DT Fine Art

Todd Hewells plastic surgery office has purchased artwork for several years from the St. Charles Fine Art Show. According to the Downtown St. Charles Partnership, a major component of the Fine Art Show is the Purchase Award Patron Program which helps generate over $40,000 in art sales and commissions. (Sandy Bressner #x2013; sbressner@shawmedia.com)

Hearne Fine Art,1001 Wright Ave., is hosting a reception from 5-8 pm tonight for Beautiful Uprising, an exhibition of woodcuts by Little Rock artist LaToya Hobbs. Hobbs will give a gallery talk Saturday at 11 am and a panel discussion, Relevance of HAIR, at 1:30 pm tomorrow afternoon.

From Hobbs artist statement:

My work is an investigation of the point where the notions of race, identity, and beauty intersect concerning women of African descent. In this exploration, women, those with whom I have personal and virtual interactions, play a role that is paramount, making them the source of my inspiration and an integral part of my creative process.

Hobbs receives her MFA degree from Purdue this month.

The exhibition continues at Hearne through June 8.

Lori Bookstein Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent work by John Dubrow. This is the artists sixth solo-show with the gallery. John Dubrow: Recent Work will be comprised of recent playground paintings as well as three recent group portraits.

The artists recent paintings are typically formed over prolonged engagements, lasting as long as two or three years, in which the compositions are continually reworked. Applying copious amounts of paint by the palette knife, these latest works have surfaces that look more like polychrome cement than dried paint. Nevertheless, the artist is able to modify these compositions with a frequency that seems to mimic the restless rhythm of the playgrounds he paints. Drawn to the dynamism of these environments, Dubrow captures a moment of stillness tinged with the possibility of freneticism.

There is also a noticeably greater preoccupation in the recent work with the ways in which subjects and forms interact. (The artists oeuvre has predominately consisted mostly of singular portraits as well as urban and rural landscape.) The playground paintings, in particular, offer a varied scale of subject matter – from child to adolescent to adult – in states of varied interaction and awareness. Likewise, his portraits, all of two or more people, exhibit a tangible awareness between the subjects. The presence of these additional subjects in the portraits attests to the ways in which we comport ourselves in the presence of others and the degree to which we do so. Thus, the interaction between artist and patron is markedly different than that between mother and child and even more so than the innocently oblivious interactions between children on the playground.

This show coincides with the exhibition, A Formal Realist: The Works of John Dubrow, at The Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA, which will remain on view from March 1 – May 19, 2013. A comprehensive, full-color catalogue is available.

John Dubrow was born in 1958 in Salem, Massachusetts. He received a BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1979-83), where he studied painting under Bruce McGaw and Julius Hatofsky. Since 1983, Dubrow has been based in New York City. His paintings are included in several public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dubois Institute at Harvard University, the Hilton Hotels Corporation and the National Academy of Design. He is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the National Academy of Designs Truman Prize and Carnegie Prize and the Port Authority World Views Project at the World Trade Center.

John Dubrow: Recent Work will be on view from March 21 – April 20, 2013. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 21st from 6-8 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or by email at info@loribooksteinfineart.com.

Lawrence Fine Art is pleased to announce it will present “Arthur Pinajian: Lost Master” at its East Hampton Gallery beginning May 20th. Pinajian’s [1914-1999] work, which had been relegated to the town dump and was discovered in a Bellport, Long Island garage and saved, has garnered extraordinary attention since Rediscovered Masters mounted an exhibition in NYC, including being featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as “the unlikely discovery that has rocked the art world. The New York Times also featured a story on this extraordinary discovery (www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/arts/design/saved-from-obscurity-arthur-pinajians-paintings-shown-in-gallery.html?_r=0).

Several museums have already purchased his work for their permanent collections. The Gallery will accommodate requests by collectors, curators and museums for private viewings. Please contact Howard Shapiro at 516-547-8965.

After Pinajians death in 1999, five decades of accumulated work were found stacked up in the one-car garage and attic of the Bellport, Long Island cottage he shared with his sister. He had left instructions for the work to be discarded in the town dump. At the last moment, an artist cousin refused to let the town garbage truck haul away the paintings.Several years later, thehouse was sold and the new owners contacted noted art historian Professor William Innes Homer to examine the works. He was stunned by what he found: a large body of abstract landscapes and extraordinary mid-century abstractions. He, in turn, contacted noted art historian Peter Hastings Falk who shared his conclusion that this was an extraordinary find.

