Fine Art Magazine

NOVEMBER 2011 • $4.95 US

www.fineartmagazine.com

Art Blooms in Boston at Galerie d’Orsay

4 • Fine Art Magazine • Fall 2011

Sallie Hirshberg of Galerie d’Orsay

GrandeAbsenteFineArtAds_Layout 1 9/28/11 11:52 PM Page 5

Homage a Henry Moore 1898 – 1986 • Public Art The artwork Oval with Points (1968 – 1970) inspired contemporary painter John Pacovsky as he created this, one of more than 120 pieces in our Absente Homage to Great Artists Collection.

GRANDE ABSENTE ~Absinthe Originale Its maker’s private recipe has stood uncompromised since 1860.

Hand-crafted in Provence. Only fine botanicals of the region are selected – including artemisia absinthium, the wormwood of legend.

Grande Absente is 138 proof so please enjoy responsibly. www.grandeabsente.com

facebook.com/GreenMvmt

Grande Absente Liqueur, 69% ALC/VOL., Grande Absente and Grande Absente Logo are trademarks owned by M. P. Roux, Imported from France by Crillon Importers Ltd., Paramus, NJ 07652 © 2008

Harry Doolittle

Adil Akhtar

Kenneth Knowles

Wyatt Gragg

Giancarlo Calicchia

Ione Citrin

Cheryl L. Hrudka

Amy Cohen Banker

For more information about these artists, contact: Artisan Direct, Ltd., 82 Callingham Road, Pittsford, NY 14534 • 585.586.3535 • info@artisandirectltd.net • www.artisandirectltd.net Artisan Direct is a sales, marketing and e-commerce company that offers promotion and support services to fine artists, art galleries and museums worldwide.

Buy book.

Make drinks.

Enjoy.

There is more than one way to enjoy Grande Absente.

Absente – Images and Tastes of the Green Fairy is a 296 page hardbound volume filled with 118 authentic drink recipes and 18 mouth-watering food recipes. Each unique recipe is accompanied by an original work of art. Get it and start exploring the mysteries of Grande Absente – Absinthe Originale.

Bob Dylan, by Sid Maurer. Dylan’s New York art debut is going on at Gagosian Gallery in New York City. For more, see page 19 www.fineartmagazine.com

Order your copy today.

absentebook.com

founded in 1975

PUBLISHER JAMIE ELLIN FORBES info@fineartmagazine.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VICTOR BENNETT FORBES victor@fineartmagazine.com

WEB MASTER

JOAN HIMMELSTEIN SPECIAL THANKS MARILYN GOLDBERG, JAYSON SAMUEL, MICHEL ROUX, NEIL ZUKERMAN, BRIAN UCKERT, DR. BILL AKPINAR, RICHARD ROTHBARD, RICK FRIEDMAN, JEANETTE KORAB, ARTRAGEOUS, MILA RYK Grande Absente Liqueur, 69% ALC/VOL., Grande Absente and Grande Absente Logo are trademarks owned by M. P. Roux, Imported from France by Crillon Importers Ltd., Paramus, NJ 07652 © 2010

4 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

PO BOX 404, CENTER MORICHES, NY 11934 (631) 339-0152 • (718) 549-8956

Join us online: SunstormArts@FineArtmagazine.com Share Your Ideas and Images Network The Creative Life Yours, Ours, and Others http://www.facebook.com/pages/FineArt-Magazine-Online/90745356362 http://www.youtube.com/user/ FineArtMagazine http://twitter.com/fineartmagazine

www.fineartmagazine.com info@fineartmagazine.com artspower@aol.com

© 2011 SunStorm Arts Publishing Co. Inc. FRONT COVER PHOTO OF SALLIE HIRSHBERG BY GREG KATSOULIS; PAINTING SAMIR SAMMOUN

GrandeAbsenteFineArtAds_Layout 1 9/28/11 11:51 PM Page 4

Homage a Raphael 1483 – 1520 • Frescoes, Perfection & Grace The artwork The Triumph of Galatea (1512) inspired contemporary painter John Pacovsky as he created this, one of more than 120 pieces in our Absente Homage to Great Artists Collection.

GRANDE ABSENTE ~Absinthe Originale Its maker’s private recipe has stood uncompromised since 1860.

Hand-crafted in Provence. Only fine botanicals of the region are selected – including artemisia absinthium, the wormwood of legend.

Grande Absente is 138 proof so please enjoy responsibly. www.grandeabsente.com

facebook.com/GreenMvmt

Grande Absente Liqueur, 69% ALC/VOL., Grande Absente and Grande Absente Logo are trademarks owned by M. P. Roux, Imported from France by Crillon Importers Ltd., Paramus, NJ 07652 © 2008

GALERIE d’ORSAY’S SALLIE HIRSHBERG

“The art world never stops turning and churning…”

Sallie Hirshberg

Galerie d’Orsay in bloom on Newbury Street, Boston

By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES Youthful, beautiful and ebullient, Sallie Hirshberg personifies JEF: How did you break into the art world? everything that is positive in today’s turbulent art world. With SH: I am one of the few people in my field who actually has made a profession from what they studied. For ten years, I worked for degrees from Boston University in Art History and Business, Ms. Fidelity Investments, and learned a lot there. I’m Hirshberg combines her love of both as owner/ in it because I love art and believe in it. It was a founder of Galerie d’Orsay. Located on Boston’s great foundation because Fidelity was also my historic Newbury Street, Galerie d’Orsay has account and I was able to assist the subsidiaries thrived even in challenging times by integrating with their art collections. New managers would auction house stalwarts with a group of living be given gifts that I would recommend. I also contemporary artists in a spacious showplace oversaw their galleries in the New England replete with the charm that comes with being in area. This gave me great insight of how to run a business as well as what type of art I wanted the midst of centuries of American and European to showcase. The art we represent at Galerie history. Galerie d’Orsay is currently hosting a one d’Orsay all has museum credentials. man exhibition of the Lebanese-born Montréal artist Samir Sammoun. A modern impressionist, JEF: Why Newbury Street?

Sammoun has been a staple at the gallery with SH: At the height of the economy, Newbury many sold-out shows. Collectors who walked in as street was lined with 47 art galleries and still has tourists have begun very vibrant collections with quite a few, along with many equally charming Samir’s work. He is among a handful of living restaurants. It is historic, dating back to the English colonists. From our vantage point on artists sharing wall space with the legendary Rembrandt, The Descent From the Cross the first block, right next to the Boston Public greats of the art world—Rembrandt, Renoir, Gardens, we are one of the very first galleries LíHermitte, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, Manet, you will come across as you make your way down Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Cassatt, Chagall and Miro just to name a this historic stretch. One of the best things about such a location is few. Master works on paper with emphasis on rare and museumthat people see us first, come in for a visit and often find something quality artworks that span the past six centuries are Galerie d’Orsay’s and fall in love with the art and the gallery. hallmark. Fine Art Magazine publisher Jamie Ellin Forbes recently JEF: How do you see your role as a modern art dealer in the context visited Ms. Hirshberg at the gallery. Following is the interview, also of art history?

SH: In capturing the moment of today while embracing the past, we in video online at www.fineartmagazine.com 6 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Henri Matisse, L’enterremente de Pierrot

are as in tune with the activity of those who push the envelope to the maximum of what is defined as art—Damian Hirst, Jeff Koons— as we are to other artists who are more conceptual. We also stay abreast of the auction markets, where Picasso has the record for sales (which says something about modern art) and where Impressionism is the most loved genre. As an art advisor to major corporations, I recommend acquiring works of art that have stood the test of time like a Rembrandt or a Picasso, as well as living artists worthy of hanging next to these great masters.

JEF: What is your criteria?

SH: On a personal level, I think everything is art—that’s what art is about. Whatever one’s motives in collecting art—be it for pleasure or profit—our goal is to find the right art for them.

JEF: Congratulations on the eleventh anniversary of your gallery.

Do you recall your opening show?

