The Chelsea Perspective - ARTisSpectrum

Vol. 16, October 2006
ARTisSpectrum
T h e C h e l s e a P e r s p e c t i v e
From Freight Handlers to Fine Art:
The Migration to Chelsea
P r o f i l e s o f C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t a n d A r t i s t s
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C H E L S E A A R T M U S E U M
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ARTisS p e c t r u m
P U B L I S H E R
Agora Gallery, Inc.
E D I T O R I N C H I E F
Angela Di Bello
A R T D I R E C T O R
Erin O’Neill
S T A F F W R I T E R S
Adam Grassi
Erica Velis
Aaron DeLand
Carole Merody
Edith Sumaquial
Alison Rogers
Sasha Vasilyuk
Krista Sykes
J. Taylor Basker
Stephen Bracco
Lou Caravella
Martin A. David
C O N T R I B U T I N G W R I T E R S
Donna Clovis
E D I T O R I A L A S S I S T A N T
Meghan Gaumond
ArtisSpectrum provides a forum for artists and
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and knowledge of the authors and not necessarily
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are written by staff writers or the artists unless
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Features:
16- From Freight Handlers to Fine Art:
The Migration to Chelsea
24 - The Chelsea Hotel
26 - The Studio Visit - Artist Charles Blake
Profiles
4 Donna Clovis
5 Masha Kohan
5 Jackie Black
6 Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen
8 Okko Oinenen
9 Toshiko Nishikawa
10 Miklos Sipos
12 Christel Sobke
13 Patricia Clements
14 Melanie Prapopoulos
14 Alicja Cetnarowski
15 Edith Suchodrew
15 Graham Denison
20 Harry Doolittle
22 Kitty van de Rijt
22 Veronica Leiton
23 Michele Kellner
23 Philippe Ringlet
28 Quinn Stilletto
29 Judith Brust
30 Rosa Ruelba
31 Iva Milanova
32 Ellen Marlen Hamre
33 Daphne Stephensen
34 Vesselin Kourtev
35 Berenice Michelow
35 Nelida Kalanj
36 Robert Hinkelman
36 Vincent Maiello
37 Terry Amburgey
38 Corey West
38 Doris Naffah
39 Ta Barabanakova
40 Ernestine Tahedl
41 Christian Brander
42 Helga Kreuzritter
34 Vesselin Kourtev
35 Berenice Michelow
35 Nelida Kalanj
36 Robert Hinkelman
36 Vincent Maiello
37 Terry Amburgey
38 Corey West
38 Doris Naffah
39 Ta Barabanakova
40 Ernestine Tahedl
41 Christian Brander
42 Helga Kreuzritter
43 Heidi Fickinger
43 Caroline Mars
44 Imre G. Kohan
45 Giannis Stratis
46 M. Moneta
47 Helga Windle
47 Anja Schüssler
48 Fiona Viney
48 Marga Duin
49 Sonya Veronica
49 Zeiko Basheleishvili
50 Azita Ganji
50 Marty Maehr
50 Susan Eck
50 L’OR
51 Stephen Looney
51 Lional Bedos
51 T. Mikey
52 Alayne Dickey
52 Monika Dery
52 Carolyn Quan
52 Olga Baby
53 Atousa Foroohary
53 Kenji Inoue
53 Leona Whitlow
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The photo performance explores the “artist’s body
as an alternative space,” a concept created by the
artist because of rising rents for gallery space and the
difficulty of finding alternative spaces in New York. In
“Prayer for Peace”, the performance artist and photographer
carefully ties seven different varieties of elaborate
knots using thick Naval shipyard rope.The skill of
tying such elaborate knots comes from her childhood
at Governor’s Island where her father worked with the
Coast Guard and visitors from Korea.
Prayer for Peace 20” x 16” Photograph
D o n n a C l o v i s
She has combined both knot tying skills into an elaborate
collaboration of knots.
After a display of seven knots are completed, she
disrobes and poses as a sculpture with the most elaborate
knot confining her prayerful hands. The photo performance
demonstrates our vulnerability to global war
and domestic violence. This is juxtaposed with the hope
of the prayerful hands. The final act occurs with the
photographer’s camera as she uses the photo release
cord below her to take a self-portrait.

Masha Kohan
The paintings of Masha Kohan create worlds where medieval figures
stand out in realistic splendor in situations that are allegorical
or fantastic. Her painting “Listen!” shows an imposing female figure
dressed in medieval costume playing a flute. In the distance is a cloudless
sky and the faint outline of hills and valleys. Masha Kohan’s compositional
style is similar to that of Medieval and early Renaissance
artists who placed dramatic emphasis on the human figure and allowed
the background to remain largely unfocused. The woman’s intent gaze
is concentrated and powerful. Illustrated in the brilliant depiction of
her facial expression and the body’s gesture, it is as if, through her
flute, she is luring the unknown into the frame of view. The viewer’s
involuntary participation and experience of her movement, an unusual
interactive quality to a painting, takes Masha Kohan’s work to the modern
edge of contemporary art. Fond of Medieval art and philosophy,
Masha Kohan brings her unique perception to today’s audience, leading
us into a scene of mystery and secrecy frozen in time. Before Masha
Kohan began painting, she was a jewelry artist. Her change in medium
began when she and her husband, fellow metal and glass designer
Imre G. Kohan, moved from Budapest to the Maltese Islands. Living a
mostly hermetic lifestyle on a spellbound Mediterranean Archipelago,
rich in cultural heritage, inspired Masha Kohan to change her mode of
expression. As her paintings testify, Masha Kohan’s imagination is an
incredible tool in her creations and one that will continue to serve her
well in any medium.
www.mashakohan.com
Listen! 27.5” x 20” Oil on Canvas
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M i a G j e r d r u m H e l g e s e n
Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen paints abstract works that speak to our most
intimate memories and unique experiences. Her paintings blend
swaths of bold color with subtle details; each work possesses a strong
sense of atmosphere that Gjerdrum Helgesen achieves through the harmonious
opposition of abstraction and specificity. A native of Norway,
Gjerdrum Helgesen states that she is inspired by “the changing seasons
in Norway… the feeling of blooming summer, the birth of spring
and the cold snow falling down on my face.” While nature sparks her
creativity, Gjerdrum Helgesen’s
works tend toward
emotional expression.
She states that her works
are about “experiences in
life, special moments that
take another space in your
heart as giving life, death
of one you love, love and
being loved, sharing…moments
with people and
being able to see things
through someone else’s
eyes.” The viewer can
see these themes depicted
in Gjerdrum Helgesen’s
work as a whole and in
each individual piece.
“Bridge” is an
acrylic relief painting in which two figures appear closely connected.
The design is simple: only two colors—red and white—are used to
render this scene. Yet Gjerdrum Helgesen uses so many shades and
values within this limited color range that the painting takes on a quality
of complexity within its more obvious minimalism. The connection,
the “bridge” formed between these two figures is the dramatic moment
in the work. The bold, horizontal stripe of red suggests a “blood tie” or
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Bridge 20” x 16” Acrylic on Linen
an emotionally charged moment of connection. The scene is personal,
its movements subtle. The intense reds focused in the center of the
painting move outward, becoming fainter as the figures fade into a pale
background.
The viewer sees a thematic similarity between “Bridge” and
“Beach.” Gjerdrum Helgesen’s signature style of paint application is
repeated, but instead of blending her figures with their environment,
they stand out in sharp distinction. Both elements of the painting are
in harmony, as the angu- Beach 31” x 63” Acrylic on Canvas
lar forms of the silhouette
of a distant beach are echoed in the precise lines of the figures in the
foreground.
This beach scene is formal, yet in its own manner, radically
free. There is an echo of Seurat’s famous “Grande Jatte”
here in its ordinary subject matter (people enjoying a day at the

park) that nevertheless possesses an extraordinary
power. Like Seurat’s figures, Gjerdrum
Helgesen’s are quite formal, even rigid. Yet the
technique that she employs here, two colors blended
into variation of hues, creates an unexpected effect
of nostalgia and elusive emotion in the midst of
this stylish scene.
In “Home,” a monochromatic piece, varying
hues of black and white are used to create an abstract
city scene. The layering of color and placement of objects
in space suggests movement in the painting, which
is both physical and transcendental. There seem to be
memories evoked by this “Home” scene, as images
float upwards through the canvas in varying degrees of
intensity. Depicting the Nesoya Bridge, the crossing
from the main land to the island where the artist has
lived most of her life, becomes the symbol of crossing
and leaving things behind. The painting calls upon
the viewer to explore his or her own feelings regarding
space, location and memory. Using sepia tones, Gjerdrum
Helgesen does her utmost to evoke the passage
of time, of elegance, even the passage of romance that
people associate with home.
The bridge in the center of the painting is the
unifying feature of the work. The background, with its painterly brushstrokes,
conveys movement and dynamism, while the bridge is precisely
detailed and focuses the viewer on the tangible. There are fragments
of other man-made items here, the identity of which is unknown
to the viewer. Lines appear and then vanish into the canvas. Shapes
resembling squares, ladders, and pillars appear randomly throughout
the painting. This serves to defamiliarize viewers from the function of
such objects and reacquaint them with their aesthetic value.
Home 39” x 39 Acrylic on Canvas
Her painting “Spring” is a graphic representation
of one of the most romanticized
subjects in art. Gjerdrum Helgesen’s representation
of springtime is pared down and simple.
The painting’s primary focus is the pale greens,
vibrant blues and compelling use of negative
space. The color palette is expressive here of
rebirth and potential, all the concepts usually
associated with spring in popular imagination.
Yet Gjerdrum Helgesen’s use of angles
and lines adds a modern edge to the work; the
softness of “Spring” is countered by the presence
of intricate lines that are crosshatched
throughout the painting. The repeating pattern
of lines is a theme in these works that
keeps them modern and innovative. Gjerdrum
Helgesen references urban life in all of these
works through her subtle inclusion of grid
patterns, and circular columns. Reducing
features of city life such as train tracks, windows,
sidewalks, awnings and pillars to their
simplest forms grants the viewer an opportunity
to see these ordinary objects as subjects of
beauty and grace.
Gjerdrum Helgesen’s work is immediately
eye-catching; its aesthetic is modern and
simplified. Yet our imaginations are captivated
by the nuance of her colors, the attitudes of
her figures and the subtle emotive quality of
her compositions. Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen has
studied art at The National School of Communication
in Norway and at The Academy of Art
in San Francisco. She obtained her Masters in
Visual Arts from The National College of the Arts, Oslo.
Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen also works in graphic design and
illustration, illustrating children’s books, as well as working in advertising,
a skill that informs her work and adds to its modern appeal. She
currently lives at Nesoya and works at her own studio in Asker, Norway,
where she exhibits her art extensively.
www.atelier-m.no
Spring 20” x 31” Acrylic on Canvas
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The photography of Finnish artist Okko Oinonen present surreal situations
and post-apocalyptic visions in a dramatic, hyper-realistic
format. His style is instantly accessible, providing a narrative in an
allegorical manner akin to the masterful paintings of the Renaissance.
Oinonen often uses humor or irony incorporated with an underlying
sinister awareness that all is not as it seems. His photographs are crystal
clear and fresh with dark undercurrents and gloomy skies; the background
is the stage on which his drama unfolds. The people featured in
his works are plastic and insular, somehow unaware of or disinterested
in the distressing situation that surrounds them. In explaining his own
work, Oinonen states, “Especially I concentrate on the contradiction
between the virtual and physical reality, human mannequins in today’s
entertainment-culture and the relationship between man and nature.”
A particularly compelling work “An Ordinary Evening” from
the series “It is time for stormy weather” explores how the virtual world
presented on television is an intoxicating drug that subverts the reality
beyond the borders of its screen. The small suburban family sits in
front of their television in a warm, comfortable stupor either oblivious
or unconcerned by the fire outside that is ravaging their neighborhood.
Oinonen’s image requires no additional commentary; the meaning is
operative and clear.
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Okko Oinonen
2006 CHELSEA
INTERNATIONAL ART
COMPETITION
It is time for stormy weather: An Ordinary Evening 31.5” x 39.5” Digital C Print
It is time for stormy weather: The Accident 31.5” x 39.5” Digital C Print
Oinonen’s photographs have been internationally acclaimed,
winning grants and awards and participating in group and solo exhibitions
in Finland, Estonia, France, Sweden, Germany, China, Russia
and the United States. Oinonen studied photography at the University
of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland, and at Den Hague, Holland,
and has been an art director in a new media company, thus seeing all
sides of the visual culture.
Early on in his creative process, Oinonen visualizes what the
final image must be, and changes his style to adapt with the subject
matter. Depending on the particular narrative, he may use traditional
methods of photography or alter the work using digital manipulation.
“I want to make each photograph perfect,” he states, “even better
than reality itself.” Indeed Oinonen’s technical deftness is obvious, no
matter how surreal the photograph; the image is seamless, leading the
viewer to believe in the veracity of the situation. This is precisely why
Oinonen’s work is so compelling: though it is not us in the photograph,
we are quite aware that someday it very well may be.
www.okkooinonen.com
Giant butterfly: Scene in the street 31.5” x 39.5” Digital C Print

Toshiko Nishikawa
Toshiko Nishikawa’s mixed medium artworks
are a synthesis of the palest blues,
yellows, pinks, greens and whites, establishing
a semblance of playful abstractions, the
mood of which represents her worldview.
Her works brim with innocence and positivism,
instantly disarming the viewer. “I’ve
been on a journey,” she states, “a journey
in search of eternal beauty.” Indeed, there is a timeless,
organic quality to Nishikawa’s art as streaks of white haze flow
“I’ve been on
a journey, a
journey in search
of eternal beauty.”
downward or across muted pastel backgrounds.
Nishikawa’s artwork nods to natural phenomena,
recalling clouds, snow and water. Done mostly in
small to medium sized formats, layers do not intermix
but drip and conceal the colors below. Since
beginning her journey as a painter and moving
through the various positions and options the art
world has to offer, Nishikawa has exhibited widely
and has gained recognition in the printed press as well as in
the airwaves. She lives and works in New York.
Ms.1010200500 8” x 12” x 1.5” Mixed Media
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Toshiko_Nishikawa.aspx
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M i k l o s S i p o s
Untitled 24” x 48” Baked Dry Pigment, Sand & Acrylic
Untitled 24” x 36” Baked Dry Pigment, Sand & Acrylic

