Archive for the ‘arTists’ Category
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
Homeowner turns his property into a truly unique landscape
 Art work at the home of Chuck and Pilar Bahde of Rancho Santa Fe (photo by Charlie Neuman) When Chuck Bahde bought the rambling wooden house in Rancho Santa Fe, the 5-acre spread already had plenty of grass and gardens. But that wasn’t to his liking. Besides, it seemed such a waste of water to keep the lawn green. So Bahde set out to create a new landscape, filled with meandering streams, pools and waterfalls — all created with blue and green glass, hand-painted rocks and plastic.
Today dozens of artworks adorn Bahde’s expansive property, in addition to the waterless pools and rivers. Every last piece is made from recycled or found materials. Pebbles, broken bottles, computer chips, seashells, beads, railroad ties, old-fashioned glass doorknobs and even an old, 5-cent parking meter have been turned into artwork in his hands.
A solar panel from a defunct pool-heating system is now the basis for a towering sculpture called “The Wave.” Plastic CDs are put to use as sun-catchers, and warped, time-faded, wooden tennis rackets and a tiny gold trophy add to the décor surrounding the tennis courts. Every rock lining the numerous pathways was found on the property, he said.
 An untitled sculpture pointed across a walkway at the home of Chuck and Pilar Bahde of Rancho Santa Fe. “My sculptures are unusual. Some say I’m a little weird,” said Chuck Bahde, strolling past another of his sculptures, this one twisting skyward. (photo by Charlie Neuman) Bahde, 84, was an industrial architect by trade and a graduate of the Institute of Design In Chicago. Over the years he enjoyed a wide-ranging career that included everything from designing and building custom homes in the Midwest to practicing public relations in Europe, where he met his wife, Pilar, who is Swiss and Spanish.
“I was more or less a job-jumper, because I was curious,” he said.
Though he started creating art while in school, and design work was often part of his job, Bahde was never a professional artist. “My sculptures are unusual. Some say I’m a little weird,” he said with a laugh.
But few aside from family members and friends have seen his sculptures and unique landscape of art. “I just do things for myself,” he said.
A vacation in San Diego and a subsequent job offer from Convair, where Bahde worked designing airliner interiors, led the couple to settle in San Diego to raise their two children. After many years living in Point Loma and actively participating in the planning group and other community efforts, the Bahdes bought the Rancho Santa Fe property in 1974. He has been remodeling the house, and the yard, ever since.
Bahde’s landscape is ever-changing, as he continues to add to it and create newer pieces. Even more sculptures fill several garages that once housed a car collection; Bahde plans to put them on exhibit at a gallery someday.
But he is most proud of the fact that his intricate and eye-catching landscape takes very little water to maintain, other than what is needed for the macadamia trees, two coral trees and a small rose garden that were already on the property when he bought it.
In fact, the recent rains kept Bahde busy drying out the “pools,” since standing water could loosen the glue holding the mosaic-like surface together.
Bahde credits a school coach, in part, with some of the modesty that has kept him from making his artwork public. “My first football coach told me: ‘As good as you all are, I don’t want to see you bragging. Just show people what you can do.’ ”
Written by: Leslie Wolf Branscomb, a freelance writer in San Diego
Source: SignOn San Diego
Tags: arThou, arTists, arTworks, Chuck Bahde, green arT, landscape arT, Rancho Santa Fe, sculptors, sculptures, unusual arT, unusual sculpture
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
AMSTERDAM — Dirk Hannema was known as a brilliant art curator but a bit of a fool. He claimed he had seven Vermeers in his collection, several Van Goghs and a few Rembrandts, but no one believed him.
Now 25 years after his death it turned out he was right – about one work by Vincent van Gogh.
The painting, “Le Blute-Fin Mill,” goes on public display Wednesday in the small Museum de Fundatie in the central Dutch town of Zwolle.