SH: Our first exhibit was with M.L. Snowden, the ultimate protege of Rodin. The second show was Rembrandt. The foundation of our gallery is masterworks on paper. This has been a nice formula for us.

Even with the dip in economy we just sold a Picasso well into the six figures—one of his more famous linocuts. The same piece sold at auction not too long ago for $600,000. We were able to obtain a different edition of the same one for substantially less. We also find pieces that are not normally on the market, for example, a complete Matisse jazz suite, one of his most important works.

JEF: Tell us about your current exhibition.

SH: It’s Samir Sammoun. He’s been compared to the incomparable van Gogh. Samir paints with earth tones, with an undercoating of sienna and applies it with a brush effect that somehow lets the undercoating work as a light, almost as a highlight, within the painting itself shining through the image. It is a very different technique, and Samir is an incredible artist. In this exhibit, Samir will also unveil his new bronze sculpture, Olivier, which will one

“Art collecting is absolutely something that I believe you should do as a passion but it also certainly seems to be quite a solid investment as opposed to some of the other options out there that are more volatile.”

At the Bruno Zupan exhibition, fashion designer Zang Toi with Reggie and Steve McCormack with Sallie Hirshberg.

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 7

Luc Leestemaker, Chrysanthemum #3

day be a monumental work. There is no one like Samir. He is full of life, generous of spirit, and an amazing painter. Samir has been with us a good seven years if not longer and every show that we have with him is a sold-out exhibition. The collector base for his work is quite eclectic, comprised of people of many backgrounds and nationalities. He has built a wonderful bridge, creating a connection between people of different cultures who all love one artist. We have so many people who fall in love with his work and we’re quite proud to be able to represent him here in Boston.

JEF: And Zupan?

SH: He is another important artist. I first saw Bruno when a friend was directing a gallery in Soho, NY. I remember sitting in that gallery for an hour mesmerized by his paintings. Bruno tends to use a palate with colors drenched of the Mediterranean and a loose, broad brushstroke may be the result of him working outdoors. What we strive to do at Galerie d’Orsay is represent the best artists of our time in specific genres—contemporary, impressionist, figurative. I feel that we have achieved this with our artists.

JEF: To what do you attribute the success of your gallery during this particular time?

SH: Our passion, knowledge, staff, location and of course, our artists.

JEF: A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal noted that during all of this rearrangement of money, art is the perfect investment; that it continues to climb.

SH: I’m really surprised based on the market with the amount of activity that we’ve had here in the gallery. While getting ready for our Matisse Jazz show in September, we sold over 50% of the work before the opening.

JEF: I love the art and your diligent research of provenance. The Artist’s Mother by Rembrandt, what is the story there?

SH: The piece that you are looking at is a very rare original etching done in the 17th century by Rembrandt. He did very few portraits of his mother so this is a really special piece. You can see why he is still considered to be the best etcher of all time. He was the first to capture emotion, motion and depth of field in the medium.

8 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

JEF: And who are some of the others? You have Chagall here, and some great Dalis.

SH: Yes, we have Chagall, Picasso, Miro, Dali, the Pissarro family, Renoir, Manet, Mary Cassatt, and the list goes on and on. We were the first gallery to bring Salvador Dali to Boston and it was a little bit nerve-wracking because we weren’t quite sure what the response would be to some of the pieces, that are a little bit more avant garde. The Boston Globe saw the show and ran a major article on us saying our gallery is “not to be missed”, it turned out very well for us as we sold over a million dollars worth of Dali in one month. We almost had to hire security guards because we had so many people coming through.

It was just great to be introducing something new and fresh and to see such an incredible response from our clientele as well as from people that we had never seen before. So it was really just an incredible event for us.

JEF: Any other highlights that come quickly to mind?

SH: More recently, under the High Patronage of His Serene Highness, Prince Albert II of Monaco, we hosted an exclusive exhibition by Monegasque master artist, Claude Gauthier, to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the revolutionary Ballets Russes. The prestigious honor included the debut of original works by Gauthier, personally chosen by the Principality of Monaco as the official artist to commemorate this significant cultural event.

JEF: You have invited mid-career artists who are established and they are continuing to flourish in their careers. Jamali is quite an innovative artist.

SH: Yes, he actually started a whole new movement in art called Mystical Expressionism. In his pigment on cork he’s working inside the painting in a shallow pool of water and moving the pure pigments with his feet, an interesting technique to go along with his beautiful work.

JEF: You also carry Luc Leestemaker.

SH: Yes, a highly sought after contemporary landscape artist. He is originally from Holland and now lives in Los Angeles. He has a cerebral style in which he creates inner landscapes that border on abstract. In some cases he even crosses over to pure abstract. When they are more realistic people look and say, ‘That’s Nantucket,’ or ‘That’s Laguna Beach’ about the same piece. So I think he really appeals to everyone. I don’t think I’ve ever found anyone who doesn’t love his work.

JEF: You have some lovely Picassos.

SH: We pride ourselves in them. We have over 50 works in our collection, including some of his most sought after linocuts.

JEF: What gave you the foresight to go into this mixture of contemporary artists and established collectible pieces by 18th and 19th century artists?

SH: Well, I’m an art historian by degree and my concentration was baroque through modern. As a result, those artists are the staples of the gallery. We also like to showcase living artists who have museum credentials but are more affordable so collectors can buy great works without having to spend a million dollars. They can spend ten thousand dollars (or less or more) for a really important artist of today. We are finding that people want a place to put their money where they going to enjoy it and its not going to disappear

overnight. You won’t find another Rembrandt from the 17th century, you won’t find another Renoir in the condition we have it in. It’s a rare opportunity and its something that they can enjoy as well.

JEF: What kinds of charities do you serve through your gallery?

SH: Being a wife and mother of three, I am very interested in children’s organizations so we work very closely with many of them; the March of Dimes, The Home of Little Wanderers, WGBH, Art in Giving. We also support the MFA and many other important organizations. I was also on the board for The 100 For Massachusetts General Hospital, and currently serve on the board of CJP, so whatever we can do to help any organization, we’re always happy to get involved.

JEF: You have beautiful Pissarros and you enjoy them, and also Paulemile Pissarro.

SH: Yes. He was the youngest son of Camille and we represent the entire family. We’ve had Lelia Pissarro here in the gallery with us, the great-granddaughter.

Royo, En Compañia JEF: That must have been fun!

SH: Yes. She’s quite lovely and a very talented painter as well. Her father is also living and true essence of women in his compositions, joining us from Spain. working today. H. Claude Pissarro’s work is hanging right here In December we’ll be having an impressionist show. ‘Then and behind me.

Now’, with Impressionists like Renoir and Pissarro along with JEF: I’ve always enjoyed his work.

Samir, Zupan and Royo and SH: Yes he does a wonderful some of the other wonderful job and unlike his famous living artists as well. ancestors, he is not a plein JEF: Do you have anything air painter, he works in the that is your favorite thought studio. Because of that he’s very meticulous and takes a in art currently, a movement great deal of time, unlike the or an idea or a wish that prior Impressionists. When something would happen? you view his work it is almost Anything that inspires you like looking at a kaleidoscope personally other than the because there are so many beautiful works in your colors layered next to one gallery? another.

SH: Well, I think art should JEF: Here is a wonderful just be about making people Tissot. You really have an inhappy and helping people. depth collection.

The more we can get SH: Absolutely. We have involved with charities that beautiful Belle Epoque pieces, Jules Ch eret, To u l ou s eincorporate art, the better.

Lautrec, and many other very Right now we are excited important works. to be working with Art In JEF: You’ve seen the value of Giving, a very important your contemporary artists rise organization. They offer gift Samir Sammoun, Olivier, bronze dramatically in the last 10 years certificates to corporations also, correct? and individuals that can be SH: Yes. Samir, Bruno and used towards an art purchase. 50% of the sale goes to the artist and Luc—we’ve seen usually a 10% increase per year with each of them.

100% of the balance goes to supporting cancer care organizations.

JEF: How about the more collectible 18th and 19th century works?