Fusing sympathetic sand magic and the technologies of
polymer chemistry, digital design, and offset printing—
the art of Miklos Sipos is truly a grand experiment. Sipos,
who earned a Bachelors Degree in Colonial Archeology and
minored in Geology, draws a great deal of visual inspiration
from “primal matter,” but uses a diverse array of modern
technological tools and techniques to “reduce the complexity
of nature into basic forms.” Combining his knowledge of
polymers—including curing techniques and the use of additives
and thickeners, such as sand—with unusual pigment
combinations and less known secrets of the palette knife, Sipos
has made a science of mixed media expression.
Facilitating communion between viewers and the natural
world by artistically representing aspects of its composition,
structure, physical properties, history and the processes that
shape it, Sipos encourages intimacy between humanity and
the solid matter of the earth. By synthetically replicating terrestrial
patterns, and physically incorporating earthly materials
such as beach sand, Sipos’ compositions provide visual
“triggers” which cause one to contemplate not only one’s
personal relationship to nature, but highlights a collective
need to temper
the advancement
of technology
with a healthy respect
for the bedrock
that supports
us. Using genuine
beach sand from
Long Beach Island,
New Jersey,
as a kind of totemic
substance,
Sipos reinforces
positive associa-
Miklos Sipos gives
us a glimpse of
a more balanced
world—a world in which
technology is no longer
at odds with nature but
in cooperation with it
tions between his audience and the seaside, evoking pleasant
nostalgia in those who have visited the area. However,
cognizant of the fact that it is the mind and not the eyes that
interpret electrical impulses into meaningful patterns, Sipos
aims to elicit feeling through visual and emotional cues rather
than imposing specific meaning. Similarly, Sipos prefers to
leave some pieces untitled so as not to narrow the viewer’s
context, or diminish the viewer’s ability to experience his art
more fully.
Allowing color, texture and materials to “speak” on behalf
of his imagination, Sipos transmits a brief history of the
planet and a unique appreciation of the many unsung marvels
of its continental crust. Recalling rock strata, river silt,
sandy stretches, lava beds, reptilian skin, and petrified wood,
Sipos’ abstract pictorial images succeed in magnifying the
microcosmic beauties of the earth’s surface. Harmoniously
integrating terrene aesthetics and high-tech methodologies,
Miklos Sipos gives us a glimpse of a more balanced world—a
world in which technology is no longer at odds with nature
but in cooperation with it, a world in which art is one of many
ways to explore our perceptions of it.
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Miklos_Sipos.aspx
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Tree Carpentry 39” x 39” Acrylic on Canvas
Tree Foundry 47” x 31.5” Acrylic on Canvas
Christel
Natural realms and themes created in a surrealist mode
are found throughout the works of Christel Sobke. She
has photographed, created collages, paintings, sculptures and
digital works on the seemingly
‘These works are
fascinating to
explore; the viewer
must rove the
canvas to make
sense of the
scenario’
Sobke
boundless subject of nature.
Sobke has explored her muse
from many different angles.
Early on in her career she began
experimenting with macro-photography
to create abstractions
of bark by enlarging
the scale to show the minute
shapes and textures. Sobke
has also completed a series
of landscapes, focusing on orchids
and brilliant autumnal
foliage, as well as a series of collages that feature endangered
species. Not to be confined by her native European landscape,
Sobke worked on digitally manipulated photographs of street
scenes in New York and a tropical-themed series in 1996.
Lately Sobke’s interests have turned to surrealism,
at first taking the form of poetic landscapes and more recently
exploring the combination of nature and industry.
These works are fascinating to explore; the viewer must
rove the canvas to make sense of the scenario being presented.
In “Tree Foundry,” a painting set in a cavernous
warehouse, the drama unfolds as indifferent, faceless armature
work amongst steel beams, wires and other nameless
machinery of Sobke’s invention.
Interestingly, the machines work not to produce consumer
goods or other products, but to create a vessel of nature itself.
Within the shadowy confines of the factory these instruments of
production work in accord to mold a leaf, inject it with lifeblood
and hang it up to dry in endless repetition. Ironically, the factory
is devoid of any human intervention or hint of a natural
setting; an artificial intelligence operates beyond our field of
vision. The style of painting is without extravagance, being both
flat and functional, qualities here combined with mystery and
nuance are reminiscent of Belgian Surrealist Rene Magritte.
Sobke originally studied psychology and German and
English literature, but altered her course of study to focus
on art. She attended the FHS in Krefeld to become qualified
to teach, but retained her passion for art throughout
her studies. Since 1982, Sobke has worked as a freelance
artist exploring a variety of media with which to perfect her
artistic vision of nature.
www.art-christel-sobke.de

St. Tropez from Balcony 41” x 34” Pastel
Jug with Tulips, Dark Blue 28” x 21” Pastel
Patricia
Clements
African Violets on Patterned Cloth 22” x 23” Pastel
Patricia Clements was raised among the distinctive hills and
coastlines of Sussex, England. Her work bears not only the
mark of a lifelong intimacy with nature, but also the influence
of the French Impressionists spirited love affair with color. Her
vivid lilies, poinsettias and irises lunge up and outward, while in
“African Violets on Patterned Cloth” the snug flowers, vase and
background are painted with the same sensitivity to palette as
her sprawling fields of sunflowers. The sensory life, intimately
woven in with her skill at composition, counts for all in Clements’
work.
Her most recent works have been exploring the vibrant
moods conjured by the light of the French Riviera. A
canopy of trees over Saint-Tropez guides one’s gaze between
a midnight-blue sea and the town’s streets, which
thrust diagonally toward us. Clements has also done studies
of nudes in pastels on blue or brown, where the moment
between artist and model is captured with a lively
yet controlled hand.
In addition to her paintings and pastels, Patricia Clements
offers limited edition high quality giclée prints of select
works. She is a member of The Society of Woman Painters and
in June 2006 that organization awarded her The St. Cuthberts
Mill Award, presented by Princess Michael of Kent, for Best
Painting on Paper.
www.patriciaclementsart.com
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Alicja Cetnarowski
Alicja creates her one-of-a-kind bronze
sculptures through a process based on the
lost wax technique. Born in Poland and
educated at the University of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
Cetnarowski has developed a fascination for the
interaction between the soft contours of the human
body and the irregula irregular, often abrasive textures of the
natural world. “The human body is the most beautiful
and inspiring object for sculpture,” Cetnarowski declares.
Her figures are presented without an environment
but rather as an extension of it. A torso folds and
splits, an arm is transformed into a craggy
outcropping of slate, hair cascades down like
a rolling brook. The color of the metals that
she uses, especially bronze, further asserts
he connection with her terrestrial muses.
Cetnarowski’s sculpture evokes a
sense of serenity and a longing
for a realization of a more
natural existence. Cetnarowski
lives and works in Canada Canada.
www.artcetnarowski.com
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Edith
Suchodrew
Mystic Grotto 35” x 35” Digital C Print
Latvian artist Edith Suchodrew possesses a spirit of invention
and exploration in the field of art. Her artistic progression
has seen watercolor and oil paintings, etchings and lithographs,
animation, illustration, and graphic design. She has taught art and
organized more than 60 of her own exhibitions.
This hard-working artist found her unique vision by responding
to the voice of nature through her study of landscapes
and scenes of woodlands. Suchodrew has studied ancient cultures,
both near and far, and explores themes of joy and tragedy in her
art, but it is through the medium of “computer graphic painting,”
that her artistic vision finds full realization.
The radiant “Mystic Grotto” employs polished computer
graphics containing brilliant color and light. This is a joyous reverie
of neon pinks, deep blues and sinuous forms all radiating from
a gleaming central star. A host of natural phenomena are suggested
in the image, yet it remains altogether abstract and open to
viewer interpretation.
Suchodrew’s characteristic use of color and form expresses
hope and triumph. Other works are more representational, yet
remain nearly architectural in form suggesting an influence from
Buddhist mandalas. Her work is highly sought after, having participated
in more than 310 exhibitions, Suchodrew’s work can be
found in a variety of museums and private collections. Suchodrew
lives and works in Aachen, Germany.
www.artaddiction.net/members/suchodrew/suchodrew.htm
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FROM FREIGHT HANDLERS TO
FINE ART:
THE MIGRATION TO
C H E L S E A
Article and Photographs By Donna L. Clovis

Once an industrial section of cold cement
warehouses and rusting rail yards with a
flurry of yellow taxicabs passing through, Chelsea
now sparkles with art galleries, trendy new
restaurants and its first expensive residential
explosion. The conversion has been gradual
with an unusual symbiotic relationship between
the industrial and the art mart.
The photography gallery of Yossi
Milo exists upstairs from a taxi garage. The
PaceWildenstein’s Minimalist mausoleum on
West 25th is down the street from old artist’s
coops. Elite art collectors rub shoulders with
auto mechanics as they walk through the
streets. But despite this unusual relationship,
after more than ten years of growth, the
Chelsea neighborhood possesses more than
250 galleries that extend from West 13th to
West 29th Streets and from 10th Avenue to
the West Side Highway in Manhattan, about
twice the amount of galleries SoHo had
in the early 1990’s.
The migration to Chelsea is a large
scale New York City event that has never happened
before. All species of art galleries exist
in Chelsea in different stages of development.
Its crop of galleries consists of parallel realities
catering to different audiences and markets
from the avant-garde to the academic.
With art from places as far as India and as
close as Williamsburg, Chelsea reflects contemporary
art’s global marketplace.
“Chelsea is now the dominant marketplace
for art culture in New York,” said
Renee Vara, an Adjunct Professor at New
York University and Lecturer at Guggenheim
Museum, where she teaches art history, art
theory, and museum studies, and is a private
independent curator and art historian. “It
offers efficiency and a separate enclave with
a collective and attractive element.”
The breakthrough into Chelsea began
in 1988 with the opening of the Dia Foundation,
now Dia Center for the Arts. This cultural
pioneer set up camp in a vicinity where
spaces were large and rents were cheap. By
late 1994, Matthew Marks, then a young Upper
East Side dealer, expanded to West 22nd
Street and started the “art party scene” in the
new neighborhood. At the time, it was impossible
to predict how Chelsea would be transformed
or how fast changes would happen.
Paula Cooper arrived in 1996.
Cooper had opened SoHo’s first art gallery
in 1968 and then joined about 15 other art
dealers and moved to far west Chelsea. The
space in Chelsea opened in an old garage on
West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th avenues.
Because of Cooper’s prominence in the
art world and her role in developing SoHo,
many art and real estate entrepreneurs took
her move as a sign that the neighborhood west
of 10th Avenue and bound by 20th and 26th
streets was about to be transformed.
The transformation of Chelsea was
the answer for rents that had spiralled out of
control in SoHo. With most galleries renting
and not owning their spaces in SoHo, galleries
sought out new ventures in other territories
where rents were cheaper or the option
of owning a building was presented. The idea
of Chelsea was ripe for its time when the art
world was ready to break old traditions with
SoHo. They found them in Chelsea.
As Chelsea dominated the art
scene, Mary Boone signaled another stage in
her personal evolution as a dealer by establishing
a Chelsea branch of her high profile
gallery. Gluckman Mayner Architects created
a dramatic Chelsea gallery for Boone. Richard
Gluckman’s association with Boone dates
back to her days on West Broadway. He also
designed her gallery at 745 Fifth Avenue.
‘Chelsea is now
the dominant
marketplace for
art culture in
New York’
Boone opened her first space in SoHo on
Broadway in 1979 moving into the same
building that housed Leo Castelli and
Ileana Sonnabend’s legendary galleries.
Boone later looked for space on 57th
Street in the traditional neighborhood of the
New York art world.
The layout and details of the Chelsea
gallery originated from the design of her
uptown space. The architect created a powerful
juxtaposition between the details associated
with his work and the rugged quality of
original wood trusses and wood plank ceiling,
which are exposed arcing over the space. The
floors are steel-troweled concrete slab, which
mimics the floor treatment uptown. And the facade’s
storefront of translucent glass reminds
one of Gluckman’s design at Boone’s West
Broadway gallery. In Chelsea, all three rooms
receive natural light by way of the translucent
storefront windows in the reception area and
through a small central skylight in the rear.
The 12-ft.-wide main exhibition area contains
a translucent skylight that traverses the entire
length of the 24-ft.-high display wall. Spotlights
provide additional lighting.
As the Chelsea area continued to
transform, people moved into the area’s first
pricey loft conversion on West 22nd Street.
Savanna Partners, a young real estate devel
opment firm, bought that property at a July
1994 auction for $3 million. Because of
zoning requirements, it took Savanna Partners
one and a half years to get approvals,
even though there was very little manufacturing
activity and little hope for any more
industrial growth.
Today, Savanna builds huge lofts
and rents the street-level spaces to galleries
and restaurants. Not far to the south, on
17th Street, World Wide Holdings Corp.
does something similar, and the Meatpacking
District of the far west Village has practically
disappeared as old warehouses are beingturned
into apartments.
Among Chelsea gallery spaces are
other SoHo exiles like John Weber, Barbara
Gladstone, Metro Pictures, 303 Gallery, Bose
Pacia Gallery, and Agora Gallery.
“Chelsea affords you access to
critics and curators that make the rounds
regularly to look at galleries,” said Dr. Steve
Pacia, co-founder and co-partner with Dr
Arani Bose of the Bose Pacia Gallery on
West 26th Street.
Bose Pacia Gallery, established in
1994 in SoHo, was the first gallery in the
West specializing in contemporary art from
South Asia. During the last ten years, Bose
Pacia has held over 30 exhibitions and is
internationally regarded for promoting the
South Asian avant-garde. Visual artists from
South Asia work within a unique space that is
informed by many cultures, languages and religions.
Bose Pacia fosters an active discourse
between these artists and the international
art community by featuring exhibitions that
contextualize contemporary art from this geographic
region within its rich artistic traditions
and current social tensions.
Established in 1984 in SoHo
by a fine artist, Agora Gallery more than
doubled its space when it moved to Chelsea
in 2003. A gallery without borders,
Agora was one of the pioneer galleries providing
representation to both national and
international artists.
Recent interviews by its director,
Angela Di Bello, in Business News Weekend
(NBC) Hellenic Public Radio, and the Wall
Street Journal have brought additional attention
and visitors to Chelsea.
The New Museum also left SoHo
for an interim spot in Chelsea but has closed
its doors, with the exception of its bookstore
space at the Chelsea Art Museum, for a year
and a half until the construction of its much
anticipated new building on the Bowery is
opened. Designed by the acclaimed Tokyo
based company of Sejima and Nishizawa/SA-
NAA, the new 60,000 square foot, seven-story
New Museum will be the first art museum
building constructed in downtown Manhattan
in over a century.
17 ARTisSpectrum