 This image released by Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, shows a painting entitled "Le Blute-Fin Mill", by Vincent van Gogh. The newly authenticated Van Gogh has gone on display 35 years after an art collector bought it in Paris, convinced it was painted by the famed Dutch master but never able to prove it. Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said "Le Blute-Fin Mill" was done in 1886. He said its large human figures are unusual for a Van Gogh landscape but it has his typically bright colors. (AP Photo/Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle) Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said the painting was unusual for the 19th century impressionist, depicting large human figures in a landscape. The painting shows Parisians climbing wooden stairs to a windmill in the Montmartre district.
But the work was typical of Van Gogh’s at that time in other ways, with its bright colors lathered roughly on the canvas. Van Tilborgh said it was painted in 1886 when the artist was living in Paris. The canvas bore the stamp of an art store he was known to frequent, and used pigments that were common in other works, van Tilborgh said.
The painting “adds to his oeuvre,” the curator told The Associated Press. “You can link it to certain works of Van Gogh in that period, but not that many of them,” he said.
It is the first Van Gogh to be authenticated since 1995 and the sixth to be added to the confirmed list of the artist’s paintings since the latest edition of the standard catalog was published in 1970, van Tilborgh said.
Van Gogh painted about 900 works in his brief career. Afflicted by mental illness, he died of a self-inflicted wound in 1890 at age 37.
Hannema bought the painting in 1975 from an antique and art dealer in Paris who did not believe it was of much value. But the Dutch collector did. He paid 5,000 Dutch guilders for this and another unknown work, or about euro 2,000 ($2,700), but immediately insured the painting for 16 times what he paid.
Hannema touted the painting with “absolute certainty” as a Van Gogh, but no one was listening. He had been discredited since he bought a Vermeer in 1937 that later was shown to be a forgery.
Hannema became director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 at age 26. Born to a wealthy art-collecting family, he was talented, successful, good looking and supremely confident in his judgment of art, said Ralph Keuning, the director of Museum de Fundatie.
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he was given responsibility for all the museums in the country. After the war in 1945 he was arrested and stood trial for collaboration, but he was never convicted and was released from internment two years later.
He continued to add to his own collection, seeking out high quality work by lesser known artists and always looking for unattributed works of masters. He was mistaken nearly all the time.
“He was the laughing stock of the art world,” van Tilborgh said. “His tragedy was that he was always thinking in terms of the big names.”
In 1958 Hannema created an institute for his collection and was allowed to live in Nijenhuis Castle in the village of Heino on condition that he allow public access to the works, which included many fine classical and modern pieces. Some were on permanent display in two small buildings on the grounds, and he conducted tours by appointment of his home until his death in 1984.
Keuning said Le Blute-Fin Mill was not prominently displayed during Hannema’s lifetime. “He was more obsessed by his Vermeers,” which he believed to be authentic.
The collection formed the bulk of the Museum de Fundatie, one of the smaller institutions in this museum-rich country. It acquired another palace in the nearby town of Zwolle in 2005. More than half of the 7,000 items in its possession comes from Hannema’s collection, said museum spokesman Koen Schuurhuis.
The museum had sought once before, in 1993, to have experts authenticate Le Blute-Fin Mill to prepare for an exhibition, Schuurhuis said. But the Amsterdam experts had no time, and the painting went on display as a work that Hannema “claimed” was a Van Gogh.
By: Arhur Max, The Associated Press
Source: Wahington Post
Tags: arT collecting, arThou, arTists, impressionism, Museum de Fundatie, paitings, Van Gogh
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Sunday, February 21st, 2010
For the first time Abu Dhabi, audiences will have a first-hand look at the tremendous effort that goes into creating sculptures, which are among the most ancient artistic techniques.
 Lotus by Japan's Masahiro Hasegawa who will be participating at Adiss. The Abu Dhabi International Sculpture Symposium (Adiss), which begins on Thursday and runs until April 7, will feature the works of 17 world-renowned contemporary artists, who will be residing in Abu Dhabi for the duration of the symposium.
The six-week event has been organised by Zayed University in collaboration with Salwa Zeidan Gallery.