In essence, art and its ability to elevate people is what inspires me SH: Some have really jumped in value. The Matisse Jazz exhibition, every day. pieces have gone up 30-40% from the last time that we were able Galerie d’Orsay is at 33 Newbury Street in Boston in the heart of to acquire the collection in 2005. It was really quite a strong jump.

JEF: What is on your fall schedule?

Back Bay, the very first block between Arlington and Berkeley.

SH: In November we will have the artist Royo, who captures the www.galerie­-dorsay.com 617-266-8001 Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 9

The Memorial Dedication Dance, above. The 63rd Annual Shinnecock Pow Wow, Labor Day Weekend, was a great success. More dancers, booths, and attendees than ever, it seemed. The dedication and energy displayed by the dancers from many nations, as participants in this nationally known Pow Wow, brought the crowds to standing ovations. Their songs, spirit and community involvement display the ongoing cultural story-telling that was carried on generation to generation through this important art form. Lots of native food and terrific jewelry and crafts brought in a crowd of thousands over the three day weekend. The joy and excitement could be felt by everyone. For complete cultural understanding and historical review, visit any day of the week The Shinnecock Museum in Southampton and websites.

We hope to see everyone at next years Pow Wow. Thank you to the Shinnecock Nation for including us this year! Photo above © Jamie Forbes SunStorm Arts Publshing, Co. Inc. Visit youtube.com/FineArtMagazine to see our videos of the many wonderful dancers at the Pow Wow and www.shinnecocknation.com

i

Doug Reina Birdhouse

Michael Lownie birdhouse 10 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

The 7th annual Bird House Auction Oct 15th benefiting the Coalition for Women’s Cancer at the South Hampton Hospital, hosted by Karyn Mannix with auctioneers Renee Zellweger, Betsey Johnson and Karyn Mannix at the 4 North Main Gallery, Southampton. Tickets $25. For further information, www. karynmannixcontemporary.com

After being shut down by Hurricane Irene, the 39th Hampton Classic opened on a picture perfect Long Island day. All tents were up with the grounds completely ready for a great event. What usually takes a week to complete was done in a day after the tents were disassembled in the midst’s of storm preparation and reassembled. The grounds were ideal, the horses looked ready to go.

Jumpers, (above), and young riders (at right) came from all over to participate. More than 70 corporate sponsors, stables representing 25 countries and some 1,600 horses are in this most spectacular hunter/jumper event competing for over $700,000 prize money.

50,000+ spectators enjoyed this years’ Hampton Classic.

Photos © Jamie Forbes/SunStorm Arts Publishing, Co., Inc.

Danny Aiello, one of the greatest and most recognized actors of our era, a movie star in anybody’s book, has a love of singing which he has been able to share with the world over the past few years via the release of a series of compact discs, featuring impeccable musicianship and production to showcase his thoroughly entertaining voice. As you can imagine, Aiello’s tastes are old school and his renditions of such chestnuts as “Beyond the Sea” and “All of Me” among many others, wowed the crowd at the Patchogue Theater Saturday night, October 1. He delivered fresh, energetic performances of standards from his recordings but the show stopper was a duet of “Besame Mucho” with producer/rapper Hasan from Danny’s most recent release, “Bridges”, a collaboration of standards with hip hop, which could easily be a fit for a Grammy performance. Why not for this Academy Award winning actor? It was a great pleasure to watch Danny deliver and his love of the music is ineffable. All of Aiello’s considerable drive, charisma, and power was enjoyed by the audience, in the terrifically well orchestrated and staged concert. For a real treat, check dannyaiello.com for future shows, watch the “Besame Mucho” video and buy his CDs — you will be transported to a very cool place. —JAMIE ELLIN FORBES

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 11

PHOTO © JAMIE ELIN FORBES

DANNY AIELLLO SHINES

Opening Night

Fran Hoffman, Director of Houston Fine Art Fair, Robert Goff, Director of Haunch of Venison Gallery.

HOUSTON ART FAIR

Christina Katrakis, Mironova Gallery, at her gallery booth at The Houston Fine Art Fair

Launches First Edition

Westoood Gallery of New York City owners Margarite Almeida and James Cavello

Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH Curator of Contemporary Art and Special Projects, Ann Chwatsky, Donald Sultan, HFAF Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, internationally acclaimed artist, and Rick Friedman

Art Houston kicked off its first exhibition, September 8-11th. Opening night brought out a crowd of art patrons and buyers, looking like a NYC Armory Pier Show, or Paris when FIAC reigned or the early days of Art Miami. Rick Friedman, president, Hamptons Expo Group Management told Fine Art Magazine that “around $60,000,000 total sales were done, or will be followed through on business related to the Houston Fine Art Fair. During a most significant economic correction this is a statement that fine art is an investment, an asset to own.” It did not hurt that Houston has a thriving economy and that the show attracted galleries from Santa Fe, Texas, New York, Europe and Latin America, all of which are of interest to the Houston collector. Museum curators, critics, gallerists, artists, and market-makers of all varieties turned out for the show to participate and form a new power hub for the arts.

Chaney Home

Party goes for the Chaney collection tour, guest, guest, Christina Katrakis Mironova Gallery, guest, Carolyn Farb, Jeanette Korab, artists Alexander Detuna, Westwood Gallery owner James Cavello

Jereann Chaney and daughter Holland & artists Donald Lipski, visiting during the Chaney Collection art Tour, complements of Art Houston.

Cindy Lou Wakefield, Rick Friedman, Lester Marks, art collector, artist during the tour of his home & collection, Marshal Lightman, co- founder of Looking at Arts.

12 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Lester Mark hosting a tour of his collection

Marilyn Lew, Operations Manager, Rick Friedman, Ann Chwatsky

Colton & Farb Gallery At The Houston Fine Art Fair

Paper or Plastic? Secrets from Tornado Alley – Patrick Gordon at The Fischbach Gallery

Illuminated Roses, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 60” Patrick Gordon 2011

Patrick Gordon, White orchids on a chest from Charles, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 48”, 2011

“My new work investigates the similarities employing the still life motif. I’m stating the differences and the similarities between beauty and destruction, encapsulated within a protective paper or plastic covering. The cover becomes the camouflage. Illuminated Roses, pictured here started the process.”

— Patrick Gordon

Engaged, Giclée, Edition 1/17, 48.75 x 40.75 inches from IKONIC - A Collaboration with Jay Rusovich and Carolyn Farb Colton & Farb Gallery 2011

The IKONIC collaborative exhibition of Carolyn Farb and photographer Jay Rusovich is a contemporary view into the grace, elegance, style and sensuality reminiscent of an earlier period in 20th Century America. It is pure escapism; a place to go when the world is in turmoil and life has lost some of its glitter. It is a playground of fantasy, where mediocrity is not allowed, and hope abounds. Each image stands as a tribute to classic romance pressed into overdrive.

Roger Ballen, Culmination, Silver gelatin silver print, 2007, 31½ x 31½ courtesy Mironova Gallery, Ukraine, © Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen, Mimicry, Silver gelatin print, 2006, 19¾ x 19¾ courtesy Mironova Gallery, Ukraine, © Roger Ballen

Michel Roux’s Absente Book

Fernando Botero, La Bailaora, Oil on canvas, 75 x 49 inches, 1992 Displayed at Colton & Farb Gallery’s booth at the Houston Fine Arts Fair. www.coltonfarbgallery.com

By VICTOR FORBES In the annals of marketing and advertising, he was Mad Men when those words referred to a state of mind, not a hit television show. For his role in making Absolut the vodka of choice for a generation, Michel Roux has achieved his place in the Advertising Hall of Fame. What sets him above and beyond the rest is his creative use of art and fashion to sell his products and in doing so, create entire campaigns using artists from all over, some of whom have become legitimate art world superstars. In addition, many of these campaigns have been used for charitable purposes to bring awareness to human situations that could have easily been overlooked by other mass marketers.

