class notes
Barbara Greenwald Lesser
Nicole Lesser
B.F.A., Fashion Design, ’74, is a 30-year veteran of the apparel industry and a pioneer in the casual dress market. The Los Angeles–based entrepreneur began her career as a sweater designer, then spent several years in New York before taking a position with San Francisco Shirt Works and later with Esprit at the height of the company’s growth. During the decade of the ’80s she owned a sportswear company, Felicity, with her husband and business partner, Mark Lesser. In 1990, the duo launched Wearable Integrity, Inc., and subsequently, in 1991, FIBERS by Barbara Lesser, a sportswear collection that is known for its incredible fit. With her spouse providing the business acumen, Lesser is able to focus on fashion as an art form. Her informal, yet sophisticated designs feature stretch fabrics in silhouettes that flatter a variety of body types and are sold at better specialty stores throughout the United States. Lesser says lifestyle, as well as fashion trends and exciting colors, plays a large role in her design decisions. Early on the Lessers became involved with the environmentally responsible concept of organic cotton. “I began to use organic cottons and recycled products in the early ’90s,” she recalls, “but it was too early for the fashion audience. The contemporary market is now ready to feel responsible for their purchasing power, and our industry is gearing up and educating itself while offering sustainability in many forms to the public. The concept of sustainability has a big future in the fashion world.” Lesser credits her alma mater with making a big difference in her life and career. “I loved my years at Pratt,” she says. “They helped me build independence, individuality, and confidence by exposing me to new ideas and experiences.” Nancy Gittleman Katz, B.F.A., Merchandising and Fashion Management, ’78, was appointed as a trustee of the National Kidney Foundation of Florida last July and now serves on the Planned Giving Subcommittee. Katz, herself a kidney disease survivor, was instrumental in establishing the Palm Beach Council of the National Kidney Foundation. Ellen Wallenstein, M.F.A., ’78, was the featured artist last fall at The Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan. On exhibit were her photographs and artist books made during the three years she spent as a hospice volunteer. Wallenstein is an adjunct associate professor in the Media Arts Department of Pratt. She is also a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts. Peggy K. Cyphers, M.F.A., ’79, and Christine E. Twomey, M.F.A., ’79, co-founded the New York City–based BROADTHINKING.ORG, a changing amalgam of women artists who advance innovative ideas promoting the continued existence of all living things. Kathleen F. Vance, Sculpture, ’99, was also a participating artist in the inaugural BROAD- THINKING group exhibition, presented at Silent Space and E32 in Kingston, N.Y., last August. Lawrence Heintjes, Painting, ’79, exhibited his sculptural paintings in July at Tillie’s, a Pratt neighborhood restaurant. He and his wife, Mary Rieser, Fine Arts, ’85, produced the stained glass sign for Tillie’s window when it first opened 10 years ago.
Clifford Smith, M.F.A., ’79, had a solo show of his realistic landscapes, oil on linen canvas, at Rosenbaum Contemporary at Gallery Center in Boca Raton, Fla., last fall. He is currently a New Hampshire resident.
1980s
Lina Bertucci, M.F.A., ’80, was featured by Perry Rubenstein Gallery last fall in an exhibition of her portrait photographs called “Women in the Tattoo Subculture.” Daryl Moore, B.F.A., Illustration, ’80, was recently appointed as the founding dean at California State University, Stanislaus College of the Arts. He was formerly chair of art and design at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Paul Karasik, B.F.A., Graphic/ Communications Design, ’81, was introduced to the work of a littleknown cartoon artist and was so impressed by the artist’s genius that he was inspired to edit a book, titled I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks. Karasik also wrote the afterword. Barbara Bally Wallace, B.F.A., Painting, ’81, was a participating artist at The Merck 2007 Union County Juried Art Show last fall. Marjorie Matthews Moutari, B.S., Nutrition and Dietetics, ’82, is CEO of her company, Kazam Natural Body Care, Her health and beauty products are sold in her Bayonne, N.J., store. Moutari is married to the former ambassador of Niger.
Roxanne Faber Savage, B.F.A., Drawing, ’82, is a printmaker whose work was presented by The Friends of the Fairfield Public Library, Bruce S. Kershner Gallery, in a solo show this winter. Benjamin F. Jones, M.F.A., ’83, was honored for his support of the arts community at the 25th anniversary gala event, held at the Newark Club, to benefit the City Without Walls show, “METRO 25.” Jones is a board member of the Sumei Arts Center in Newark, N.J. The Jersey City Museum will present a retrospective of the last 40 years of his artwork in September 2008. Aino-Marja (Mari) Rantanen, M.F.A., ’83, had a solo exhibition of her paintings from the past 15 years at the Kunsthalle in Helsinki, Finland, in 2007. An accompanying book presented her work from the earliest to the most recent. Anthony M. Catsimatides, B. Arch., ’84, recently reëstablished his architectural practice in Syracuse, N.Y., after obtaining his master’s degree in architectural research and technology at Syracuse University. George P. Hirose, M.F.A., ’84, captured colors unseen by the naked eye when he focused his camera on the Cape light of Provincetown, Mass., after sunset. His new book of photographs, Blue Nights, was released in the fall by Provincetown Arts Press with an essay by Norman Mailer, a former permanent Provincetown resident. A. Wayne Sides, M.F.A., ’84, was the featured artist in an exhibition sponsored by the Louisiana State University School of Art, titled “Wayne Sides: Photography 1977– 2007,” in The Alfred C. Glassell
Gallery of the Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge. Sides is currently in his 20th year of teaching photography at the University of North Alabama. Robert J. Eckstein, B.F.A., Communications Design, ’85, is the author of the book, The History of the Snowman, which was released by Simon Spotlight Entertainment last November and featured in The New York Times Book Review, as well as other publications. This is Eckstein’s first nonfiction, adult book. Liliana Sosa Gonzalez, B.S., Electrical Engineering, ’85, is currently chief engineer of Design Engineering for Con Edison, where she began her career in 1985 as a management intern. Dina Grossman, Communications Design, ’83-’85, published her first book, How We Returned to Egypt (Tzipora, 2007), under the pen name Yaakol Shirim. It describes the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel and has been endorsed by a member of the Israeli parliament. Mary Rieser Heintjes, B.F.A., ’85, is a participating artist in a show this spring, late April through midJune, in the Main Gallery of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. The presentation of her work, “Nature and Architecture Through Light,” includes paintings, drawings, and photographs.
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