January 13, 2016
Table of Contents
Goodbye, Flax: Art Supply Store Moving To Oakland ...... 2 Better Together: Father‐Son Duo Share Passion for Art ...... 3 The Running Painter ...... 5 No Medium is Too Challenging for Sophomore Artist ...... 7 Nonprofit of the Week: ACTS Seeks to Embrace, Equip, Empower Holland Youth ...... 8 Why Does the CIA Keep Its Art Collection Secret? ...... 9 Ex‐Inmate Finds Redemption in Art ...... 10 Art Isn't Just Good For The Mind, It's Good For The Body Too ...... 12 Airport Employees Caught Red‐Handed in Art Theft Scheme ...... 14 Creative Parents Make Art a Priority in Family Life ...... 15 French‐US Art Dealer's 'Dallas‐Upon‐Seine' Tax Fraud Trial Opens ...... 18 Classic Art and Frame Closing ...... 19 Famous Painters Did Not Do Their Best Work While Grieving, Study Says ...... 20 When Plein Air Painting is Illegal ...... 21 Art Feeds to Expand Therapeutic Art, Creative Education Efforts to Northwest Arkansas ...... 22
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Goodbye, Flax: Art Supply Store Moving To Oakland
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Fans of Flax Art and Design were heartbroken when we first broke the news that the art supply store's Market Street location could be demolished to make way for a new mixed‐use building. Now, news comes that after more than a year of searching for a new space, owner Howard Flax will move the store across the bay to downtown Oakland.
The move comes ahead of a new development which, as we reported in August 2014, would see a nine‐story, 85‐foot tall building rise on the site.
A year ago, Howard Flax told us that the store wasn't expected to vacate its Market Street location until February 2016 at the earliest. His wishlist for a new space included a parking lot, at least 15,000 square feet of space to work with, a central location, and a loading dock for large deliveries.
While it's not a long list, finding an affordable retail space with those specifications in San Francisco proved nearly impossible. But downtown Oakland, with its plethora of empty storefronts, was a perfect fit. "The move to Oakland became simple," Flax told us. "City officials on both sides of the bay wanted us, but in SF we couldn't find the right combination of location, affordability, public access and proper zoning, and that's after a 1.5 year search."
And so, after an arduous hunt, Flax finally secured a new location 15th and MLK Drive, in an old building that used to be home to the All Power Indoor Soccer Arena.
Large rolling doors can be used for deliveries, and the location is an eight minute walk from the 12th Street BART Station. At 14,500 square feet, the new space is roomy (though not as big as the Market Street location), and a small parking lot to the rear of the building on 15th crosses that requirement off the list.
Flax tells us that the the art supply store will begin moving its warehouse and offices into the new space on February 1st. Though a concrete date hasn't been confirmed, the retail store will likely close in that timeframe, and its inventory will travel across the bay February 16th‐21st. "Our moving sale will start soon," Flax told us. "The move itself we want to have happen very quickly to minimize disruption on the business and our customers." The Oakland Flax location will begin serving the East Bay community in March.
Though the move will happen quickly, San Francisco fans won't have to commute to Oakland to get their Flax fix: there's also the new Fort Mason Flax location, which opened this fall. "Despite the smaller footprint, it's amazing how much product we can fit," Flax told us of the new space. "City College classes start soon out of their Fort Mason campus and we are looking forward to serving all those students ... I think it will be an excellent SF location for us for many years to come." Hoodline: http://bit.ly/1PoHgkq
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Better Together: Father‐Son Duo Share Passion for Art
HYDE PARK, UT: For Jeremy Winborg, there really was not another option when he chose to create art for a living. That’s what happens when you’re the son of well‐known artist Larry Winborg.
The father‐son duo share a studio in Hyde Park, in a second floor loft on the mountain bench with a fantastic view of the Wellsvilles and Cache Valley. The room is lined with windows and furnished in warm colors, with paintings hanging from and lined against the walls. Their work benches mirror each other, and a billiard table takes up another corner.
A lot of people ask how the two can work together, as it’s not always easy being in business with family. For the Winborgs, that’s not really a problem.
“We get along good,” Larry says. “We enjoy the relationship we have as father and son, we work together as artists.”
It’s nice to work with someone who is also an artist and can offer perspective during the creative process, Jeremy says.
“If I’m working on a painting, I can be stuck on something that makes the painting incomplete, and he’s able to come over and tell what’s wrong with it, what needs to be done,” he explains.
The 73‐year‐old elder Winborg celebrated his 50th‐year artist’s anniversary a month ago, marking from the time he graduated with a Master’s of Fine Art at Utah State University. However, he says he decided he wanted to be an artist back in the first grade, growing up in Idaho.
“I’ve always wanted to be an artist, always really loved it,” Larry explains.
Larry spent many years of his career as an illustrator, and he had an art studio at one time for several years in Salt Lake City with his brother. Now, he does commissioned work and art shows with his son. Their gallery, Winborg Masterpieces in downtown Logan, represents them both. They also have had artwork featured in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐ day Saints’ magazine, “The Ensign,” and in other church works.
Larry bounces around between different styles, working in oils much of the time, though in the past few years he turned to abstract work. Abstract, for him, is like music without words.
Father and son don’t collaborate as much as they did when Jeremy was younger, but they are contracted to do a series of murals on the wall of a building in downtown Logan, visible on the east side of the Center Street Grill parking lot from Main Street. The first mural, up now, was created by Jeremy and is titled “Baby Steps,” featuring a family in a rustic kitchen. The son, modeled after Jeremy’s 2‐year‐old, is walking to his father, whose arms are outstretched to receive him, as his mother watches.
The next in the series of murals will be one created by Larry, entitled “Flying Sparks,” including a father and son in a blacksmith’s forge, where the father is teaching the son how to make a knife. That will likely replace “Baby Steps” on the wall this spring.
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The idea behind the project is mentoring, Larry explains.
“I think we could all remember that everyone needs help, and needs to be mentored,” he says. “I’ve always had a saying of, ‘There isn’t anyone you can’t learn something from.’ So, if someone’s willing to teach you and you’re willing to learn, then you can learn from everyone.”
Larry, who cites mentors like the late Utah artist Harrison Groutage, is a mentor himself. Growing up, Larry’s children had free reign of his studio, and he supplied them plenty of materials. The same goes for his grandchildren.
“People ask, ‘How did you teach your kids to paint?’ And I didn’t. I just gave them the paints, the brushes, and the canvasses and the paper and said, ‘Go for it,’ and I encouraged them, praised them,” he says.
The whole family is involved in some kind of art, be it weaving, painting or photography. Two daughters have a business called Winborg Sisters Design, producing art decor for children.
Jeremy’s kids, who have an art heritage from their mother and father, are budding artists, down to his 2‐year‐old.
“He’s a frustrated artist already,” Jeremy explains. “Like, if his circle doesn’t connect at the end, he’ll trash the whole paper, rip it up, throw it away. He paints eyeballs right now.”
