Gallery&Studio Arts Journal

Gallery&Studio arts journal In this Issue: The new G&S Arts Journal was set up to give a voice to those who are not heard, those who need a wider platform, a larger amplifier. Therefore, as we celebrate Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, here in the United States, we have turned a special spotlight on these two groups for this issue. That is not to say that we do this to the exclusion of others, nor do we forget these groups throughout the year. Our hope is that by sharing the arts, we learn to value individuality as well as finding compassion and a generosity of spirit towards humanity. As this second print issue sees the light of day, we extend our thanks to all our wonderful donors who have already shown that spirit of generosity. We couldn’t do this without you. We would particularly like to give special thanks our newest board member, who wishes to remain anonymous, whose donation made our first print issue possible. —The Editors

Cover image: “On Fire” ©Xenia Hausner, Courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York

Gallery&Studio arts journal PUBLISHED BY ©G&S Arts Journal Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1632 First Avenue, Suite 122, New York, NY 10028 email: [email protected] EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Jeannie McCormack MANAGING EDITOR Ed McCormack OPERATIONS Marina Hadley SPECIAL EDITORIAL ADVISOR Margot Palmer-Poroner SPECIAL ADVISOR Dorothy Beckett POETRY EDITOR Christine Graff DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Karen Mullen TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Sébastien Aurillon WEBSITE galleryand.studio BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sébastien Aurillon, Christine Graf, Marina Hadley, Antonio Huerta Jeannie McCormack, Carolyn Mitchell, Margot Palmer-Poroner, Norman Ross Gallery&Studio Arts Journal is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and distributes its journal free of charge in the New York City area.

The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors of each individual article and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of G&S Arts Journal Inc., or any other agency, organization, employer or company that the authors may be associated with, in any professional or personal capacities, unless explicitly stated. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author’s and these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. All content provided in this magazine is for informational purposes only. G&S Arts Journal Inc. makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness or validity of any information in this publication and will not be liable for any errors or omissions, nor for any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis without any warranty of any kind. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts. All rights are reserved by G&S Arts Journal Inc. All material in this magazine, including text, images, design and logos, are owned by G&S Arts Journal and the artists who created the original works, either through copyright or trademark, unless otherwise indicated. Content may not be copied, reproduced, transmitted, distributed, downloaded or transferred in any form or by any means without G&S Arts Journal Inc.’s, prior written consent, and with express attribution G&S Arts Journal Inc., except in critical reviews, educational or noncommercial purposes as permitted by copyright law. G&S Arts Journal Inc. and the authors of the articles are not to be held responsible for misuse or reuse of content by others.

2 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Table of Contents 4 Bill Hodges Gallery 8 The Women’s Universe

10 Competition Winner and Runners-ups 12 Chicago’s HipletTM Ballerinas 26

14 Old Fashioned Storytelling 12 15 Writing and Visual Art Competitions

16 Charles Ethan Porter 21 18 Poetry

19 Architecture of the Past

20 Film Review: “Weathering With You” 8 21 Renée Khatami

22 Holiday Cheer at Jadie Gallery

23 Screenwriting for Hollywood 7

24 Jazz: Norika Ueda

25 Movie Review: “Sátántangó”

27 26 Comedian Lynn Ruth Miller 16 27 Aerialist Magumi Yamada

28 Music: Sugar Snake

29 In Memoriam: Diane Root

30 In Memoriam: Bob Hogge 20 19 Book Review: “My Mostly Happy Life” Winter 2020 31 galleryand.studio 3 My Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance Period

n the late 1960s my husband, occupied the same building) where seeing his work, “I always loved Ed McCormack, and I started I first saw the works of important how he combined the decorative spending many hours walking Black artists from and influenced effects of abstraction with social Ifrom one gallery to the next, along by the Harlem Renaissance period commentary. He integrate Madison Avenue and 57th street. like Jacob Lawrence and Romare d humanism and abstraction Ed introduced me to many special Bearden. Ed admired these works in a way that few artists have galleries and over the years we for their “improvised qualities that ever done.” developed a route of our favorites. [he] also saw in Jazz musicians.” Romare Bearden, who didn’t I remember Cordier & Ekstrom Ed was painting figurative pieces find fame as easily as Lawrence, along Madison where we saw in those days and these works gave struggled in his early years. Ed works by Man Ray and Richard him great inspiration. calls Bearden’s earlier works “what Lindner, among others. Then there Jacob Lawrence, is best a doggedly ambitious painter can was Willard Gallery where we saw known for his Migration series, go through as he explores and mystical works by artists such as depicting the massive movement discards influences – the arduous Mark Tobey and Morris Graves. of African Americans from the process jazz musicians call “paying It was always so special to southern states to the urban dues.” His earlier works were good anticipate the next new show north after the end of slavery. Ed but “derivative of the frescoes of at our favorite galleries. also first saw Lawrence’s works the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera During our adventures we also in a museum (Lawrence was and the temperas of his friend stopped at the Whitney Museum the first African American to be Lawrence”. However as soon as and MoMA, (which at that time acquired by MoMA), and says of Bearden started experimenting

4 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 and the Bill Hodges Gallery by Jeannie McCormack with collages, he found his own voice. One of his major innovation was merging photo-images of African masks with the faces of local people, particularly in Harlem where he lived. In later years we began to visit Bill Hodges Gallery on 57th Street after he opened in 1993 and discovered that his gallery was known for representing all the great black artists of the Harlem Renaissance period, as well as important contemporary artists. Not only was it an important venue for African American artists to show their work, but his gallery represented many of the artists making Black history available, in visual terms, to the general public, with many narrative artworks depicting the joys, sorrows and difficulties particularly encountered by African Americans. Bill Hodges also Al Loving (1935 - 2005) Untitled, 1966-68, Oil on Canvas, 68 x 61 in. represented two artists that we had come across another important Black White produced bold, myself, “How quickly one day while visiting artist at Bill Hodges black and white, iconic things change when you an outdoor art show in Gallery, whose work graphite prints of African are not looking.” After the village in the early Ed first saw in a book Americans and was also a little more search on 1970s. We saw the work called “The Insiders.” known for his murals. the computer however, of Joseph Delaney who The premise of the book After our hiatus I learned that he will painted city scenes. Ed was based on going in publishing be shortly moving to a explained that Joseph against the popularity of Gallery&Studio, I was new location in Chelsea, was the brother of a more abstract expressionism working on the new continuing to make famous artist named of the 1960’s by featuring distribution list for our history and African Beauford Delaney, both figurative artists whose first non-profit issue of American art available Harlem Renaissance works were imbued our printed magazine and for us all. G&S artists who produced with emotional content. was very disappointed bold colorful paintings of Influenced by the to learn that Bill Hodges African American life. Harlem Renaissance was no longer on 57th Charles White was artists at a young age, Street. I thought to

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 5 The New Bill Hodges Gallery by Marina Hadley

Norman Lewis (1909 - 1979) “New World Acoming” 197, Oil on Canvas, 73 x 87 in. © Estate of Norman Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY ill Hodges Gallery will be Salvadore Dali print of one of the Bearden for $50. He often met opening its latest 5,000 artist’s 100 illustrations of Danté’s with Bearden at Books & Company square foot gallery in The Divine Comedy. This is the on Madison Avenue where the BChelsea with a blockbuster show first work of art that he bought. He artist often hung out. titled “Romare Bearden & Co.” paid for it in installments. Starting in 1979 he would buy It’s the culmination of a long He started to buy other works. the artwork and sell them via small career feeding an insatiable He carefully studied the artists and ads in the New York Times. It was addiction. An addiction for art that their works, researched prices at an inspired way to start in the art started when he was still working galleries and started to go to PB84, business. He named his business his way through Rutgers University, the junior annex of Sotheby Parke AFTU, an acronym standing where he was studying Political Bernet, where the second rung of for Arts For The Uncontrolled, Science and History. Walking estate sales were auctioned. There “because of [his] obsession with by a gallery, he was drawn to a he purchased his first Romare the beauty and acquisition of art.”