Mr. Roux’s latest production is a coffee table book, Absente: Images and Tastes of the Green Fair y. This is a reference to what the drinkers of this particular beverage would often see after a few glasses. In bringing Absente to the public after years of the beverage’s banishment, Roux created a masterful advertising campaign with many of his old artist friends contributing art work for ads, all of which appear in these pages along with food and drink recipes featuring Absente and Grande Absente. Illustrations by notable painters John Pacovsky, Ron English, Giancarlo Impiglia, Michael Albert, Alain Despert, Alex Echo and others are represented in this beautifully designed book by David Carrier. To order visit www. crillonimporters.com Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 13

Peintures, 2011

Toiles mai, 2011

Toiles mai, 2011

Toiles mai, 2011

ARTISTIC STEPS

I always have been attracted by paintings and history. It was not surprising that today you can see geography, history and anthropology throughout my art. I consider my production as a witness of our present and past history. I like very much the idea of my art being a learning tool, it is very refreshing.

Maps are giving me the opportunity to travel; history makes me 14 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

understand our ancestors and the contemporary. Anthropology informs me about our society and culture. All these aspects make my canvas alive and vibrating. It’s up to you to look and find out your own answers.

The paintings are an opportunity to share, to question, to dream and discover…

I glue newspapers, maps, pictures; I insert plants, stencils, small objects, textures and texts. All together on the canvas these elements speak about a city, people, a story…speak about life.

There is no limit to my creativity, my findings, encounters, relationships, readings and travels that are feeding my production.

It is an endless process and there are always things to learn.

Through the years, I discovered a passion which brings me closer to myself and others. It is my way of sharing my vision of life and people on my paintings. Please visit www.benoitdesfosses.com

Photographer Catherine Sebastian Captures A World of Beauty

By KAY CORDTZ

O

n a sunny Saturday in September, well over 100 souls from all corners of society streamed through a small restaurant in Woodstock, New York to eat, drink and view a collection of colorful images captured and polished by veteran photographer Catherine Sebastian. Despite a resume stretching back to the ‘60s, Sebastian was presenting her first-ever solo show. Scores of old friends traveled from five states to attend, but many others, although familiar with some of the images in the show thanks to the medium of internet social networking, did not personally know the woman who created them. Luc Moeys, owner of Oriole 9, where the exhibition was held, called it “a very lively crowd, and one of the best art openings we have ever had.”

Sebastian said: “It was a really great birthday party for the work.

Dear friends who hadn’t really seen what I’ve been doing the past couple of years came out of solidarity and happiness for me. Then there were my Facebook friends who really only knew me through the work and came as fans to see it big and live. The most satisfying thing was that by the end of the viewing, my friends had seen the work and my fans were friends.”

Sebastian, whose mother was a painter, always had an exceptional eye for what makes an outstanding photograph. She was just a Los Angeles teenager when she borrowed a camera to document a week on the set of an A.F.I. student film. The director liked her photos so much that he used them under the crawl at the beginning of the movie.

Piuddle Duck. “There is much mystery to be found in the everyday world. It’s all in how you see it. “ Catherine Sebastian

“I looked at those pictures and liked the composition and felt ‘this is for me’– the excitement of interpreting the visual world,” she said.

Sebastian bought a Nikon F body and two fixed focal length lenses and enrolled in darkroom courses given by Kirk Kirkpatrick. “Like ever y other person who picks up a camera I had a lot to learn about light and shadow and how to lay them down on film,” she Blurry Hurry. “Typical New York moment said. “What I learned – always moving. Captured in low light.” in those classes and exercises still informs how I think about capturing what I see. Light is the medium. It is the brush and also at the heart of emotional import.”

Sebastian was a charter member of the Soho West Gallery and contributed several of her series of prints—hand-tinted doubleFine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 15

New York As A Stage Set “This print is a perfect example of how one can get to the truth of a moment using the new media-straddling tools. I shot it very early one morning, and in my mind I’d captured this warm watercolor morning scene. And I was able to get it to BE that.”

exposures depicting Los Angeles—for a collective show. At the same time, she was photographing the musicians who were a part of her life after her marriage to music icon John Sebastian. After a few years, the couple started a family and moved to Woodstock, where Sebastian produced album cover work for Levon Helm and the RCO Allstars, Music from Mud Acres, and Eye to Eye, a collaboration of blues greats including Pinetop Perkins, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. An encounter on an airplane with Leo Sayer’s producer in 1980 got her an invitation to return to Los Angeles to shoot Sayer’s next album cover and tour booklet for Columbia Records. After touring for a year behind his smash hit single “Welcome Back,” her road-weary husband was eager to stay home and nest and she was able to accept.

The New Wave scene was just starting to break and Sebastian found herself much in demand for album photos.

“I have a wonderful shot from that period—a telephone pole on Sunset, outside the Whisky and every photo and poster stapled on it was my work,” she remembers with a laugh.

Soon she was successfully freelancing for Bay Area Magazine, LA Connection, the LA Times and Trouser Press. During that time, Sebastian did album covers for the Textones, the Plimsouls and Jack Lee, among others. With a family waiting at home, she soon returned to Woodstock, but never put down the camera or forgot what she had learned. (left) Paul Butterfield. “We were in the studio for the “Mud Acres” project.

Paul picked up the guitar and started playing. It was a very sweet moment and B & W film was perfect.”

16 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Dusty Southwest Churchyard “I save everything! I saw, when I developed this, that the film had slipped off the sprockets. The resulting holes looked like tombstones to me and I created a ‘double exposure’ in the digital darkroom.”

A watershed moment in Sebastian’s career came in 2007 when she bought a digital camera compatible with the lenses she used. She shot pictures of the Chasing Gus’s Ghost show in San Francisco with her new digital camera and it was instantly usable for both the CD and for the website. She was able to just mentally sidestep the film vs. digital battle that was then raging, recognizing the usefulness of the technology. The switch to digital photography also coincided with Sebastian’s discovery of Facebook, where she started befriending photographers from around the world—both great professionals and gifted amateurs.

“I was archiving 35 years’ worth of music photographs and started posting those in a game I called ‘Mystery Artist of the Day,’” she said. “It became a great way to organize those images for me and a vehicle for other people to reminisce about these wonderful artists. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that you could take any image and really complete the thought with these new tools.

People started asking ‘is that a photograph or a painting or what?’

“Some images are digital from birth, some started their life on emulsion,” she continued. ‘There is an image in the show that I took maybe 15 years ago: It’s the side of a church and a big dusty field, and some trees. When I developed the roll, I saw that the film had slipped off the sprockets and the sprocket holes were visible on the bottom of the image. I made a scan of that and turned this big field into a graveyard with these kind of see-through tombstones, like double exposures.”

Before Sebastian’s show even opened, she sold one of the featured works—Cactus, Joshua Tree—to a collector who had become a fan of her work on Facebook. At the opening, she sold another, Cleat and Piling, right off the wall. Recently, Dusty Southwest Graveyard also sold.

“For an artist there is nothing more enjoyable than knowing that you have an audience and that they ‘get it.’”

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 17

Heidi Little & Band Rock Recovery Lounge

Maria Muldaur, “Maria will forever be a sexy Italian broad. In this shot, she was very young, playing the Bottom Line. I like to compose a certain way, thinking that from her arm to her face to her nipple is one triangle and there’s another one from her violin going the other way.” photo by Catherine Sebastian

Maria Muldaur at Will Rogers The Will Rogers Center in Saranac Lake in way-upstate New York is an unlikely venue for a performance, it being primarily a senior citizens home, but the big old building’s cafeteria converted readily into a combination rock hall and church when the incomparable Maria Muldaur took the stage, presented by promoter Les Hershhorn who is bound and determined to bring great music to the sparsely populated and economically challenged North Country. Currently touring the country with her “Blueisiana” band to promote the brand new CD Steady Love, a high energy mix of blues and Swamp Funk recorded with a stellar group of “A-Team” players, Ms. Muldaur’s return engagement to Will Rogers was a smashing success.