“The New Museum has always made
a significant contribution to all of its neighborhoods
from SoHo to Chelsea said Henry
Buhl, collector of photography of hands and
hand sculpture who serves on the Board
of the New Museum.
And some left spaces in Williamsburg
and other locations in Manhattan to settle
in Chelsea like Bellwether and Aperture.
“We wanted to be located in the epicenter
of New York’s vibrant art photography
scene,” said Andrea Smith, Director of Communications
for the Aperture Foundation,
“We want to make Aperture the destination
for great photography.”
The Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit
foundation dedicated to promoting
photography was founded in 1952 by photographers
Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange,
Barbara Morgan, and Minor White, historian
Beaumont Newhall, and writer/curator
Nancy Newhall. The Foundation publishes a
periodical four times a year called Aperture
magazine. The Aperture Foundation also
published books, limited-edition photographs,
and portfolios. They provide artist lectures,
panel discussions and a traveling exhibitions
program that presents diverse exhibitions
at major museums and cultural institutions
throughout the world.
But the Chelsea area has also attracted
newbies and foreigners opening for
the first time, as well as some dealers who are
reopening galleries. Many of these, such as
Bill Maynes and Stefan Stux, have moved into
gallery buildings where small, cheap spaces
were readily available.
The activity in Chelsea is an example
of how the art scene has splintered in
New York. For many years, gallery owners
located on the Upper East Side and on 57th
Street. And SoHo’s boundaries stretched
south as some galleries have moved to the
area just above Canal Street. Even downtown
has tried to reinvent itself as a more
artistic environment.
And not since the 1980’s have so
many galleries had multiple spaces with most
of the additional locations in Chelsea. For
some galleries, one Chelsea location is not
enough. Paula Cooper has two spaces. Matthew
Marks, has three. Perry Rubenstein, a
private dealer, opened two galleries at once.
And Gagosian’s huge 24th Street space is
equal to three separate galleries. Even the
Wrong Gallery, Chelsea’s smallest art gallery,
has two spaces. David Zwirner, on 19th
Street, and Barbara Gladstone, on 24th Street
added penthouses to their locations.
“What has happened in Chelsea is
great,” said Gerald Peters, owner and founder
of the Gerald Peters Gallery who has three
gallery spaces: one on the Upper East Side
of New York, one in Dallas, Texas, and one
in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When asked why
18 ARTisSpectrum
he did not move to Chelsea, Peters said, “My
focus is on traditional painting, and to a lesser
extent on contemporary art.”
In Chelsea, phases of growth are
born swiftly and simultaneously in a pioneer
frontier fashion. While glass-fronted galleries
grow, deluxe rentals materialize like a mirages
before our eyes. But as a result of fast
paced growth in Chelsea, anti-Chelsea sentiment
has risen. Some say Chelsea is too big,
too commercial, and too homogenous. And
while Chelsea exemplifies the main pulse of
art thought as many have flocked to this dominant
marketplace, others have looked for and
maintained project spaces in SoHo, the Lower
East Side, and Chinatown.
Guild & Greyshkul, founded in
2003 in SoHo by Anya Kielar, Sara Van-
DerBeek, and Johannes VanDerBeek, has
remained in SoHo. Originally located at 22
Wooster Street, the former American Fine
Arts, Guild & Greyshkul grew out of the
founders’ desire to create a vital gallery within
a historic space. And Renee Vara established
Vara Fine Arts in SoHo and moved into the
Water D’Maria Earth Room Building on 141
Wooster Street for both nostalgic and practical
reasons. Although she does business in Chelsea,
the focus of her business is with collectors
on the Upper East Side and project spaces in
the Lower East Side and Chinatown. Her current
location allows mobility to all areas of her
business. Vara sponsors “Nights of Dialogue”
with panels and performances about art.
These Ekphrastic Evenings are a new series
of interviews, talks and open conversations
to revive forums for open dialogues on art
and visual culture in a non-partisan environment.
The first several evenings were private
and successful, among those filled to capacity
was a public interview with historical artist,
Betty Tompkis.
“It’s a decision of difference” said,
Renee Vara. “SoHo is a cross-space, a weird
metaphorical place of sorts that has art history
looming like a specter of the past as we
have moved into a ‘monetized’ moment in
the art world.”
Chelsea will never be SoHo with
its 19th-century cast-iron buildings and
small streets where galleries co-existed with
artist’s studios, restaurants, and stores with
connections to most subway lines in the city.
But nowadays, Chelsea is the current bustling
stage for contemporary art in the world
as it continues to give birth to more and
more galleries.
“I feel that my outside the grid environment
serves the viewer more time to look
at the work and perhaps digest it instead of
being inundated with far too much information
as is the case of Chelsea,” said Lisa Kirk,
co-founder with Joe Latimore of Legion at
Sensei, a gallery and incidental space located
on Kenmare Street on the border of New York
City’s Nolita and Chinatown.
“And honestly, I just like Chinatown.
And I dig the space,” said Victoria Donner,
who just founded and opened the V&A
Gallery on Mott Street, “It was a gut thing.”
But what is the next edge of the art
world in New York? Are SoHo amd the Lower
East side points of difference? Is there still a
notion of alternative space in New York? Do
we need them? Do we believe in them anymore?
Will rents and prices of Chelsea continue
to rise and price out galleries again?
These thoughts are pondered by those who
are perched on the edge of their seats waiting
and watching for the next move in New York
City’s artistic playground of real estate space.
In the meantime, yellow taxis slow
and turn cautiously down Chelsea streets and
come to a halt at dusk. From a taxi emerges
a tall man with a gleaming forehead dressed
in a black suit. He steps out of the taxi with
a woman in a black cocktail dress draped in
curtains of black hair. As they mount the stairs
in the front of the door of a gallery space, they
wait. The streets fill with people. Between the
silence of the notes in chatter about art, there
is the melodic music of a mechanic’s drill. It
is 6:00. Let the exhibitions begin!

CHELSEA CONTRASTS
BIG SPACE, SMALL SPACE:
A M U S E U M , A B O X
Chelsea hosts galleries with a diversity of
proportions.
The Cheslea Art Museum is a contemporary
space about 30,000 square feet
located in a renovated historic building in the
heart of Chelsea on West 22nd Street, opposite
the Chelsea Piers.
The Chelsea Art Museum is committed
to an exploration of “art within a context.”
This approach favors a program of exhibitions
that reflects contemporary human experience
across a spectrum of cultural, social, environmental,
and geographical contexts. The exhibitions
are supported by a series of related
cultural events and educational programs.
Co-founder and president, Dorothea Keeser,
describes the curatorial vision as, “a commitment
to art as a living entity that reacts and
interacts with us and changes the way one
continues to live one’s daily life.”
In collaboration with a network of
museums, galleries, and other visual arts institutions,
the Chelsea Art Museum seeks to
present important, but relatively unexplored
dimensions of 20th and 21st century art. Its
focus is upon artists that have been less exposed
in the United States than in their home
countries. The Chelsea Art Museum also
places prominent importance on exhibiting
young American artists. A new series entitled
“Insight” features artists who have not yet
enjoyed their own solo shows in a New York
Museum. The museum presents film, performances,
artist talks, and round-table discussions
that look to foster cross culural and
interdisciplinary debate.
“My work here allows me to really
pursue fresh insights and push the thresholds
of exhibition practice,” said Manon Slome,
Chief Curator for the Chelsea Art Museum,
“Here I work with important societal themes,
combine new and more well known artists in
often unexpected ways.”
Slome has been Chief Curator of the
Chelsea Art Museum since its inauguration in
November 2001. For several years prior, she
worked as curator for the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum of New York. She is recipient
of the Whitney Museum’s Helena Rubenstein
Foundation Curatorial Fellowship. As an independent
curator, she has organized exhibitions
in New York, London, Hong Kong, and
has served as art advisor for private and public
collections throughout the United States.
The museum is also home of the
Jean Miotte Foundation, an organization dedi-
cated to archiving, preserving, presenting,
and making available for exhibition the works
of Jean Miotte. Rotating selections of Miotte’s
work are shown on a regular basis.
On the other hand, Chelsea continues
to attract small, grass-roots galleries. A few
blocks away from the Chelsea Art Museum,
lies a much smaller gallery space about the
size of a box called, White Box. The gallery
offers an “alternative space” within Chelsea
on West 26th Street. The non-profit organization
shows contemporary art in the context
of socially relevant issues and its vision is to
act as a counter to the surrounding environment
seeking to advance a creative difference.
Exhibitions range from mid-career, emerging,
and under represented artists with international
programs from guest scholars and curators
from around the world.
“The space at White Box in Chelsea
is a creative alternative,” said Juan Puntes,
co-owner and founder of White Box.
A recent summer exhibition,
APOCOCROPOLIS, curated by Jason Goodman
at White Box, could be seen from the
sidewalk through the window of White Box.
The crowd waited in anticipation of viewing
the show first hand inside the box. In the
meantime, crowds stood and sat on the Chelsea
street watching a performance art piece by
dancers and listening to the entertaining voice
of an opera singer before a band arrived to
play inside the box with the exhibition later in
the evening.
The exhibition was a multimedia
sculpture installation and post-emotional habitat
conjured by artists Jeremy Lovitt and Isac
Sprachman. In their first collaboration, the
artists exploit video and construction materials
Clockwise from top left: White Box; The Chelsea Art Museum; Staircase in the Chelsea Art Museum;
onlookers at the White Box
to erect a monolith which salutes the notion
that “enough is never enough” or “what have
I done to deserve this?”
The materials of the monumental
art-altar, metal studs and sheet rock, are the
same materials used to create the temporary
interior partitions so common of the buildings
of the Chelsea art gallery district. Quick and
cheap to erect, quick and cheap to tear down,
and put in the dumpster with the ever shifting
sands of the real estate market manipulations.
The materials comment on the forcefully unavoidable
cyclical migration of artistic centers
at once regaling the viewer with a new sensation
of archeological discovery.
19 ARTisSpectrum

Harry Doolittle
What’s in a Name?
The name Doolittle can conjure up contrasting personalities—the
fictional doctor with the ability to converse with animals, as
well as the famed pilot Jimmy Doolittle, who led America’s first air
strike against Japan during World War II. Artist Harry Doolittle’s life
incorporates both the mystical and actual characteristics of his two better-known
namesakes.
No, Harry doesn’t claim to have the gift of an animal whisperer,
able to dialogue with non-human creatures, but he does acknowledge
receiving whispered instructions in a dream to create artworks
that apply glass to canvass. Dr. Dolittle has given joy to generations of
children. Harry Doolittle contributed to giving an equivalent joy to a
generation of Baby Boomers by working on two of the most popular,
landmark children’s television programs of the 1950’s, The Howdy
Doody Show and Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
And yes, like Jimmy Doolittle, Harry was also a warrior in
World War II. He piloted a Patrol Torpedo boat in the South Pacific,
just like President John F. Kennedy, who’s famed P.T. 109 was
rammed and sunk by an enemy ship. It turns out Harry Doolittle was
just one digit away from disaster. He skippered P.T. 108.
Words for Sale
Over the span of four decades, Doolittle channeled his creativity
through a conscious manipulation of language, a far cry from the
20 ARTisSpectrum
Reflecting Mandala #10 24” x 36” Mixed Media
subconscious images that would later encourage him to replace words
in favor of a visual syntax. Harry worked as a copywriter for some of
America’s leading advertising agencies. His gift for choosing the most
convincing words in service to sell merchandise and ideas landed him
in Johannesburg as the creative director for an American based ad
agency. He used his language skills to persuade people to think and
respond in a specific way by promoting a perception of the personal
benefits they would derive from purchasing his products.
Doolittle moved from using words to sell commodities to using
words to monitor the success or failure of media manipulation of
the public. For six and a half years he worked as a managing editor
for two magazines pertaining to radio and television ratings. This
consummate wordsmith began to paint in 1969, but didn’t exhibit for
nearly a decade.
Words Create Problems
While living in Africa, Doolittle married Misook, an Asian
artist and clothing designer who vigorously supported Harry’s avocation
as a painter. After a lifetime of creatively employing language to
promote and persuade others, Harry Doolittle concluded that, “words
create problems.” He considers words as the primary ingredient in
the spreading of “disharmony and dissonance.” Disharmony and
dissonance are musically based negative terms, carefully chosen by

Doolittle, who once played the violin. He has rejected written language
as the vehicle for his participation in a universal culture he believes
should be rooted in spirituality, balance, peace and beauty.
Doolittle began painting in 1969 while a creative director
at one of America’s leading advertising agencies in America. Creating
visual art during this period in his life heralded a time of clashing
perceptions and priorities. After all, Doolittle was a highly respected
wordsmith selling American ideas, ideals and products on foreign
soil while at the same time spilling out a unique vision on canvas that
wasn’t at all concerned with selling, but sharing. This self-taught artist
offered up his colorful, mixed-media images that were rooted in
the whimsical, the decorative and meditative at galleries in America
and South Africa.
Doolittle’s artwork is free of narrative and language. Its ethereal
dream inspired and inspiring abstractions are not connected in
any way to the concrete, and thus offers communication that stands in
exact opposition to the deployment of words. His unique symmetry of
acrylics, glass, aluminum, and brass leaf creates richly textured scintillant
compositions noted for their playful, yet disciplined approach to
color and shape. He notes that his singularity of design stems from the
subconscious use of a technique he has developed over the past four
decades. The mandala is a circle or wheel symbolizing an enlightened
being’s compassion and love for sentient beings. It is dedicated to
peace and physical balance, both for the individual and for the world.
Yin & Yang, Yang & Yin 24” x 36” Mixed Media
Four Reflecting Mandalas #1 24” x 36” Mixed Media
Mandala Visual Music
According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, mandalas are ritual
geometric designs that symbolize the universe. In Eastern religions
they are also considered an aid to meditation. Doolittle’s mandalas take
the shape of circles, an image his unconscious received in a series of
non-narrative dreams. The peace he received from these images, along
with whispered admonishments to share them with others, emotionally
connected him to a spirituality that was devoid of any horrors. These
circles and orbs became the reverberation of a dominant theme that
was always dreamed of in color.
It is probably no coincidence that many of Doolittle’s circular
mandalas often remind one of a music cd or an album’s turntable-
-- a metaphoric musical sphere of visual melody that offers up the
same layered quality found in a musical note. His paintings hang like
music on a wall, his mandala spheres taking on the function of an album
turntable because the paintings can be alternatively turned, spun
and placed in any direction---vertically, horizontally, up, down, left,
right-- in order to achieve individual viewer balance and harmony.
Because Doolittle encourages the proactive choice of positioning the
paintings according to personal tastes and moods, the viewer can assume
the role of conductor by orchestrating these spheres into fresh
and unique journeys. Thus, the owner of a Harry Doolittle canvas has
the potential to create a “new music” with each turn of the canvas
and subsequent viewing.
Flight #2 24” x 36” Mixed Media
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Harry_C._Doolittle.aspx
21 ARTisSpectrum

Feel the Rhythm 74” x 31” Acrylic on Linen
Like an impression of the sea and sky at dawn, where horizons
do not exist and all is misty, the fluid, impressionistic
abstracts of Veronica Leiton seep into the viewer’s subconscious
to leave their message of profundity and tranquility.
Leiton’s art is a pictorial transliteration of poetry to image.
Often, the inspiration for these evocative works is a poem
or a fragment of written text. She is affected by her love of the
sea and she travels through the world of color with an aqueous
palette of watery hues, intertwining shades of blues and greens
in lyrical combinations to communicate her vision, which has
the mystery of deep, quiet oceans. She mixes different materials,
textures, rhythms and veils to her oils on canvas or paper
to introduce a note of unpredictability to the fantasy worlds she
creates in free-flowing brushstrokes. Leiton’s paintings have to
be viewed at leisure—the viewer taking the time so necessary to
understand the message—because each piece is a world composed
of micro-worlds, spaces that are transformed into different
spaces, creating a new reality of serenity and infinity.The
artist lives and works in Mexico, a country surrounded on either
side by the sea.
22 ARTisSpectrum
Ve ro n i c a L e i to n
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Veronica_Leiton.aspx
Kitty
van
d e
R i j t
The tantalizing works of Dutch artist Kitty van de Rijt feature
sinuous curves found in the female form and brushwork
that recalls the worn stucco exterior of an ageing Italian villa. It
is the textural quality of her work that immediately draws one
in for a closer look. Colors blend together in misty reverie as
faceless figures come forth and recede. In van de Rijt’s work,
“Feel the Rhythm,” a lone female figure stands resolutely, a
snake coiled round her torso, both forms ushering forth from a
melodic haze of oranges and reds, blues and violets. The striking
symbols of woman and snake create a sense of mystery,
yet their meaning is not absolute, but open to a variety of interpretations.
It is this dialogue between the art and the viewer
in combination with a tactile approach that makes van de Rijt’s
work so enchanting.
Born in 1960 and raised in the town of Veldhoven, it was
only about fifteen years ago that van de Rijt began taking art
lessons. Not long after this time, while developing her unique
style, the instructor recommended that she exhibit her art. Van
de Rijt developed a preference for painting with acrylics on
linen, as well as sculpting in bronze, wood and stone.
Though rarely delineating the human face, van de Rijt
nonetheless speaks volumes through her art. “In my work,” she
explains, “I am communicating with the viewer and the world
at large.” It is in fact the remote and detached nature of her
figures and absence of details in their environment that make
the work so compelling, and in turn timeless. Van de Rijt’s work
has generated extensive interest while being exhibited in the
Netherlands and abroad.
http://kittyvanderijt.com
Breve Navagacion en Pie Quebrado 22” x 28” Oil