Homer, Falk and noted art critic John Perreault have collaborated on a hard-cover book on the artist. Homer writes of Pinajian: Ultimately Pinajians work reflects the soul of a flawed, yet brilliant, artistic genius. When he hits the mark, especially in his abstractions, he can be ranked among the best artists of his era. . . . His life is, above all, a model for those who feel that they must follow their calling despite the lack of public acceptance.

Falk will give a talk on Pinajian on Saturday, June 1 at 2 pm. For further details, contact the gallery. Lawrence Fine Art is located at 37 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, NY.

Some 150 clay shooting participants and 250 guests attended the The 2013 Fine Art of Shooting: A Sporting Clays Invitational, at the Greater Houston Gun Club. Its an event John A. Daugherty Jr., president and CEO of John Daugherty, Realtors, and his wife, Debbie, never miss.

Daugherty, along with teammates Dan Flournoy, director of John Daugherty, Realtors Ranch and Land; David Boyles; and Dennis Murphree were named Star Class runner-up in the Hunter Competition. The team was awarded a frame with the seal of Texas inserted on it.

The event raised $184,000 for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston operating budget and was themed after the Republic of Texas, as the event was held on Texas Independence Day, March 2.

Registration and breakfast began at 8 am, with sporting clay shooting stations open by 9 am and a catered lunch by the Coronado Club at noon. An awards ceremony took place following lunch.

As guests mixed and mingled they listened to the great western tunes of Pat Gavin and the Buckaroo Band and, on their way out, grabbed tiny pie party favors for the road.

Guests included: Jana and Scotty Arnoldy; Laurie and Reed Morian; Colleen and John Kotts; Debbie and John Daugherty; Ed Jones and Brenda Love; John Poindexter; Chris Elliott; Phil John; Bruce Cartwright; Jeff Foutch; Jason Howard; Peter Jameson; David Heaney; Gentry Lee; Herman Stude; Patrick Trask; Pat Cunningham; Butch Mach; Harry and Cora Sue Mach; Steve Raben; Jeffrey Stone; and Keith and Alice Mosing.

The Delaware Watercolor Society announces a call for entries for its Juried Fine Art Exhibition to be held from April 4 to 29 at Peninsula Gallery in Lewes.

Artists are invited to submit up to two original works that have been created within the past three years in any water-based media, except for water-based oils. DWS will accept works in transparent acrylic. Multimedia works and collage are welcome as well, as long as a majority of the work is in water media. Works may be executed on paper, Yupo, canvas, clayboard or other similar material.

No digital art, digitally enhanced art or works developed during workshops will be accepted. All works must be for sale and not previously exhibited in DWS juried shows. No giclÃes or prints are permitted. Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Kass Morin Freeman, a widely recognized signature member of the American Watercolor Society and National Watercolor Society, will serve as juror and awards judge. With more than 100 national and regional awards to her credit, Freeman attended the Moore College of Art and Design and Tyler School of Fine Art in Philadelphia, Pa.

The monetary awards and ribbons will include First Place – $300; Second Place – $200; and Third Place – $100, as well as non-monetary Jurorâ??s Choice awards for artistic merit.

The entry fee is $30 for members for up to two entries and $35 for nonmembers, to be paid during the drop-off of artwork from 10 am to 1 pm, Tuesday, April 2, at 520 East Savannah Road, Lewes.

The Peninsula Gallery will host the opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Saturday, April 6. The gallery is open 10 am to 4 pm,Tuesday to Saturday and 11 am to 3 pm, Sunday.  For more information, call 302-645-0551 or email peninsulagallery1#64;gmail.com.

The Dahl Arts Center kicked off its annual Third Grade Art Tours Monday morning, and over the next two weeks hundreds of Rapid City third graders will be able to explore art on display and create their very own pieces.

The philosophy of the Dahl Arts Center and the Rapid City Arts Council is to show that its important for young children to have enriching art experiences. The black lights hanging on the ceiling illuminates the work of Bob H. Miller, and for the rest of this week and all of next, more than one-thousand children will have the chance to experience it first hand.