6 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 He learnt how to run a instances, to replace them with business and the art of selling from these two categories of artists who a jewelry and diamond merchant have long been under-represented. on Canal Street, by working for He has been experiencing strong free for him on Sundays. These demand for Edward Clark, Lessons were to stand him in good Norman Lewis, Frank Bowling and stead for all his other businesses. the photographs of Roy DeCarava He ended up opening several amongst many others. stores in the Flower District of Hodges is well known for his New York selling pottery made in acquisition and promotion of Malaysia. (How he got into that African American artists, however is another article unto itself!). it is not his sole arena. His interests However, like his inspired art are broad and there are many Latin acquisitions and sales, Bill Hodges American, Asian and European researched extensively, studied his artists within his roster as well. He markets and followed his instincts. says he buys “what I feel. I search One day looking through the my heart and soul and go for what New York Times, he saw a notice of I feel.” This “feel” is educated as Norman Lewis’s artwork for sale Edward Clark (1926 - 2019), “New York usual by his rigorous research. from $300-$5,000. Making the Ice Cream,” 2003, Acrylic on Canvas, He does encourage the call to find out more, he spoke to 72 1/8 x 57 7/8 in. museums to acquire African the widow of Norman Lewis and American art. He also encourages went to visit her and the artwork. well-deserved sabbatical, but it was African American collectors to The upshot was that he ended not to last long. A small space on gift such work to the museums. up managing the artist’s estate 20th street in Chelsea brought him He has long been one of the few and it culminated in him opening back for a couple of years, but this bastions in the New York artworld his first gallery on 57th Street in time he has upgraded to a much to appreciate these works and 1993. Interestingly although the larger space in the same building understand their value. His desire gallery was ostensibly set up to sell at 529 West 20th Street on the to spread the word is bearing Norman Lewis’s artwork, his first 10th Floor. fruit. The artworld is ready for show was titled “Romare Bearden Hodges notes that the the opening of the new Bill & Co.” He has come full circle. market for African American Hodges Gallery. G&S This is the second Bill Hodges artists and women artists is Gallery in Chelsea. After over 20 strong particularly due to the Bill Hodges Gallery years on 57th Street, Hodges closed deaccessioning (divesting of art) 529 W. 20th Street, NYC that gallery having on his own occurring at many museums Feb. 27 - Apr. 11 admission “burnt out.” He took a who are then looking, in many billhodgesgallery.com

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Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 7 The Women’s Universe of Xenia Hausner by Bobbie Leigh

©Xenia Hausner, Courtesy of Forum Gallery

8 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 alt Whitman wrote, bright red-orange hair. Whatever pictures tell stories that elude a "Resist much. Obey they are enduring on this lonely straightforward reading,” she says. Little.” These rebellious voyage, perhaps on a ship, we Born in Vienna in 1951, Wfeelings register in the faces never learn. Hausner grew up in an artistic of the women portrayed by “Borodino” (2019) portrays family. (Her father was the acclaimed international painter three women, two of whom Austrian painter Rudolf Xenia Hausner. Whitman’s words seem to be lost in thought. (The Hausner, described as the first echo in virtually every one of the title refers to the 1812 Battle of psychoanalytical painter.) She portraits in Hausner’s recent show Borodino, the deadliest of the studied painting at the academy at New York’s Forum Gallery. “My Napoleonic Wars.) A third woman in Vienna and the Royal Academy characters are disobedient. I am with short wispy blonde hair in a of Dramatic Arts in London. From disobedient” says the artist. leopard spotted pale green coat, 1977 to 1992 She designed more The two women in the slightly resembles the artist. She than 100 theater, opera, and film painting titled, “On Fire” (2018), leans on a handrail and stares out productions. Beginning in 1992, hold a hammer and a chisel, tools at the viewer. The women could she moved to Berlin where she still that can be used to destruct or be in transit, heading for some lives part of the year and devotes create. Their faces are serious, unknown destination. herself to painting and other concentrated, almost sad. The Their situation may be projects. Recently, this versatile contrast between their sober facial ambiguous, but not the artist’s artist designed the sets for the new expressions and the painting’s palette. This painting is all about production of Der Rosenkavalier vivid colors and dynamic brush color. No skin tone is simple. No at the Staatsoper Berlin. strokes is striking. One of the lipstick is just bright red. Each Hausner’s work is powerful, women wears a bright red hat shade has subtle variations and explosive, and exceedingly and an intense blue jacket. She depth. Eyebrows might be green bold. It has attracted attention stares at the viewer with an almost brown or black, but –they are and plaudits from galleries and threatening gaze. The other arched and elongated individually. museums around the world. woman, blondish hair falling to What this demonstrates is the She has been featured in many her shoulders, averts her eyes but artist’s perfectionism in creating solo and group exhibitions in at the same time, she clenches her specific characters in striking Europe, Russia, China, Japan and wooden mallet with two hands, colors whose inner dramas are the United States and has been ready to attack or defend herself. hidden from us. awarded several prestigious art The back story is lost to us. Like Hausner’s portraits are staged prizes. Although still mid-career, most of Hausner’s portraits, this events in specific settings that her work will be presented in a one is ambiguous and resists she builds in her Berlin studio solo retrospective exhibition at definitive interpretation. and then invites women to The Albertina Museum in Vienna The same is true for inhabit them. She takes several in April, 2020. G&S “Emergency” (2017). Two young photographs of her installation women lean against each other. before she begins painting. Forum Gallery Their situation is unfathomable. Relying on her training as a scenic 475 Park Avenue, NYC They are beautiful, rosy cheeked designer, Hausner’s environments forumgallery.com with red lips and long golden and are imbued with mystery. “My

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 9 “Celebration” Competition Winner—Harriet Serenkin by Kate Barnby

f you see a woman walking along and occasionally swooping down to pick up a Ishiny metal object, a sparkling gem, an interesting shaped piece of plastic, or a textured card or paper, it could be me,” says Harriet Serenkin, a native New Yorker working full time as an artist since retiring as a freelance technical writer. Her favored medium is collage and assemblage, much of it made with paper and magazine cuttings combined with found objects. Serenkin’s simple paper collages are a nod to the father of modern collage, George Braque, in his more colorful period between the world wars. She prefers Kurt Schwitters. However, her inspirational artist is Joseph Cornell and it is easy to see his impact on her work. Many of her works are similarly set inside boxes. Cornell assembled items within a theme in his boxes, however Serenkin’s works are more than themes – they are full blown stories. She doesn’t set out to necessarily tell a story. She might start with a theme and some specific pieces that “Village City Dancing” 3.5x3.5", mixed media she wants to use for a new project, however what transpires she says is quite varied. She says she creates Serenkin’s “Village: City “serendipitous.” She prefers to allow her work for “happiness” and Dancing” was chosen by Ed “her gut, her unconscious” to drive “to relieve stress” which perhaps McCormack as the winner of her creativity. Some of her more suggests an understanding that life the Inaugural Gallery&Studio recent work involves computers is not always a bed of roses. Arts Journal, Visual Arts and machine parts. Taking these This understanding may Competition, as the best artwork components, she up-cycles them be explained by the other part fitting the competition theme into new, unique creations. They of Serenkin’s life, where she of “Celebration.” The three- evoke a whisper of the Russian spends time working with her dimensional boxed collage shows Constructivism movement of the dog to provide pet therapy to a couple in a dynamic pose, early 20th Century. reduce the stress of others at the exuberantly dancing in a city At first glance Serenkin’s Lighthouse Guild for the Blind street. Intriguingly there appears to work can easily be described and the Juilliard School. She be a shadowy figure behind them, as whimsical, but on further also runs courses at a non-profit perhaps watching benevolently, inspection there is a depth to her called Gifted Hands that helps curiously, or otherwise. It is up to imagery that indicates a more participants build self-esteem you the viewer to decide. G&S complicated dynamic at work. and learn new skills. Her course There is mystery in many of her on collage and mixed media art Harriet Serenkin pieces and depending on the mood emphasizes “No rules, no mistakes, harrietserenkin.com of the viewer, the impact could be just fun.”