Opening with her iconic anthem “I’m A Woman”, she followed that with a rendition of Elvin Bishop’s rocking and poignant “I’ll Be Glad”, (if you don’t know this song, you are hereby strongly advised to search out both Elvin’s and Maria’s versions). She then took us to church with the Soul Stirrers gospel number “I Done Made It Up In My Mind (To Serve God ’Til I Die)” and had the audience on their feet and dancing in the aisles. Her next cut, Bobby Charles’ “Why Are People Like That” originally recorded by Muddy Waters on his Woodstock album and notably covered by Paul Butterfield live on the Letterman show back in the ’80s (find it on youtube), the concert could have ended right there but Maria went on for another hour. “Midnight at the Oasis” was as sexy and sassy as ever, as is the wonderful and beautiful Ms. Muldaur, a stalwart figure of Americana music who shows no signs of letting up or slowing down.

—VICTOR FORBES

Just about the coolest room in the North Country is the Recovery Lounge. By day an upholstery business, after sunset it stealthily converts into a Greenwich Village style night club—well lit, comfy chairs all around and a very pure sound system. It’s owned and operated by the Renderer brothers (Scott and Byron), who are not only furniture restorers of choice in the Adirondacks but a dynamic, respected and in-demand rhythm section for recording and touring bands including their own aggregation, Monsterbuck.

Known for bringing edgy, creative acts into their Upper Jay room overlooking the Ausable River, their latest presentation was the Heidi Little Band. Ms. Little, a Canadian/American singer and songwriter has penned seven albums and recorded five. Her new single ONE has just been released on iTunes. Born in the prairies of Regina, Sask, Canada, Heidi, who now lives in Saranac Lake, made her Recovery Lounge debut in September with her new group featuring Derek R. Lavoie and Gordy Sheer (both of Lake Placid) on bass and drums.

Taking the stage with her gorgeous new green Carparelli electric guitar (looking like a cross between a 1952 Gretsch Duo Jet and a Les Paul), Heidi wowed the standing room only crowd with her inspired collection of originals espousing her philosophical point of view which is right out of the hippie primer, circa Summer of Love before it all went commercial. With elegant, tight and sympathetic accompaniment by her rhythm section, Ms. Little engaged the audience with humorous patter about her life between acoustic and electric songs. The band, notably Mr. Lavoie whose Fender Jazz bass acted as both a bottom to Mr. Sheer’s impeccable rhythm and a counterpoint to Ms. Little’s soaring vocals, was right on target, never over-playing, hitting every note perfectly. The group dynamic reminded this reviewer of a similar trio, the Youngbloods, whose heyday was in an era Ms. Little embodies. In this performance, she soared over and through the music, her crystalline vocals delivering her message of peace and love with humor and reckless courage.

Heidi is a genuine purveyor of her message of peace, love and hope and will be headlining the John Lennon Birthday Peace Concert at the Lake Placid Celebration of the Arts, October 9. A a flower child who gave away everything she owned to go on the road across North America, she recorded at Willie Nelson’s Studio in Pedernales and hit #1 record on various music charts. Next is a lecture tour with the incredible Nansi Nevins, lead singer of Sweetwater, featured in the Woodstock movie and the first band in VH1’s original series “Where Are They Now.” With her Green Card now in hand, you can be sure that Heidi Little and her band will be coming to a venue near you. When that happens, catch them if you can—a free spirit soaring in flight, groundation supplied by bass and drums.

—VICTOR FORBES

18 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Bob Dylan Kitchenette, 2009, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm) Photo by Joshua White Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

Bob Dylan’s New York Art Debut “The Asia Series” at Gagosian

Bob Dylan in his studio, late 1980s.

Photograph by David Michael Kennedy. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

24 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Bob Dylan.

Dylan’s drawings and paintings are marked by the same constant drive for renewal that characterizes his legendary music. He often draws and paints while on tour, and his motifs bear corresponding impressions of the many different environments and people that he encounters. A keen observer, Dylan works from real life to depict everyday phenomena in such a way that they appear fresh, new, and mysterious.

The Asia Series, a visual journal of his travels in Japan, China, Vietnam, and Korea, comprises firsthand depictions of people, street scenes, architecture and landscape, which can be clearly identified by title and specific cultural details, such as Mae Ling, Cockfight, The Bridge, and Hunan Province. Conversely, there are more cryptic paintings often of personalities and situations, such Big Brother and Opium, or LeBelle Cascade, which looks like a riff on Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe but which is, in fact, a scenographic tourist photo-opportunity in a Tokyo amusement arcade.

The most celebrated singer-songwriter of our time, Dylan has been making visual art since the 1960s, but his work had not been publicly exhibited until 2007, when an exhibition of The Drawn Blank Series was held in Chemnitz, Germany, followed by The Brazil Series at the Statens Museum, Copenhagen, 2008. The Asia Series will be his first exhibition in New York.

Peter Marco - The Future of Pop Art People can you feel it? Love is everywhere People can you hear it? A song is in the air We’re in a revolution - Oh you know we’re right Everyone is singing ... yeah! There’ll be no one to fight

— “Revival”, written by Dickey Betts, recorded by The Allman Bros.

By VICTOR BENNETT FORBES here was a time a generation and a half ago when Pop ruled. There was Roy Lichtenstein, there was Andy Warhol. Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf. There was Michael Jackson. Then, almost as suddenly there was no one. A few approached the throne, only to be turned away or have their edge removed by the necessity of selling paintings. Then there came along a fellow named Peter Marco, who burst upon the scene simply as MARCO. He was a pioneer down on Delancey Street, on Rivington Street before the hipsters gentrified the neighborhood, when the flavor of the streets was real and the colors on the canvas reflected not only the visual, but the smell, the grit, the despair and hope of the place. This was more than post-Modernism, more than post-Pop, more than post-New Wave. It was a young man assimilating all that came before him expressing it with an edge, perhaps in those days, not perhaps—definitely—an anger and a feeling that the world of art had better take a look at what he was doing, where he was coming from. It was my grandparents’ neighborhood, but not my grandparents’ art. Yet

T

20 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

cultural continuity and respect for the past was evident in this young man from a tough place: his flame burned strong then and it is so today, and Grams would have appreciated his spunk, tenacity and style.

The term Pop Art first appeared in Britain during the 1950s referring to images of mass media, advertising, and comics, pioneered by Robert Indiana and others whose influence could be seen in the works at the Institute for Contemporary Arts by Americans such as Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Warhol, and further immortalized via film stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.

The music of the Beatles coincided with the youth and pop music phenomena of the era and Pop Art became very much a part of the image of fashionable, ‘swinging’ London and New York and just about everywhere else.

Museum Masters International President and Creative Director Marilyn Goldberg of New York has been a pioneer of International Art & Celebrity Merchandising, starting with Picasso and Erté all the way through to John Lennon and Keith Haring. Having worked with Marco in the past, she is pleased to announce a new venture with the artist: MarcoPop. “This will be a giant new New Wave emanating from, of all places, the Hamptons where Marco and I went to the

Marco with skateboard star Tony Hawk

“He is his own musical creation as he flies through life as Peter Pan and me as his Tinkerbell.” beach in his MarcoMobile, and we said, ‘lets do it’”! In this posh neck of the woods, creativity abounds and artistic energy is at an all time high.

“MARCO, like a Phoenix, has risen from the streets of the Lower East Side to Southampton NY, my hometown, where we are reaching out and grasping the fresh creativity bubbling about the new Parrish Museum, which is under construction here,” said Marilyn.

Ms. Goldberg first came upon Marco 20 years ago when he was painting graffiti on buildings in Greenwich Village and Soho. Now, after years of representing great but deceased Pop stars such as Haring and Warhol, she is glad to

Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters International and MARCO

have “a live Pop program to ignite the fires and winds of today’s world.”

All of Marco’s paintings start with a simple black series of hard lines, each individually its own art form. Pending the final art application, color from Marco’s pallet can be added, or the color of the hard lines changed. This concept affords a wide variety of both two and three dimensional art to be delivered, from images on paintings, to signed prints, merchandise, and even three dimensional life size sculptures!

