Simple gifts

Thank you.

In my life there have been many people who have supported me as an artist. These supporters were primarily women. This is my note of thanks.

1. Anne C. Parry, painter. Aunt Anne gave me my first drawing lessons, comic books. She taught me to draw with crayons and to make origami chickens. She painted birthday cards which always had five dimes in hand sown pockets inside. The cards were always scenes about our lives.

2. Mrs. Wolpert, painter. My elementary school art teacher. She held an art club and helped all her students find their visual voices. She made the act of art making a joy.

3. Mrs. Ricibono, artist. High school art was a refuge for me. I never felt embarrassed about my poor spelling or bad memory for math in her class. Unfortunately some see art as a lesser part of the human being.

Structure

We live in a culture which is influenced by the idea that what we make is either real or abstract. This WYSIWYG view of the world leaves little room for the creative. The notion that a figure has no design or authorship began with the false belief that Rodin made a life cast and was not able to sculpt a figure that equaled the forms of life. The hidden structure is no different than the directed space of a Calder mobile. The form is different but the creation of space is much the same.

Faced with an art world that was transforming from the solid to the ethereal his invention of the mobile was rooted in the movement that also caught the eye of Picasso and the Futurists. Boccioni in Unique forms found a way to sculpt motion, The structure of Calders mobiles sculpts space with the armature of steel much like the Impressionists revealed the sub structure of Ingres.

This new structure fit in very well with the architectural striping bare of the International School, form and function.

Artists I like

Living artists:

1. Martha Erlebacher

2. Jack Beal

3. Dan Dallmann

4. Dana Van Horn

5. Dean Hartung

6. Fred Wessel

7. Vincent Desiderio

8. Edward Schmidt

9. Philip Pearlstein

10. Sigmund Abeles

Past heros:

1. Walter Erlebacher

2. Rodin

3. Michelangelo

4. Bernini

5. Henry Moore

6. Fairfield Porter

7. Edward Hopper

8. Aristide Maillol

9. George Innes

10. Thomas Hicks