Jeremy, 36, grew up watching his father do his work as an illustrator for various publications like “Sports Illustrated” and going on trips to do photography for another show or painting. When he started painting in acrylics at age 15, it turned out well. The rights for his first work were purchased by the Utah Education Association, made into posters and distributed to all teachers in Utah. The painting was later put on display at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The younger Winborg likes Native American artwork, though like his father, he varies between subjects that are urban, rural, nature and portrait. They both have comparable styles and freely admit they are more alike than different. When asked what they like about each other’s artwork, they essentially said the same thing: style.
“He uses big brushes, does big brush strokes,” Jeremy said of his father’s work. “Those are my favorite paintings he does — his more wild, impressionistic abstract artwork.”
Larry echoed his son’s description.
“I like his ability to paint portraits,” Larry said of Jeremy. “He’s very good at that, his color. And I like some of his looser work. It’s sort of abstract in a way, but it’s an object or a building, or a scene, or a person, but it’s good good design, good paint quality, good texture, good brush strokes.”
The two have an affectionate camaraderie together, joking and feeding off each other’s energy.
“He says we’re not competitive,” Jeremy says
“We’re not,” Larry interjects.
“We’re the main competitors when we go to shows and sit side by side.”
“We’re in direct competition, but —”
Jeremy adds mischievously, “I buy him an ice cream or something if he didn’t sell anything.”
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Larry smiles and turns to Jeremy. “Oh, P.F. Chang’s,” he says, referring to a restaurant visit during a show. “Remember that P.F. Chang’s once?”
Larry chuckles. “He wasn’t selling anything right at the moment, so he was really mad. But, he got over it because he ended up passing me.”
“I think I outsold you,” Jeremy says.
The two come pretty close to selling the same amount of artwork at each show, but sometimes one does outdo the other. It’s only friendly competition.
“We’re here to develop our own abilities and talents,” Larry says, now serious. “And we’re going to be held accountable for it.” The Herald Journal: http://bit.ly/1Rj4XAB
The Running Painter
TAOS, NM: Runner, painter, philosopher, author, life coach: Bruce Katlin is all these things and more. Perhaps he is most passionate about running and painting and especially doing those two things – at the same time. “The artistic passion and the pragmatic side link up,” he says.
Katlin spoke at the Pecha Kucha session held at the end of the Paseo art event in September. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chitchat and refers to an event in which each speaker shows 20 slides for 20 seconds apiece. Those people lucky enough to hear Katlin speak that night know that he has intentionally combined running and painting, while looking for a solution to a life‐long struggle with anxiety and depression.
Although he had submitted his 20 slides in advance for Pecha Kucha, he didn’t decide until an hour before the presentation exactly what he would say; he was hesitant to be totally honest about his struggle. As the time came closer, he made the decision to reveal himself and tell the whole story of his search and the solution he has found.
It turns out – unlikely as it seems – long‐distance running and creativity can work together perfectly. “I found that when I put these two things together, when the endorphins are firing, when the mandala and the prefrontal cortex are engaged in that kind of Zen zone of creating anything, I don’t have to think about the pragmatic side. I just want to paint … “ he says.
Katlin has been running long distances throughout his life and has had a long‐standing interest in art. Growing up in Philadelphia, he wanted to be a painter. He says he was in an awful school district, but had the good fortune to find a great art teacher.
While his parents were supportive of his interest in art, his early efforts were not well received. One of his first artistic endeavors was to paint the Declaration of Independence on the wall, knowing that his parents were planning to put up new wallpaper. He thought they would be impressed. It turns out that they were planning to put up a sheer, see‐ through wallpaper. They were not amused, and Katlin was punished.
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Along with an incident that involved writing on a shower curtain with a Sharpie marker, for which he was also punished, Katlin lost his passion for art.
He pursued his interests in acting, and that eventually led him to do coaching and corporate training, first in New York and then in Chicago. Katlin had wanted to come to Taos for 40 years, since he first saw a Warren Miller film featuring skiing in Taos. When his wife suggested an anniversary trip to Santa Fe, Katlin agreed, as long as they could also go to Taos. He says, when he crossed the Río Grande Gorge Bridge, he fell to his knees in tears and said, “I’m moving here.” A year later, he was here.
While in Taos, he became more interested in trail running and painting. He found himself having to choose between a long run and an afternoon of painting. Then he hit on the idea of doing both together. Running has the effect of calming him and helping him balance the excitement he feels about painting.
His first attempts were anything but successful. He tried to take all the gear he needed to run and paint, and he decided he would film the whole adventure, too. At 50 pounds, his backpack was way too heavy. Katlin says that, by time he had run with a heavy pack up to 11,000 feet, he could barely lift a paint brush, let alone paint.
Not one to give up easily, Katlin says, “I was going to make this work. I was going to run, paint and build brain plasticity, while increasing endorphins and serotonin levels in the brain, and I didn’t get that on the therapist’s couch.”
Over time, he experimented with new approaches to lighten the pack. He left water jars at home and constructed a paint box made of foam core and a lightweight easel that lessened the load by 10 pounds. He became increasingly flexible to accommodate the chaotic elements of nature.
His first painting done on Yerba Trail was complete with insects that dive‐bombed the canvas and forever became part of the painting.
Katlin’s running adventures have taken him on a 22‐mile round‐trip route that included summiting Wheeler Peak, the highest point in the state. From that run, he painted “Massive Mini‐me,” which shows the contrast between how small he is in comparison with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
There are dangers to combining these two passions. Katlin says one time he was overcome by turpentine fumes and almost fell off a ledge. Recently, he visited Chaco Canyon. While ascending the trail to Pueblo Alto, above the ruin of the Kin Kletso great house, he had to pass through a narrow passage high up in the rock cliffs. He became stuck in the passage, hung up by his 48‐by‐36‐inch‐tall canvas. Katlin had to stop, remove his canvas from the pack and turn it vertically so he could pass through the opening.
Even during the winter, Katlin pursues his twin passions. He has been experimenting with snowshoes made especially for running and also backcountry skis to take him up to Williams Lake. He says one of the biggest challenges of winter painting is keeping his fingers warm and dealing with the wind that can scatter sparkling snow into the still‐wet oil paints on his canvas.
Extreme conditions and difficult challenges don’t stop Katlin. He says, “The more intense the run, the more intense the creativity.”
As always, his goal is to be present, calm and focused.
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In addition to painting, Katlin is a life coach, working with adults and teenagers. He still occasionally travels to New York to hold corporate trainings on giving presentations and other skills. While in Taos, Katlin volunteers as a mentor with SOMOS and at the Adult Learning Center.
His book, titled “Birds Like Us, The Pi Phillecroix Story,” was published in 2014 and tells the story of a bird that is unable to fly due to her handicap. She walks from her home in Paris to the shores of England to find a doctor who may know the cure for her dying father. Katlin intends for the book to be a message of hope to all of those who feel inadequate and different at times, encouraging their journey.
Like the bird in his story, Katlin thinks he has found what he has been seeking. He says, “Color is exploding from the inside out, and I do believe that I finally found the peace and wellness I’ve been looking for.” The Taos News: http://bit.ly/1ZXy7qt
No Medium is Too Challenging for Sophomore Artist
READING, PA: Jafet James is a sophomore at I‐LEAD Charter School. At first glance Jafet looks like an ordinary student, but there is so much more to learn about him. What better way to find out about the talented artist then to interview him? Jafet is a very creative and open‐minded artist willing to try any style of artwork, from painting, drawing and multimedia to printmaking and cardboard.