The finished works will then go on public display all over Abu Dhabi city. By adding 17 monumental pieces to the city, the initiative will elevate public awareness of art in general.
“The objective of the symposium is to initiate artistic and cultural co-operation between artists of different backgrounds, and promote the UAE as a new meeting place for artistic and cultural creativity. In its inaugural run, Adiss will open its doors to the world under the theme of “Bridging Societies through the Language of Art” and will bring together 17 sculptors from around the world to reveal their creativity on site from the heart of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi,” said Dr Sulaiman Al Jassim, Vice-President of Zayed University.
Abeer Al Mutawa, Community Services Advisor of Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, said the initiative was in line with the body’s main strategy of affirming Abu Dhabi’s position as a truly modern city and boost the Emirate’s ambitions of building a global reputation as a top destination for the arts.
Salwa Zeidan, Director of the Selwa Zeidan Gallery, said the idea has been in development for over two years now.
“The aim here is to have Adiss take on the form of a performing art event, an open sculpture studio involving participation of both artists and the public. Art is for everybody, not only for connoisseurs and art critics,” she said at an event to launch the symposium.
“When we first made the announcement, we received an overwhelming response of more than 400 applicants from different corners of the globe. We then carefully reviewed every single entry and shortlisted a number of them based on their background and medium. Once we narrowed the numbers down, we asked each artist to submit 3 designs of sculptures that could complement the city of Abu Dhabi,” she said, explaining how the artists were selected. “The artistic concept of the submitted works ranged from abstract ideas to semi-realistic designs mainly aimed at complementing the beautiful city of Abu Dhabi, its history, and its culture.
“We also wanted to give one emerging artists who shows promising talent a chance and selected Husam Chaya from Lebanon to take part in Adiss 2010 and intend to introduce a new artist every year.”
Artists of the world participating in this first edition of Adiss and who will bring together their collective talents to create a most active and dynamic event are Billy Lee from the United Kingdom, Caroline Ramersdorfer from Austria, Ehab El Laban from Eqypt, Fabrizio Dieci from Italy, Gheorghi Filin and Petre Petrov from Bulgaria, Gregor Kregar from Slovenia, Hassan Sharif from the UAE, Hwang Seoung-Woo from Korea, Jo Kley from Germany, Jon Barlow Hudson from the US, John Gogaberishvili from Republic of Georgia, Juanjo Novella from Spain, Konstantin Dimopoulos from Australia, Masahiro Hasegawa and Yoshin Ogata from Japan.
Another area of focus is the lecture programme and workshops, which aim to advance the cultural dialogue between Abu Dhabi and the rest of the world. Topics being discussed include public art, its history and how it fits into Abu Dhabi; art in the urban scene; and art and the environment. All the sessions will take place at the Zayed University auditorium.
Source: Emirates Business
Tags: Adu Dhabi, arThou, arTists, performance arT, sculptors, sculpture
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Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Mt. Airy stained glass maker one of nation’s best
 Charles Z. Lawrence points to his studio copy of “The Raising of Lazarus,” one of five windows he made for the National Cathedral in Washington. The original contains an unusual ingredient (see story). (Photo by Richard S. Lee) After a Depression-affected childhood in Newton, New Jersey (“about as far up into New Jersey as you can get”), Mt. Airy’s Charles Z. Lawrence, one of the country’s most gifted stained glass makers, worked at several non-career jobs after high school. These even included a brief stint at the Brooklyn girdle factory that employed his mother. In an essay he wrote for The Stained Glass Quarterly magazine, Charles, now 74, described his introduction to the world of stained glass this way:
“I started to become interested in painting … In my senior year of high school, the school had an art show in a park … I sold all my watercolors. I made $15. I was hooked; I was going to become an artist if it killed me.
“[The German master craftsman and World War II refugee] Rudolf H. Buenz saw some of my paintings and offered me an apprenticeship. So in 1960 when I left the North Jersey woods, I left as a journeyman-craftsman to spend the next four years in New York City and to work at the [stained glass] craft while continuing my studies as a fine arts student.” (He studied at the Pratt School of Design in Brooklyn.)