“Marco,” says Ms. Goldberg, “is my live Peter Pan, the little boy who wouldn’t grow up. He is alone with and totally committed to his art. He loves what he does, and his enthusiasm exudes in his work. He is his own musical creation as he flies through life as Peter Pan and me as his Tinkerbell.” Adds Ms. Goldberg, “I am the fairy Godmother who has always believed in his potential for greatness! I just want to sprinkle him with diamond dust and watch the miracle unfold!”

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 21

PAT ERICKSON Qi or Chi of painting

“I

The Look, transparent watercolor

t is interesting how one can move one’s Chi while in the creative process,” notes Pat Erickson. “If you have ever watched musicians lost in playing their music you will often see that they are sweating like they are running a marathon.

The act of intense concentration can have the same effect as running five miles.

“When I am working on a piece and am painting a particularly difficult or delicate part where the possibility for error is great, I will perspire like I am exercising. I am barely moving, just my hand, maybe a bit of my shoulder, but I am so dialed in and focused on what I am doing, I can be soaking wet even though the room could be so cold, my feet are like ice.”

Pat Erickson grew up in Northern California, where since childhood her interests were equally divided between biology and art.

Entering college as a zoology major, after a few years the pull of her creative side led to a Bachelors in Fine Art in Bronze Sculpture. She turned to painting, starting in oils, but eventually found her niche and muse in watercolor. Starting as a wildlife artist, who still pursues that, sometime in the late 1990’s the Mind Game Series came to her “rather like an epiphany,” she states. “I suddenly was driven to express myself this way, and all these years later, that drive is still with me.”

She refers to these two genres of work as “the Jekyll and Hyde of myself. The Jekyll being the wildlife work which expresses my love of animals and nature, and the Hyde being the Mind Game work which is the outlet for my more serious concepts.”

As one with a great love of animals, painting or drawing them was a natural choice for Pat. She strives to portray something of the animal’s spirit in her pieces and make them seem as individual personalities. In the conceptual work in the Mind Game paintings, Pat achieves a level of detail and realism not often associated with this medium. “The paintings represent the various states of one’s own mind or those states imposed from without. I became fascinated by the thoughts and responses brought about by one’s reactions to the world around us, how these thoughts evolve and what kind of stimuli engender them,” she notes.

22 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Faith, transparent watercolor

“It is interesting having a split personality when it comes to my art. It is often amusing to me when people who are only familiar with one type of my work, see the other and are often surprised or even shocked. This is especially true of those who are familiar with only my animal work.

“I truly believe that I put a small part of myself into every animal painting I produce. I try very hard to inject some heart into the animals I paint, to give them a presence that is more than just a depiction of the animal. To give them a “soul’ if you will, that you can see in their eyes, even a sense of an emotion in some ways. These are the paintings of Mr. Jekyll.

“In my conceptual work, I leave much more of myself. Besides acting like Ahab and shooting my heart upon the painting, I put a part of my deeper self in those images. They are intensely autobiographical. What I know best is my own thoughts and feelings, my responses to the world around me, and I am literally driven to paint these images, to exorcise my demons if you will. These are the ravings of Mr. Hyde. Sometimes when I am circling aimlessly, trying to think on what to do next, something gives me that crucial nudge to get me off the carousel and down a creative path. Funny how things are cyclical, even in my art.”

Music is tremendously important for Pat’s creative process.

She has to listen to music while painting. It must be moody and introspective music, often bordering on the melancholy, which might explain the somewhat dark nature of her conceptual work. “I need the same type of music for my animals as well. I imagine it helps me go into some sort of Zen state so I can sit and paint fur or feathers for hours on end.” for more of Pat’s art and musings, visit www.windspeakart.com

Long-time Partners, transparent watercolor

On Silent Wings, transparent watercolor

“When I get involved with an image, especially one of my conceptual ones, it is like having a passionate love affair. It is all-encompassing, consuming my entire creative attention, often for weeks at a time for the larger paintings. …

It is a communion of sorts with the painting itself during its creation.”

Eyeful, transparent watercolor

Dogma, transparent watercolor Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 23

L’Attente 13” X 7” X 6” La Venuse, bronze, 36” X 21” X 14”

Jacinthe Dugal-Lacroix

A Camille Claudel in the making

By VICTOR FORBES Women sculptors have always been a source of wonder for their delicate blend of strength and tenderness. Louise Nevelson, without doubt, is the patron saint of them all for her combination of power, grace, fearless attitude and use of Stygian space. Nina Cantrell, Ailene Fields and Carole Feuerman lead the field of those who have followed that path with their own brand of creativity and now Jacinthe Dugal-Lacroix joins that select group. She has mastered the balance between emotion and technique as have very few. The Canadian-born Dugal-Lacroix, in a few short years since her US debut, has attained international recognition and a very special niche in the sculpture field.

“T

he whole process of it all begins with a story to tell. I like to get to a point where I am saying something, touching people,” says Jacinthe Dugal-Lacroix from the family summer cabin overlooking the mountains north of Montreal. A very down-to-earth person who shares a robust if not bawdy repartee with her husband of some thirty years, the super-gregarious Marc, the two own a very successful furniture business, two major locations quite a drive from each other, but they make it work and when they are together, you sense the pride Marc has in his wife’s work. “They are not always earth-shattering messages,” he points out, “but a work of art that offers the viewer a few moments to have a nice thought; a few seconds to appreciate life.”

24 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

At Jacinthe’s shows you will see people walking by looking at the sculptures, often overcome with emotion. Jacinthe’s success comes about quite naturally from people who are genuinely touched by her work, often overcome by emotion. “If I’ve managed in a show to reach a few people in that way, WOW! There is a bond that is created, an understanding. They get what I am saying. Even when people decide to purchase a sculpture I never lose track of them nor do they lose track of me.”

What Jacinthe does is play around with emotions, basic, simple emotions. She’ll get something in her head, inspired by a story or a song, and find a way to simplify it with a gesture, a look in the face. “That’s why I like to do commissioned pieces.” She says her best work is when someone contacts her and they have a story. “One woman whose son passed six years before contacted me and we did something special.

I sculpted a door that opens to reveal an urn I created from bronze.

It is attached to the rocks in a natural opening of a mountain in the Laurentians, behind her home. When she saw the finished product, she was so pleased that her son was remembered with something that was finally representative of him. He was an artist and this was very respectful of his work, very reflective.

Jacinthe began as an architectural designer and this helped train her in the art of listening to what people want to say or do or express.

By translating such expressions into sculpture, Jacinthe developed a dedicated clientele for her work, which is created in the lost wax method, a process that has hardly changed over the centuries. “When I first got into it, I was amazed with the whole procedure and how it hasn’t changed over the years. There have been a few improvements but we basically use the same techniques that were used ages ago. Now that I am into it, I think that if I were to invest in a sculpture, even if I had to wait five years to save for it, I would buy it in bronze. It is leaving a legacy that will be passed on from generation to generation. Even if there’s a house fire, the bronze will not melt. The patina will be damaged, but not the sculpture. What a great legacy to leave your family.”

La Vénusé, Bronze, 38” x 21” x 14”

Jacinthe began to sculpt in earnest about twelve years ago. She always painted and drew and decided to go back to art school. Frustrated with her paintings at the time, she wanted to push them one step further and to get a certificate. In order to do so, she had to sculpt. She was so intimidated by the media that she went to the coordinator to beg out but he wouldn’t let her off the hook. “If you want your certificate,” he declared, “You have to do your sculpting.” By the second class Jacinthe started manipulating and molding clay and a world of possibilities opened to her, a new way of self-expression that consumed her to the point she did not paint again until this year. “I was so taken by sculpture, I finally found a medium that gave me the luxury of touch.”

After getting certified in Canada, she studied with Richard MacDonald, one of the most successful sculptors in the world. She then went to study at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, at their summer program and went back to MacDonald for advanced anatomy classes a few years later. “I push to where I can no longer learn on my own and then find a great master to study with for a while to push it even further. The first time I went to MacDonald, I had been sculpting for two years, even though it was required to be a sculptor for ten years but he let me in after seeing my portfolio.”