Jafet gets his inspiration from his parents, simply because they always support his dreams and aspirations by buying him art supplies. His mom is an artist herself, which has allowed him to be exposed to his artistic side at a young age. In fact, Jafet and his mother are planning on purchasing a studio so they can display their artwork.
Although Jafet's parents are his No. 1 inspiration, he is also inspired by Berni Valenta. Jafet discovered Berni's artwork when he was searching the Internet. Berni makes art pieces out of cardboard, which Jafet managed to imitate. The only reason why Jafet re‐ created Berni's art pieces was because a friend of his said that he could never do it. And sure enough, Jafet allowed for his talent to speak for itself.
Jafet's favorite artwork was inspired from society. The head in the piece represents people (us), and the apps symbolize how social media impact the world around us. The piece is a representation of how people tend to isolate themselves by always being on different social media apps. Jafet got his inspiration for this piece simply by observing people and noticing how people have a tendency to pay more attention to their phones than to the person they are with.
Jafet plans to teach art classes at his local Olivet Boys and Girls Club, the Oakbrook Unit. He is looking toward to providing the young members with the opportunity to open their minds and explore their creativity that they never knew existed. His passion for art is very strong, and he plans to pursue art history in college with a minor in business.
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To end the interview, Jafet's last words were: " To all the young aspiring artists, I just want to say never give up on your dream. Keep striving because that is what is going to cause you to one day succeed in life. Trust in yourself."
Keep an eye out for this talented and creative artist who has the vision and the gift to make something beautiful out of cardboard. Reading Eagle: http://bit.ly/1Rj58fa
Nonprofit of the Week: ACTS Seeks to Embrace, Equip, Empower Holland Youth “By inviting young people to be a part of this relational ministry we stand in the gaps for them,” said Jaime Blom, executive director. “Our primary aim is to provide safe, intentional, and relevant opportunities and relationships with and for our youth. ACTS — standing for Arts, Community, Teachin...
HOLLAND, MI: What is ACTS’ mission?
The mission of ACTS is to embrace, equip and empower Holland's youth.
“By inviting young people to be a part of this relational ministry, we stand in the gaps for them,” said Jaime Blom, executive director. “Our primary aim is to provide safe, intentional and relevant opportunities and relationships with and for our youth. ACTS — standing for Arts, Community, Teaching and Serving — is our kids' personal mission statement for who and what they strive to be for each other and our community.”
Who does ACTS serve?
“ACTS primarily serves 6‐ to 16‐year‐old youth from challenging home situations who need an empowering place to be after school and evenings,” Blom said. “As a relational ministry, we grow with our youth. We encourage them to invite friends, family and, for some, their own children, into our ACTS family. Consequently, we encounter a wide range of ages and opportunities, including discovery of gifts, embracing mentorship and pursuing a more meaningful life.”
What is ACTS’ need right now?
“The Holland and Zeeland community supports ACTS in many ways,” Blom said. “We need prayers, volunteer help, tangible donations and direct financial gifts.”
ACTS is a nonprofit, and monetary donations can be received online at actsholland.com. Paper products, canned food, art supplies and gift cards for gasoline, general retail and art stores are always needed.
Volunteer inquiries may be directed to Blom. Founded in: 2011 Founded by: Jaime Blom and the youth of ACTS Website: www.actsholland.com Phone: (616) 294‐0848
Address: 267 W. 15th St., Holland, MI 49423
To help, contact Jaime Blom at (616) 218‐1858 or [email protected]. Holland Sentinel: http://bit.ly/1W1LinW January 13, 2016
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Why Does the CIA Keep Its Art Collection Secret?
LANGLEY, VA: Twenty‐nine abstract Washington Color School paintings hang in the halls of the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. But unless you’re one of the CIA’s undisclosed number of employees, your chances of ever seeing these paintings, or even digital images of them, are pretty slim. As Portland‐based artist Johanna Barron has discovered, the CIA keeps much information about its art collection top secret.
Several years ago, when Barron saw a photo by Taryn Simon of two abstract paintings hung in a CIA hallway, she wanted to learn more about the agency’s art collection, but its website only had brief blurbs on a few artworks. Barron filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the agency, hoping they’d provide her with more details and images. But despite several more FOIA requests, the CIA repeatedly refused to give Barron any information about the Melzac Collection.
This Kafkaesque saga inspired Barron’s ongoing project Acres of Walls, in which she attempts to recreate paintings in the Melzac Collection in three‐quarter scale based on scraps of descriptions she’s collected from tireless research. “I liked that the CIA wasn’t aware there was this re‐created space out in Oregon,” Barron tells Hyperallergic in an email. “I also felt an homage to these artists — as it is with any copying or transcribing, you enter the work in a unique way, and I started to love the Washington Color School painters.” Barron’s paintings, which explore what she calls the government’s absurd “knee‐jerk lack of transparency,” are now on view in Chasing Justice, an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.
Since the CIA never granted Barron even a single image, she found most of her information in that large‐format shot of a CIA hallway by Taryn Simon, as well as a tell‐all book about the CIA. Donated in the 1980s by controversial Republican art collector Vincent Melzac, this particular collection may include works by Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Morris Louis, Howard Mehring, Kenneth Noland, and Paul Reed. The CIA’s website only includes information about one of these Washington Color School paintings, Gene Davis’s “Black Rhythm.”
Some of Barron’s recreated paintings are intentionally left partially blacked out or pixellated, since she couldn’t find complete information about their compositions. They’re also accompanied by ephemera from her futile attempts to communicate with the CIA, including her FOIA rejection letters. “It was frustrating to have my requests denied,” Barron says. “I felt like the FOIA in this case, was a puzzle of semantics, that if I tweaked my request slightly I might get the information. There have been many efforts for FOIA reform, and I think this project is an example of the need for it. I hoped that it could serve as a visual reference of the FOIA process by making the correspondence and research part of the exhibitions.”
It’s enough to make a conspiracy theorist’s head spin. Why keep mum about this art collection? Do these paintings hide secret trap doors in Langley’s walls? Do they contain encrypted Illuminati messages or blow‐ups of the NSA’s favorite collected dick pics? Are they abstract portraits of reptilian politicians stripped of their human disguises? The world may never know. Hyperallergic: http://bit.ly/22WobQq
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Ex‐Inmate Finds Redemption in Art
Simon Kerr was once one of New Zealand's most notorious career criminals.
In the '90s, he was the leader of a group of safe‐crackers known as the Hole‐in‐the‐Wall Gang, and staged a number of escapes from prison.
But during his most recent prison sentence, served at Northland's Ngawha Prison, he began working out his troubled life through art.
What was therapy for him was quickly recognised as something much more by his astonished art tutors, and the powerful works he painted in prison have formed the exhibition currently showing at the Whangarei Art Museum: The Roads To Redemption.