The apprenticeship stretched to seven years, while Lawrence learned every part of the ancient art of stained glass. He said, “I’m just about the last of the traditional stained glass apprentices — and one day, I’ll write a book about it.” Even now, 50 years later, he still calls Rudolf Buenz “Maestro.”
Lawrence attributes his “chameleon” stained glass style — any treatment, from Medieval to abstract — to his extensive training with different glass designers and his work in several studios. He, his wife, Jonelle Shilito, and baby daughter lived in Greenwich Village during the mid-’60s.
As such things have a way of happening, Lawrence’s New York-based work dried up in 1966. The promise of a job with Willet Studios, then in Chestnut Hill, brought the Lawrences to Philadelphia. After renting a house for a year, Charles bought the vintage property on Allens Lane where he still lives. It is both a charming residence and a complete stained glass studio with adjoining workroom. Much of the house’s glass has been replaced with Lawrence designs — a constant pleasure to its creator and to anyone visiting this attractive home.
 Created by West Mt. Airy resident Charles Z. Lawrence is this stunning Reformation window in the west clerestory of the south transept, National Cathedral, Mount St. Alban in Washington, D.C. Lawrence worked as Willet’s designer from 1967 until 1982, when he opened the C.Z. Lawrence Stained Glass Studios, although “I still design for Willet.” (The company has moved from Chestnut Hill to the Juniata section of the city.) Since going entirely freelance in 1982, Lawrence has done it all: concept, design, glass specifying and cutting, painting, puttying, assembly and installation. He hires helpers as needed, and a daughter, Tracy Bailey, is a frequent co-worker.
A stained glass craftsman is, of course, defined by his body of work, and Lawrence’s work is as varied as it is prestigious. His stained glass windows impart beauty to religious and secular buildings alike. One assignment — of towering height — was the 43-foot-tall commission for the Washington (DC) Temple of Latter Day Saints. (“You know, the one that looks like the Emerald City in a different color as you drive toward it on the Washington Beltway.”) He even has a copy of the Book of Mormon inscribed with thanks for the beauty of the windows.
“My best paintings are the five windows I designed for the National Cathedral in Washington,” he replied when asked to name a favorite commission. As for an unusual assignment, he named “The 10,000 times magnification of the molecule that makes Gore-Tex [fabric] work,” the window he designed for the fabric manufacturer’s Cherry Hill, MD headquarters.
Charles Z. Lawrence is as masterful a storyteller as he is a craftsman. To appreciate two such tales, you should understand that stained glass is assembled with lead channels separating the individual pieces of glass. This sealant should stay pliable; if it performs as it should, the stained glass window will flex noticeably under windy conditions but will resist blowing out of its frame; the sealant cushions the glass throughout the window’s lifetime.
In the winter of 1956 and 1957, Charles was part of the team installing 15 large windows in St. Henry’s Roman Catholic Church near Nashville. “Don’t ever think the South doesn’t get cold!” he said of this adventure. “One day [as we were installing], the wind blew so hard the boss on the job tied down his little Porsche to keep it from blowing over. One window was flexing as we put it in place — rippling, almost — but it didn’t break. That was more than 50 years ago. Those windows are still there.”
Charles Lawrence lives with his wonderful dog, Buddah, a refugee from the mean streets. “I cleaned the living room to prepare for this interview,” he said. “I even cleaned my dog’s teeth for you.” And this led him to another story.
In years past, Lawrence also had a dog, Angus, a beloved black Labrador. Dog and master were inseparable, going for walks in Fairmount Park at workday’s end, and even out for occasional beers. When Angus died, a saddened Lawrence had him cremated but did not bury the ashes. At the time, he was also facing what every creative person must from time to time: a supposedly completed job needing revision. (We know!)