She delved into anatomy, always sculpting from a live model learning to create movement even if the pose is sitting. “With live models you work a little faster. Richard taught me not to be scared. With him there is no limit. Anything you can imagine, he says, you can create.”

Jacinthe’s work has been likened to that of Camille Claudel in that her work is soft, natural, real. She sculpts mostly women “because I am trying to say something and in doing so, I relate more to women.”

“My sculptures are not rushed,” concludes Jacinthe who has exhibited internationally including at the Grand Palais in Paris. “I know it is not business-like, but I will take three months minimum to sculpt a 1/3 lifesize sculpture and up to a year to sculpt a lifesize piece and then months at the foundry. I know I could be a little more prolific (and profitable) but that’s not the way I am. Even with the drawings, I like to savor the work, the process. I know models who tell me my whole way of sculpting changes when it goes from the armature to the skeleton, the muscles, the attachment, getting to the flesh, the personality, the expression — my touch changes from a very technical way of moving to the soft touch of a mother. I almost say good morning to them when I come into the studio and I think that’s what people feel when they see them.”

For more of Jacinthe’s work visit www.sculpturedulac.com.

Working with live model on a commission, 40” x 24” x 20”

“My touch changes from a very technical way of moving to the soft touch of a mother.”

Maman Dion (mother of Celine Dion) is now the proud owner of one of Jacinthe Dugal-Lacroix’s sculpture.

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 25

G a i l S t o r m & S e u n g

T

By GAIL STORM

his past summer I joined my fiance, Seung Lee (www.leeseung.com) who was selected as 2011 Best International Artist of the Year by the Korean Art Association in South Korea. Seung is a professional artist, professor, and Director of Fine Arts at Long Island University at CW Post campus in NY. I am a licensed Art Therapist who is now pursuing music full time (www.GailStormMusic.com).

I am a blues/jazz pianist/vocalist; boogie woogie is my specialty.

Seung is a US citizen but spent his first 15 years in Korea.

Although no family is left there, Seung has been returning to Korea during summer break for solo shows, teaching/lectures, and art residencies.

Seung Lee, Green Tree, 26x38 inches, Mixed Media, 2011

L e e K o r e a n T o u r

Gail Storm playing the blues, note guitarists very cool Fender Telecaster

Seung’s solo show was at the Gallery Jung in Seoul. The opening reception was on 7/21/11 and was booked as a solo Art Reception for Seung Lee and concert by Gail Storm.

A few days later, I led a blues quartet at Strange Fruit, a hip bar situated in Hong Dae Yab, an “artsy” district of downtown

26 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

With owner of the Strange Fruit bar

Seoul. I was honored to have KyuHa Kim on guitar—a well known blues guitarist in Korea. KyuHa informed me that there is very little blues in Korea and that it is often confused with jazz. Despite the incredible heat and standing room only, it was a great gig, complete with the locals singing, dancing, and clapping to the beat.

A highlight of our trip was our visit to Haslla Art World (www. haslla.kr), overlooking the “East Sea” (aka Sea Of Japan) in Gangwon do.

We went to visit this incredible place in response to an invite for an Art residency. After hearing me perform at Seung’s art reception, a liaison for Haslla invited me to perform at the Art World during our

visit. Haslla founders Park Shinjung and Choi Okyung are a married couple, both of whom are sculptors who designed this amazing place.

The Haslla Art World includes a cool museum space, art hotel, sculpture walk up a mountain, complete with dining areas, performance spaces

and art residencies.

They explained that the focus is of balancing Art and Nature. Hence the mountain sculpture walk, where we were encouraged to find the art along the way.

The owners explained that they often have concerts outside; due to inclement weather, my performance was inside their dining room—complete with a sculpture of a wooden flying man!

Our hosts were incredibly generous, fun, and nice. We look forward to our return next year. This creative oasis is a must visit for anyone interested in the Arts!

After a quick visit to Toyko, Japan and return to Korea via the seaside resort Busan, we returned to Seoul.

Our last day in Korea included a trip to the renowned Professor Chung Hyun’s studio followed by a visit to the Korean National Contemporary Art Museum where one of his pieces was included in a very hip show.

Later, Seung’s friend Cho Young Nam, a multitalented leading entertainer in Korea, treated us to a night out on the town, including a show starring the famous singer Yang Hee Eun (along with her actress sister), celebrating 40 years of her musical career.

We look forward to our return to Korea next summer!

November 2011 • Fine Art Magazine • 27

Renée Desjardins

“I know it’s my destiny.”

The artist at work

Born in Quebec City, and coming from a family of artists, Renee developed her artistic sense at a very young age. Her intense research, long hours spent practicing her drawing skills and art workshops with renown artists all have enabled Desjardins to perfect her art. She has won many prizes and distinctions, and has been selected by her peers and collectors as being an artist with undeniable talent. Harmony of colors as well as the texture found in Desjardins’ pieces reflect her free spirit and spontaneity. By using acrylic, oil, and gold leaf she gives each painting a unique expression. Desjardins’ imparts her distinctive style into a variety of classical subjects such as nudes, horses, sailboats, and flowers. She combines grace, strength, and sensuality in all of her pieces. In an interview with Fine Art editor Victor Forbes, Renee discusses her life and the philosophy of art.

How did you become an artist? Since I was little, I bathed in the arts. My father and twin sister were painters. A few years after having a lot of responsibility, I began to paint for pleasure. But this hobby was very shortlived because I won two prestigious awards, and articles were written about me. When I started, I was courted by agents and promoters but I was not ready for that success. I was much younger and inexperienced.

Today I am far more comfortable in the art world. I believe in my talent and I understand the impact of my art. I have completed more than 1000 paintings and developed my style and my soul.

What is your motivation in painting? It is innate, I do not know why, but I have to paint. The positive energy that my paintings give makes me feel good. I feel I am in harmony with life and with me. I transmit beauty, warmth, gentleness. I know it’s my destiny.

You have a great natural talent and your joy is expressed through your work. Is this something you consciously plan in your style? No. I have no plan before painting. I take a blank canvas, white, and I paint. Although difficult and varied subjects, all are created with the brushes and paint, from beginning to end. It is a mix of light and shadow. No drawings, no tracing, no size or structure, the only keys are paint, light and shadow. Of course, I often have an intuition or a desire to do this or that subject, but I am free to put on the canvas my passions, my dreams. I am a painter who paints intuitively and has passions.

What are your favorite subjects? I love horses and sailing. I paint everything, according to my aspirations. One day I produced a complete collection on the circus after having assisted at a Cirque du Soleil with dancing horses and acrobats. I made a recent abstract composition representing the waves when a storm broke.

28 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

I love the attributes of horses—faithfulness, grace, strength, finesse, passion, naivety. Horses are like some humans. The Happy Horse is a fun painting, easy to understand, colorful, dynamic. That inspiration came to me one day in the barn where I met a young foal who was frolicking all the time, having fun and dancing. He followed me constantly and was really happy.

What about other interests? Those who touch my heart. This can be everything, even the abstract. My quest is a constant search of the technique to translate an emotion on a specific topic in the medium and in creation. For example, the veil beyond the issue there is the why. What I love about sailing is that it inspires me to transmit the force of life, to trust fate to continue our journey while keeping the focus. The sea is unforgiving, you have to trust, have confidence in our ability to gain the shore.

What are your goals for your art, your life? Your dreams and aspirations? I aspire to develop my art to be able to transfer pure emotion. I try to touch the hearts and imagination of the beholder of my work. I want to show my works in other countries and other continents.

Who are your influences? Mondrian, Turner, Pollock and Samir Sammoun, my friend and mentor of many years.

Do you listen to music when you paint? Yes always. It calms me. But when I create a new topic, I do so in silence, to read my soul. I love every style of music but preferably that to which we can dance. When I paint I listen to music that has a lot of pace, passion and percussion.