10 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Runner-Ups

Cheryl Finfrock “Gravity's Exquisite Pull” Teruhisa Tahara “Graphical Notation as the acrylic on Olympic Symphony No. 6” mixed media clayboard

Janini Williams “MoonFlower” Jonna Pedersen “Mars M20” acrylic on canvas mixed media

Jenny Belin “Toni” acrylic Bjorn Eriksen “War Is Over” oil on canvas Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 11 The Latest Out Of Chicago: HipletTM Ballerinas by Marina Hadley

iral sensations are often has continued to grow. They previous professional dance a flash in the pan; here have starred in advertisements experiences, however for many today, gone tomorrow. for major brands, performed this is their first experience VWhat gives it longevity? Homer at Paris and New York fashion touring as a professional company. Bryant and his Hiplet™ Ballerinas weeks, showcased in TEDx talks, Although some have been dancing are looking for the answers. trotted the globe and joined in Hiplet™ for many years, several In 2016, clips of a group of on cultural celebrations. The for as long as 12 years, others are teenagers doing Hiplet™ on credit card company VISA used relatively new to the genre. morning TV, chat shows and them to demonstrate the “New Overall, they are a young online news feeds, received Normal” and Homer Bryant has group in a very young company. over eight million views. They been labeled a “Ballet Disruptor;” The oldest are only 26 years of also faced backlash from some a term he relishes. Nia Parker, the age. Yet they all show a maturity viewers about poor technique, sole remaining dancer from the in performance, teamwork and the “ghettoization” of ballet and original group that became a viral demeanor far beyond their years. amateurish performances. These sensation explains that in Hiplet™ In between sets, the group were were harsh words for a group of “you embody…a more empowered chatty and friendly, happy to young teenage students with no feminist perspective” than the talk about the company, Homer professional experience. more ethereal classical ballet. Bryant, their own personal Hiplet™ was born from the rap It was inevitable that Bryant lives, exercise and make-up tips, ballet classes that Homer Bryant would create a professional audience engagement and the held in the 1990’s at his dance company. The Hiplet™ Ballerinas importance of giving back. They school, that became known as the as a professional organization were comfortable commenting on Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance has only been in existence since the negative feedback: “yes there Center (CMDC). He rapped out September 2019. They are in the are risks but no more than any ballet instructions, making it midst of their first tour. They other form of dance or sports,” fun and relevant for youngsters have added male and female “the audience doesn’t see the who had little connection to the dancers who do not dance on hours of practice that we put in”, old European dance style. As pointe to the group to make them “we did years of classical ballet time went on, it evolved into more inclusive and accessible before we started Hiplet™.” They Hiplet™, a term Bryant coined. A to dancers and audience alike. talked of being a team, practicing combination of Hip Hop, Urban, Cheryl Taylor their manger says, and performing as a unit “one for Latin, Jazz dance styles with ballet “Pointe work is difficult and takes all and all for one,” helping each which came to be another way of years of training but the Hiplet™ other ‘clean-up’ their technique having fun on a Friday afternoon experience is for everyone.” and style, of “being punctual” so and keeping youngsters off the At a recent APAP conference that they don’t miss anything and street. They dance to everything in New York, the Hiplet™ dancers make it difficult on their fellow from Bach to Beyoncé. performed several short showings team members. Their positivity, Homer Hans Bryant was a to give a flavor of their repertoire enthusiasm and joy in performing principal dancer with Arthur to industry insiders. They were and being a part of the company Mitchell’s Dance Theatre Harlem sharp and focused, in turn is truly refreshing. in the late 60’s and 70’s and has sassy and elegant, technically Hiplet™ has weathered a reputation as an excellent skilled, engaged as a group, and the initial storm of criticism teacher, strong on technique and connected to the audience. They and grown to be a thriving discipline. His catch phrase is were professional and they looked professional company – they “The Fun is in the Discipline, The like they were having fun. have 17 engagements during Discipline is in the Fun.” Most of the sixteen dancers February 2020’s Black History The demand for Hiplet™ in the company have had some Month alone. Whether they will

12 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Hiplet Ballerinas at APAP 2020 NYC. Top row, center: Nia Parker; middle row, l. to r.: Alexandria Franklin, Chantal’ Ashanté Hill, Allison Harsh, Tay’Hiana Welch, Elexis Gibson, Cameryn Stevens; bottom, l. to r.: James Williams (“JStatic PlanetX”), Roberto Whitaker (“Aero Da Avatar”). Other company members: Camryn Taylor, Trevon Lawrence, Alexis King, Jayda Perry, Taylor Edwards, Yetunde Washington Photo by M. Hadley blossom into a fully-fledged “Duck-Walk” and “Vivian” to and determined to take it to the dance form with longevity will create dances next level. G&S depend on the ability of Bryant, that will continue to engage his dancers and choreographers a wider audience. Hiplet Ballerinas to develop enough of a unique The dancers of the Hiplet™ For more information: Hiplet™ vocabulary like the Ballerina company are ready hipletballerinas.com

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 13 Old-Fashioned Storytelling by Shiva Kumar

remember recently meeting a are as many ways to edit a film as younger Executive Producer there are types of editors. There (early forties, I’d assume) are always new ways to introduce Iwho seemed quite eager to see type, animation and other graphic my reel after I mentioned that I devices. One can choose from am a filmmaker with over three music and sound effects libraries decades of experience. I showed from all over the world to add him selects from my many PBS mood and tone to films but is that documentaries, my many films what constitutes a new way to tell a for foundations and non-profits, story? commercials and corporate image I thought back to the many films, which he watched politely films I had scripted, directed and enough but I could tell he was less edited over the years and realized than impressed. A little chagrined, that they were all storytelling when I pressed him a bit further in the ‘old fashioned’ way. I like he told me how content was telling stories that complicate everywhere and he was looking thinking, has layers of meaning for new ways to tell stories to cut and has a beginning, a middle through the chatter, indicating and an end. I thought about all Shiva Kumar, storyteller that clearly my approach to the books I had read, art I have techniques as they were with a storytelling was not what he appreciated and music that I story well told even if they could considered a new way. have cherished and they always not always articulate it. Telling a I thanked him for his time transported me with a story I story, be it on film, in the theater, realizing that not every meeting connected with. Many filmmakers, at a gallery or at a party is an turns into a work opportunity, myself included, swoon over immersive process. We need to but the encounter played itself beautiful cinematography, engage intellectually, emotionally out in my head for many days gorgeous lighting, crisp editing and also rationally. In the worlds after. Part of it was that familiar and want to emulate styles we we create, we have to make sure all sinking feeling that maybe I was admire but when the storytelling the points connect for a satisfying becoming obsolete in this very is muddled and elevates style over outcome, not necessarily happy young industry. The majority of substance, the many wonderful or even positive but satisfying. people whom I have known and techniques we admire so much Humans have been telling stories worked with had been replaced, leave most of us unmoved. This going back to the first tribes had moved on, retired or just left seems obvious, right? But still, we huddled against a fire listening the business. Most of the younger see so many mega budget films in awe to the storyteller weaving people who have replaced them where the story is clearly flawed fantastic tales of gods, heroes, tend to work with people they are but somehow the studio got it thrilling hunts, great battles, familiar and have a rapport with. made. I am sure many working on unrequited love, pain, sacrifice and But the bigger issue for me the film knew there were flaws in joy. We still connect to these basic was the idea that there were new the story but it had star appeal, visceral emotions when it comes ways to tell stories that maybe I great locations, major computer to our stories. was missing out on. Filmmakers graphics artists who could create When we listen to a piece of have always tested the tools of magical worlds, so it got made and music, view a painting or a their trade, from different lighting then just slid into oblivion. photograph, watch a film, or read techniques, latest cameras, lenses, The methods of creating stories a book, we can and should admire dollies, jibs, filters, nets and on and have clearly evolved over time the masterful technique those on. There is a wonderful feeling but has the nature of storytelling practitioners bring to their of accomplishment when one actually changed? art, but for that work to become masters a particular visual style I thought back to most of the transcendent, it needs to speak to or camera movement or captures clients I have worked with over us beyond technique and envelop an image with that gorgeous the years and none of them were us in a story we can care about. shallow depth of field. And there as concerned with the latest visual Continued on page 28