M i c h e l e
Ke l l n e r
The American artist Michele Kellner uses photography to explore
the world around us, providing a lens through which the
everyday appears extraordinary. With a careful eye for detail,
Kellner captures in black and white the multiple reflections found
on store windows, passersby, merchandise and the streetscape
all superimposed upon a single pane. The resulting photographs
make up her series “Through the Glass Lightly: Reflections on
Storefronts,” an array of intriguing images in which buildings
become nebulous shadows, trees transform into prismatic webs,
mannequins and people collide. Occasionally Kellner herself appears
in the photograph, emerging like an apparition from the surrounding
silhouettes. In most cases, the light—whether reflecting
upon or shining through the large window—distorts the scene, creating
a thought-provoking record of a moment in time. Through
these unique visions, Kellner conveys a sophisticated philosophy
regarding the plurality of life; she states, “We all have our own,
rather narrow view of the world. I want to broaden that outlook to
show that there are several truths happening at the same time—all
the time.” Thus, with intention, Kellner’s art mirrors reality and,
in the process, prompts us to question reality’s very nature.
www.portfolios.com/michelekellner
Le Flou S’installe 51” x 39” Oil on Wood
A Study in Black and White, NYC, 2005; ‘Reflections on Storefronts’
25” x 24” Photographic Print
P h i l i p p e
R i n g l et
Belgium’s Philippe Ringlet has painted for more than fifteen
years, but kept his work relatively private until 2002. Since
then, his French and Swiss exhibitions have found commercial
and critical success.
The French word flou translates as ‘soft focus’ or ‘haziness,’
and this ambiguity fits the mood of Ringlet’s “Le Flou
S’installe. Its pitcher and plates seem to glow from within, suggesting
not so much cleanliness as an otherworldly feel. Elsewhere,
the strong, simmering tones of orange and banana-yellow evoke
the sensuality and eventual decay of ripe fruit (which, tellingly,
does not appear on the table itself). Here, Ringlet pays sly homage
to the still-life masterpieces of his Flemish forebears. Yet, the feral
quality of one corner’s dark circular brushstrokes recalls Abstract
Expressionism, and its emphasis on revealing what the psyche
hides. Is Ringlet’s table the unifying site of abundance that our
culture celebrates, or the place where a family’s darkest secrets
will be revealed? Ringlet’s “soft focus” is not a blurring of hard
truths; his ‘haziness’ is not muddled purpose. Rather, the flou of
“Le Flou S’installe” acknowledges the unavoidable uncertainty
found in daily life.
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Philippe_Ringlet.aspx
23 ARTisSpectrum

There has always been an ongoing romance
between art and Chelsea. The Chelsea
Hotel, one of Manhattan’s few bohemian
hot spots, maintains its existence as a famous
landmark inhabited by artists, writers, and
musicians. At various times, it was home to
William S. Burroughs, Dylan Thomas, Janis
Joplin, and Sid Vicious. The hotel on West
23rd Street continues to be a place for artistic
convergence. The lobby looks like a nostalgic
art museum. From sculptures seemingly
suspended in mid-air to paintings exhibited
in all thoroughfares, the artistic ambiance
perpetuates the past.
24 ARTisSpectrum
Earliest residents include Charles
Melville Dewey in 1885, Rufus Zogbaum, an
artist who later covered the Spanish-American
War for Harper’s Magazine, and Henry Abbey,
a theatrical producer. The Chelsea has
been visited by actresses Sarah Bernhardt and
Lillian Russell and the writers Mark Twain
and O Henry in 1907. Suzanne La Follette,
an early feminist who wrote on conservative
issues, spent many years living at the Chelsea
Hotel writing and editing magazines such
as The Nation, The American Mercury and
The Freeman. She also wrote several books
including Concerning Women, which came
out in 1926 and pressed for the civil rights of
women, and Art in America, a 1929 work that
traced American artistic development from
Colonial times.
In the 1930s, Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t
Go Home Again at the hotel. Artist John Sloan
lived there and Edgar Lee Masters made it his
permanent home. Dylan Thomas and Brendan
Behan also came to the Chelsea. James T.
Farrell and Nelson Algren passed through as
well. Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea Girls there.
And it was at the Chelsea Hotel that Arthur C.
Clarke and Stanley Kubrick wrote the screenplay
for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Among other Chelsea Hotel
inhabitants are the writer Jakov Lind
and the composer Virgil Thomson,
who has made the hotel his home for
40 years. Brazilian photographer,
Claudio Edinger first visited the Chelsea
Hotel in 1976. A few weeks later,
he moved in to stay and took pictures
of the residents. Eighty portraits along
with an introduction by Pete Hamill
were gathered into the book, Chelsea
Hotel, published by Abbeville Press.
And as Pete Hamill noted, “Still they
come, full of hope or despair, to make
the Chelsea their home.”
The idea of the Chelsea Hotel
originated with Philip Hubert, a
French-born architect with the firm,
Hubert & Pirsson. Hubert is credited
with originating the co-op in New
York as well as the duplex apartment
concept. The original Chelsea Hotel
had a barbershop, restaurant, topfloor
artists’ studios, a roof garden,
maid service, and about 100 apartments
with 70 owned by stockholders
and about 30 rented. In 1885, many
apartments were owned by tradesmen
and suppliers on the project who were
persuaded to take them in lieu of money.
The apartments cost from $7,000
to $12,000 each. A floor plan in the
hotel collection of the library of the
New-York Historical Society is close
to the original design. It shows a long,
east-west hallway running from end to
end serving about 10 apartments per
floor, most with two bedrooms.
During that time period,
23rd Street was the prototype thoroughfare
of American Broadway Theater.
Like Bowery and 14th Street before
it, this era would soon pass. But
in the late 19th century, Chelsea was
the center for theater entertainment
with the Opera House Palace, Pike’s
Opera House, and Proctor’s Vaudeville
Theater daily shows.
Changes occurred in Chelsea
with the opening of The Empire,
Broadway’s first uptown theater near
40th Street. The migration and establishment
of theater took several years,
but the social landscape of Chelsea
was soon altered. Stripped of the
glamourous theater audiences, 23rd
Street became a location for industrial
commerce. Financial panics of 1893
and 1903 combined with the rising
costs of urban life, bankrupted the
Chelsea cooperative and forced the
relocation of its original inhabitants.
By 1905, the Chelsea cooperative was
sold and reorganized as a hotel.
The Chelsea Hotel began a different
era of occupants ranging from writers
to artists and urban transients, including
Dee Dee Ramone who lived at
the hotel on and off since 1974. He
wrote the songs for Ramones and accomplished
the best work at the hotel
because it was quiet and the walls
were thick. His book called, “How I
Survived the Ramones,” tells the story
of the band. Today, recent residents
include Sally Singer, the fashion news
editor at Vogue magazine, and her
husband, Joseph O’Neill, an Irish novelist
and lawyer, who are raising their
three sons in an eighth-floor suite.
The current Chelsea has 250 units
of one to four rooms. Three-quarters of
the rooms are occupied by long-term
residents. The others are transient
rooms. Many suites retain their Victorian
layouts and spectacular carved
working marble fireplaces. The suites
are furnished in an artistic exhibition
of styles. Some have the decor of the
1950s with tube steel dinette sets, others
show large carved Victorian dressers
with light fixtures like modern art.
The wide hallways with windows at
each end remind one of Renaissance
Italy with its small back streets. The
two-part manager’s office was carved
out of the original Ladies’ Reception
room on the ground floor. Ceiling
murals shadow old bookcases full of
Chelsea history. There is a high, open
staircase behind the check-in desk.
Rising ten floors to a spacious skylight,
it is paired with a complicated
Victorian iron railing. Like the rest
of the hotel, it is decorated with the
artwork of present and past tenants.
It is a lively old haunt that continues
to echo eternal artistic excellence.
There are plaques mounted in front
of the Chelsea Hotel dedicated to deceased
artists who once lived here:
Thomas Wolfe, Brendan Behan,
Virgil Thomson.
These days, for about 250 dollars
per night, one can get a room in the
historic Hotel Chelsea on West 23rd
Street. All rooms include cable television,
shower, bathroom, and bellman
service with local restaurants
willing to deliver food directly to
your hotel room.
The migration of a multitude of art
galleries in the Chelsea neighborhood
have added to the Chelsea Hotel’s
history, charm, and vibrancy. The
romance with art in Chelsea continues.
People who come here live and
love life creatively.
25 ARTisSpectrum

The Studio Visit
This feature will explore the connection between the artist’s work and the tangible domain of his or
her immediate environment, whether that domain be a small inner city space, a floor through loft,
or a studio tucked away in the basement of a beachfront property. An exploration will be undertaken
seeking to understand the elements contributing to the inspiration of their work.
The painter Charles Blake lives in
Oak Beach, Long Island, a narrow,
isolated strip of beach property that is
situated between the Atlantic Ocean and
the Fire Island Inlet. His view, from the
back side of the refurbished two-story
house is spectacular. The inlet is located
not more than 100 feet from his back
door. Juniper trees, tall grass, and newly
planted bamboo adorn the surroundings
and graciously yield to the cool breeze
26 ARTisSpectrum
Charles Blake
that wafts from the direction of the unspoiled,
blue water.
I asked Charles about his workday.
How does he access the creative
process, and carry the torch of inspiration
with him to his studio? There was no
hesitation in his answer, as he described
early morning walks along the narrow
pathway, through the thick shrubs that
lead to the waters edge. “Here I clear my
mind of everything, I listen to what is inside
and around me.

Here I find my balance, as it were”.
Around him Charles finds a pulse in
the gentle pounding of water, the salty
ocean air, and in the tall reeds that
brush against each other with the repetitive
rhythm of motion and sound.
The pathway in the back of the
house meanders to the right where
tomatoes hang over the wooden structure
that prevents them from touching
the ground. All around us the sweet
scent of basil fills the air as Charles
tends to his second passion, gardening.
The director of design and on air
promotion for NBC Television for 12
years, Charles is now devoting virtually
all of his time to painting, organizing
exhibitions, his house, gardening and
watching over his two cats who watch
him, from every window of the house,
as he walks around his property.
As Charles approaches the
house, a rush of emotion fills his mind
as he steps into the studio, where in
the act of painting, he will re-discover
who he is today. He will sit at the sundrenched
table that is crammed with
glass jars filled to the brim with paintbrushes,
and half squeezed tubes of
acrylics. He will walk to the left wall
where a stack of stretched canvases
act as reassurance that there, in this
space, he will confront the very nature
of his own reality.
A dozen or so mixed media,
figurative paintings overlap and occupy
nearly every corner of the studio.
Many of the highly structured
and textured surfaces contain symbols
of Blake’s physical environment with
metal reeds, chains and found objects
that incessantly enforce verve and veracity.
Paintings of men, women and
children, some of whom are dressed
in turn of the century clothing, gaze
out; each is poised in a staged narrative
that engages the viewer with a
haunting, enigmatic longing; providing
a poignant window into the very
meaning of their existence.
- Angela Di Bello
27 ARTisSpectrum

Quinn Stilletto lives in a world of swirling colors that sometimes
seem to be embedded in his canvases and sometimes seem to
be floating around him in the air. His expressionist visions can portray
what has been called diverse layers of consciousness. Stilletto’s
control of these layers and colors is such that he is equally at home
presenting a non-objective painting as he is with guiding his strokes
of color into the form of a portrait. For example, in his work titled
“Einstein,” a textured, somber colored canvas gives way to an assault
of yellow brushstrokes until the familiar face of the genius theoretician,
Einstein, stares out at us.
It’s appropriate for Quinn Stilletto to take a thinker such as
Einstein as a subject for visual exploration. Stilletto’s own work springs
from a well of thought and contemplation. The artist is deeply involved
in an intertwined flow of intellect and spirit. His earliest path was pointed
towards the priesthood. He decided after some years that he could
also serve those around him with his art and his activism. He dedicates
some part of his art and his energy towards helping people—particularly
artists—who have been affected by the AIDS epidemic.
British-born artist Stilletto speaks of the art as an intrinsic
part of his faith and his spiritual practices. In fact, he says he feels that
28 ARTisSpectrum
Q u i n n
S t i l l etto
Broadway in the Rain 41” x 42” Oil on Canvas
“The artist does not create, only God creates.” Stilletto sees himself as
a kind of conduit for the creativity that flows from outside the normal
human experience. He refers to the “infused faith” model described
by Thomas Aquinas. Philosophical concepts are central to Stilletto’s
world. He speaks of his world as a fantasy world in which beliefs are
fluid. “Truth is unstable, it’s built upon sand,” he says.
Stilletto moved with his family from his London birthplace
to New York during the 1950s, and finally settled in Ohio, It was in
the arts community of Cleveland where Stilletto found himself most
at home. Although his paintings, photographs, and sculptures are at
the center of his participation in that community, Stilletto’s life has
many facets. He owns a design firm that successfully tackles projects
as diverse as designing ladies’ active wear, doing architectural design,
and presenting a line of pop culture themed garments under the “Unwanted
Children” brand label.
Stilletto’s works have been exhibited in a variety of group
shows from Kansas City to New York. He also had one man shows at
Cleveland’s Barth Gallery, Pentagon Gallery, The Kelly Randall Gallery,
The Greg Martin Gallery and Novo Metro.
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Quinn_Stilletto.aspx
Einstein 62” x 43” Oil on Canvas

Spirit Guide #11 29” x 61” Oil Monoprint
Spirit Guide #6 61” x 29” Oil Monoprint
Judith
Brust
The process of monoprinting works well for veteran artist Judith
Brust. Masonite plates are inked and then manipulated with
drawing, painting, rubbing and the addition of found objects, fabric
and textured bits. Then they are run through a press with paper,
perhaps only once, but more often several times, as images
build up. Each new layer both obscures and reveals pieces of the
one that came before it, stringing together moments of experience,
loss and memory. Working intently for short bursts of time, Brust
allows the works to unfold as they will, intentionality giving way
to random color and imagery, the conscious and the unconscious
hand of the artist.
Brust’s Spirit Guide series, more than 20 monoprints made
over the past two years, confronts us with life’s journey. She -re
minds us of what we already know – that living is both profoundly
beautiful and meaningful – and also painful and finite. We suffer as
much as we experience joy and actualization. Danger encroaches at
every turn. But she holds out to us that we are not alone.
The work begs for our commitment of time and attention.
What is calm and soothing to look at is also awash with meaning.
Birds, the spirit guides whose wings will enfold and comfort
us, are watchful and protective as we make our way past sharp
fences that snag, and through the litter, muck and pollution of this
postmodern world in which we live. Even the birds are troubled,
banding together and pooling their strengths, but pointing the way
with outstretched wing.
Works from this series run the gamut of size. Large, hu -
man scale pieces address our exterior world, drawing us into color
and beautiful danger, enfolding us in wings. Small intimate pieces
mirror the inner world, where true growth and change are possible.
Stoic, beautiful birds again offer aid on our private journey from
birth to death and rebirth. Here is a glimpse of truth and possibil -
ity, the artist helping to point the way.
Mystery also lives amid this series, encouraging us to ponder
what we do not and cannot know. Studying and living with
Brust’s pieces raises more questions than answers. One think
about the divine, grace, purpose and hope. We are engaged
in this quest, as she is.
Judith Brust received her MA and MFA from SUNY - Al
bany and has exhibited extensively along the East coast for many
years. She divides her time between homes and studios in Roches -
ter NY, Nantucket and Captiva.
www.galleryblue.com
29 ARTisSpectrum