Read says, We have all the third graders in Rapid City come out and take a look at the galleries and some of the work. This one is a really exciting one. Weve got Bob H. Miller this time. Bob Millers work is all glow, black light, reflecto. So its really exciting for them because its very vibrant and very colorful.

After Mondays third graders toured the gallery they were given a chance to create their own lively piece of art and then see it come to life under the glow of the black light. All of the children in attendance Monday got to have some fun while also taking in some knowledge. The Dahl and the Rapid City Arts Council believe its important to expose residents to art, especially at a young age. Read says, Art is really what connects us to our humanity. For the kids to come and participate and experience art at a young age it develops that connection that will keep them really emotionally and mentally healthy at an older age.

And Read says some of the kids in this room may have had their creativity sparked just like Bob H. Miller. Read says, The artist Bob H. Miller actually created all of this work because of a fascination with black lights when he was their age.

The Third Grade Tours have been running for 25 consecutive years at the Dahl and the tours will run from now until March 22nd.

Darren Leeds

Recently I thought to use some of my columns to showcase and preserve accounts of the lives and viewpoints of artists and photographerscreative people who maintained ties to Salem, MA. Would it not be rewarding to highlight people who have added to Salems fame and quality as an innovative and imaginative place?

Let us focus first on the fine art photographer Isa Leshko. Many will remember Isa from her residency here in Salem before 2009. While living in our Witch City, first on Lafayette Street and later on Federal Street, Leshko was active with the Salem Arts Association.

Recently I met up with Isa Leshko while in Hudson, New York. Hudson is a small city on the Hudson River upstream of New York City. It maintains a handsome collection of Victorian brick buildings, many now refitted as art galleries and antique shops.

When she lived in Salem, Leshko anchored her new career in Fine Art Photography. She took classes at the New England School of Photography in Boston and worked at (the now closed) Zona Photographic Labs in Cambridge, and became inspired by the works of exceptional American photographerspowerful artists like Diane Arbus (1923-1971), Mary Ellen Mark (born 1940), and Eugene Richards (born 1944).

She explained: I learned my craft while living in Salem, and the Boston-area photographic community is very dear to me. I am grateful to so many Boston area artists and art institutions for encouraging my artistic development. I would not have become an artist had I not had this type of support while I was learning photography.

I asked Isa how things had changed for her since she left Salem. It seems Isa has become regionally and nationally discovered. Solo exhibitions of her work were recently displayed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico and California! Her prints are now in numerous private and public collections including libraries, colleges and museums in Boston, Ma., Haverford, Pa. and Houston, Tx.

While residing in Salem, Leshko arranged outstanding images of fairs and amusement parks into Thrills and Chills, an exciting exhibit that captured magic moments at places like the Topsfield Fair and Coney Island. She also started an ambitious undertaking: Elderly Animals. Elderly Animals provides intimate portraits of aging horses, sheep, turkeys, etc. to more broadly shine new light on life, mortality and maturityas well as time and the aging process.

In 2013, Leshko noted: I am stunned by the success of my Elderly Animals project. I had never imagined that I would have had such opportunities this early in my career. The Elderly Animals project went viral on the Internet in 2010, and was published on thousands of blogs and tumblr sites around the globe. Since 2009, Leshkos images were also published in print and/or online editions of The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harpers Magazine, Photo District News, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, and Sddeutsche Zeitung Magazin.

Right now, three large and midsized museums are exhibiting works from three major, private collections in the Philadelphia region.

The Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill is featuring the collection of Philip Jamison, who has just donated hundreds of pieces of art by local artists to the museums collection; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is showing part of the 500-piece collection of art by women, permanently donated by Linda Lee Alter (The Female Gaze); and the Philadelphia Museum of Art is showing the outsider-art collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz (Great and Mighty Things), which has been promised to the Museum as a gift.

On a more modest scale, the artist collective Vox Populi in North Chinatown is featuring selected items from the collections of its members in a temporary show, Collection.

Here are some art insights from collectors and dealers in the region:

Jill Bonovitz

The very first piece we bought wasnt a piece of outsider art. It was a Navajo saddle. We bought it soon after we got married, in 1967.

We really focused on artists whose work we really loved. After a while, after looking at a lot of artists, we got the idea of which stood out. With a few standouts, weve never found a piece we wanted to buy. We havent closed it out, but Henry Darger – we dont have any of his work. We dont have any Thornton Dials work.