14 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 15 Charles Ethan Porter: African-American Still-Life Painter by Bobbie Leigh

ne of the most skilled paintings door to door because His talent was recognized early and under-appreciated no one would buy the work of a even in high school. In 1869, just American still-life painters black man. Often, Porter traded a few years after the Civil War, he Ois supreme colorist Charles Ethan paintings or bartered them for was the first African-American Porter (1847-1923). In his last years, necessities. Perhaps hundreds to attend the National Academy Porter was reduced to such dire of his painting of fruits, flowers, of Design in New York which was poverty that he could barely put insects, and landscapes still hang founded in 1825. After his studies, food on the table. The irony is that in Connecticut living rooms, Porter set up a studio in Hartford

“Untitled ”(Cracked Watermelon), ca. 1890, Oil on canvas, 19 1/8 x 28 3/16 in. (48.6 × 71.6 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Nancy Dunn Revocable Trust Gift, 2015 (2015.118) while he was painting luscious unrecognized as the work of which was visited by Frederick apples and juicy watermelons his an artist with timeless skills. Edwin Church and another local cupboards were bare. Ambitious curators or maybe resident, Mark Twain, both of One writer commented that the TV program Antique Road whom recognized and admired his because of racial prejudice in Show might turn up some hidden talent. By 1881 he had his heart set his Connecticut neighborhood, treasures someday. on studying in Paris. Porter sold Porter had to ask a fellow Charles Evan Porter was born about 100 of his paintings and painter, a Bavarian artist who in Rockville, Connecticut, to a moved to Paris where he attended shared his studio, to sell his free African-American family. the French National Academy

16 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 for Decorative Arts and the was considered out-of-date. unusual medium for Porter, the Academie Julian. Rosenfeld has championed work suggests an experimental “I am aware that there are a Porter’s work for almost 30 years. approach to what would become a goodly number of my Hartford As an African-American painter favorite subject for the artist,” says friends and others who are Porter has been more or less Yount. “The Porter plaque reveals anxious to see how the colored overlooked until recently. his savvy sense of fashionable artist will make out,” Porter wrote In 2008, the New Britain taste – namely that associated to Twain from Paris in 1883. “But Museum of American Art with the Aesthetic Movement…” this is not the motive which assembled 51 paintings –still-life Yount notes that “Porter is impresses me. There is something arrangements of flowers, fruits, best known for his painterly, of more importance, the colored vegetables– for the first museum light-infused, table-top still lifes people –my people– as a race I exhibition of Porter’s work. His of fruit and flowers, but we’re am interested in, and my success subjects depicted gentle imagery excited to have a wider range of will only add to others who have suitable for home décor. Other work at The Met that reveals him already shown wherein they are exhibitions followed and in 2015 to be both talented and versatile, capable the same as other men.” Sylvia Yount, the Lawrence A. experimenting with different During his two years of study Fleischman Curator in Charge progressive styles and subjects in France, Porter explored the of the American Wing at the in an effort to earn a living from French countryside and began Metropolitan Museum of Art, his art –a challenge for any artist painting landscapes incorporating acquired Porter’s “Cracked at any time, but especially for a elements of the then popular Watermelon,” a major Porter black man in late 19th and early Impressionism in his work. painting which you can see in 20th century America.” G&S Returning to Connecticut in 1884, the American Wing’s War and the beauty of local fields and Reconstruction Eras and woods continued to inspire him. Legacies gallery. But times had changed. His new An intimate porcelain plaque work didn’t sell. According to of roses, Porter’s only known Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Michael Rosenfeld of the New decorative arts object, will be 100 Eleventh Avenue, NYC York-based Michael Rosenfeld in The Met’s June show, New michaelrosenfeldart.com Gallery, Porter’s academic style York Art Worlds, 1970-90. “An

West Side Arts Coalition: Art Oasis On West Broadway

would never have guessed that an art gallery called the West Side Arts Coalition can be found in a beaux arts building in the middle island on OWest Broadway and 96th Street. Surrounded by honking horns and busy traffic, the WSAC organization presents their members’ art work in what was a 96th Street subway comfort station. A group of artists who wanted a place to exhibit their art works founded the WSAC when the comfort station was being renovated 40 years ago. This Oasis in the middle of the two busy Broadway streets provides a venue for art and craft exhibitions as well as a performance space for poetry and music. Their next exhibition will be Black Renaissance which runs through March 18, 2020. To inquire: The West Side Arts Coalition, [email protected]. web: wsacny.org G&S

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 17 Poetry by Alison Johnson

Best Picture 2019

Your friend says that Bohemian Rhapsody, BlacKkKlansman, and Vice are up for Best Picture this year. She reminds you that the Academy Awards are on next Sunday.

You try to figure out how to pay the cable bill online. You watch Christian Bale laugh as Dick Cheney. You remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about unknown unknowns.

You think about your own known unknowns. Or maybe your known knowns. You flip through your Twitter feed. The President’s thumbs rage about a wall and a witch hunt.

In the middle of the night, you feel pain in your left arm. You think of Susan Lucci, her 19 Emmy nominations, and her 90% heart blockage.

You Google “heart attack symptoms in women.” You ask yourself if your jaw hurts or if you have experienced unusual fatigue. Black History Month Divorces America You look at CNN online. You stare at a man in blackface and another in a KKK costume. One of them may be the Governor of Virginia. Or not. He if this poem may be thinking about moonwalking tonight. had a hashtag it would be Camping trip, 1944 #BlackLivesMatter Countless pine needles if this poem lie where they fell leaned in closely strands of hair it would block out recording the departure all that white noise of an entire forest. if this poem had a year it would not be 1820 We need you! please donate to seeing Gallery&Studio arts journal that it would be Visit our website: galleryand.studio only G&S Arts Journal is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. three-fifths full You can also send a check to: G&S Arts Journal, 1632 First Avenue, Suite 122, New York, NY 10028

18 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Tribute To The Architecture Of The Past by Christine Graf

ary Lou Alberetti, a mixed media artist, will be in a show at Blue Mountain MGallery that runs from Feb.25 to March 21. Her art is a reverent echo to the architecture of the past and antiquity. Alberetti transports the viewer through time. We visit imaginary epochs through her architectural eye. She offers a plethora of possibilities as if each art work is a postcard from history. History reimagined. A dazzling amount of texture, from scraping, crackling, and fire from the kiln imbues each piece. She captures the wearing away that time creates with ceramics, oils, and collage using her material fearlessly. She restructures the old and lost ruins from the past, makes them new and beautiful again in her interpretation. Alberetti crams much into each piece. We need to study it. Like a child discovering something new each time she looks at an image. One is enamored of the detail and energy of the work. In the piece titled, “Fractured” Alberetti creates “Night Shadows” 2019, ceramic relief, 16" x 15" x 2.5" the illusion of a building with an arched doorway and shows us how shapes and what techniques she off kilter, yet the half moon shape weather and time changes the uses with ceramics. In “The Rise asserts itself. places where we live. One imagines And Fall of Empires” she lines Alberetti is a master of that some of her structures simulate up architectural shards askew as technique with her aged surfaces. rubble from a war or natural if we were watching a building We travel with her in our catastrophe. She rebuilds what fall, frozen in time. The windows imaginations to all those places has been broken, with resplendent suggest it might have been a palace in the world that influences effects and reconstructs it into an art and memorializes this into leaning her. One hopes she’ll keep work, a new home. shapes, covered in a crackled, creating such exquisite work. Alberetti has traveled to beaten surface. One wants to She might be issuing us a France, Spain, Turkey and touch these pieces, to sense their gentle warning. To protect our Morocco. She knows design and cragginess, to intuit the world architecture, our history and demonstrates a Moroccan-Spanish she’s created. to respect and celebrate this influence in the work titled, “Muro The work titled, “Oneric” is important art form. G&S Norte.” She creates a crackled another ceramic relief, abstract frame with tinted blue swirls and in composition with a compelling Mary Lou Alberetti in the center features a block surface. A bold white, curved Blue Mountain Gallery that has the markings of Middle form is set off center between 530 West 25th Street, NYC Eastern icons. horizontally placed elements that through March 21 One is intrigued by how look like punctured and pocked bluemountaingallery.org Alberetti creates her dimensional wood, or stone. It appears to be