F anciful
30 ARTisSpectrum
¡ MERENGUE!
visualrhythms/ ritmosvisuales
This exhibition is organized by Centro Cultural
Eduardo León Jimenes (Santiago, Dominican
Republic) and presented and coordinated in
New York by El Museo del Barrio
September 29, 2006–January 21, 2007
Lead support provided by
Jacinto Domínguez, Perico ripiao, n.d. (detail) Oil on canvas. 36” x 30”.
Collection Juan R. Jorge García and Family
Rosalba
Rueda
Also on view through January 21, 2007:
This Skin I’m In: Contemporary
Dominican Art from El Museo del Barrio’s
Permanent Collection.
1230 Fifth Avenue
at 104th Street
New York, NY 10029
212 831 7272
www.elmuseo.org
and imaginative, the paintings of
Rosalba Rueda capture the viewer’s -at
tention with pure charm. Drawing on mythical
tales and modern astronomy for inspiration,
Rueda creates a timeless vision of two classical
characters. Her painting “Venus Meets
Mercury” was inspired by an astronomical
event on June 27, 2005. It is a painting - par
tially informed by the fantastic imagination of
painters like Marc Chagall, who is similarly
unencumbered by realism. Rueda’s renderings
of Mercury and Venus are stylized; both
figures thoroughly embody their roles of god/
goddess. Yet a touch of whimsy elevates the
Venus Meets Mercury 18” x 24” Oil on Canvas
work beyond the norm through Rueda’s unexpectedly thick and paint- suspended there for as long as he likes.
erly style and her dramatic use of color contrasts.
Rosalba Rueda is originally from Colombia. Though she has
Her paintings are rendered with sophistication and skill, but painted for most of her life, Rueda began to dedicate herself exclu-
also possess child-like innocence and humor. This winning combina - sively to painting ten years ago. She has taken part in several group
tion is what sets Rueda’s body of work apart. Her creative perspective exhibitions in Chicago, where she currently lives and works.
is strong and her imagination is a lucid tool. The viewer of Rosalba
Rueda’s work is granted access to this world of fancy and can remain http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Rosalba_Rueda.aspx

Iva Milanova
German artist Iva Milanova displayed her talent as a child in
Bulgaria. Her parents are artists, and her grandmother was a
weaver. This early experience is reflected in her art. She learned
how to weave, dye and mix colors, which brings to her painting
a rich textured quality. Her use of color recreates the intensity
of skeins of yarn, wet and freshly dyed. Her father created art
with metal and plastics, and her mother designed contemporary
jewelry. This immersion in art made it as natural for her to paint
as it is for a child to play. She produced her first aquarelle at age
10. Her talent was noticed by fashion companies who hired her
for textile design, at a young age. This recognition gained Mila -
nova admission to the Bulgarian School of Art in Sofia, where she
enrolled as a special student, still in high school. Later as an adult,
she studied in Germany.
The depth of her art stems from the tradition of icons that
must be more than a skillful rendering of a subject, but rather a
sacred window into spiritual realities. Madonnas possess a hypnotic
quality that uses an artist’s
skill as a tool to transcend
‘Her use of color
recreates the
intensity of skeins
of yarn, wet and
freshly dyed.’
the material world. Milanova’s
portraits possess this quality.
The “Woman With Turquoise
Flower” has intense eyes directed
towards another world,
away from the viewer. These
eyes are skewed, with the same
lack of attention to anatomical
detail as African ancestor figures.
The nose is schematized
and pale, - a chord of dramatic
contrast to the bright red notes of color too high on her cheeks,
and the garish off-centered red lips below. Surrounding this am -
biguous face is a large, dark hat whose carnelian brim acts as a
halo. The turquoise flower juts improbably into the face and hat,
floating with no logical support – an iconostasis, a veil, between
the viewer and subject. Is this woman a saint, clown or whore?
The impasto gold brush strokes describe a garment with an upside-down
dark cross at the improbably narrow neck beneath the
flower - suggesting a liturgical vestment . Completing this quasisacred
space are the pale yellow brushstrokes in the background,
a mystical aura. This compelling portrait is reminiscent of Ger -
man expressionism, with multivalent levels of meaning.
Her painting “Jealousy” inserts strong black and white
painted drawing into rich colors. A menacing bull, evocative of
Picasso, emerges from repetitive spirals and lines emoting brute
animal strength and passion. Milanova’s textile background enables
her to handle complex shapes with clarity and force. Her
academic studies in ancient archeology and Byzantine art combine
in her work to create compelling imageries, that unfold
and draw the viewer into the work, to probe further Milanovas’s
www.iva-milanova.de
Woman with a Turquoise Flower 35” x 31” Oil on Canvas
Jealousy 31” x 35” Oil on Canvas
31 ARTisSpectrum

32 ARTisSpectrum
Ellen
Marlen
Hamre
F or
Head of Naz 15” x 11” Pastel on Paper www.eyeoftheart.com
Did You Hear? 12.5” x 6” Acrylic and Mixed Media
Mohammed
Yasin Saddique
a self-taught painter just 30 years of age, Mohammed Yasin Sad -
dique has generated an impressive body of artwork that includes
portraits, nudes, landscapes, and cityscapes. Most of Saddique’s -por
traits are colorful, playful interpretations that often invoke the cubist
tradition. Bold black lines demarcate both sections of his painting and
sections of his subjects, which suggest both depth and texture. His
subjects emerge from the canvas as colorful patchwork quilts or paper
maché composites.
Saddique’s portraits are arguably his most evocative works.
To the sides of his subject’s head, Saddique will often include cross-
sections of his model’s profile. Here, Saddique experiments with -an
thropomorphic shapes. Some viewers, for example, might discern an
elephant’s face and trunk flanking Nadia’s face in his portrait of the
same name. Interestingly—perhaps even tellingly—Saddique’s own
portrait and that of his wife are strikingly different than his other portraits.
The former are virtually black-and-white compositions. The
faces of Saddique and his wife resemble white mannequin heads faintly
tinged by yellows and reds. They are as works in progress or model
faces to be molded sometime later into something new.
Saddique’s works can be found in private collections in various
European countries, the United States, England, India, and - Paki
stan. Saddique lives and works in London and Pakistan.
Presenting reductionist essentials with a dash
of humor, Norweigan artist Ellen Marlen
Hamre reveals both the essence of her art and
her philosophy of life: where there is order, there
is simplicity; where there is simplicity, there is
joy. Emphasizing freshness and spontaneity over
detail, Hamre clearly uses line, color, and motif
as principal means of expression, but it is her
sprightly characters that steal the show. Cartoonishly
stylized and utterly original, topsy-turvy female
figures cocooned in tube-like dresses spring
from unexpected angles, peek coyly around corners,
but more often than not assert themselves
front and center as the life of the painting. Exuding
optimism and palpable joy, fiery hues of hair
burst from their heads like wild crowns, sweep
implausibly to the side, or lift impossibly skyward
in total defiance of gravity.
Characterized by these signature figures
and rectilinear patterns which form the basic
structure of her compositions, Hamre gives the
impression that each painting is a fragment of
a larger work, a continuing story. Working primarily
in acrylic but also in watercolor, Hamre
infuses basic forms with rhythm and personality,
using bold color as well as vertical and horizontal
lines to support, accent and frame these vibrant
projections of her own enthusiasm.
www.ellenhamre.com

BRM 15950 ArtSpectrum_Ad1_MECH 7/26/06 2:06 PM Page 1
501 Plaza Real, Mizner Park
Boca Raton, FL • 561.392.2500
www.bocamuseum.org
M I N U T E S F R O M
T H E B E A C H
M I L E S F R O M
C O N V E N T I O N A L
GRAHAM NICKSON Lifeguard Chair with Two Bathers (detail), 1982-83.
ANDY WARHOL Marilyn (detail), 1964, Robert B. Mayer Family Collection, Chicago.
Daphne
Stephenson
Three White Monkeys in the Jungle 24” x 30” Oil on Canvas
The peaceful coloring and imagery displayed in Daphne
Stephenson’s artwork permeate visual serenity. Her gentle
strokes of oil reveal her delicate touch. There are no harsh angles
or bold shapes, just an aesthetically beautiful interpretation
of life. She creates as if she has taken life’s hardening qualities
and blurred them to appear more like a dream.
Stephenson’s choice of colors also aid her style of blissfulness.
Her colors are soothing and welcoming, bringing a slight
brightness to the scene and gently highlighting her shapes. The
use of subtle colors enhances the scene she is creating on her
canvas and gently awakens her images.
Even though Stephenson emphasizes specific strokes of
the paint, she arranges them with space allowing the shapes to
breathe instead of looking cramped. With all the activity that
is occurring on the canvas, the space between the images bring
a hovering effect, which doesn’t translate into chaotic busyness
but more like an airy bustle. Her style of spatial symmetry,
soothing color palette and rounded images, are elements that
fuse together to reveal her artistic statement. She paints with
the intention of creating an escape from life’s pressures and
bringing tranquility of the soul and nature to her viewer. Daphne
Stephenson has exhibited at The Royal Summer Exhibition
Piccadilly, London and is the Chairman of the Association of
British Naives.
www.daphnestephenson.co.uk
33 ARTisSpectrum

Through rich oils and textured watercolors, Vesselin Kourtev paints
compositions ripe with associations of both allegory and mysticism.
His works are suffused with light and pastels; his colors saturate the
entirety of each work. Kourtev’s abstract, ethereal backgrounds allow
the faces of his carefully drawn figures to stand out in sharp, detailed
contrast. Kourtev, however, does not limit the emotional content of his
paintings to a one-dimensional idea. Though his body of work has a
distinct and repeating style, each painting tells the viewer a different
story and shares a different idea. Kourtev’s ideas are not only about
the mechanics of art (though he makes a lot of creative statements on
the subject) but are also about the past, present and future of our human
memory and psyche.
“A Tale of Sheherazad” gives a modern vantage point to the
tale about the murderous king who intends to kill his bride on their
wedding night. Sheherazad saves her life by telling him a tale that
lasts a thousand and one nights, thereby winning his heart. Though
Kourtev uses watercolor and pencil in this work, he creates the illusion
of a collage loosely held together. Each character in the story occupies
34 ARTisSpectrum
Ve s s e l i n
Ko u r tev
A Tale about Scheherazad 22” x 30” Watercolor on Handmade Paper
a different section of the collage, disconnected from the other. This
truncation creates a mood of isolation and strange loneliness within the
painting. The King and Sheherazad eye each other from their separate
patches of color, illustrating the tenuous nature of their relationship
before Sheherazade has won back her life.
“Thoughts About Origin” has a dreamy quality that permeates
the viewer’s imagination. Where the “Sheherazad” picture may
illustrate unexpected and dangerous connection, “Origin” generates
feelings of deep connection to history and ancestry. Kourtev uses pastel
colors that blend easily into one another. The two elderly figures
in the center seem to emerge, ghost-like from the amorphous beauty
of the landscape. Next to them is a pristine egg, symbolizing potential
and new life. The interplay of color and light creates an atmosphere of
fluidity that nicely compliments this vision of connection.
Vesselin Kourtev is originally from Bulgaria. He obtained his
degree at the University of Veliko Turnovo in Fine Arts in 1985. His
work has been widely exhibited throughout Eastern and Western Eu -
rope and in the U.S. He currently lives in New Jersey.
www.kourtev.com
Thoughts about Origin 29” x 24” Oil on Canvas

The painting of Berenice Michelow, intensely personal
and alive with vibrant humanity, is very deeply
rooted in the artist’s upbringing. During her childhood
amidst South African Apartheid, Michelow became dis -
tinctly aware of the racial struggle and turmoil within
the state, and from this tension she derives much of
her subject matter. But she wisely chooses to present a
positive social commentary, portraying the strength of
the black community and the familial sense of interconnectivity
that now emerges in today’s free South Africa.
The faces of her figures radiate warmth and reveal the
artist’s deep, personal attachment to the subject: these
are not just pictures on a canvas, but representations of
complex personalities and relationships. “Sibusisu with
Cars” is part of a series dedicated to the new South
Africa. The single figure, a young boy, addresses
the viewer directly with a complex expression; in his
hand he holds the controls to a skeletal toy car, which
seems to represent the infrastructure of the burgeoning
nation. Through light, form, and symbol, Michelow
makes it clear that Sibusisu stands as the future of his
national heritage.
Michelow is a highly celebrated artist with
credentials including participation in the 1979 Val -
paraiso Biennale and placements in prestigious private
collections. She began her work in abstraction and has
since moved to more naturalistic forms, citing a growing
political awareness as the cause of this shift. The
paintings make it clear that her subjects are heartfelt;
the realization of this personal connection makes the
work so much stronger.
www.michelow.com
Nymph in Movement 29.5” x 22” Pastel on Paper
B e r e n i c e
M i c h e l ow
I n
Sibusicu with Cars 48” x 60” Oil on Canvas
Nelida Kalanj
her pastel “Nymph in Movement,” the Croatian artist Nelida Ka -
lanj creates a faceless woman entangled in roots or other sinewy
connectors that resemble, overall, an intricate neural network. Yet
the union between the woman and her surroundings is seamless;
the roots are a part or extension of the woman’s own body. The
interconnections between humans and nature are an important sensitivity
Kalanj explores in the many works she has undertaken over
the past 25 years. In “Dancing Fishes,” the connection between
human-made processes—in this case, art itself—and nature is even
more apparent. Carrying the spontaneity of a sketch, it remains in
the middle of the process of creation and at the same time is in a
state of completion.
Public displays of Kalanj’s art have been numerous. Ka -
lanj has had approximately 50 solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions
throughout Europe and the world. Her highest honor may
have come during the early 1990s when, as civil war raged in then
Yugoslavia, Kalanj was called upon by the Presidency of Croatia’s
Constitutional Court to exhibit her work for a gathering of foreign del-
egates. She was called upon by the presidency of Germany’s Con -
stitutional Court to exhibit her work under their patronage. Kalanj
lives and works in Rijeka in northwestern Croatia, the city in which
she previously studied at the Academy of Fine Art. She is a member
of the Croatian Association of Artists (the HDLU) and the Society of
Artists in Croatia (LIKUM).
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Nelida_Kalanj.aspx
35 ARTisSpectrum

Robert Hinkelman
Vincenzo
Maiello
The abstract works of Vincenzo Maiello serve as emblematic forms
to express his personal heritage and the study of his beloved Italy.
Maiello’s work is rich and tactile, done with sweeping gestures and the
expert movements of his palette knife. His imagery is not fashioned
with complete abstraction, insofar as they relay a distinct impression
of his subject. For instance, a series of works completed in reference
to the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, that destroyed Hercu -
laneum and Pompeii, contain overt references to billowing smoke and
the flowing of molten lava. The exquisitely painted “Venetian Canal”
is an impressionistic scene fashioned to capture the aura of Venice
rather than to relate its specific details. “I use layered textures and col -
or to convey my message,” Maiello states, “while evoking the viewer’s
own visual interpretation.” Other Italian icons and scenes have been
influential to the major works in his oeuvre, including pizza, gondolas,
Venetian Glass, and Tuscan vistas.
Maiello is a lifelong artist who spent time painting and studying
in Venice and Florence, then returned to the United States to
further explore the possibilities of his style through multi-media and
collage. Maiello is a member of the International Society of Acrylic
Artists and President of Kudzu Art Zone. He lives and works in Nor -
cross, Georgia.
http://enzoartist.com
36 ARTisSpectrum
Moonlight on MV’s South Beach 24” x 36” Acrylic on Canvas
Robert Hinkelman constructs breathtaking landscape
paintings of vibrant, majestic, natural
vistas. These spacious, breathing landscapes show
nature in all its wonderful splendor. Haunting, rocky
shorelines, burning deserts, snow filled mountains,
everglade jungles, glorious sunsets, and barren seascapes.
Hinkelman’s painting career began as
a creative outlet and partial cure for cabin fever.
“From the beginning, I have been drawn to nature’s
infinite moods and displays. Look at the ocean and
feel its relentless energy. Contrast that to the gentle
flow of a stream and the serene, colorful autumn forests
and mountains. Feel the bite of the winter wind
over the snow. Then, when light creates breathtaking
effects, the brush moves effortlessly.”
Hinkelman has analyzed the painting mas-
ters to gleam their inspirations. “Landscapes, sea -
scapes, skyscapes, birds of prey—how best to bring
the right form, light and color to canvas jumpstarts
and sustains my creativity. A memory returns of a
warm, misty early morning as the sun rises to light
the sky.” Expressive form, vibrant color chock full of
personality, and stoic temperament abound.
www.yessy.com/rhinkel661/gallery.html
Venetian Canal 42” x 32” Acrylic on Canvas

