long pause he added, “Especially a junkman, why even a garbage man could see it!”

This was the experience that established the attitude toward collecting that Proctor Cronk adopted for his own. He purchased one of the old icons from the junkman, and then for another fifty dollars he purchased the newer icon that had been sandblasted and rubbed down with grease. Although he completely agreed with the junkman about the superior value of the old paintings, still, even from the first day, he preferred the newer one.

Later he sold the old icon for fifteen hundred dollars, but nothing would induce him to part with the sandblasted painting.

Many years later, when Proctor Cronk was a well known art dealer in the city, he would often buy old paintings in thrift stores for twenty dollars, have them sand blasted and then rub them down with his own formula of axle grease and dirt, and sell them later for a few thousand dollars.

—RICHARD BRITELL: FROM THE BLOG NO CURE FOR THE MEDIEVAL MIND

EDWARD ACKER PHOTOGRAPHER

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