In this case, it was for the Raising of Lazarus window at the National Cathedral. Out it came, and back to Charles’ Mt. Airy workshop for the re-do. Away went the rejected glass segments; in went the new. But not without re-puttying. In his 1991 Stained Glass Quarterly essay, Lawrence wrote: “There was one last thing to do, puttying. I don’t bother much with either making or applying the putty, but this time was special … I wanted one more thing for the putty. I found it! The last thing that went into that window was a handful of Angus’ ashes [in the putty], and then the window went back to the National Cathedral. The window was accepted … with acclaim.
“The Cathedral is done, and Angus is in a safe place for the coming millennium, and after that we will be together again.”
To reach CZ Lawrence Stained Glass, call 215-247-3985 or e-mail czlg@earthlink.net. To view his work online, Google his name.
By Richard S. and Missy Lee
Source: The Chestnut Hill Local
Tags: arThou, arTist, Charles Lawrence, fine arTs, glass arT, New Jersey arT, NJ arTist, paintings, religious arT, stained glass
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Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Stefan Strumbel is an artist from Germany, whose creations are well known national-wide. He combines a strong details in his works, coming up with items that make a statements. Most of the elements used are German images with great meaning for the citizens. His style was also connected to pop art, a current which challenges tradition and emphasizes mass production. Here is a better interpretation of Stefan’s work from Wicked Halo: “Although his work includes cultural artifacts such as cuckoo clocks or the traditional costume of the Black Forest, he isolates and recontextualises using everyday objects such as tree-shaped air fresheners and shopping carts and giving pieces of his work titles such as “What the fuck is Heimat”? Heimat is a quintessentially German concept, which roughly means homeland. “There is no English word for Heimat,” Strumbel explains. “Some people link Heimat to a place, for others it is a feeling.”
Source: FreshHome
Tags: arT, arThou, cuckoo clocks, German arT, Heimat, pop arT, Stefan Strumbel, street arT, unusual arT
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Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
 Mr. Brainwash's designed a record cover for Madonna's greatest hits album last year. French artist and filmmaker Thierry Guetta has developed a devoted street art following under the name Mr. Brainwash. But is he serious?
“I’m like a machine, I create and create and create,” Guetta explains, standing in the center of the Meatpacking District event space he rented for a new exhibition of his art made under his unsettlingly blunt moniker. The show was set to open in a few days. Paint was splattered across his pants; canvases, many wrapped in plastic, sat around him, waiting to be hung on the walls; and at least a dozen assistants, many smoking cigarettes, scurried about, finishing pieces.
“It has been two years since my last show because when I do a show, I really do a show,” said Guetta, who looks like a scruffier, skinnier John Belushi, as he walked us through the cavernous space. He’s also been busy, designing an album cover for Madonna’s Celebration release last year (which features the singer in a paint-splattered portrait that is an unapologetic copy of Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe work), following street artist Bansky for the unusual street-art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, and periodically stenciling his own pieces around Los Angeles. His origins are largely unknown. Some have speculated that in fact he is the street artist Banksy, who masks his identity even throughout the documentary, while others say he comes from a wealthy French family. (He and his representatives, on the other hand, maintain that he “mortgaged his home” and sold his belongings to pay for the current exhibition.)
 Mr. Brainwash, Yves Saint Laurent, 2010 “The definition of art is: no limits,’” Guetta said proudly as he showed the dozens of square, silkscreen portraits he has had printed with the faces of celebrities. There was a series of fashion designers printed in silver and another series of technology entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg printed in gold. “That’s the guy who founded Twitter!” said Guetta, excitedly singling out one of the works. As we walked around, a man followed us with a video camera, recording the entire interview.
The exhibition spills across the two floors of the warehouse-like gallery. One whole wall is devoted to prints of Kate Moss, which have been splashed lightly with neon paint. They are near-identical copies of Andy Warhol’s silkscreens, but Guetta acts offended at that suggestion. “Andy Warhol didn’t do a portrait of Kate Moss!” he said. “If I wait until Andy Warhol does it, I’m never going to see it. Just because Andy Warhol painted portraits, does that mean I can’t do it?”