It's hard to imagine the artist as a modern‐day Ned Kelly ‐ his one‐time hero. The rangy 53‐year old is friendly, well‐ spoken, and apparently bemused by the praise being heaped upon him by gallery patrons at the exhibition opening.
He maintains he's not an artist, that he's just telling his story ‐ trying to make sense of it all. But he's not about to stop painting.
Chaotic life, moving works
The former inmate, flamboyant ripper‐out of ATMs and serial prison escaper, has discovered in middle age what he was actually meant to do with his life.
The works in The Roads To Redemption record seminal episodes in his chaotic history, from lost boy to career criminal and now family man.
The works are confronting ‐ alive with pain, yet somehow detached as if the artist were documenting a dream.
Some move gallery patrons to surreptitious tears, such as My First Escape, showing two small boys running away from foster care, legging it through the Auckland night in the hope of finding their mother.
"My father used to say, 'Your mother's gone mad', he said. "So I had this thing that she was in a mental hospital. And I knew that on Stanley Point Rd there was a big hospital. My brother told me he knew where my mother was, so we could go and find her."
Kerr, aged four, and his slightly older brother found an old pram. The older boy pushed the younger all the way to a tunnel at North Head and they hid for the night.
In the early hours of the morning, the escapees set off again down Stanley Bay Rd, where their irate father finally caught up with them and returned them to their carer.
Other paintings by Kerr evoke horror. One shows a prisoner who has just torn out his own eye ‐ to force prison guards to take him away from the bullies tormenting him.
Another shows a prisoner who has plunged scissors into his head. January 13, 2016
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The year was 1982 and the place was the security block at Mt Eden. Kerr was barely out of his teens.
"It was a very bad place. There was a lot of self‐harm going on. Over the years, I've seen a lot of self‐harm in prisons ‐ suicides, crazy things. Not just at Mt Eden."
He said the law was changed after the eyeball incident. The man concerned had been imprisoned for non‐payment of fines, and Kerr said he mutilated himself to force the guards to remove him from the wing and other prisoners who were tormenting him.
"He had limited intelligence and it was his answer to escape the bullies. So I saw him get dragged away and I saw other men walk into his cell and they came out with all his rations. His sugar and butter and milk. And, I'll always remember, I was only young, and this sort of hard‐looking guy approached these men and I thought, 'Oh great, some sort of compassion', but he just wanted the sugar. And that was jail, really. "
A sister's recollection
Kerr has spent half his life behind bars. He was first sent to prison for minor offences when he was 15, and there he met a friendly old safe‐cracker, who taught him all he knew.
Kerr's sister Ruth Kerr said her youngest brother was cast adrift when his parents split: the girls went to their grandparents, the boys went with their mentally unwell mother ‐ and then to foster homes. For years, the siblings never saw one another.
The parents, she said, were out of their depth. The father, a newspaper photographer, met their mother when she was 18. By the time she was 25, she had four children and a husband who was hardly home, and her fragile mental health was in tatters.
Kerr was the only one of the fractured family who turned to crime. In one painting, he said that was because he was weak and the others were strong.
Ms Kerr sees it differently. "Simon was a very creative child; he was quite a different child," she says.
"I remember him when he was four, trying to fly off the back stairs and breaking his legs. There was something missing there ‐ that risk‐averse thing. And he was the youngest child [in] a very unstable situation. In some ways he bore the brunt of it. And you see the effect of that. "
A different future?
It was in art classes at Ngawha Prison that Kerr's gift for painting was discovered.
One of his tutors, Kerikeri artist and critic Mike Nettman, said he was staggered when he first saw what Kerr was producing.
"I looked over his shoulder to see what he was doing and I thought, 'My gosh, this man is incredibly talented.
"I asked him what he did before he was in prison. And he said to me, 'I robbed banks'. I said I meant what was his occupation and again he said he'd robbed banks. From 15 years old, he'd been robbing banks and that's all he knew. And his life he'd paralleled to Ned Kelly's."
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Mr Nettman said it was not surprising that some of the paintings moved gallery goers to tears.
"It's very emotional. You know, it's very honest work. He doesn't want to learn about technique and he doesn't have to, because he is a storyteller in his art and it is very powerful stuff. Also because of the words he puts in his paintings. And he's there on the canvas as most artists are. He's opened his soul."
Mr Nettmen believes Kerr could become one of New Zealand's greatest artists ‐ though, as he said, he is biased.
Mrs Langston, meanwhile, does not believe her brother will reoffend.
She said he had finally done the painful work he needed to do to confront his life and, as the exhibition title suggests, redeem it.
'I have love in my life now'
Kerr said he was just glad that people liked his work.
"I'm humbled by that. I don't see myself as an artist; I'm just telling my story."
And he was not angry that no‐one recognised his plight as a youngster and helped him.
"I'm not angry with anyone except maybe myself.
"And I don't see it as a 'plight'. It's just the way it is; life is an experience and if we all lived the same and had the same experience ‐ how boring. Hopefully something good will come of it."
He will keep painting. There are many more stories to tell.
"I have love in my life now; I'm committed to that, And I want to paint about that."
Kerr's now living on parole with his partner Ella and two young children, in Kerikeri ‐ just down the road from the police station.
Every painting in The Roads to Redemption has sold but the works are on show at the Whangarei Art Museum until the end of January. Radio New Zealand: http://bit.ly/1mRFSQf
Art Isn't Just Good For The Mind, It's Good For The Body Too And the two are more interconnected than you think.
My dad was the one who had just had brain surgery, but I also needed to heal.
While he recovered in Cedars‐Sinai Medical Center I found myself roaming the halls which, luckily for me, were adorned with a museum‐quality art collection, including the work of Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Rauschenberg.
I was particularly glued to a corridor lined with Ellsworth Kelly drawings, simple black‐and‐white lined depictions of plants. They
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I was not the sick one, but was nonetheless overwhelmed with gratitude for those humble monochromatic forms, and in awe of their power. To members of the art therapy community, this ostensible miracle is more like science. The effects of art viewing are not just emotional, but physical as well.
"I have shown art reproductions to very ill patients, even in intensive care," art therapist Irene David, director of therapeutic arts at Bellevue Hospital Center, told The Huffington Post, "and observed calmer states and pleasure elicited ‐‐ a kind of life‐enhancing lift to neutralize the clinical experience and ambiance of hospitalization."
I reached out to David after reading about a February 2015 study in which researchers from UC Berkeley determined that experiencing wonder during activities like viewing powerful art may lower the levels of certain chemicals, particularly those that cause inflammation and can eventually lead to diabetes, heart attacks and other illnesses.
In the experiment, 200 young adults detailed how much they experienced wonder and amazement in a given day. Researchers then obtained samples of gum and cheek tissue (oral mucosal transudate), finding that those who claimed to have experienced greater levels of wonder and amazement had the lowest levels of cytokine interleukin 6 ‐‐ a marker of inflammation. Cytokine is necessary to the body for fighting infection, but in large quantities, it can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and even Alzheimer's.
How much wonder a person experiences in a given day isn't exactly a measurable quota (and art isn't the only way to experience such an emotion ‐‐ being in nature is also cited in the report). But the findings roughly demonstrate that "positive emotions are associated with the markers of good health," Dr. Jennifer Stellar, of Toronto University, explained.