Nature’s Art 24” x 20” Giclee Print
Te r r y A m b u r g ey
Terry Amburgey’s photography reveals the extraordinary in the orment and light. His photographs create startling and fresh images of
dinary. Telling a new story through a picture is his stated goal. city scenes, a new narrative for the familiar.
Yet, his story is open-ended, and left for each viewer to interpret for He is also adept at exploiting the dramatic qualities of black
himself. He handles a wide variety of subject matter in a distinc- and white photography, creating rich textured surfaces and dense contively
dramatic style. His complex and compelling images can evoke centrations of powerful dark and light contrasts. His compelling com-
a broad range of responses. Even though the subject matter may at positions have a monumental effect in black and white, in the tradition
times be ambiguous, the visual effect is direct and clear. He presents of great photographers of landscape such as Ansel Adams.
our ordinary visual world back to us in a radical new way. His nar-
Amburgey lives in Long Island, New York. His
rative brings us to an
easy accessibility to
intense new level of
the ocean and the
appreciation for the
beach enabled him to
visual beauty that sur-
produce an extraordirounds
us.
nary series of photo-
His interests
graphs that study the
range from the micro-
intersection of sand,
cosmic to the mac-
sea and sky under
rocosmic. Close up
apocalyptic lighting
studies of subjects that
that is only possible
could be biological,
when you are on loca-
botanical or inert are
tion and able to cap-
all treated with intense
ture an extraordinary
attention to extraordi-
visual moment.
nary patterns of form
Amburgey’s photo-
and color. What you
graphs, Giclee prints,
are actually looking
at times appear to
at becomes irrelevant
render solid matter
confronting the visual
into atmospheric or
story created by the
nearly liquid states.
total abstract effect.
His exquisite broad vista landscapes place nature in the
Early 20” x 16” Giclee Print
Amburgey’s spectacular
imagery is well
context of the cosmos. A mountain, a tree, the sea, or the sky become served by Giclee technology that amplifies the color and crisp detail
more than themselves in his photographs. They act as a link to the of his images, providing a dramatic narrative, a distinctive story that
history of the planet, a glimpse into the universe. Amburgey creates becomes unique for each viewer.
a mood and conveys the immensity of the experience of nature. This
approach is also applied to his inventive cityscapes that explore move- www.terryamburgey.com
37 ARTisSpectrum

Doris Naffah
Doris Naffah’s mixed media is swarmed with an array of activity,
imagery, brilliant colors and sociological commentary. Within a
thick cotton piece of paper, she is able to expose her artistic talent and
influences with strength and a bold voice.
The vivid lights and colors of the Caribbean have inspired
Naffah to delve into a diverse color palette. Her colors carry the weight
of nature’s vibrancy, connecting her images with her social observations.
Along with her colorful taste, she uses her medium to explore
her fascination with human behavior and faces. She wanders
into the human relationship with nature, life cycles and the world.
The everyday decisions and moments intrigue her curiosity and are
displayed in her artwork.
Naffah’s style of depicting a multitude of underlying commentary
and busyness is one of the qualities that sets her high amongst
her peers. Even her decision to work with mixed media as her medium
adds to her experienced talent. She uses the millenary Javanese Batik
technique, which is a dye-resisting process. She also adds her own
touch by working with beeswax, dyes, colored pencils, acrylics and
watercolors on a thick heavy cotton paper.
These remarkable couplings of technique and personal style
are what make Naffah a riveting contemporary artist. Her talent is loud
and strong and her work brings an outlet to a new reality.
www.dorisnaffah.com
38 ARTisSpectrum
Survivors 30.5” x 23” Batik and Mixed Media on Paper

Barbanakova
The human condition and its surrounding environs, from the deeply
spiritual connections between people to the profoundly simple objects
of everyday life, are the inspiration for painter Ta Barbanakova.
Her awareness and attention to the smallest nuances in her day-to-day
ventures provide her with the matter upon which her paintings are
founded. “A Stroll” is an example of how observing someone in their
daily routine may provoke a connection between the artist and her
subject. The decadent use of color and paint in this work dazzle the eye
while the subject, a woman walking her dog through the park, subdues
the soul and offer her audience a simple slice-of-life.
Barbanakova’s style is supremely painterly, objects emerge
from the heavy strokes as impressions. The details are in the feelings
evoked from the scene. The woman walks with a serene expression
as her dog ambles forward sniffing the air. Foliage encroaches gently
upon the figure; the caress of nature is a blessing of the simple
life. “My paintings are my thoughts,” she explains, “my childhood
memories that are calling me back, new experiences and my dreams
that drive me forward.”
Barbanakova, in her search to portray the human condition,
has explored the use of metaphor and personification. “In Full Sail” is
highly successful work, painted with her signature impasto technique,
relating the excitement and wonder of embarking upon life’s journey.
In this piece the ocean is the device used to evoke a passage or voyage,
and floating amongst the waves is a colorful house placed in a
sailboat. The image is teeming with joy and excitement as the unruly
waters reflect the brilliant hues
of the early morning sky and
the windows of the house radiate
the warm glow from within.
Typical of her works, “In Full
Sail” suggests a number of different
readings; here the idea
and location of home is not
sedentary but portable. Poi -
gnantly left out of the work is
a beginning or an end, suggesting
that upon this voyage, as in
life, there is no destination but
only the journey.
Barbanakova was
born in Krasnodar, Russia in
1975. She earned her MFA
at the Kuban State University
and has focused on her career
as an artist since 1997. She
has exhibited widely throughout
Germany and Russia, and
continues to gain recognition,
recently acquiring representation
in the United States. Ta
Barbanakova lives and works
in Voronezh, Russia.
www.colordiary.com
Ta
A Stroll 28” x 30” Oil on Canvas
In Full Sail 20” x 24” Oil on Canvas
39 ARTisSpectrum

Spirituality and serenity are integral to my work,” states Austrianborn
painter Ernestine Tahedl. For the viewer of Tahedl, serenity
is just the beginning. Tahedl’s work not only captures an inspired moment
of the natural world at its gentlest and most inviting, she evokes
emotion and romanticism through her painterly style and rich colors.
Tahedl’s landscapes have both an ephemeral and a tactile quality. Her
use of light renders the composition seemingly weightless, while her
bold brushwork adds sensuality.
Her piece “Arioso,” a three-paneled piece, speaks to her
vision of serenity. Muted shades of blue fill the viewer’s eye, while
touches of red bloom on this still body of water. On the side of the
painting, sunlight dances brilliantly on the water, capturing the exquisite
moment in the afternoon when the sun sinks towards evening.
“Concerto Pastoral,” a two-sided, four-paneled piece, is a
variation on the theme. Using the same natural image of lilies on water,
“Concerto Pastoral” is a bolder, more distinctly Impressionistic
composition. Side 1 emphasizes luxuriant blues and wine-dark reds.
The contrast is distinct between these color groups, yet Tahedl erases
the line distinguishing between an object and its reflection. This fusion
adds a fluid, growing quality to the painting, complimented by the
quiet emotional candor of the work as a whole. This expressive quality
is continued on Side 2 of the piece, where blue and red is repeated,
this time with the emphasis on the red and gold tones of the scene.
The mood of Side 2 is subdued; the bold blues have ceded to the
warm-toned richness that comes with a later hour in the day. Tahedl’s
attention to the subtle and delicate shifts in the natural world ask the
viewer to participate in a similar kind of graceful appreciation of color
and light. As Tahedl states, “Color, to me, is light.”
Ernestine Tahedl received her Master’s Degree in Fine Art
from the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts. Tahedl holds awards for
her work from Austria, Canada and Japan. Her work is owned both
publicly and privately and she has been exhibiting her work extensively
throughout the world for over thirty years. Ernestine Tahedl currently
lives and works in Ontario, Canada.
www.interlog.com/~etahedl
40 ARTisSpectrum
E r n e s t i n e Ta h e d l
Arioso 48” x 70” Acrylic on Canvas
Concerto Pastorale,
Side #1
65” x 80”
Acrylic on Wood
Concerto Pastorale, Side #2

Christian
Brandner
The paintings of Christian Brandner represent
the unconscious mind liberated
through imagination, taking the viewer into
a universe of personal visions and feelings
where the everyday, rational world blends with
alternate realities.
Brandner goes deep into the wellspring
of his inspiration and comes up with a
free association of human and abstract forms to
create a balanced world in a chaotic universe
that transcends the mundane and exists on a
plane somewhere between reality and a dream.
He uses a muted palette that can go from cool
color schemes of blues and umbers to warm oranges
and browns mixed with resins and heightened with gold or silver
leaf to represent the sometimes startling, dreamlike images. Birth is
a recurrent theme in Brandner’s work. His search for artistic expression
leads him to create images of sensual, soft and exquisite female
torsos intermingled with embryos floating in their own universe, tied to
nowhere by twisting umbilical cords, or human forms floating in space
like the celestial bodies that surround them.
Painting #77377, Triptych 62” x 78” Oil and Gold Leaf on Canvas
Christian Brandner lives and works in New York, where he
has developed a successful career collaborating with interior designers
and architects while developing his own personal vision.
www.christiangbrandner.blogspot.com
41 ARTisSpectrum

Through her aggressive experimentations with materials, Helga
Kreuzritter has developed a language with which to speak on a
abandoned. It is a stark image, with a cold otherworldly light cast down
upon the forsaken structures, desiccated by the forces of nature and
multitude of topics ranging from politics to the dueling powers time. “The entire sophisticated array of housing, storage buildings,
of man and nature.
meeting place (“agora”) does no longer fulfill its function,” Kreuzritter
“Nature has a very mighty and merciless companion: time. explains, “simply because nature did capture back the land, devastat-
It plays against man,” she explains. “Many of my artworks illustrate ing man’s artificial constructions.”
this fact, and they show how perishable man’s efforts are in the long “The Crowd” is a work of similar textural quality, but more
run.” An aesthetic commonality in her works is the lack of clean, forthcoming about its content. Ghoulish faces rise from their rocky out -
highly polished material so prized in architecture, automobiles and cropping and seem to howl and moan. They are spirits or perhaps the
consumer goods. The forms and figures in her
voice of nature itself exclaiming its contempt, anguish
work seem aged and weatherworn and even when
metals are used they do not carry sheen but reveal ‘Nature has a very
and fear.
Kreuzritter possesses an arsenal of techniques for which
the rust of time.
mighty and merciless to transmit diverse commentary to her audience.
The breadth of her inventiveness
Evocative materials such as barbed wire, clothes
is astonishing as she creates material asso- companion: time. It hangers and chains find their way into her work. Some
ciations based on the topic of each individual plays against man’
piece. Born in Germany in 1937 and educated
of her images are done in relief and painted over with
gouache or watercolor, while others incorporate collage
in drawing, painting and sculpture at the Art
and assemblage. The choice of technique and materi -
Schools of Vlotho and Hamburg, Kreuzritter has a well-established als depends entirely on the particular subject to be conveyed. Kreuz-
career in the arts. She has exhibited widely in Europe, including ritter flows easily from two-dimensional to three-dimensional works,
the famous Gallery Kandinsky in Vienna, and has recently begun drawing, sculpting wood, painting or assembling found objects.
to exhibit in New York.
Her work is not easy to categorize stylistically, this may be
“Agora” at first glance appears to be the dry expanse of attributed to the expansive nature of her interests and her creative
barren lands on a dead planet, however upon further inspection the
circular gathering of tooth-like forms appears to be man-made, yet
ingenuity. Helga Kreuzritter lives and works in Stade, Germany.
www.helga-kreuzritter.de
42 ARTisSpectrum
Helga Kreuzritter
Agora 23” x 32” Mixed Media
The Crowd 22” x 31” Mixed Media

The black and white, large format photographs of Heidi Fickinger
are moody, sensual, and utterly majestic. Fickinger, who grew
up moving between the city and a log cabin in the wilderness, is interested
in depicting natural and man-made landscapes as well as
those that combine both.
Fickinger’s “Abandoned Grape Field #1,” for exam -
ple, shows where her sensibilities lie. This image is an example of
her favorite theme, where she explores the fine line between nature
and human modifications to it.
Here, the viewer is confronted with a field used by humans
for their needs and then deserted once no longer useful. As if in an
ironic sign of abandonment, crippled grapevine stakes fill the field like
crosses in an Old World, weedy cemetery.
Many of Fickinger’s other photographs also evoke the lonely
beauty of mountains, deserts, empty garage floors, and old bridges.
The stark contrast between light and dark adds to the sense of the
unknown, the dramatic, the tragic.
Yet, the wide perspective and the open spaces she depicts
also tell of the beauty that surrounds us both at home and in the wild.
Fickinger has exhibited her photographs in many juried and international
shows from California to New York.
www.heidifickingerphoto.com
H e i d i
F i c k i n g e r
Earth 12” x 12” Acrylic on Canvas
Abandoned Grape Field #1 14” x 11” Silver Gelatin Print
C a ro l i n e
M a r s
Though born and educated in Amsterdam, the work of Dutch artist
Caroline Mars has a decidedly Eastern flair. She relocated to Asia
for 10 years, living in Japan and Hong Kong, immersing herself in
their cultures. While in Japan, Mars learned the techniques of Japa -
nese washipaper, and Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging
that emphasizes form and balance. Her time in Hong Kong was spent
practicing Chinese painting and calligraphy, meanwhile giving workshops
of the techniques that she learned in Japan.
The Eastern influence on her visual art has been profound;
harmony and balance are key ingredients to her work and life’s
philosophy. Her work “Earth” displays her interest in the ability of
abstraction to express the timeless and elemental. Here we have a
sphere, made up of interlocking stone-colored shapes, at once recalling
plate tectonics and the unity of a planet. The empty, black
background only further establishes the singularity of this solitary
orb, yet there is an internal accord and harmony, a cornerstone of
Eastern philosophy. This work speaks beautifully, without words or
overt representation. Upon her return to her homeland in 2002,
Mars’ work was displayed in various solo exhibitions. She lives and
works in the Netherlands.
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Caroline_Mars.aspx
43 ARTisSpectrum

Wayward Bound alias Dandelion ‘05 47” x 39” Acrylic on Canvas
44 ARTisSpectrum
A Portrait of an artist …
in pursuit of waywardness :
K A R E L W I T T
Is a notorious moonshiner
& retrorunner thru time ...
unbuttoning the past with offbeat methods
, he distilles history’s indigestible events ,
thus laying down an all-time valid guidance
on how to stay out of reach
& keep out of range .
So obviously , …(NeO-)DaDa or rather
DEONADA is still alive !
Image gallery & all about Witt’s alter ego
Silberstein can be retrieved from:
www.wittbeat.com
Working in glass, Imre G. Kohan is a master of mosaics. His de -
Color the Town Beautiful 22” x 48” Stained Glass and Mirror
I m r e G . Ko h a n
ored glass seems to be creating the design of a town even as the viewer
signs are filled with sparkling color that astounds with its sheer, gazes at it. The spatial relationships in the work reveal the care with
delicate beauty. Yet the work is also unified, with clean lines and spare which the piece was created. The topic of the work is almost whimsical,
composition. As Imre G. Kohan states: “I feel myself close to Bauhaus however, granting an exciting, dynamic energy to the piece. Imre G.
ideology because of its constructivism, clearness and rationalism.” The Kohan studied advertising and industrial design in Stuttgart, Germany.
viewer can see this influence in his work “Color the Town Beautiful.” He worked in advertising and design until 1997, and in 2004 he and
This mosaic, made of mirror and stained glass, is a work that demands his wife, fellow artist Masha Kohan, moved to the Maltese Islands. Imre
meticulous craftsmanship, yet Imre G. Kohan has conveyed an unmis - G. Kohan now devotes himself full time to his artistry.
takable sense of spontaneity in his design. In the work, a stream of col -
www.kohanglass.com