There are also huge mock spray cans, some as big as ten feet tall, scattered about, bearing labels for Hershey’s chocolate, Pepto-Bismol, and Campbell’s Soup. “These things bring you memories,” he said of the brands. “They touch your heart.” Elsewhere, a taxi cab was parked inside gigantic plastic toy packaging, like a Matchbox car. Other work in the show was even more remorselessly banal. There was a portrait of Benjamin Franklin wearing large headphones and a vest emblazoned with Louis Vuitton buttons — “I just try to be kind of funny, with no limits,” Guetta said — and a portrait of the band Kiss made out of broken shards of vinyl records. Guetta does not hide the fact that most of his work is fabricated by his assistants, with his role limited to occasionally doing quality-control touchups, for instance adding an extra bit of vinyl for a Kiss member’s eye. However, he declines to go into detail about his operation. “I don’t want to explain it,” Guetta says. “It’s like cooking. If you go to a famous chef, he might let you taste his famous sauce, but he will not tell you how he made it.”
The artist motioned to a large, wooden paint can, perhaps ten feet in diameter. “When I build installations, why do I do it?” he asked. “It’s not going to make me money.” Is it for sale? “It’s not for sale, but if someone wants to buy it, why not?” Asked to pick his favorite piece in the show, Guetta demurred. “Each one is my favorite when I’m working on it,” he said, before finally settling on a larger portrait of Charlie Chaplin, emblazoned with a pink heart. “I want positivity in everything I do,” he said. He noted that his proudest work was an earlier painting that featured Einstein holding a sign that read “Love is the answer.” Says Guetta: “I think that was a big statement for me.”
Much of Guetta’s work is so unredeemably shallow that it has led some to suggest that the Mr. Brainwash persona is part of an elaborate performance art project, a cynical conceptual experiment to see if, with the right friends (Shepard Fairey has provided a guarded endorsement: “Not all the work was magnificent, but it improved steadily…”) and the right marketing (the Brainwash show is being promoted by Nadine Johnson Inc., one of New York’s most formidable public relations companies) it is possible to sell anything.
At the packed opening a few days later, with a crowd that was more fashion than art-heavy (and which featured a bevy of strikingly tall, afro-bewigged models dispensing vodka drinks), that question seemed to have been answered. Red dots popping up next to works in the show suggested people were buying. According to Clemence, Guetta’s young, omnipresent assistant — “She’s like my mother,” he said during the interview, “she wakes me up and tells me to do more interviews” — the portraits were priced from ten to forty thousand dollars, and rumors abounded that some of the largest installations had sold for as much as $120,000.
Mr. Brainwash represents, in a sense, an art critic’s worst nightmare: a complete leveling of culture, with every exhibition celebrated with a round of cheap applause and a fresh infusion of cash — the more derivative the work, the better. His art embodies the old fear that Duchamp’s readymade will be read not an aesthetic challenge — to make meaningful art when all things are suddenly allowed — but a license for complete triviality: it’s art because someone says it is, and it’s all equally wonderful.
These are not concerns for Mr. Brainwash, though. “Art is not something difficult to do,” he explained nonchalantly, when asked why he did his work. “You just need to pick up a brush and do it.”
By Andrew Russeth
Source: ARTINFO
Tags: arT exhibition, arT installtions, arThou, arTists, conceptual arT, culture, filmmakers, Mr. Brainwash, paintings, portraits, street arTists, Thierry Guetta, unusual arT
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Drink Up Buttercup was barely three songs into its set at Cake Shop early Wednesday evening when Inevitable Bummer No. 45 happened: broken guitar string.
At this point, many bands would keep playing, out of tune. The musically considerate would pause and restring. Drink Up Buttercup, a quartet from Philadelphia that lunges joyously into every jangly chord and full-throated chorus, took the opportunity to go unplugged. Its members grabbed plastic maracas and a garbage can lid, headed into the crowd and proceeded to stomp, clap and vocalize.