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 19 “Weathering With You”—When It Rains, It Pours by Sébastien Aurillon

“ eathering with you” Hodaka is offered room and board business here, or a rain-free fun is the most recent in exchange for an internship at afternoon for their daughter in the masterpiece animé Keisuke’s basement apartment, a park there. Wby Japanese director Makoto place he shares with his puckish More floods and several Shinkai, whose name became niece, Natsumi. police chases ensue until the famous in 2016 after the enormous The constant interviews and movie climaxes, reaching its success of his critically-acclaimed articles temporarily set the tempo most dramatic twist. A mysterious international hit “Your Name”. of Hodaka’s life, until a pivotal turn curse is cast upon all maidens of The action of this movie is set of event occurs when our teenage the weather and Hina is now in in Tokyo, Japan where the rain is hero bumps –literally– into Hina, a great danger. so dense, and lasts for such a long barely-older-than-him girl whose “Weathering with you” is time that it almost embodies its independent spirit will make visually stunning in the great own character centerpiece as well Hodaka lose his heart for her tradition of Japanese animation

as it awfully bums the Tokyoites. It in less days that it took to create is a constant deluge, a drencher, the world. a flood. The two start bonding like That gushing fact sets the 3 peas in a pod (the girl has a mood from the beginning of younger brother, Nagi, already “Weathering with you,” when “a ladies’ man” by Hodaka’s a tired and starving 16-year-old definition) and viewers soon studios like Ghibli and has a pace runaway, Hodaka, lands in an discover that Hina has a of runaway horses galloping for unwelcoming capital. The story wonderful power: using her their lives. In an era of climate doesn’t tell why he ran away from prayers, she is capable of making change happening all over the his remote island but a fortuitous the clouds disappear while calling world, the movie is also an encounter on the ferry with out for sunshine. opportunistic reminder, Keisuke, an adult who runs an The three kids are broke exposing the risks of darker occult magazine, will prove to and after a quick website set up, times that may come. G&S be useful. generous bookings start pouring After a few days of struggling from locals wanting to solicit “Weathering With You” (2019) in the maze of a metropolis filled Hina’s weatherly abilities to secure Running Time: 111 minutes with gangsters and meanies, a sunny flee market for their In selected theaters near you.

20 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Mystery And Layers Inform Renée Khatami’s Art by Christine Graf

enée Khatami’s art echoes “ of Hans Arp, the German- French abstract artist of Rthe 20th century. Though one is reluctant to compare a present day artist to a master, the intention is to demonstrate how the masters inspire contemporary artists. Khatami has a mystery and calm to her work and shows a reverence for her materials. She chooses soft pinks, blues and grays in the piece, “Double Curve” which consists of an ovoid configuration cut in half and looks like a split- shape egg in an embryo. This work feels otherworldly, as if we are viewing the inside of the body and its mysteries before birth. Khatami’s art reminds one of veils. Sheaves of silk on top of one another, and how they play off each other. The mood of the work has a dream-like quality. As if one wakes up in the morning and tries to hold on to the image of last night’s dream. One can’t quite grasp it, yet Khatami attempts to capture a floating blue background, with rectangular shapes meshed with a pale rust in the work titled, “Alternate Connection”. In “Blue Space” she juxtaposes geometric forms, curves and straight edges in a conversation with one another on a bed of bold blue. In a change of mood, “By Dint of Red” the organization of elements is placed in a classic grid shape with red, orange and gold forms that create a warm “Blue Space” 2018, mixed media on 300 lb. paper, 16" x 20" and pleasing composition. The work titled, “In The Balance” are The layers Khatami creates The poet, Stanley Kunitz, in his two block-like shapes inside a informs the richness and signature poem says, “Live in the curve on each end that butt up complexity of our lives. The phone, layers, not the litter.” G&S against each other. A change in computer screens, social media, viewpoint, where space is cramped are the outer layers of our lives. We and insinuates less of a floating have the personal layers, our inner feeling and more of a jamming of spirit, family, friends. Perhaps Recently seen in elements. Powerful in composition Khatami suggests we look inward. Prince Street Gallery’s the art is still anchored in its We can be inspired from her 50th anniversary exhibition. dream. cathedrals of color, line, shapes. princestreetgallery.com

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 21 Sponsored article Holiday Cheer at Jadite by Anne Rudder

ecember heralds simultaneously acting backgrounds of abstract a season of as looms and supports floral prints. Black and festivities and to the forms created. white men’s hands, DI found reasons to Kowary is a place in strategically placed on celebrate in these joyous Poland with textile gartered feminine limbs, days at Jadite Gallery, as factories and Owidzka, provide subversive sexual curator Basha Maryanska using yarn remnants commentary of sly mounted a beautiful found there, weaves wickedness and irony that exhibition of ten talented pieces of shimmering is thoroughly enjoyable. artists showing small movement and grace, Virginia Donovan paintings to delight particularly in “Pilgrims” presents a tour-de- viewers in a large where vertical lines in force in her series way. ‘Small is Great!’ natural colors undulate of dramatic Warsaw Joanna Owidzkal debuted on December across the work’s paintings/assemblages 3rd 2019 and graced surface in pleasing that are passionate the gallery walls for optical illusions. breakthroughs, two weeks. Just in time Artist Krystyna expressing reactions to provide discerning Malinowska incorporates to the holocaust she observers the opportunity experimental digital experienced during to purchase gifts of techniques in a female her recent trip to wonderful art for friends analysis of relationships Warsaw. There are no and family. between men and women tentative explorations Joanna Owidzka’s which she brings to here and she approaches exquisite woven pieces the pictorial forefront. her subjects boldly with were the first works to Women’s disembodied gravitas. Reacting to the catch my eye as I entered black and white legs story of “Life in a Jar,” Kathryn Hart the gallery. “Kowary” and and high-heeled shoes where a woman saved “Pilgrims” are textiles become fetishes against Jewish and Catholic woven in picture frames vibrant patterned Continued on page 30