"Rather than seeing a walk through the park or a trip to the museum as an indulgence, we hope people will view these kind of experiences as important ways to promote a healthy body in addition to a healthy mind," Stellar continued. "Folding these kinds of positive experiences into your daily routine may be more important for health than we previously realized."
Donna Betts, president of the American Board of Art Therapy, was far from shocked by the findings.
"Stellar and her team’s results do not surprise me in the least," she wrote to HuffPost. "I’m thrilled to learn of some good research on the benefits of viewing artwork. I would love to see some robust research on the benefits of art making and art therapy in increasing immune system functioning."
While Betts was unfamiliar with other studies involving levels of cytokine interleukin, she mentioned an ongoing study with Drexel University's Girija Kaimal researching the effects of art‐making classes on family caregivers of patients with cancer. Specifically, Kaimal is looking at art's ability to lower cortisol levels, which are associated with stress and anxiety.
Through my previous conversations with art therapists, I'd been made aware of art's ability to bolster mental and emotional health. But the physical aspect was new to me. Betts referenced a slew of studies chronicling art's ability to reduce pain, counter fatigue and promote general physical wellness.
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Most of all, Betts stressed the fluidity of the boundary separating the physical from mental. "There is increasing awareness on a global scale of the mind‐body connection and the implications for psychological and physical health," she said. "It’s the idea that the mind and the body are interconnected, the health of one affecting the other."
David also commented on the ability of physical health to bleed into mental health, and vice versa. "Physical illness invariably brings a host of emotion ‐‐ typically anxiety and/or depression. Hence, there is particular therapeutic gain in externalizing or dissipating these states through artistic expression. Ultimately, this externalization can help people cope with prognoses, treatment and overall adaption."
Both David and Betts also agreed that, while viewing art is beneficial, the effects of making art are even stronger. As David put it: "I think there is a particular sensation in the actual creation of art, especially the tactile use of materials ‐‐ using one’s hands and implements in relation to inner thoughts, feelings and perceptions brings forth all at once a spectrum of reward. Even in the case of disability necessitating adaptive items, there is [a] direct and immediate giving of oneself. Making art is giving to oneself in both the process and the validating product."
Whether or not you're an aspiring artist, this kind of encouragement is vital. If you have a day off, why not head to a museum, where a motionless image made in another time and place could in some way speak to you, make you smile or gasp? Why not test out the way clay feels expanding inside your grip? According to art therapy, seeing art isn't just a luxury, a social outing or fodder for your next Instagram upload. It's medicine for the eyes, the mind, the heart and possibly even the body. And it's so much more pleasurable than swallowing a pill. The Huffington Post: http://huff.to/1l1JwFP
Airport Employees Caught Red‐Handed in Art Theft Scheme
ROME, ITALY: Airport employees in Rome have been caught red‐ handed stealing valuable art from travelers passing through the Fiumicino terminal, reports ANSA.
The scheme involved several customer service workers who would offer to help passengers deliver their oversize baggage to collection points, instead spiriting the works away to be hidden by cleaning and grounds crew and subsequently sold on the black market.
"Using the uniforms they normally wore to work in the airport, they easily convinced people that they were providing a genuine service and managed to swindle them," said the state police in a statement, as translated by Reuters. Italian regulations require all oversize items be sent to collection points, so the thieves' victims did not discover the thefts until much later, upon reaching their final destinations.
The unmasking of the sophisticated crime ring comes on the heels of the biggest art heist in Italian history, in which 17 paintings reportedly worth €15 million ($16 million) were stolen from the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona this past November. The nation's politicians were outraged by the sheer scale and audacity of the theft.
The airport crime outfit was reportedly discovered when a police investigation recovered two paintings by Italian contemporary artists, one by Ugo Attardi and the other by Renato Guttoso. Both are said to be worth over €50,000
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(about $55,000) and are the property of a major Roman art gallery. Images released by the Italian police show several additional canvases.
Two airport workers are currently facing charges connected to the theft. According to the Telegraph, Italian media have offered speculation that the thieves were working on commission. Artnetnews: http://artnt.cm/22WoCdo
Creative Parents Make Art a Priority in Family Life
Art. It’s a passion for many. But, if you’re a parent, it’s often the first thing to go by the wayside when life happens.
Because, well, it’s art. And, as Lauri Kaye, artist and mother says, nobody is gonna die if it gets put off to take care of sick kids or make dinner.
That being said, it’s important — for soul and sanity — to make your passions a priority.
From what the artists we spoke to said, that means making art an integral part of family life, involving the kids and carving out alone time to focus on your creativity.
Lauri Kaye, stepmom and mom to three
Kaye creates what she calls “portrait stories,” which are portraits of people, places or things that incorporate pictures and words to tell a story. Her medium is pen and ink drawings colorized in Photoshop.
She says art is often the first thing to go when family stuff comes up. But, working in a medium that is portable has made it easier for her to keep it a priority.
“I purposely wanted to do something that is super‐easy and mobile, so I can do it when I’m with my family or getting coffee or on a plane or waiting in a hospital,” Kay said. “So, no matter what the circumstances are, I can bring my artwork with me.”
Until recently, Kaye created her artwork at home.
“We have this huge kitchen table. Our family comes over often and it’s filled, so a couple times a week I’d be taking off these huge 30‐by‐30 drawings and putting them under the bed, under the floor behind the couch,” she said. “Then when everybody would leave, all the pens, markers and paper came out to cover the table.”
When it became difficult for Kaye to prioritize her art at home, she decided it was time to rent studio space and make a business of it. It was just the incentive she needed.
Involving her son and having a supportive family are also helpful to Kaye’s artistic goals.
“My 9‐year‐old son loves to give me his constructive criticism and he’s usually right,” Kaye said. “I love it. I think he’s honest...And I talk to him about my business plans and he always has great ideas.”
All profits from Kaye’s art business go to help those in need in Tucson, Kaye said. That idea? Her son’s.
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“Initially, it was going to be 10 percent, then 50 percent and then my son was like ‘We have enough; why don’t you make it a 100 percent?”
That’s exactly what she did.
“I love to have my son be a part of that so he can see I’m doing what I love to do, what I’m passionate about,” Kaye said. “And it’s not just about making money, but helping others.”
Kaye and her son draw together. He’s not into drawing by himself but enjoys the time with his mom.
For parents trying to figure out how to fit it all in, Kaye offers the following advice: It’s easy to make everything else a priority, so set aside time that’s devoted when you can turn the phone off and don’t have to be responsible for other things.
Kids interrupting?
“I never want to be discouraging, but it’s also important to let him know this is my time and it’s important to me, so I let him know I’d love to take time to draw with him, but right now when I’m working on a piece is not the time. But, in 30 minutes, when I’m finished, we’ll do something ... to make a specific time when that will happen.”
Find Kaye’s work online at createforthepeople.com
Skye Lin, mother of two
Art is ingrained into every aspect of the Lin family’s lives, from the food they make, to home‐school, to creating for fun.
Lin is a single mother to two autistic children. She works out of her home as a licensed massage therapist and spends the rest of her days working with her children. She is also a painter, jewelry maker and seamstress.