A gimmick, yeah. But it brought a smile to every face I could see, and the bashing on that garbage can lid couldn’t obscure some genuinely pretty and expressive harmonies on “Lovers Play Dead,” which in a less spilled-beer-and-cellphones context could have passed as a folk song.
They made a real attempt to get the crowd to stomp and clap along, but most hands in their immediate vicinity were too busy texting and snapping photos.
Source: artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
Tags: arThou, arTist, Cake Shop, Drink Up Buttercup, guitar arT, music, PA arTists, Philadephia arT, unusual arT
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Sunday, September 27th, 2009
 Daniel Conway is a 23 year old digital painter, concept artist and animator from the UK. A recent graduate of Dundee University in Scotland, Daniel has been dazzling the world with his digital painting and concept art for the past 4 years.
His ability to create stunning digital paintings that capture various elements, including water and fire, along with his use of color and contrast makes him one of the most talented concept artists around. Today, we have 24 mindblowing pieces of concept art by Daniel, which showcase his incredible gallery, located here: www.artofconway.com.
If you liked this post, please share it with your friends! I hope you enjoy! Have a great day everyone.
Tags: animation, arThou, arTist, Daniel Conway, digital arT, digital painting
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Stick by stick: Steven J. Backman’s splintery medium finds a home in Carmel gallery
 More of Steven Backman's art can be seen at Mountainsong Galleries, Ocean between San Carlos and Mission, Carmel. (STEVEN J. BACKMAN/toothpickart.com) Not too many people consider the toothpick an art medium. That is, until they’ve seen the creations of Steven J. Backman.Backman has made a scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge out of 30,000 toothpicks — and a very tiny model of the same structure from a single toothpick. He’s captured the Empire State Building and San Francisco’s iconic cable cars, all painstakingly pieced together from those little bits of wood.
As if all that weren’t enough, he also has made toothpick portraits of celebrities and abstract sculptures from — you guessed it — toothpicks.
Backman’s work is so distinctive that it has earned several mentions in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!”, the New York Post and Reuters.
“I love making art. It’s a unique medium, and it’s very challenging,” said Backman, a 42-year-old San Francisco native who began playing with toothpicks as a child, and obviously never stopped. “I’m one of the very few that does this, I think.
“It’s an item that you’d use to pick your teeth or pick up hors d’oeuvres. I’ve elevated a thin sliver of wood to a work of art.”
Lest you think this is merely an exercise in weird constructions, Backman’s work is now being carried by a Carmel art gallery, where currently a number of pieces may be seen anytime the gallery doors are open. (More of his work may be seen online at www.mountainsonggalleries.com or at Backman’s site, www.toothpickart.com.
Mountainsong Galleries of Carmel is Backman’s exclusive worldwide representative, and thus is the only place where the sculptures may be purchased.
Lucinda Mountainsong, co-owner of the gallery with husband Jonathan, said their recently opened establishment features works by California artists, with scenes from the Monterey Peninsula and other places around the Golden State.
She said Backman’s intricate work always draws comments from visitors, who are impressed with the intricacy and attention to detail.
“There’s one cable car that has little lights all over it,” she said. “Steven hollowed out toothpicks to hide the wires.”
Backman’s unusual path to the world of art really took off after he received his bachelor’s degree in industrial arts from San Francisco State University in 1984. He got the idea to make a cable car out of toothpicks — “I love cable cars, I used to ride them all the time” — and then he made another. And another. And another.
He then began to turn his attention to other historic landmarks. His 13-foot-long scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge took more than two years and 30,000 toothpicks to complete. In a happy coincidence, he finished the model just before the bridge’s 50th anniversary in 1987, and so it garnered a lot of attention — it was displayed at San Francisco City Hall and received proclamations from past and present mayors.
The bridge now belongs to the “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!” museum in Hollywood, which bought the piece for $250,000, according to Mountainsong.
Backman’s works are unique in other ways as well. At a distance, his works don’t look like they’re made from toothpicks, but appear as though they are carved from a single piece of wood.