Virginia Donavan Katia Gerasimov

Maria Maciega Krystyna Malinowska

Neela Pushparaj Basha Maryanska Barbara Wozniczko Anna Pietruszka 22 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Screenwriting: From Page To Hollywood’s Red Carpet by Rachelle Masters

ollywood. It’s magic. It’s synchronicity. It’s filthy. It’s my home, and this is where HI write, not far from the Red Carpet events and the growing population of tent cities. I just turned forty three, and I moved here 10 years ago from Rhode Island with a few careers under my belt. I have been an accounting manager, an English teacher, and now, a writer. I began writing as a way to heal from the trauma of being brought up in a religious cult. Now I write because the written word is what makes my heart sing and what drives me. Plays about Celtic goddesses, poetry blending the whimsy of art and astrology, feature films that tickle my funny bone, and at present, I’m in the process of getting a semi-autobiographical short film about my childhood experiences from the page to the screen. That’s the magic, but it isn’t all glitz and glamour. Writing a screenplay and seeing it on the big screen are many long steps apart. First, the idea rushes in, and fingers fly across the keyboard (or slog, depending “Hollywood Reservoir" Photo by Sébastien Aurillon on the day and the presence or absence of the Muse). Once drafted, crowdfunding campaigns, using this point, the film can travel many the screenplay is shared with others sites such as Kickstarter or different paths. It may be submitted who will read it and offer notes. IndieGoGo, or find investors. to film festivals. It may have a Based on these notes, the draft is Investors are usually interested theatrical release. It may be uploaded rewritten. The script goes under in very specific types of projects, and shared on the internet. the knife repeatedly as kind readers and only after talent with name There are numerous ways offer criticism and encouragement. recognition has been acquired. for a screenwriter to find their A reading is scheduled after several The day production begins, way in Hollywood, but it all begins rounds of rewrites are completed, lights, camera, sound, makeup, with some version of “Once Upon and a group of actors gathers to other crew members, and actors A Time.” G&S read aloud from the script and to crowd onto the set to bring the offer their opinions at the end. words to life. The number of scenes Once the script is finalized, and locations will dictate how Subscribe to a budget is made and funding many days are spent filming. is considered –often the most After the final, “Cut!” has Gallery&Studio daunting part of the project. A been called by the director, the arts journal lucky few have the funds on hand film is edited and colored at a See page 2 and can begin production once post production studio. Audio, or visit our website: the crew, actors, and producers recorded separately from video, galleryand.studio are chosen. The rest launch will be “married” to the images. At

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 23 A Jazz Life: Noriko Ueda by Yasko Mori

here are a multitude of catalysts for choosing a career in music but falling Tin love with the soundtrack from an animated cartoon has to be an usual reason to dedicate your life to it. No career in the arts is easy. They all require hard work, dedication, perseverance and talent, topped off with at least a modicum of good fortune. Even within the world of arts, Jazz is a difficult world to navigate, with only 1.1% of the US music industry accounting for the genre, opportunities are rare. It has also been a heavily male dominated world particularly for the musicians with only a few notable exceptions. There were however always plenty of female vocalists Noriko Ueda and Ayako Shiraski Photo by M. Hadley to easily fill a top 100 list. Female double bass players on the other US where she went to study Jazz the same artists. She treasures hand are still reasonably unusual. composition at the Berklee College her relationships with her Noriko Ueda is one of these rare of Music in Boston. There she was fellow artists and these venues, Jazz musicians. a B.E.S.T. scholarship recipient and understanding the business of Ueda is from Japan, a country graduated in 1997. performing and pleasing the considered by some to still have Since then she has lived and audience. This was clearly in the largest population of Jazz fans worked in New York, carving out evidence on a busy winter’s night in the world. She even grew up in an impressive resume of notable at Grasso’s, a popular restaurant a city near Osaka, considered one Jazz venues including Carnegie out on Long Island, known for its of the largest hubs of Jazz in Japan. Hall, Blue Note NY, Lincoln music. Ueda with Japanese pianist However, her introduction to the Center, Kennedy Center, Birdland Ayako Shirasaki entertained an genre, was the soundtrack to the and Small’s. She has toured and appreciative audience with familiar animated film of gentleman thief, recorded with the Frank Wess standards and less well-known Lupin the Third. She had played Quintet, Ted Rosenthal Trio, Grady tunes. They asked for requests the piano since she was 4 years old Tate Band, Sherrie Maricle and from the guests and they were and had also taken up the electric DIVA Jazz Orchestra, Five Play and able to oblige them all including bass guitar as a youngster, but it the Harry Whitaker Band. She has a lyrical interpretation of “Spring was the movie theme tune that also travelled the world, including can really hang you up the most.” piqued her interest in the double touring in Japan and going back Next on her agenda is to create bass and jazz during her high to see her mother regularly. She an arrangement for a symphony school years. currently also leads her own orchestra, recording with Artemis She went on to study at the Noriko Ueda Jazz Orchestra on the Blue Note record label in Osaka College of Music. She as well as performing as a between her regular gigs that she played in their big band and member of the international performs around New York. It’s a also started gigging in the city. all-female contemporary Jazz busy life but one that Noriko Ueda Persuaded that she had to move to supergroup, Artemis. loves, much to the enjoyment of the US to further her studies, she Ueda is a well-respected artist her audiences. G&S told her mother to forget that she and performs over 200 events a year, often at venues that she has For more information: had a daughter because she may norikoueda.com never return, and she moved to the played at for over 20 years with

24 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Winter 2020 W data to supportsuchaclaimand Americans. Idonothave the have longer attention spansthan learn that Norwegians oranyone that piece barkdown?!” Or, to themiddlewhenyou dothat.” protesting, “You’re cutting offoxygen and thepoker used. pertaining to how wood isadded send incomments, advice, criticism fire asthey would theirown and People sitandwatch thetelevised in itbeingtended by someone. Latin forhearth)withawood fire a fireplace (curiously, focusisthe television seriesthat simplyshows that inNorway there isapopular overtaxed. Meanwhile, Ihave read the viewer’s ability to focusis Beyond six seconds, itisreasoned, a shotbeover six seconds long. television itisinadmissibleto let editor informedmethat in It would notbesurprisingto “Why onEarthwould you put “No!” Oneimaginesthem video project, ayoung somewhat contemplative hile working ona Irimias andPetrina (Mihály Vig, PutyiHorváth) accompanied byblowinggarbage “Sántántangó”—The BestoftheLongest

use oftimediminishestime’s value, In “Sátántangó,” Tarr’s exorbitant ignored at thefilmmaker’s peril. and my young editor’s advice is it needsto move alongeconomically, with action,love andadventure, then intended to bearippinggood yarn, what isbeingsold.Iftheproduct is a filmmaker usestimedependson Infilm,asinlife,timingcan be saidto beeverything. But how every second. hours andtwelve minutes andworth The film’s total running timeisseven find lengths ofalltheshotsinfilmto took thetrouble to tallyupthe someone (a Norwegian perhaps?) Hungarian filmmaker, BélaTarr, “Sátántangó,” themasterwork of firewood. also, Iamtold, ashow about stacking nothing else“on” inNorway; there is six seconds. Andit’s notthat there is uninterrupted takes farexceeding watching Norwegians settle infor it, but we must assumethat fire- self to death tryingto research would bore my all-too-American In closelyexamining by Woody Sempliner an average length of six minutes.

again. it intwo sittings andwillagain…and was better offwithout it. Iwatched set camefrom afriendwhofeltshe baskets. My immaculate three-disc envision blankets, pillows andpicnic doubtless at itsbest, Idonot know. I “Sátántangó” intheaters, where itis be exactly Tarr’s point. exactly isgoing on;andthat might along withtheright to know what the viewer surrenders hours oflife visual. Like themovie’s characters, must submitto thedominance ofthe In Tarr’s universe, plot, like time, and take upresidence inthemind. themselves into theviewer’s retina brilliant improvisational acting,sear combined withmovement, timeand images have apainterly power that, of business.Theblackandwhite the socialistequivalent ofgoing out farming collective that hasdone into theemotionallifeofaremote power ofimage to betransported and theviewer isleftwiththestark How peoplehave watched G For more information: & arbelosfilms.com S galleryand.studio 25