“Everything is artistic, from our food to the way we learn things in life,” Lin said. “I don’t teach them through books too much. It’s all hands‐on — building with clay, making things, going out in the community.”
Recently, the family did a semester studying Asia. She needed to find an inexpensive craft project since she had to get her car fixed and couldn’t afford much more. And, she wanted to do a recycle project.
So she decided they would make a Chinese dragon out of paper bags from Trader Joe’s. When all was said and done, the 18‐foot dragon was made out of 465 bags and staples. It is now suspended from Lin’s ceiling. However, it will be on display at Trader Joe’s on Campbell Avenue and River Road the first two weeks of January.
“I don’t know...for us it’s not ever that art is second,” Lin said. “It’s in everything we cook and everything we do. Even math. We do a lot of sewing. I make crazy hats and aprons for the kids, so we work on costuming as well.”
While creating art with the kids is important, it’s just as essential to Lin to get her own creative time in.
“I never sleep,” Lin said. “I sleep about three to five hours a night at the most. When they go to bed, it’s my time. I do my African beading or whatever I’m working on.”
Lin’s current projects include reversible princess aprons, bags and baby sets that she creates without a pattern.
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“I can’t imagine not doing art,” she said. “Even if someone chopped my hands off, I’d paint with my feet. Just do it. Isn’t it Nike that says that? I think you just have to because of the rewards from it creatively and what it does for your soul and spirit.”
Lin’s words of wisdom to parents trying to juggle it all: Choose art over everything, even exercise.
“We put so much emphasis on the way we look and creating buff bodies, but why not draw for an hour and see how it calms you and what comes to you intuitively.”
Melissa Callahan and Jeremy Thompson, parents and step‐parents to five
With three children — ages 8, 6 and 8 weeks — in the house, this couple’s support for each other’s art and making it a central focus in their family life enables them to nourish their creative selves.
They use art as their lens and framing device when it comes to making life decisions. For example, when they were looking at houses, they found one that had space for an art room and a place for Thompson to practice his music.
“We were just talking about how important it is for us to have art be central in our lives,” Thompson said. “So we have a craft room...Everything is at their (the kids) level and we share art supplies. Instead of coming home and turning on the TV, they make art. Our schedule often revolves around art. Whether it’s Jill doing Irish dance, my doing rehearsal or Melissa working on her art, if we have something social going on, it’s related to our artistic practice.”
Growing up and going to college, both Callahan and Thompson thought they’d be artists by profession. As time went by, both decided that it would not be their central careers.
Callahan is an arts integration teacher at Kellond Elementary School and Thompson is a second‐grade GATE teacher there.
As artists, Callahan is a hula‐hoop performer, fire spinner, singer and music teacher. Thompson is a painter and performs in a band called Arthur Greenland.
“It means art can’t be that big capital “A” thing any more,” Thompson said. “It has to be transformed and I think we both feel more fortunate that we have the arts in our lives than if we had just pursued it as a professional career.”
“A lot of my circus friends and other artist friends that are around my age are deciding not to have kids because they want that to be the central piece to their lives,” Callahan said. “I just feel like you can do both. I’m not gonna go out and be a professional opera singer, but I can still enjoy music and making music and fire dancing and things like that and still have the family time. It’s such a good balance, I think.”
From seeing their parents involved in the arts and going to events as a family, the children live creative lives.
Jillian, 8, is an Irish dancer. She and her mother both perform at the Celtic Festival. So, the family is able to make a day of it.
“It is nice to share that with her,” Callahan said.
Having the time and space to pursue their own things separately is equally important to Callahan and Thompson, which the couple pride themselves on doing for one another.
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“You have to have a supportive partner or I don’t think it would be very doable,” Callahan said. “We definitely give each other time and space to pursue our own art form. And we never guilt or shame each other or track minutes, like ‘You were out three nights doing music this week.’ Never ever.”
For parents struggling with making time for their art, Thompson says to “shift your focus from that kind of captial “A” to a small “a” and be creative about what that can look like.”
“If you’re an artist and you want to make pictures and can’t spend hours doing it in the studio, think about maybe how to scale that down. Change mediums to small pen and ink drawings, make a tiny self‐published book rather than having a show with 20 oil paintings. You just have to be realistic, but that doesn’t mean you have diminished yourself,” he added.
Callahan suggests carving out time for yourself, such as an hour here and there, when the kids are in bed.
Prioritizing art in family lives is worth the effort for Callahan and Thompson and both feel it would benefit everybody to do so on a large scale.
“What a different world it would be if everybody made sure they had some kind of art going on in their family lives,” Thompson said. “It would be transformative. It would be a little less crazy. A little more gentle. A little more reflective.” Arizona Daily Star: http://bit.ly/1nilqs0
French‐US Art Dealer's 'Dallas‐Upon‐Seine' Tax Fraud Trial Opens
PARIS, FRANCE: Several members of the Wildenstein art‐dealing dynasty went on trial in Paris on Monday charged with stashing hundreds of millions of euros in inheritance money out of the reach of the French taxman.
Family patriarch Guy Wildenstein, 70, faces up to 10 years in prison for tax fraud and money laundering in a multi‐generational inheritance squabble worthy of a soap opera.
However, court proceedings got off to a dry start as lawyers argued over whether the trial contravened constitutional safeguards against being judged twice for the same crime.
The Franco‐American Guy Wildenstein is the heir of three generations of wealthy art dealers and thoroughbred racehorse breeders.
French tax authorities say he owes them more than 550 million euros ($600 million) in family money that was hidden after the death of his father Daniel in 2001 and brother Alec in 2008.
Alec became famous during his messy divorce from Swiss socialite Jocelyne Perisse, nicknamed "Bride of Wildenstein" for her extreme facial cosmetic surgeries, reportedly to make her look more catlike.
The divorce was the first action by a series of women who felt hard done by the Wildenstein men that forced the family to lift the veil of secrecy over its fortune.
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The second wives and widows of Daniel and Alec rose up against the family over their slice of the inheritance, accusing Guy of hiding much of his inherited fortune via a web of opaque trusts in tax havens.
This piqued the interest of French investigators who began probing the case in 2010 and in 2014 demanded the tax adjustment of 550 million euros.
The dynasty had valued Daniel's estate in 2008 at just $61 million after Guy took over as president of the family's art gallery empire, which is based in New York.
That figure was despite assets including a host of works by Rococo painter Fragonard and post‐Impressionist Bonnard and a stable of thoroughbred horses including Ascot Gold Cup winner Westerner.
Other assets included a vast real estate portfolio, with the jewel in the crown a luxurious Kenyan ranch which provided the backdrop for the film "Out of Africa".
Most of these assets were registered in tax havens.
In 2002 Guy and Alec Wildenstein handed over bas‐reliefs sculpted for Marie‐Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI, to pay a 17.7 million euro tax bill.
‐ 'Dallas‐upon‐Seine' ‐
Guy Wildenstein is appearing alongside his nephew Alec Jr and Alec's widow Liouba Stoupakova for a month‐long trial in a saga which has been dubbed "Dallas‐upon‐Seine".