G i a n n i s
S t r a t i s
Deep in allegory and intense emotion, the paintings of Giannis
Stratis speak of possession and nature, and the history of human
ambition. Disturbed by cataclysmic advances in technology—such as
the atomic bomb—and by the ever-mounting Western penchant for
getting and spending, Stratis creates canvases that expose the impact of
these driving forces. “I see man directly absorbed and divided by his
material values,” Stratis states, “Too weak to react in his positive and
human development.” Stratis’ counterpoints to these destructive urges
are nature and spirituality; the works ultimately reveal his optimism
that these elements will eventually triumph. “Blossom After Nuclear
Disaster,” a work of passionate reds and earth tones, illustrates this
positive rebirth.
Though Stratis’ work is largely expressive rather than literal,
a portion of Stratis’ catalogue can be read as a text to reveal a recurring
theme. Two works, “King Minos—Amorgos Island” and “The Red
Legend of Porto Leone,” contain anthropomorphic elements with -tan
gible emotion, and speak to the essential hopelessness of the ingrained
human desire to possess all that we see.
“King Minos—Amorgos” references in its title a Greek island
The Red Legend of Porto Leone 35” x 31” Oil on Wood
once captured by the Cretans, mythically ruled by Minos. In the paint -
ing, the dominating, humanized mountainside stares out of the picture
plane with a glazed, gluttonously sated expression; it cradles a pristine, “The Red Legend of Porto Leone” refers to the medieval port
white church. The work’s palette, specifically the white of the building of Athens, now known as Pireaus. The talismanic figure in the painting,
and the blue of the background, immediately identifies the landscape replete with abstract, natural forms, addresses the viewer with a quixotic
with its location, and the architecture of the tiny church is positively expression. The aggressive reds and yellows of the palette put forth an
Greek. It is at once a powerful and light-hearted painting: the land - attitude that the visage of the figure cannot match. It appears that the form
scape looms ominously above the iconic building, but the personified cannot live up to its ambition; this lopsided relationship is the primary
form’s expression is comical.
source of tension in the painting.
Futility is a central element to
both “Minos—Amorgos” and “Red Leg -
end.” In each canvas we see elements
of aggression and force, which are then
contradicted. We are left with a satirical,
empty display of power and a mischievous
pantheism in which ill-tempered spirits,
embodied in things, strike out with dull
claws. “Porto Leone” begins with an angry
palette and ends in an ambiguous expression;
the conquest of Amorgos ends in a
mild case of indigestion. And in the latter,
the triumphal force is the spirituality
of the clean, white church. All the conceits
and preoccupations of Man fall away in the
end, and the positive element, the simple
spirit of the place, ultimately triumphs.
Stratis’ works illustrate societal
problems through a complex, historical
discussion of the desires and urges of
mankind. We are presented, quite literally,
with the ugly face of our natural im-
King Minos - Amorgos Island 16” x 20” Mixed Media on Canvas
pulses, which direct us toward disaster. In
each work we are left with a hard kernel of optimism, like a seed that
survives our terrible human follies, and blossoms.
http://www.art-mine.com/ArtistPage/Giannis_Stratis.aspx
45 ARTisSpectrum

The paintings of M. Moneta weave together interesting and
visually arresting images of the natural world within a civilized
context. Moneta is described as an artist “inspired by architecture,
gardens and human interaction.” These elements are evident in
her work “Hudson Valley Triptych.”
This painting presents a view of a cultivated landscape
through the perspective of a paneled window. There are no human
figures in the landscape, though the well-manicured lawn
and the vase of flowers in the foreground suggest their
presence. Her gardens exude a wild charm; her colors are
warm and vibrant. There is intensity to the hues Moneta
chooses for her greens and yellows, creating a feeling of
lush growth in the landscape.
Moneta’s clean lines and careful detail add a sophisticated
balance to the composition. The work has an
architectural quality to it in the meticulous details of the
rows of grass in the lawn and particularly in the wooden
panel of the frame, which puts the entire landscape in
context. Her piece possesses a calming symmetry; the natural
world is revealed in pleasing simplicity, balanced by the elegant
framework of human artistry.
M. Moneta was born in Germany and has been painting
professionally for over twenty years. She currently lives and
works in New York.
www.monetacooper.com
46 ARTisSpectrum
M. Moneta
‘...the natural
world is revealed in
pleasing simplicity,
balanced by the
elegant framework
of human artistry’
Hudson Valley Triptych 60” x 96” Acrylic
Overgrown 58” x 34” Acrylic

The expressionist paintings of Helga Windle present a realm
in which reality and imagination meet. A native of Iceland
and a resident of New Zealand, Windle draws upon these dramatic
landscapes for her subject matter. Leaves, celestial bodies,
and moving water are transformed from precise natural
objects into pliant, fluid, vibrant figures that speak of their former
selves in abstracted terms. These organic forms imbue the
composition with an almost mystical aura, no doubt a reflection
of the artist’s desire to depict “the physical and spiritual world
as one.” This is accomplished through the use of rich color
and bold lines rendered with brush strokes sometimes intense,
other times diffusive. The resulting images appear to be bathed
in natural light, illuminated by the bright rays of the sun or the
shining glow of the moon.
In the painting “Sometimes I think I’m only Dream -
ing,” Windle offers a simplified and magical world in which a
wispy soul glides beneath a stylized palm tree while a crescent
moon presides above. The scene is one of muted detail and
metaphysical strength, evocative of indigenous animistic sentiments.
Infused with such energy, Windle’s work highlights the
relationship between the corporeal and the ethereal.
www.helgawindle.co.uk
Helga
Windle
Anja Schüssler
The Arrival 19.5” x 27.5” Chalk and Graphite on Paper
Sometimes I Think I’m Only Dreaming 80” x 50” Oil on Canvas
Demonstrating, in tangible form, how individuals create and
reinforce their own reality through the activity of interpretation,
Anja Schüssler’s enigmatic images are like mirrors, subtly
and exactly responsive to the mind-set of the viewer. Encouraging
each individual to “experience his own fear, become aware of his
own desire” and “find his own truth” in her paintings—as well as
in the world at large—Schüssler implicitly guides her audience to
examine responses to her art in light of their own interior realities
and outward projections. Like Narcissus enraptured by his own
reflection, the viewer is confronted by an emotionally compelling
yet insoluble visual riddle, as in “The Arrival”.
Here, a faceless female figure in bestial pose, uncannily
reminiscent of William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar, seeps inexpli -
cable blackness from her face and palms. What one sees in this
intentional void might well be the true ‘mirror image’ of the self, a
projection of one’s own fantasy or shadow. Through the juxtaposi -
tion of soft colors, and strong, inky contour lines, Schüssler high -
lights the binary nature of ordinary consciousness and the duality
of existence. Casting models as no less than archetypal forces,
she attempts to reconcile the rational and intuitive, the seen and
the unseen, the sacred and profane—through mythic representations
of human paradox and contradiction. Like medieval scribes
who believed that gazing into a mirror as they wrote would ensure
“that their sight may not be dimmed”, German artist, Anja
Schüssler, uses the mirror of her own perception to alight dim
corridors of consciousness where truths may be obscured but
exist nonetheless. Visionary artist and skilled engraver of handcarved
cameos, Anja Schüssler currently lives and works in Idar-
Oberstein, Germany, famous for it’s design and manufacturing of
precious stones and jewelry.
47 ARTisSpectrum

B ritish
48 ARTisSpectrum
artist Fiona Viney works under the philosophy that an art -
work may have a profound transformative effect on the mood of a
room. Her works are decidedly fun while confronting the viewer with
radiant colors and delightful subjects, often animals, peering out from
the work to meet the viewer’s gaze directly.
Viney paints in high contrast with flat applications of color;
it is a style that contains childlike idealism while representing sophisticated
ideas with artistic prowess. Currently, Viney chooses to work
with two separate mediums, which consequently involve two divergent
approaches to her art. “My watercolors cross all the boundaries of conventional
techniques, they are free flowing images born entirely from
my imagination,” she explains. “In contrast I have developed a range
of acrylic and emulsion work that is distinctive and unique.” Viney began
painting at the age of twenty-two, highly experimental and unafraid
to try different subjects and media. She then traveled abroad, living
for a time in New York and Argentina. While overseas, she was greatly
influenced by her experiences and by the fantastic colors she encountered
in North and South America. Upon Viney’s return to England,
she was met with enthusiastic interest in her art; she exhibited heavily
and completed numerous commissioned works. Viney lives and works
in England.
www.fionaviney.com
The work of Marga Duin, a native of
Zandvoort, one of the major beach
resorts of the Netherlands, correspondingly
reflects a fascination with light and
the sea. Her choice of subjects is dichotomous,
being either abstractions of the
sea or gestural drawings of the human
figure, particularly female. Duin’s ab-
Radiance 40” x 60” Acrylic on Canvas
stractions feature forceful yet luminous
color application and are largely geometric,
whereas the graceful contours of her female nudes rise and fall, flowing like water. The quality of her nudes is interesting; she selects parts
of the figure to render, then stops and chooses another selection of the body to delineate in a neighboring area of the image. Sweeping swaths of
color are then applied to bring the divergent sections together, eliminating any conflicting sense of fragmentation.
The exuberance and light of the sea finds its way into “Radiance,” a work that exhibits Duin’s characteristic expressive stroke while
contained in a more geometric framework. The power of this work lies in rich application of color; solid sharply defined geometric shapes combined
with wistful strokes that allow the central masses of color to cede into one another. The visual effect is strong; one can sense an ocean
breeze flowing in from the waters onto and over the comparatively unforgiving coast.
www.marart.nl
Fiona
Viney
Cow Splat 36” x 36” Mixed Media
Marga
Duin

Mauricio Toulumsis
Soul and Spirit Creations 39” x 87” Acrylic on Canvas
Replete with religious and symbolic significance, Mauricio Toulum- are the proud, powerful and uncannily numinous sovereigns of Tousis’
images are inspired by the deeply felt emotion accompanying lumsis’ works. The result of 30 years of self-exploration, Toulumsis’
the exultant belief in eternal life. Religious iconography, both tradi - paintings delve into the philosophical search for meaning in life, mean-
tional and implied (the cross, the gentle cloud formations of heavenly ing in death, and truths about the corporeal and spiritual human. Born
altitudes, the radiant crown reminiscent of the Virgin of Guadalupe), in Mexico City, Toulumsis developed his technical rendering skills
imply the invisible, inscrutable, yet ubiquitous presence of God. Tou - while studying architecture. He has exhibited his work both in Mexico
lumsis’ distinctive, stylized portraiture generally depicts the female as and the United States.
the central figure in the process of life, as the stewardess of birth and
creation. Groups of heavenly matrons, often surrealistic in semblance, www.toulumsis.com
Allyson
Norwood
Bush
Mil in Sun 9” x 12” Acrylic on Board
Artist Allyson Norwood Bush describes her work as, “an
exposition on people and relationships.” A response to
the everyday of American living in the twentieth and twentyfirst
centuries, her work focuses on the afflictions of the modern
individual. Feelings of isolation and reflection on identity
shadow the cast of characters she presents the viewer. Most
affected by ‘the feminine experience’ and women’s negotiation
of culturally defined gender roles, her subjects are most often
female. However, because Bush’s message is one of meditation
amidst life’s hurried pace, she balances these topics of
intense emotional content with a lighthearted style characterized
by loose brushstrokes and whimsical line enhanced by an
expressionist palette. Bush approaches each piece as a work
in progress, never clearly knowing its significance until its evolution
is complete. Her wish is for her art to be approachable,
understandable, and egalitarian. With what may be remnants
of her graduate training in Art Therapy, her artwork promotes
self-evaluation centered on achieving a healthier spirit. The
overarching theme of her oeuvre is best classified as one of
eternal optimism.
Having overcome many an obstacle herself, Bush’s life and
work are truly inspirational. As part of her own therapeutic
routine, Allyson Norwood Bush works with the homeless as
well as those living with HIV and mental illness. She currently
resides in suburban Mendham, New Jersey.
49 ARTisSpectrum

50 ARTisSpectrum
Susan Eck
S usan
Eck’s paintings depict the
simple and the commonplace:
an ordinary landscape or seascape, a
flower or a wheat field. Yet her paintings
seek human emotion in nature,
and reflect it back to the viewer—an
especially extraordinary and powerful
enterprise. Eck has an excellent command
of brushwork and will often contrast
short brushstrokes with long ones,
replicating the variety and complexity
found in nature.
Eck’s nature paintings pay great
attention to planes and horizons, be
they formed by a skyline, a waterline,
Fantasy Forest 36” x 24”
flowers, or grass. In her abstract paint -
Oil on Canvas
ings, however, Eck takes her viewers’
attention in different directions. Her paint washes, drips, and congeals
in various vertical orientations in her mixed media composition called
“Upward Explosion,” while lavenders that swirl and vibrate from the
center of “Flowing” are mesmerizing yet soothing. “Wheat” might be
her most daring painting to date, as it draws the eye in various directions;
suggests several plains or horizons; and blurs the boundary between
abstract and natural forms.
Eck’s work has been displayed in both solo and group exhibitions
in Los Angeles at Infusion Gallery and in Toronto and throughout
greater Ontario. The author of four books of poetry, Eck is also an
accomplished poet and lyricist. She has won several awards for her
music and poetry, including an editor’s choice award from the Interna -
tional Library of Poetry.
http://susaneck.ca
Marty Maehr L’OR
Exalting hills, mountains, flowers,
and trees in joyful swathes
figures of artist L’OR’s vibrant pas
of color, Marty Maehr captures the
energizing spirit of Nature in both
recognizable forms and geometric
abstractions. Giving his creative
instincts free reign at the onset of
his creative process, a deeply felt
surge of inspiration initially manifests
as a single point, line or arc
of expression—out of which subsequent
lines, shapes or colors
emerge. Departing from a tradi -
tional understanding of perspective
and spatial cues, Maehr allows his
intuition to guide a seemingly random
arrangement of basic planes
until overwhelming impressions of
color interrupt the developing structure. Though this vaguely cubist
interpenetration of forms gives Maehr’s work continuity and complex
prismatic dimension, it is through color that Maehr’s paintings begin
to “breathe” and acquire an autonomous life. Seized by a single note
of color or a particular color combination, Maehr animates his subjects
tone by tone, facet by facet, achieving nearly psychedelic levels of
vibrancy. Like Kandinsky who famously wrote ‘Color is the keyboard,
the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the piano with the strings’, Maehr
harnesses powers inherent in the visible spectrum to convey a sense of
harmony and resonant beauty.
http://maehrcreations.net
-
tels would be at home in Gauguin’s
tropical paintings, but L’OR has much
more than portraiture in mind. Depicted
for us with pastels on canvas or velvet,
her subjects, suspended in motions
of desire in all its variations, inhabit a
vivid dreamscape. Abstract swirls evolve
into flora, and reveal their universality
against backgrounds of lush crimson,
jade, or cerulean.
The longing to merge pervades
L’OR’s work. Working with her models
is an intimate collaboration, the creative
process becomes much more than an ex-
Broken Mirror 48” x 36”
Oil on Masonite
My Soul Mate 43” x 24” ploration of the lone artistic self. The
Pastel on Canvas desire to bridge gaps--between individuals,
and between the artist and her technique--is
the lifeblood of her work. She strives to reveal, in the -mo
ments when pastel touches surface, “the emotions we try sometimes so
hopelessly to hide.” Thus, L’OR tells us, is our humanity recovered, in
the idyllic medium of art.
L’OR maps tropical zones of universal longing usually left
unseen. Her berry-red figures, nearly featureless, are all the more -re
markable for the emotions they evoke. Her artistic process is a fertile
ground upon which she creates mythic, yet psychologically resonant
figures. Exhibited widely in the United States, L’OR lives in Quebec,
where she shows much of her work and is a signature member of the
Pastel Society of Eastern Canada.
T he