No extra material is used to support any of his structures — he uses nothing but toothpicks and Elmer’s Glue to make them — and they are not lacquered or painted. Even his bridge replicas use no wire or cables, just toothpicks.
And so far, the pieces have proved they were built to last.
“I have some pieces that are over 25 years old, and they’re holding up just fine,” said Backman.
He also takes great pains with his replicas of famous structures. For instance, when he made a scale model of the Empire State Building, he was able to obtain copies of the building’s original blueprints, which he pored over so that he could get it just right.
In addition to these labor-intensive works, Backman also does toothpick portraits of famous people, including Carmel’s own Clint Eastwood, the Obamas and Oprah Winfrey, and also re-creates works of art like “American Gothic” and the Mona Lisa.
These, Backman said, are fun and don’t take so much intense effort over long periods.
In addition, there are several sculptures Backman has made from a single toothpick. He swears he uses no magnification devices when he carves these — “My eyes are pretty good, I guess.”
The toothpicks are “like tiny building blocks,” said Backman, who uses several different types in making his sculptures, including unpointed “blanks” that come directly from a toothpick manufacturer.
His next challenge: creating scenes in Monterey and Carmel … from toothpicks.
Backman has had his work on display at Mountainsong Galleries since August, and his work will be highlighted with a special exhibit at the gallery this December. A reception will be held, with Backman in attendance, on Dec. 4 from 4-7 p.m.
Backman’s motto is “The Essence of Patience,” which pretty much sums up his dedication to his craft.
“You stick with something long enough, you get good at it,” he said.
If you go:
What: The works of toothpick artist Steven J. Backman
Where: Mountainsong Galleries, Ocean between San Carlos and Mission, Carmel When: Open daily 10a.m.-6p.m. Reception for Backman set for Dec. 4, 4-7 p.m.
Information: www.mountainsonggalleries.com or 626-0600
Tags: abstract arT, arT, arT mediums, arThou, arTists, California arT, California arTists, creative arT, Mountainsong Gallery, portraits, sculptures, Steven Backman, toothpick arT, unique arT, unusual arT
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
 Busy Baratelli arT Local (and sometimes New York-based) actor/producer/blogger Mark Baratelli has his hands in many sinister soups this summer, with added installments of the Mobile Art Show and an improv comedy show at Sleuths.
Mark Baratelli runs The DailyCity.com, a local blog dedicated spreading the word about cool places and events around Orlando. And if there aren’t enough local events, he creates them, like the Taco Truck Taste Test and The Mobile Art Show. (I sense a moving theme happening here.)
For the first Moble Art Show, Baratelli filled a U-Haul with cool paintings, robots, dinosaur heads and jewelry made by local artists and parked at various destinations around town. People could locate the truck via Twitter, making it part art show, part scavenger hunt. Click here to check out photos from the event.
The next Moble Art Show will stay parked at CityArts Factory on August 20 starting at 6 p.m. for Third Thursdays. Unfortunately, none of the art on display will be available for purchase due to legal reasons. But you can scope out the stuff you like and pick it up when the Mobile Art Show returns on August 23, this time at Etoile Boutique in the Milk District for the Dirty South Bike BBQ III.
On August 19 and 26 at 10 p.m., you can see Mark do what he does best, improv, in Mark Baratelli Tries Two Hard at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Theatre. Mark Baratelli presents two of his award-winning improvised comedy shows: “How Do You Feel?,” a loosely-scripted interactive self-help session, and “Improv Cabaret,” an improvised cabaret act (featuring John DeHaas on piano). Tickets are $10, a full bar and light bites will be available.
This show is part of the “It’s No Mystery” series at Sleuths, which also includes Mama’s Comedy Club, An Evening of Estrogen and The Unusual Suspects. (I saw thes guys perform at Tanqueray’s and they are freaking HILARIOUS. Go see them.)
Source: Metronix Orlando
Tags: arT show, arThou, arTist. arTwork, CityArts Factory, comedy show, Mark Baratelli, new york arT, NY arTists, Orlando arT, painings, science arT, Sleuths
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