Sheldon Bonovitz

Its not a survey. If a museum were going to put together a collection, they would have Darger and Dial, certainly. Although we focused on collecting the work, we didnt focus on collecting a museumlike collection that would represent the field. We just bought the artists we like.

John Ollman, Fleisher-Ollman Gallery

Collectors like Jill and Sheldon — who identify artists that they respond to — they pursue those artists and continue to upgrade. The pursuit is not finding new artists, but the best representations of those artists.

Sheldon Bonovitz

We each have a veto. Jill has this little sewing room thats 4-by-8, with two skylights. If I dont like the work and she loves it, itll go there. Ive got 30,000 square feet here on my floor [at the downtown offices of Duane Morris law firm] so I can find space here. That doesnt reflect the rate of rejection.

Linda Lee Alter

After a while, I realized I collected art by men. Thats what I saw. Thats what was out there. I wasnt thinking about art by men or women, I just bought what I liked. So here I am, and I didnt get any art by women. I was upset with myself, and surprised.

Im a shy person. I never was impressive in the way I present myself. Jeans and a sweater is dress-up for me. You go into these big, fancy galleries — well-known galleries — they look you over and if it doesnt look like you can afford the work, they dont pay any attention to you. Being shy, asking about the back room is overwhelming for me.

[Curator] Judith Stein was kind enough to work with me for a while, and introduce me to galleries. I felt a little more at home. She was really good at introductions and taking into consideration that I was a collector with a point of view.

John Ollman

The most important room in the house is the closet. I tell people to take things down and put it in storage. If they miss it, bring it out. If they dont, sell it. I dont advocate accumulating.

Sheldon Bonovitz

The spaces are so empty, were having our house painted for the first time in 22 years.

Philip Jamison

I went to Philadelphia to the Janet Fleisher gallery. She handled my work when I was in art school [PAFA], I had my first one-man show in there. I went in and saw this painting leaning against the wall. I asked, Who did that? She said, Arthur B. Carles. I said, Whos Arthur B. Carles?

The next week I went in and the same painting was there on the floor. I got to like it more, so I asked if I could take it home, and, if I liked it. would she take the money for it out of my work in the gallery? That was the first Carles that I bought.

We had about seven artists here in West Chester who all went into Philadelphia together on the train, when we went to school together. They were all pretty good. Tom Bostelle is in my collection and in the show at Woodmere. Hes dead now.

Shelley Spector, artist, founder of Spector Gallery (1999 – 2007)

In 1999, I wasnt planning to open a gallery. But a lot of art started appearing that got me excited. That doesnt happen a lot.

The people I was catering to was a younger clientele, with less money but who had a love for this. They really wanted the work. I would work with people – set up a payment plan or put stuff on hold for a while because I knew they really wanted it.

As the work got more expensive and artists started getting more well-known, a different clientele came. They started negotiating the price down. The people who didnt negotiate the price could not afford the work, and the those who did negotiate could afford the work.

Bridgette Mayer, founder Bridgette Mayer Gallery

I was interested in working with emerging artists that didnt have representation … they were literally stepping out of graduate school. Shelley was working with a lot of unknown artists as well, but they were a lot more self-taught, street artists. Philadelphia has many talented artists at that level, and I really appreciated what she was bringing to the city at that time.

I started my gallery 13 years ago with no clients. My first sale was to a cab driver … In the last five years weve been doing art fairs, and growing the collector base outside this region.

Whats tricky right now is that there are so many artists out there, so many different price points on the market. Part of the challenge is knowing how to research an artist, knowing what to buy, how to establish a budget. The emerging collector tends to not trust their inner voice, their judgment, their aesthetic. Thats where I come in.

Shelley Spector

Most of the commercial gallery spaces are older spaces. Philadelphia traditionally has a conservative twist to it. The younger galleries are a little more do-it-yourself artist spaces. They are not commercial. Bridgette is pushing toward being a major commercial gallery, on par with New York and Los Angeles. In Philadelphia galleries usually dont have the swagger of New York and LA

Philip Jamison

I love to look at other peoples work, not my own. When I see my own work, I only see how to improve it. When I see other peoples work, I only enjoy it.

Beth Heinly, artist, member of Vox Populi collective

The art I collect – the most Ive spent is probably $50. But the artwork has to speak to me. I have to be able to live with it, it has to cater to my sense of humor.