Stephen Looney
When I look at a blank,
white canvas my mind
sees endless creative possibilities,”
so says bright, young
visual artist Stephen Looney.
He believes that keeping the
viewer entranced, as if they
are somehow a part of the
work in front of them, is what
art is all about. Looney’s
powerful, sometimes disturbing
images have an almost
Surrealist feel to them,
Greed 20” x 20” Digital Print the mood being set by the
palette of dark, strong colors and the carefully thought out juxtaposition
of familiar images in incongruous relationships to create strange,
unfamiliar abstractions.
The fantasy world created by Stephen Looney defies clas -
sification: it challenges our perception and keeps the viewer guessing,
compelling spectators of this parallel universe to find their own
meaning, as so aptly illustrated in the work entitled “Greed.” In this
piece, the familiar U.S. Dollar sign is taken, twisted and intertwined
with threateningly sharp, linear forms, reminiscent of a wild animal’s
teeth. The resulting image becomes alien, unfamiliar, but as such an
appropriate symbolic visual.
The promising young artist is just 22 years old. His ambitious
goals include owning his own art gallery so that he can give talented
young artists the opportunity of showing their work.
http://www.boundlessgallery.com/artist/4793.html
Lionel Bedos
Lionel Bedos provides us not only
with electrifying canvases, but
also with a new style: Post-Fauvism.
Bedos is at the vanguard of a
burgeoning movement in the arts
which derives forms abstractly based
in the animal world. His paintings
are rife with vigorous, disembodied
nudes and animals that appear to
have crawled, swam, or flown directly
out of the artist’s psyche. It
is a style of inspiration and whimsical
creativity with a historical eye to
Fish Ball 24” x 20” the vibrant colors of Matisse and the
Oil on Canvas
unique forms of Picasso.
“Fish Ball” is an example of Bedos’
animalistic painting, showcasing line melting to form and back again
on a vibrant, abstract background. The central figure is in a state of viscer -
al ambiguity, with blank stare and flattened body, while painterly strokes
explode like fireworks about the creature. Contained entirely within the
framework of the canvas, the animal appears captured for our benefit
and violently contained within the picture plane. It is a work of energy,
of contrast, and of strength.
Despite his scholarly training in the arts, Bedos cites an emotional
need to paint as his inspiration. A single glance at his canvases
reveals and celebrates his genuine enthusiasm.
www.libedos.com
51 ARTisSpectrum

52 ARTisSpectrum
Alayne Dickey
C aptivated
by mysterious
depths and tidal
2002, after a dazzling twentyyear
career in commercial arts
rhythms, Alayne Dickey
specializing in the music industry,
credits water as her pri-
Carolyn Quan turned her creative
mary muse. Overwhelm-
efforts towards the fine arts. In -
ingly inspired by her sea-
spired by her love of nature and
encircled native terrain
humanity, Quan seeks to realize
off the northern coast of
her spiritual worldview through
Scotland, Dickey’s swirl -
her visual explorations. Her ca-
ing abstractions allude to
reer, which included designing al-
water’s visible reality, but
bum covers for popular musicians,
speak symbolically of ar-
has clearly been influential to her
chetypes and things pri-
fine arts style. Her deeply moving
mordial. Intuitively guided,
Bring Deeps 36” x 36”
Mixed Media on Canvas yet systematic and deliberate
in her painting process,
piece, “Victorian Angel” features
Victorian Angel 40” x 32” a central, translucent female figure
Photo Collage with her back turned towards the
Dickey begins with a low-dimensional springboard layer that guides
viewer. The scene is mysterious
subsequent creative choices. Progressing layer by layer, allowing sec - and otherworldly as black skies, smoky clouds and tall, flowing grass
tions of foundational applications to remain visible while building up enclose upon the figure. As the title suggests, the woman is clothed
density and texture in other sections of a composition, Dickey creates in a Victorian-era dress that seems to transform to feathers and wings
a sense of depth, dimension and satisfying aesthetic value. Anchored before our very eyes. Background and foreground are confounded
in tenebrous murk evoctive of river bottoms and sea beds, cumulative through the manipulation of opacity, giving the image a ghostly quality.
swirls crest to cresendos, surging with turbulence and undulation. Em- Quan’s work speaks very well for her intentions, “Inspired by spiritual -
phasizing water’s behavior and attributes as opposed to merely imitat- ity and all of the divine beauty that God has created on this earth, I feel
ing its appearance, Alayne expresses water as a visual sensation and that it is my duty to share this inspiration with others though my art and
emotional experience. Achieving complexity through suggestive layers, creative vision.” After spending eleven years in New York City, Quan
Dickey draws her audience to contemplative pools of varying depths, moved to Maui, Hawaii to focus on her personal artistic vision. She
where feeling is implicit and metaphors abound.
has recently opened her own gallery in Maui, and continues to achieve
international recognition.
www.orkney.com/alaynedickeyart
www.carolynquan.com
I n
The unique style of
talented Russian
artist Olga Baby possesses
the harmony
of linear construction,
rhythm and vibrant
color of a Japanese
woodblock print. Her
imaginative, asymmetric
compositions
capture the spirit and
emotion of her artistic
fantasy – constantly
searching and chang-
ing and as wide as her extensive travels across the globe.
Her imagery shows freshness and innocence, admirably portrayed
in the drawing entitled “Jazz.” In this work Baby mixes color
and pattern with purity of line to convey her unique mix of the imagi-
nary and the real. Baby draws in black ink on white cartridge paper
with spontaneous, graceful brushstrokes. She then introduces inten -
tionally large areas of vivid primary colors and patterns. At first glance
her work has a decorative quality, but like the Japanese masters, who
balanced heaven, earth and humankind in their harmonious images,
Baby’s work goes deeper.
Olga Baby studied Japanese art, Buddhism and the philoso -
phy of Ikebana, and the influences are evident throughout her works
which exude joie de vivre, spontaneity and a positive energy that comes
from the artist’s personal way of looking at the world.
www.olgababy.com
Carolyn Quan
Olga Baby
Jazz 55” x 70”
Acrylic and India Ink on Canvas

Atousa Foroohary
In the face of frantic technological
advancement and
Whether working in watercolor,
acrylic, or collage, Leona
the ever-escalating complexi-
Whitlow is unafraid to use the whole
ties of modern life, Atousa
palette, creating works that are full
Foroohary gives her audience
of vigor and whimsy. Her paintings,
respite in virgin forestscapes,
some completely abstract and others
quiet streams, park-like set-
containing recognizable figurative eletings,
and affectionate porments,
inadvertently emphasize movetraiture.
Eschewing cold
ment – a natural choice for Whitlow,
abstraction and high concept
who was once a classical ballet dance
in favor of realistic and natu-
teacher and an expressive therapist.
ral representations of people,
In the “The Gathering,” as in many
places and objects, Foroohary
Gift 48” x 48”
reminds viewers that unpar-
Oil on Canvas
alleled beauty is abundantly
of her other works, Whitlow creates
a sense of movement and rhythm by
The Gathering 32” x 28” using quick brushstrokes, aggressive
present in ordinary, observable reality.
Acrylic on Canvas
colors, and her signature black lines
Though she clearly favors realism, Foroohary’s work is fluid that often outline the elements of the painting.
in its stylistic boundaries, permitting exploration beyond detail-for-de - With the exception of several landscapes, the action in her
tail replication. Encompassing a spectrum of expression ranging from works happens on the surface. “The Gathering” is a dynamic com -
photographic accuracy to impressionistic and symbolistic work, it is position full of the comings and goings of people. Yet the abstract
Foroohary’s consistent use of natural color that unifies her paintings. In background, chaotic spacing of the figures, and their schematic nature
the philosophical vein of Monet, Foroohary believes color can be used makes them into inhabitants of the surface. This intentional two-dimen -
to draw forth the essence of a character or scene, radically enhanc- sionality adds to the overall intensity of Whitlow’s works and helps the
ing one’s appreciation of illusionistic space. Using what she calls the viewer focus on the subtle details of form.
“miracle of color” to communicate the ineffable, Foroohary’s hands Whitlow has studied with several artists, has won awards in
are her bridge between the apparent and the supersensible. Balancing juried art shows, held solo exhibitions of her works, and now serves on
faithful representation with lively surface textures, Atousa Foroohary’s the Board of Gold Coast Watercolor Society.
art casts discernible reality in a friendly, natural light.
www.whitlow-art.com
www.myartclub.com/atousa.foroohary
Kenji Inoue
The Japanese Heritage of Kenji
Inoue is evident throughout
the works of this young artist.
Pure color is the subject of the
abstract paintings – color used
with a passionate sensuality reminiscent
of the ancient Japanese
Ukiyo-E woodcut prints. Inoue
paints with the force of an impetuous
young culture—reds and
blues in wild abandon, uninhibited
brushstrokes—his abstract
compositions are a painterly exploration
into the winds of freedom.
These works go beyond
simple experimentation with
Supersonic! Go, Go Kenji 46” x 36”
color. The abstract shapes and
Oil on Canvas
forms evoke strange landscapes
– sometimes lunar, sometimes underwater, and sometimes wild wilder-
nesses of threatening red deserts. Into this unsettling scene Inoue intro -
duces familiar shapes such as triangles or rectangles that form a cool,
negative space of white nested in a sea of intense red or deep indigo
blue. We cannot look impassively upon this wave of pure color blowing
in our field of vision. Momentarily, we get drawn into the painting in
front of us, our perception and our imagination running free.
Kenji Inoue lives and works in Japan. He has a degree in
illustration from the Tokyo Communications and Arts Professional
School.
Leona Whitlow
53 ARTisSpectrum

54 ARTisSpectrum
Sonya Veronica
G aining
Spela Cvetko
much of her
abstract and the symbolic
inspiration from music,
collide with great effect in the
the work of Sonya Veronica is
mixed media works of Slovenian
correspondingly lyrical in form
artist Spela Cvetko. Classically
and content. Seeking immediacy
trained in Slovenian schools,
free from representational
Cvetko frequently addresses the
content, Veronica’s work speaks
subject of inspiration and attempts
volumes through her inspired
to divine the source of an artist’s
abstract harmonies. Her unique
creativity in her “Returning
language is conveyed through
Journey” series. Each of these
her choice of color, texture,
works features a shimmering,
and the gesture of her style,
radiating core juxtaposed against a
which she alters to suit each
chaotic background. Within each
C’est la Vie 36” x 36”
Acrylic on Canvas particular subject. Stylistically,
core, we see two abstract shapes—
Returning Journey 40” x 36”
Veronica’s works range from
derived from spearheads—which
Mixed Meida on Canvas
being painterly, feathery and light, to employing bold washes of color
appear to be rips in the canvas
seemingly poured down the canvas in a brilliant waterfall. A bold streak through which one can glimpse another world. “They are the passage,”
of yellow courses down the middle of “C’est La Vie,” surrounded by Cvetko explains; “The door between the worlds. [They] are expressing
reds, deep and cool on the right, warm and vibrant to the left. As the message that nobody is alone.” The violence of these abstract works
in classical music, Veronica’s work suggests an emotional response is striking: color and form clash throughout the canvas, and meaning
without words or representational content; the art speaks directly to the rises from the conflict.
spirit without an intermediary vernacular. For the audience each work Cvetko’s personal symbolism gives rise to the dualism of
is a transcendental experience. Veronica, in the spirit of Mark Rothko, artistic intent and individual interpretation. A viewer divines much
evokes an emotional content through color and a tangential affiliation from the statements in the works imbued by the artist, but then
with form.
adds his or her own critical viewpoint to the reading of the painting.
Veronica’s primary choice of medium is painting, though Through this ambiguity, Cvetko forces us to confront the source of
she works with photography and digital media as well maintaining our own inspiration; we are inspired by her own investigation into
her distinctive style throughout. Veronica has exhibited widely in the workings of her thought process, and are invited to investigate
Melbourne, Victoria, and has recently gained international interest in our personal methods. In this way, Spela Cvetko allows her
her art, exhibiting in California and acquiring representation in New work to become our own.
York. Veronica lives and works in Melbourne.
www.vivalaspella.com
Patricia Brintle
I
soul of Georgian painter Zeiko
n the paintings of Patricia
Basheleishvili cries out to her
Brintle, one would expect
audience through her magnificent,
to see a reflection of the
musical compositions of lyrical color.
turbulent world events she
Like the Fauvists, or early Cubists,
has experienced. Emigrating
the artist uses color to communicate
from Haiti in 1964, Brintle
meaning. Her masterful manipula-
arrived to the United States
tion of light and dark and the fluidity
in the midst of one of the
of forms seem like a pictorial por-
nation’s greatest periods
trayal of an opus by Stravinsky. She
of turmoil. But like Henri
The Dance of Life 27.5” x 39.5”
depicts her dreams and imagination
Acrylic on Panel
Matisse, the great French
in a symphony of blues and browns,
master whose work her art
purples and pastels that burst out of
evokes, Brintle expresses in her paintings the serene, utopic ideal
the canvas with the emotional force
that can exist only in the creativity of an artist. She celebrates the
of the Russian spring.
beauty of the natural world by portraying subjects such as flora and the
With all the drama of an early
human form, while consistently illuminating these tableaux with natural
Circles of Life 56” x 40”
20th Century opera, Zeiko reduces
sunlight at its most dramatic moments.
Oil on Canvas
forms down to their basic core. She
Brintle’s figures have an iconic nature to them, which allow
depicts semi-figurative human shapes in sensuous, flesh-toned circles
them to stand for something greater than a single body. In “The Dance
of sienna and umber. Her imagery is as mysterious and ephemeral as
of Life,” the rhythm of these idealized forms cause them to represent,
a dream. She blends dimensional planes in dramatic, sweeping move -
as the title implies, the complex and joyous dance of human experience.
ments, avoiding mundane detail and giving the neo-classical works a
The work then takes on a new dimension, standing as a statement of
surreal quality. As the plot unfolds, the veneer is stripped away and
graceful optimism regarding the world about us.
the fundamental, basic truth is revealed to the viewer in a crescendo of
“I never know what will inspire me,” Brintle admits. “Even
free-flowing abstract color.
a dream may trigger an emotion that results in a painting.” These
Zeiko Basheleishvili was born and raised in Tbilisi, Geor -
paintings, based in emotion, resist the strain of a traumatic world
gia. Her works have been featured in exhibitions across Russia
and provide a counterpoint to pessimistic realities. They are a note of
and Eastern Europe.
hopeful optimism, and a shimmering display of beauty.
T he
T he
Zeiko Basheleishvili

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55 ARTisSpectrum

Mimmo Rotella
KAOS NUCLEARE, 1987
Torn Posters on Zinc, overpainted
100 x 150 cm
Courtesy of the
Permanent Collection of
The Chelsea Art Museum
US$ 3.95
CAN$ 5.95
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