How do you navigate the world of modern art with galleries, collectors, clients? My strength is that I am very prolific. For me, art is constantly changing and evolving and only the painters who makes art for themselves manage to remain in the market and grow. Painting is a question of need, not demand. Even if demand is high, we must remain true to the art and trust our instincts as an artist. People who work with me know that this concept is important to me.

What was your most inspiring experience for your creativity and approach to painting? For me to live what I paint is very inspiring. Horses inspire me a lot. I am imbued with personality and the goal is to translate my emotions through technique, movement, color, and relief. The sail is the same. When I’m sailing and then I draw in my studio, I transpose my feelings.

Of all the artists ever walked the earth, who would you have liked most to the painting next to or study with? Samir because he inspires me .... Picasso, Riopelle and Pollock for their abstraction that makes sense.

Arica Hilton & Iwona Biedermann “Between The Lines Of Beauty” Between the Lines of Beauty, an exhibition featuring the paintings of emerging artist Arica Hilton and new abstract photography from Iwona Biedermann, will run from Friday, October 14th through Saturday, November 18th 2011 at Th!nkArt Salon, 670 W. Hubbard St., in the West Loop gallery district in Chicago.These two formidable Chicago artists’ works dance between the worlds of the known and the unknown, perception versus reality and the idea that beauty can be found in our daily lives, whether it be a reflecting pool of water or the magnificence of the sky above us.

The work of Hilton and Biedermann are evocative of similar ideas, yet differ in scope. Hilton’s paintings deal with a macroscopic view of the world: her soft forms gently represent and highlight the beauty in naturally occurring phenomena without replicating them. Alternatively, Biedermann’s black and white photographic experimentations in time and light focus on the microscopic aspects of the world, sharpening and narrowing the focus on textures and shadows.

“I search for the expression of light and shadow, for the infinite and inexhaustible combinations of a visually aesthetic and spiritual language that transcends and unifies worlds,” says Ms. Hilton.

Th!nkArt™ is an international art gallery and policy salon representing established and emerging artists from throughout the world. For more information on Th!nkArt visit www.thinkartsalon.com

Arica Hilton, Swan Nebula, oil on canvas

WithIn the line is about poetic movement of energy and recognition of simple forms. I’m interested in perception, observation and interpretation as well as time and motion. The process is purely photographic. Unaltered images present exactly what was seen: suggestive forms, color of light, texture and shadows. Perceptions which are not analyzed by reason. The element of time, the wind, a cloud, the rain transform the concrete into the abstract. It is like a conversation. The dialog between impressions and meaning becomes a universal language when reproduced on a piece of paper. — Iwona Biedermann, 2011

Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 29

30 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Little Walter

Inner Space

FRANK LATORRE A BASTION OF THE BLUES

Hailing from the mid-point in the triad of American music betwixt New Orleans and Chicago—Kansas City—Frank Latorre has been a fixture on the contemporary East Coast music and art scene, wowing audiences in concert halls, festivals and in what his forbears in KC would call “joints” for a couple of decades now. He is equally at home in art galleries, where his paintings have been exhibited to accolades and collected by connoisseurs.

Creativity runs rampant through Latorre’s veins, manifesting in an outpouring of music and art that flies just slightly beneath the radar of mainstream media, i.e the pop charts and consumerism.

Yet Latorre continues his quest, harmonica and paintbrush in hand.

His most recent CD, King Bee Boogie, is his most succinct, revealing, introspective and powerful work to date. A harmonica virtuoso, accomplished slide guitarist, vocalist and front man, Latorre’s latest work explores traditional blues expressions of pain and loss over powerful riffs and soaring guitar and harmonica solos. Latorre’s harmonica playing has earned him spots on major blues albums accompanying Johnny Winter on his new CD, “Roots,”and on stages, jamming with the legendary Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown and blues giant Sam Lay, who has worked with them all, from Howlin’ Wolf to Paul Butterfield. When Sam played Southampton at the Blue Poodle Blues Festival in 2002, he was ready to pack Frank up in his van and bring him back to Chicago to record and join his band. You can find Frank these days at his Art and Soul Gallery in Eastport, NY and online at www.franklatorre.com at left, Jimi Hendrix

Lady of the Flowers Fine Art Magazine • November 2011 • 31

“

D

“

The best Rock N Roll band I’ve ever heard in my life, the Original Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.

elaney Bramlett was born July 1, 1939 in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, later befriending fellow aspiring musicians Leon Russell and J.J. Cale. On their recommendation he relocated to Los Angeles, briefly landing with the Champs before he was hired to play guitar with the Shindogs, the house band on the popular ABC television variety series Shindig.

Bonnie Lynn O’Farrell, meanwhile, was born November 8, 1944 in Acton, Illinois and raised in nearby East St. Louis; as a teen she backed blues acts including Albert King and Little Milton, before signing on as the firstever white Ikette behind Ike & Tina Turner. She eventually migrated to Los Angeles as well, and met Delaney while the Shindogs were moonlighting at a local bowling alley. Within a week, the couple were married.

form a band of solid, if transient, musicians around Delaney and Bonnie. The band became known as “Delaney & Bonnie and Friends” due to its regular changes of personnel.

The Friends included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Duane Allman, Jimi Handrix, Dave Mason, King Curtis and many others.

President ASCAP

To find out more about the movement to INDUCT Delaney & Bonnie and Friends into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, please goto: http://inductdelaneyandbonnie.com

Matilija Magic is a feature length documentary film (currently in pro-

duction) about husband-and-wife duo Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett (D&B), who created some of the most distinctive and unique blue-eyed soul, rock, blues, country, and gospel music of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s

Delaney Bramlett and Leon Russell had many connections in the music business through their work in the Shindogs, and were able to quickly

This is the story of a couple who hit the worldwide rock circuit and taught a few bored, super-rich, genteel, white British musicians how to roll up their sleeves and make their music down and dirty, more soulful and honest. Four decades later, their impact remains. To follow and be part of the magic just log on to: http://maitlijamagic.com/1969

www.poorelijahfoundation.com 32 • Fine Art Magazine • November 2011

Paul Williams

“Many are called – few are chosen.”

REGISTER FOR FALL CLASSES NOW www.uhss.org

I

f there is one word to describe Dr. Bill Akpinar, it would be “Healer.” Referred to by many names in various cultures— doctor, medicine man, shaman—the core of the essence is the same: a restorer of health through knowledge, faith, hope and love.

Although Dr. Bill, as he is affectionately known to many, possesses numerous degrees in different healing specialties, perhaps his greatest attributes are those which true healers embody: compassion, dedication and the willingness to share his skills with all who are in need. He welcomes challenge with the spirit of a warrior, grateful for the divine blessings of opportunities to expand his healing experience globally through his practice, his books and his University of Health and Spiritual Sciences.

He writes, “I truly believe that all great prophets, saints, yogis and other spiritual masters were able to perfect—either consciously or through some innate ability—the power to tap into, absorb and assimilate endless universal energy through the infinite storehouse of the collective unconscious and perhaps were even able to experience the joys, pain and suffering of humanity by reaching the state of perfection, or enlightenment, by cutting short the normal learning time required of normal mortals. They learned to cultivate their minds through mastering the science of breath. You can too. Our mind is the greatest force on this earth. One who can control his mind can gain mastery over self.”

This may be one of our greatest challenges and when mastered, our greatest joy.

e-mail: admin@uhss.org

GROW LIKE A PLANT 3rd PRESCRIPTION

Dr. Bill Akpinar, Danny Glover

Dr. Bill Akpinar (Director, Founder) & Mr. Danny Glover (Actor, Philanthropist)

request the honor of your company at

the university of health & spiritual sciences first annual “restore a life” gala SLEEP LIKE A LAMB 6th PRESCRIPTION

Dr. Bill Akpinar’s newest book

7 PRICELESS PRRESCRIPTIONS FOR HEALTH & ANTI-AGING illustrated by Michele Bramlett now available online at www.uhss.org

Saturday, the twenty second of October cocktail hour will begin at seven o’clock the north shore country club 500 shore road, glen head, ny 11545 call 516-817-0905 for tickets only