I have a Michael Gerkovich. He did a photograph of a dead cat that I have in my home. I actually, technically, stole it from him. He installed it at Little Berlin [a Fishtown artist collective of which Heinly was a founding member] and I loved it. When they were deinstalling it, I pretty much just took it. I told him, I promise Ill give you something in exchange, which I never did.

TheArtBlog.org contributed to this story.

By Ken Root

Some call it sleeping at a time when you should be working, but I call it a great means of reinvigorating the mind and body. Being able to settle in for a brief time and awaken refreshed is a skill that must be developed over a lifetime. I hope to reach the peak of my personal napping ability in the years ahead.

A nap is a break from the physical and emotional stresses of the day. It is craved by the mind as much as the body but they both have to work together to accomplish this feat. It requires self-confidence and physical assurance to do so. A short sleep is really not a good description of something so complex and personal. Almost everyone can shut down for a brief period, but the key is getting back to work or socially re-engaging when the nap is over.

My father was about as good as you could get. In his prime, he could sleep under the hay truck and then jump on and work for the rest of the day. In his later years, he could take multiple naps in a single day. He was known to nap before breakfast, before lunch and before dinner then again before bedtime. He did so in the face of my mother, who cooked while he slept then awakened him and watched him eat. If shed hit him with a frying pan, I dont think there is a jury that would have convicted her.

I rarely get a nap, except on the weekends. My work and lifestyle just dont allow me to snooze in the office, beside the road or lie down beside a microphone and make Zs. But when I get to the two days over which I have control, I find that a nap is a mid-afternoon joy.

Here is one of the fine points: Dont sleep too long. The rhythm thing is accurate. If you let yourself get too deep its hard to bounce back. I find that 20 minutes is minimal and one hour is my maximum. More than that and I am groggy for quite a while and often require cold water to the face to revive. There is even a nap app now available for your smart phone:

The Nap App is an alarm clock specifically designed for nappers. With just a single button press, you can be napping. Take a Cat Nap or a Grizzly Nap, or create your own custom nap with ease. The Nap App for Android will wake you up after the desired time and let you get on with your life.

A good nap master will anticipate opportunities to nap. My mentor in farm broadcasting, Russell Pierson, now 101, would start his day at 2:45 am He would anticipate that we would head out after our morning programming, at about 7:30 am, and have a one-hour drive. While I drove, he would sleep from driveway to driveway and then wake up with great energy. His first words would sound like he had never been asleep.

I do the same when getting ready to catch an airplane. I push right up to getting on board and try to get a window seat so the attendants cant ram me with the cart and the tourists cant drop luggage on me. I sit down, fasten up and pass out. Often, I dont remember take-off and only rouse when they threaten me before landing. My greatest nap was in a hotel in Frankfort, Germany, in the mid 1980s, as we were on a 39-hour push to cover the hostages on TWA Flight 847. I was editing with my photographer when a CBS Network crew walked in. They had first claim to all equipment and politely asked to use the bay for one hour. My photographer groaned but I said, No problem, and walked over to the single bed in the corner of the room. I asked them to wake me when they were finished. I immediately went to sleep and, one hour later, they announced they were finished and left the room. I jumped up and was ready to go back to work. The photographer had sat there watching them for the full time and he was just a little more dead than when I had last seen him.

The way I look at it, a nap is as good for other people as it is for you. Rather than become grumpy or turn into a zombie, just step away (physically or emotionally) and get into your zone. I like to think of leaning back in an old chair, along a line of tall cottonwood trees that are rustling in a warm summer breeze. About five minutes later, Im gone and when I come back, Im happier and more energetic. Those around me are usually jealous.

You can even teach your kids to nap. Mothers do it just to keep from going crazy but one of my friends greatest joys was to have a Sunday afternoon nap with his young daughter curled up beside him. Mom got some me time and knew dad and daughter were fine.

Many people, including some who wont admit it, sleep during the noon hour. Lunch, followed by a short nap, can make an hour in to an oasis. Your food digests and your mind decompresses. Dreaming is optional.

If you have any napping stories or advice, send them my way. I hope to have another 30 years to perfect my craft.

Editors note: Ken Root has been an agricultural reporter for 37 years. Root now does daily radio and television programming and is a columnist. He can be reached at kenroot@gmail.com.

Date: 3/18/2013