Lawyers for Guy and Alec argued that carrying out the tax adjustment along with a criminal trial was unconstitutional and amounted to being tried for the same case twice.
A notary, two lawyers and two managers of the secret trusts held in Guernsey and the Bahamas are also in the dock.
In a rare interview three months ago, Guy Wildenstein said he knew little about tax, declaring: "My father never used to talk to me about his business affairs."
He says there was no legal obligation to report trust‐held assets on his father's death.
According to the French investigation, the US tax authorities will also pursue unpaid taxes for artworks. YAHOO! News: http://yhoo.it/1N3Oj07
Classic Art and Frame Closing
VALDOSTA, GA: After 37 years, Classic Art and Frame Company is preparing to close shop.
Owner Carla Penny opened the framing shop in 1979 as The Framing Workshop in Downtown Valdosta.
The store has been matting, framing and backing artwork, documents, photos and historic documents ever since.
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While the last day for the store has yet to be set, staff is still taking framing orders through Jan. 31, Penny said.
“And we have sale prices on just about everything else,” Penny said.
Pieces that don’t sell by Feb. 13 will be donated to charity.
Classic Art & Frame Co. is located at 1601 Baytree Road. The Valdosta Daily Times: http://bit.ly/1Q1ngJg
Famous Painters Did Not Do Their Best Work While Grieving, Study Says
The trope of the tortured artist is a persistent one, dating back at least to Aristotle’s time. Many see the lives of troubled artists, from Vincent van Gogh to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, as evidence that emotional turmoil enhances creativity, that suffering is a necessary ingredient for great art.
A new study calls that assumption into question. For her paper “Death, Bereavement, and Creativity,” Kathryn Graddy, an economics professor at Brandeis University, studied major 20th‐ century artists and found that they did not produce their most successful works while suffering in the wake of a death of a relative or close friend.
“I told an art historian friend about my findings and she said, ‘Gosh, this is good news for artists,’” Graddy tells Hyperallergic.
To explore how bereavement affects artists’ work, Graddy studied 10,000 paintings produced by 33 French Impressionists and over 2,000 paintings by 15 modern European and American artists born between 1900 and 1920. Her subjects included Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Alice Neel, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Agnes Martin. Using information from these artists’ biographies, she matched the dates of deaths of their close friends and relatives with the works they made in the ensuing periods of grief. She then studied how successful these works were compared to those they created while not grieving, measuring success by auction prices (according to the Blouin Art Sales Index), as well as whether they’re included in the collection Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“I had no preconceptions about what the results would be,” Graddy says. “I found that, sure enough, in the year after the death of an artist’s friend or relative, the prices of the art they made decreased at auction.” Specifically, she found the value of a painting sold at auction was, on average, 50% lower for those created in the year after a death. “That doesn’t happen in other years. If you look at the timeline, you see a dip in prices during the year of grief,” Graddy says. Paintings made during periods of bereavement were also less likely to be included in the collection of the Met.
While lower prices don’t necessarily mean these works are objectively “worse” than others, and being included in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection isn’t an objective criterion for “success,” her findings do suggest “there’s something different about these paintings that made them less successful. I’d venture to say these aren’t their best paintings,” Graddy says. January 13, 2016
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The study doesn’t factor in how mental illness unrelated to bereavement may have affected these artists’ work. But bereavement is highly correlated with depression in psychology literature, and Graddy’s study suggests that depression triggered by grief doesn’t help artists make their best work. “Even without doing this study, if you were to ask any psychologist, they’d probably say, ‘Yeah, people don’t do best work when dealing with terrible life events,’” Graddy says. “In most cases, we don’t know how these particular deaths affected these particular artists — but the study does say something about how bereavement affects their work.”
Researchers have been investigating the complicated and controversial subject of the link between mental illness and creativity for years, and some studies suggest there actually is a connection between mental illness and creative genius. But research like Graddy’s might come as good news for artists afraid that, say, seeking psychotherapy will hinder their creativity. “I think [the idea of the tortured artist] is damaging,” Graddy says. “You don’t have to suffer to produce great art. And I think this research debunks that myth a bit.” Hyperallergic: http://bit.ly/1neiSLH
When Plein Air Painting is Illegal
Imagine John Singer Sargent getting arrested for painting a Venetian scene, or Albert Bierstadt being fined for mentioning to someone that he sells his work, while in a wilderness area. These days, it might happen. Lately, plein air painters are discovering that working on public land can get you in trouble with the law. The newest spot to limit the freedom of plein air painters is a Florida town known for supporting artists: Winter Park.
Lead Image: A Facebook group called Illegal Paintings of Park Avenue posted this piece by Morgan Samuel Price as an example of what may not be legally painted now in Winter Park, Florida.
Winter Park recently criminalized painting in designated areas of its downtown, evidently as a way of keeping street musicians from discouraging tourists from spending their dollars in the business district. When a similar ban on street musicians was implemented in St. Augustine, Florida, a court ruled that it was a matter of free speech, and that painters were exercising their right to free speech when painting en plein air as well. The St. Augustine ban was thus extended to painters, closing off some of the most scenic and historical spots from plein air painters. Winter Park’s mayor, city manager, and city council have evidently structured their ordinance with the St. Augustine prohibition in mind.
Artists in the area are less than enthused. The town is on the radar of regional plein air painters in large part because of the Winter Park Paintout, an event associated with the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden. The ordinance grants an exemption for this event, but folks at the museum — strong allies of local plein air painters — are not placated by this exemption, and local artists are mobilizing to fight the ordinance, or at least the inclusion of painters in the ban.
According to Randy Knight, the city manager of Winter Park, “Section 70‐10(d)(2) of the new ordinance states that ‘Street performers may perform in the public performance zone(s) which includes the entirety of Central Park and such other public performance zone(s) as are designated by the City Manager or his or her designee.’ So, any artist whose subject matter requires him or her to be set up in an otherwise prohibited public area can request that area to be temporarily designated a Public Performance Zone. We will look at the location and if it can be utilized without unduly restricting pedestrian or vehicular traffic or creating any of the other objectionable issues discussed in the ordinance, we
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Orlando artist Stephen Bach addresses that notion succinctly. “So we find the spot, apply for a permit, and wait a couple of days — or a week — and if they approve we can come back? Who knows, maybe there will be good light then, right?” he says.
Bach started a Facebook page titled Illegal Paintings of Park Avenue to highlight the issue and share some of the work painters have created in the area in the past. Bach can’t recall hearing of any complaints about painters causing a problem in Winter Park, and he notes that plein air artists are uniformly respectful of property and cognizant of the space their easels and persons occupy in any situation.
Several artists discussing the ordinance on Facebook said they would abandon Winter Park in the face of this ban. Others preferred to remind city officials and merchants about the value of what plein air painters do in charming touris‐ts, illustrating the beauty of the town, and helping make the area seem alive with the arts. Forget the insult perceived by a few of equating a plein air painter with a balloon artist hustling for some bucks, say some; this ban doesn’t make sound financial sense for a town that has benefited from visual artists working on location.
“Banning artists from recording present‐day historical sights hurts tourism,” states Morgan Samuel Price. “Personally I have had many fans e‐mail or even write letters who see these scenes and wish they could visit or live here.”