Photo still courtesy of of Arbelos

Comedy Gets Better With Age by Rachelle Masters

ynn Ruth Miller is the comedienne who is, in her own words, “Not dead yet.” LShe began comedy at the tender age of 71 and jokes that she didn’t want to “peak too early.” Born in Toledo, Ohio, on October 11, 1933, she is still going strong at 86. This spitfire arrived on the planet at a time when women were not meant to have careers, much less have a voice of their own. The directive was to get married, which she did. She recalls that her ex-husband used to beat her and she never even considered the notion that she was a victim of abuse at the time. Taking to the stage in her old age isn’t the first time she’s done something outside of societal expectations though. She got her first degree (of three) from Stanford University in Journalism at the age of 30. She published her first book, about her personal struggle with bulimia, at age 67, and has won numerous awards for short stories. In 2003, she went undercover and posed as a student, enrolling at a comedy college in San Francisco. The objective was to expose them for charging for a talent she felt cannot be taught. Instead she exposed herself, revealing her gift of gag. She further exposed herself by combining comedy with cabaret. After a wardrobe malfunction involving a negligee and a Lynn Ruth Miller microphone, she gave up the authenticity of her show is evident she knits and takes her dogs for G-rated stripping and now does because her passion and wry walks. She is an inspiration for storytelling events, tutors writers, humor never waver, even long after many, but she will tell you, you and performs onstage whenever the lights have gone down and we don’t want to be like her, “I’m 4ft the opportunity presents itself. have repaired to a lovely Italian 10 and I’m constipated.” If you are I had the honor and privilege restaurant where we chat over wine interested in seeing Lynn Ruth of meeting Lynn Ruth after a about social issues close to her Miller, she appears at venues performance of her show “I heart. She is by no means winding all over the world, and can be Never Said I Was Nice” at Nickel down her career in comedy; she booked for events. G&S Diner in Downtown Los Angeles, is just getting started and has so California. When I asked her much more to say – and sing. For more information: for an interesting quote, she She currently resides in lynnruthmiller.net replied, “Interesting Quote.” The England, where in her free time

26 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Magumi Yamada: Magic In The Air by Marina Hadley

t the cusp of one year she creates a mesmerizing closing and the next performance, that to mere mortals unfolding, you will find in the audience, can appear at Aaerialist Megumi Yamada, in quiet times ethereal and death-defying contemplation as she choreographs in turn. new acts for the coming season. Aerial work is no longer the “Writing is important in my hidden and secretive skill that creative process. I write about it once was, passed on from one the past year, my feelings, my generation to the next, within motivation to continue. I allow families. There are schools in colors and emotions to inspire me. many major cities that teach circus I am always looking to improve skills to both children and adults and be original.” Says Megumi, for recreational and motivational known professionally by just her purposes as well as providing first name. Drawing on experience, training facilities for professionals. playing with new ideas, improving However, what sets apart the and developing favorite moves, professionals is the skill level she creates unique acts that and artistry. require flexibility, strength, The seamless transitions from and artistic skills. one pose to the next, connecting the twists, turns and falls, into fluid storytelling is what sets “The Muse” photo by Andrew T. Foster apart the best professionals like Megumi. She especially brings the Japanese aesthetic of allowing aerial skills, and that changed the her equipment to “live” in her trajectory of her life. Her desire performances. This approach she to continue to challenge herself, says “makes the most of the silks her work ethic and determination by enhancing their beauty and led to her winning first place in a elegance of movement rather than silk’s competition in Hong Kong just being a means to an end of after only two years of study. She showing off a performer’s physical decided to move to the United skills.” The silks become an States where she became a finalist extension of herself and part of in the Silks Division of the US the narrative and atmosphere that Aerial Championships in New York. “Drizzling Rain” photo by Ely Kay she creates. Megumi is also a consummate Today she is a professional Aerial work originated as a storyteller and enjoys creating aerialist. She is the Aerial Director circus skill but has developed mimed stories of rooftop ninjas, of Cirque du Nuit, a performance into a category of its own in the a transformation of a chrysalis to design company that specializes performing arts. It combines butterfly or a homeless person into in audience-driven immersive acrobatics, dance and theatre to an aerial nymph. and interactive theatrical events. create entertainment, atmosphere Her personal story is also one She also freelances worldwide and a “wow!” factor for the of transformation. Originally, she providing magical moments that audience. Today aerial work was a successful professional belly most of us can only stare at by incudes, silks, Lyra hoop, straps, dancer. At the age of 30 however looking skywards and gasping G&S trapeze and rope for one or she decided that she had to change in wonder. more performers. her life and challenge herself. Megumi specializes in With no gymnastics experience several types of equipment, but at all, she decided to learn to do For more information her favorite are the silks. Using a handstand. She went to a gym about Megumi Yamada: momentum, friction and gravity that just happened to also train megumicircusperformer.com

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 27 Sugar Snake Is Having As Much Fun As Possible by Anaïs Schindler

rom old friends to new collaborators, Corrin Evans and Jonathan Timchalk Fhave come together to form ‘Sugar Snake’ and will be releasing their first single this month. The pop-with-a-twist duo first met in elementary school while performing in ‘Rugare Marimba Ensemble,’ a marimba band put together by their music teacher in Tri Cities, WA. The two reconnected last summer when Corrin was looking for a producer to help her finish a long-forgotten song for her grandmother’s 75th birthday. Their mutual respect and instant musical connection led them to a partnership that resulted in a year’s work creating their upcoming album. No easy feat, as they live in separate states; Corrin in California and Jon in Washington. Working primarily independently and sharing lyrics, music, revisions and ideas via email, iPhone recordings and over the phone, Sugar Snake came together only once in Los traditional pop music but doesn’t fun as possible, putting positive Angeles for a week to complete fit squarely anywhere else either. energy into what we make and their album. A true labor of They were influenced by hip- trying to share it with the world. love and collaboration, the pair hop beats and the syncopation of I think we'll continue to allow almost scrapped what will now swing and reggaeton. Even with what's in our hearts and the be their first single “DYLT?” (An their uncertainty of genre, one music to be our guide. Wherever acronym for Do You Like That) thing is for sure —they set out to they lead, we’ll follow.” before resurrecting it with a have a good time. From the get Look out for Sugar Snake’s kicked up beat and pitched down go, Sugar Snake adopted a motto first single “DYLT?”. It will vocals. Of the inspiration behind that is a through line in their be available to stream on all the lyrics, Corrin says “I music and the grounding force of streaming platforms this month. was capturing that feeling of their philosophy– AFAP: As Fun The duo plan to release more being absolutely terrified of As Possible. songs and eventually their album falling for someone and not What’s next for Sugar Snake? throughout the year. G&S understanding them; but still “I see us continuing to explore wanting them desperately.” what Sugar Snake can be, Corrin and Jon are creatives evolving and refining our sound by nature and it’s apparent and style.” Says Jonathan, who For updates on new music and when you listen to Sugar Snake. wrote, produced, and composed release dates you can follow Utilizing the best of modern alongside Corrin and lent his Sugar Snake on Instagram technology, they’ve created vocals to several tracks. “I see @sugarsnakemusic. a sound that lies outside of us continuing to have as much

28 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 Diane Root: In Memoriam by the Editorial Team

iane Root was was a true creative in the epitome of all she did, whether a cosmopolitan through her own visual Dwoman. Born in Paris of creations, her writing an American father and about other's art and the a French mother from assortment of people Nice. She was schooled she knew and gathered in the United States, around her. Our Holland, Switzerland conversations together and France. She traveled were lively, full of stories the world, spoke (she had some tales to multiple languages, tell of the NYC artists and for a time worked of years past–it seemed for the diplomatic she knew everyone), service which probably discussions about art accounted for her very father, Waverley Lewis writer, but she was an and probably more than open and accepting Root, who was a news even greater storyteller. our fair share of wine. nature of all people correspondent for She scooped you up into I would walk home and cultures. Her close several newspapers her stories right from from her apartment in friend Knut Svenningsen including the Chicago the beginning and took the Village in the wee said “People fascinated Tribune and Washington you on a fun adventure. hours inspired by her her. She could start Post as well as a She never disappointed. energy, her generosity, a conversation with renowned author of She wrote a wonderful and her continual anyone.” She was truly books about food. She piece about having lunch artistic push. with Picasso when she Her work in process was a child; “The Artful was everywhere in her Dodger” appeared in the apartment. Diane was a New York Times magazine true supporter of artists, in 2008. She also wrote had such a huge heart science fiction short and a golden pen. I will stories for Boned – “A miss my good friend collection of skeletal so much. She enriched writings” edited by Nate my life and that of so Ragolia who said of many others.” Diane, “Even when she'd Jeannie McCormack protest that horror or sci- said, “I am grateful to fi or genre writing wasn’t have known Diane and her forte, she'd dazzle for her special presence with a dark, thoughtful, in the magazine. She complex story.” helped us produce the She enjoyed writing first issue of the new about artists and their G&S Arts Journal through “A Tune for Three Tulips” (Photo courtesy of Viridian Gallery) art. She understood her generous support, interested in the thought writing was artists, being one herself. her writing and by giving other person. “his thing.” However, She considered herself us good ideas for new That curiosity and she eventually became an artist before a writer, projects. We will miss keen mind is what made an editor, working for working in a variety of her for her spirit, her Diane an accomplished several publishing painting styles, all of unique and perceptive writer although it took houses as well as writing which were expressive of art writing and the lively her a while to allow copy for several fashion her vibrant personality. stories she told. herself to acknowledge and perfume companies. Kathryn Hart God Bless.” G&S that. She adored her She was a good reminisced that “Diane