Rumors are that the next city to criminalize plein air painting in certain areas will be Asheville, North Carolina. As in St. Augustine and in Winter Park, it starts with dissatisfaction with the behavior of music buskers. Plein air painters get caught in the middle, and towns don’t seem to care much about that. “This is ridiculous, and no one in Winter Park is considering the consequences of the city ordinance,” says Price. “This can happen anywhere.” Outdoor Painter: http://bit.ly/1Rj6kPx
Art Feeds to Expand Therapeutic Art, Creative Education Efforts to Northwest Arkansas
SPRINGDALE, AR: It takes some of us most of our lives to figure out what we want to be when we grow up.
We change our majors several times in college. We change jobs. Several of us even abandon our careers for completely new paths as adults.
But for Meg Bourne‐Hulsey, founder of Joplin‐based non‐profit Art Feeds, she was lucky enough to find her passion at just 19 years old.
Bourne‐Hulsey was in college, working as a volunteer in a class for children with behavior disorders when she had a breakthrough with one of her students. The child was bright, but lethargic, had trouble concentrating, and wasn’t measuring up academically with his peers. Through her work with the student, she found out, for one, that he wasn’t being fed adequately at home. Once she helped to address his nutritional needs, she decided to try to help the student express himself through something that had helped her deal with her own self‐esteem and social anxiety issues that she had struggled with as a child; creative expression in the form of art.
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“I understood what expression and creativity did for me, so I decided to start trying that with him,” she said.
Bourne‐Hulsey brought some art supplies from home and started working with the child, and the transformation was incredible. The child found that he had a talent for drawing and painting. More importantly, seeing himself excel at something for the first time brought about the same kind of change in him that happened when Bourne‐Hulsey was able to help him with his nutritional needs at home.
“I could see him growing in confidence,” she said. “I could tell he was thinking ‘I’m good at this thing. This thing I’m making has worth. I have worth’.”
She decided to see what art and expression could do for some of the other children she was working with.
In that same class, Bourne‐Hulsey was able to help a girl who had always been sullen and withdrawn to disclose through a sketchbook that she was being abused at home. Another child who suffered from Autism and couldn’t seem to calm down was able to find peace in music.
She found that the boy she had been working with originally, who hadn’t been able to write his ABC’s with a pen and pencil, could paint them beautifully with a brush and watercolors.
She was on to something. And at 19, it appears, she had found her calling.
Becoming Art Feeds
The name for the project came pretty naturally. Bourne‐Hulsey recognized the power that creative expression had to transform lives, in the same way that having other basic needs allows children to grow and develop naturally.
“My big idea was to call whatever this is Art Feeds because art was feeding that first little boy in a way that was just as essential as the food he was missing,” she said.
Bourne‐Hulsey commissioned the student that helped inspire Art Feeds to create a design that would become the organization’s first fundraiser.
“I had him draw out the words in this Andy‐from‐Toy‐Story‐kind‐of‐writing, with a blank underneath, she said. “The idea was, you could fill in the blank and say ‘Art Feeds me’ or ‘Art Feeds my soul.’
“Then he stamped his hands down, and they ended up forming a heart, and so I took those things and started putting them on some t‐shirts,” she saidf.
She sold those t‐shirts, and used the money she made to buy more art supplies, and teachers in the community began asking how the art curriculum she was developing might be able to help their students.
Before she knew it, she was running a non‐profit called Art Feeds.
A turning point
Art Feeds continued to grow organically, focusing mostly on children with behavioral disorders and special needs until 2011.
That’s when a category F‐5 tornado struck in Bourne‐Hulsey’s hometown of Joplin.
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“My neighborhood was completely destroyed,” she said. “Our neighbors were missing, and I thought, ‘How can they cope with this madness.’ I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it.”
Bourne‐Hulsey’s neighbors were ultimately found alive, but amidst the turmoil happening in her community as a result of the tornado, she decided to pitch in and help in the only way she knew how. She mobilized Art Feeds to try to help every child in Joplin deal with the trauma they’d experienced.
Her efforts in Joplin were recognized nationally by Extreme Makeover Home Edition, VH1’s Do Something Awards, NBC’s American Giving Awards, and others, and the momentum propelled her fledgeling organization even further.
Art Feeds today
Since then, Bourne‐Hulsey has developed curriculum for therapeutic art and creative education that the organization takes directly to the children they serve.
That means Art Feeds can be found working with children in schools, at community events, as well as on‐site in communities that have experienced traumatic events.
In 2013, for example, they delivered 1,200 art packs to students in Moore, Oklahoma after another tornado ravaged that community. In 2012, they delivered art supplies to the New Jersey community of Jackson after a superstorm caused severe flooding there.
After starting in Joplin, Art Feeds recently opened its second chapter in nearby Carthage, Missouri. Lately, Meg has been focusing on building Art Feeds National, an overarching parent company that develops curriculum and works to train new directors to open Art Feeds chapters in other communities.
The organization is also working to open their first chapter in Northwest Arkansas this year.
Getting started in Northwest Arkansas
As a precursor to opening a chapter in the area, Art Feeds recently competed a successful project with Parson Hills Elementary utilizing their mural curriculum.
With it, all 750 students from the school spent several weeks designing a mural to be publicly displayed on the walls of First Security Bank at the corner of Emma Avenue and Razorback Greenway Trail in downtown Springdale.
The mural, officially revealed in late November, depicts a pathway from Parson Hills elementary to downtown Sprindale. The theme of the design, Bourne‐Hulsey said, was “Learning and Growing,” and the students drawings of their experiences at school, growing plants, and growing animals support that theme.
Bourne‐Hulsey said the mural, the organization’s 21st student‐created installation, was a huge success.
“I am so proud of what happened in Springdale in so many ways,” she said. “Community art can change the face of a downtown and so much is happening in downtown Springdale, but what is more important is that the youngest members of the community feel like they have a sense of place and their ideas are valued.”
In addition to the mural project in Springdale, Art Feeds has had a presence with a booth at last fall’s Oktoberfest celebration on Dickson Street.
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They will also lead all the kids activites at the upcoming family‐friendly Homegrown Music Festival at Byrd’s Campground on the Mulberry river this summer.
Bourne‐Hulsey said she wants to open her next chapter in the Northwest Arkansas region for several reasons.
“I have some great friends there,” she said. “But what we look for in a community when we open a chapter is, is there a high need, is there an interest in art and culture, is there the philanthropy in that community to support it, and is there a volunteer base? All of those pieces are here in Northwest Arkansas.”
Bourne‐Hulsey is currently in the process of raising funds for the NWA chapter, which would initially be a regional effort, but may ultimately split into city or county specific chapters. She’s also seeking to hire an executive director and a programming director in the area.
Art Feeds is supported in part by grants and gifts from foundations, but most of their funding actually comes from individual gifts and the organizations direct fundraising efforts and galas, Bourne‐Hulsey said.
To learn more about how to support Art Feeds, visit their website at artfeeds.org. Fayetteville Flyer: http://bit.ly/1OYdwjS
January 13, 2016