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 29 STORYTELLING Window,” is arresting for the expert In Memory Continued from page 14 handling of greens on panel where of Bob Hogge she adds painted yellows, collaged (1953-2016) After much pondering I have into the window at the center, come to the conclusion that I don’t reminding one of the reawakening really think there is a way to tell of spring. Another beauty, “Seeking a story in a completely new way. Purity,” is a sublime piece of All great stories have been told sparkling blues, and in contrast again and again over the centuries. to these, the artist now explores Political, economic and cultural computer graphics. Two bright considerations might change coral pieces of dizzying movement some of the trappings but the happily foretell the artist’s further core remains the same. With this development of this new-found I reaffirm my abiding faith that technique for her. our purpose as storytellers is to Anna Pietruszka is a fresh use the latest tools and techniques addition to Maryanska’s talented to tell good old-fashioned stories group via London, England. She that resonate intellectually and provides a series of abstracts in emotionally with our audience. color contrasts of mixed media on Shiva Kumar is a storyteller paper where, in four of the pieces, who through his production subtle earth toned greens play their Jock the Beggar company, Silver Arc Productions delicate songs in soft internalized By R.d.H. has been telling stories for over tones. These pieces provide three decades now. As an actor, counterpoint to works of deep a writer of science fiction and ochres and purples and vibrant reds, Jock the beggar fantasy novels based on Indian all pieces using dark gestural lines Can you tell me? mythology and a documentary to accent movement on the surfaces, filmmaker, Shiva is happily thus creating lovely passages. With your golden fly machine steeped in telling old-fashioned Katia Gerasimov, whose paintings Why your children call you never stories. He can be contacted at frequently remind me of Arthur [email protected]. G&S Dove’s, follows the well-known Why your pretty birds don’t sing. dictum that “less is more”. These HOLIDAY CHEER AT JADITE pieces, with apt titles providing Jock the beggar Continued from page 22 interpretations of Joan Miro’s Can you tell me? style, read concisely as a group. A children during World War II, the thoughtful intelligence shines Why your dog’s without a bone artist memorializes this event in her through these four works and I am applications of deep carmines to her always delighted at the originality He was loyal and he loved you canvases, along with adhesions of Gerasimov brings to her paintings. Now his heart has turned to stone. metal netting on shadowed surfaces, Watercolorist Neela Pushparaj to represent the brutal concertina discovers new diverse veins of In your castles made of silence wire of the Warsaw Ghetto. Blood- creativity in a series of expansive Built by frozen empty hands red brights slice the dark pictures, pieces of gestural landscapes underscoring the profound intimating the American West importance of the struggle for life lightly-greened early Spring. With Though they’re rich and green in the face of the conflagration’s subtle color-kissed washes they and plenty, horror, as Donovan captures this conjure the happy feelings one They’re a picture painted sad. movingly in these pieces. experiences when refreshed by sea Curator Basha Maryanska air. These works are much more Why todays are like tomorrows regales us with a broad range of her abstract than Pushparaj’s signature And tomorrows never come. talents where the canvases employ floral paintings and I look forward her signature gestural strokes of to seeing her future endeavors in color combined with assemblage. this new area of exploration. In your castle made of silence “City Impressions” pulsates with Kathryn Hart’s five abstract ink In your life of things undone. the movement of traffic in quick on paper drawings are done in an swirls on wonderfully warm colored almost intuitive way reminiscent buildings. Her piece, “Renaissance of automatic writing. We think the

30 Gallery&Studio Arts Journal Winter 2020 drawings are referent to animals in their abstract but anthropomorphic My Mostly Happy Life: forms, but we can’t be quite sure. The Autobiography of a Climbing Tree artist tantalizes us and mines her images from deep within, making by Shelly Reuben, illustrations by Ruth McGraw the energies of the lines beautifully evident in the drawing process. Reviewed by Mary F. Holahan Barbara Bielecka-Wozniczko Curator of Illustration (retired), pays tribute to Leonard Cohen, Delaware Art Museum illustrating passages from his works in deeply felt abstracts. “Different n this fantastical tale, by Sides” intimates human hands turns charming and pensive, reaching for each other, yearning Shelly Reuben gives us a Ipark-dwelling, talking tree as our futilely to unite. The blues of “Suzanne” fade into a cerulean storyteller. And this tree offers not vanishing point with subtle red idle chatter but glimpses into a rich dashes in the bottom third of the inner life and – stationary though canvas referring to the poem’s “love he is – lots of adventures. of the lady of the harbor.” Golden Through the tree’s magical eyes light runs in a line down the length and voice, we meet a panorama of the painting, “Anthem,” with of very real people who find three ghostly figures shadowing comfortable seating and deep the background, while two solace in his welcoming branches. seagulls soar triumphantly in a From this leafy perch, we too are cosmic sky intertwining beauty viewers, observing a community’s with tragedy. Bielecka-Wozniczko unfolding joys, sorrows, memories, captures this writer’s essence and and triumphs. All of the concludes her group of paintings intertwined characters could be resolution – played out in scenes with an ethereal, wordless piece novels unto themselves. ranging from witty to poignant – where perhaps she is saying the Curious children, romantic that the book’s deeper meanings poet is now part of peaceful eternity. couples, and sage elders share their come to the surface. Maria Maciega presents experiences in a city’s green park There’s a lot to think about paintings of light in varnished not knowing about the enchanted here. Our values, intergenerational acrylics –luminous color autobiography underway in their bonds, justice, war and peace, meditations– where she synthesizes midst. care for nature, respect for the Gauguin, building up flat space past, and hope for the future. The with glorious impressionistic interdependence of all creatures. pigment. The artist moves the Most of all survival, especially of colors intuitively on these eight the human spirit. canvases in silent communion with It’s a delicate balance, an idea splendor culminating in “Summer that could easily turn saccharine: with a Swallow,” where a tiny bird an imaginary being in the midst of glides on the wing, above sparkling real people. But brisk story-telling, warm toned earth, gracing the adroit dialogue, and authentic group of paintings with a feeling of emotion keep the escapades of timelessness. the tree and his friends lively and I greatly enjoyed this exhibition, light-hearted. artfully hung by the curator to The black-and-white feature the artists to their best illustrations (color would have been too garish for the story’s advantages. It was a wonderful way Samuel and Jack as children for me to start the holiday season unearthly narrator) have just uniquely and radiantly. G&S The title is a reminder that even the right combination of realism the most verdant refuge is never and fantasy. Strong graphic lines Recently seen: Small is Great perfect. An interloper determined mix with wisp-like images as if curated by Basha Maryanska to bring dissension to the cast of to echo the tree’s magic powers. Jadite Galleries, 413 W. 50th St. characters must be uprooted. It is Otherworldly, but still…human. jaditeart.com in this battle against evil and its And humane. G&S

Winter 2020 galleryand.studio 31 Richard Mayhew: Transcendence

“Southampton, 2013” Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

The show runs from March 25 - May 9, 2020