Meditations in Metal

Occasionally something catches the eye, whether the barb is uniqueness, simplicity, or a blast of heat that melts into the imagination. Miya Ando’s metal plates exhibit simplicity, but that minimalism is based upon what is seen, not what is hidden within the crafting of the object, or within the viewer, the complex melding of which determines whether and how the object comes to life.  In this case, one opens the mind’s eye to enter a world captured in the metamorphosis from cold hard steel to cold hard steel with a contemplative soul.

A Publication of Spool MFG

The Art & Recycling

Spool MFG is an independently owned and operated art space in Johnson City, New York, sponsored in large part by Don DeMauro, founder, artist and retired art professor from Binghamton University. The governing board is comprised of friends, many of whom are artists, with a common interest in achieving Spool’s stated goal: a commitment ”to the existential, personal, social, and political dimensions of the contemporary moment.”

Spool is the namesake of the factory that occuped the building in which it is housed, ”Spool & MFG”, but the ampersand had been dropped somewhere along the way. The publication, ampersand, puts it back into play in a somewhat esoteric fashion.

Much more than the usual bound version of a poetry chapbook, ampersand is a collection of poetry and visual art printed, drawn and written on the pages of invoices, bills, advertisements, checks, ledger sheets, folders, binders and every other kind of suitable surface found in files that had not seen light for 40 or 50 years since the building shut down as an industrial site.

The images that follow are pages from the book, some printed on the back side of ledgers, others drawn or painted on the front. A number of the edition of 50 will be distributed among the contributors, and the remainder will be sold. Each copy contains original hand-made entries, thus assuring that each ‘book’ is one-of-a-kind.

(for a larger view, click on images)

Page 2: Mission Statement/Don DeMauro

Page 6: Description/Alisa Strassner

Page 7: Cyanotype/Miles McNulty

Page 9: David Chirico

Page 14: Don DeMauro

Page 22: Andy Stevens

-30-

Dia-de-lluvia

Redemption and Rebirth

There are two major influences that drive an artist in the execution of their work. The fist is internal which is composed of the past and their interpretation of individual memories.  The second is their present which is the current interaction with people and the culture that surrounds them.

There is also a third dimension that separates good artists and great artists. This is the ability to see their place in the future history of art. To have an incredible work ethic and personal sense of accountability that transcends tomorrow and into the years ahead.  It is the pursuit of a dream, and desire to fulfill a destiny.

In the pursuit of his current work he is brutally honest in seeking out the truth of his past, transcribing it into the symbolism of his work today and understanding its impact and value well into the future.

Jean Marc Calvet is like the perfect storm.  Born in Nice, France in 1965, the first 37 years of his life brewed malevolently bringing him to a point well beyond desperation; a hell on earth.  He wanted to end his own life.

The catalyst that bankrupts a human being to the point of emotional, physical, and spiritual madness can be attributed to a multitude of factors, or a single tragic event.  It is the point where all that was familiar and understood begins to slip away into a gray world lacking definition.  It is a place where time holds no relevance or sense of structure; the past and present melt together to create its own distorted sense of unreality.  It is a place where the soul’s monsters celebrate freedom in a frenzied orgy of self destruction and external mayhem.

Whichever road this insidious evil chooses to take, the impact is both devastating and all consuming.

Jean Marc Calvet with his self-portrait, El Otro.

There is only one hope for salvation.  On very rare occasions, the soul is miraculously graced with an exit from this nightmare downward journey with a passage marked “Redemption”.

Calvet discovered his path to salvation; his mission…….to paint.

He is a legitimate self-taught artist, an outsider in every spirit of the word.  His first works were crude explosions of his inner turmoil exploding on any surface that was close with any materials that would leave a trace.

Having never been taught to draw or paint, or ever having had any interest in art, he is a true original.

However as Ed Mc Cormack Managing Editor of Gallery and Studio Magazine said very astutely:

“There is a very real danger for an artist as brilliant as Calvet in having too colorful a back-story.  It is too easy for the legend to flourish at the expense of the art.  (Just think how many people know nothing about van Gogh except that he cut off his ear.)  That Calvet happens to be self-taught only complicates matters.  It could too easily get him relegated to the gilded ghetto of so-called “outsider art” and deprived of his rightful place in the mainstream art world, where he most definitely belongs, given the innate sophistication of his vision and the accomplished technique with which he makes it manifest on canvas. ”

A retrospective view of his work shows a distinct and stepped development in his technical and artistic skills over the years.  However the work is always definitively recognizable as the product of Calvet with hallmarks that remain constant.

Seven years on, Calvet delivers a marked sophistication in his works that adds clarity yet maintains the spirit of the true brut style that birthed him as an artist.  His repertoire of colors continues to develop giving a richness that further enhances his work. The large scale of his works adds to the impressive impact they make.  He has continued to increase his canvases on occasion giving him ample room to evoke his stories with subjects that still explode out of a Pandora’s Box with his own brand of manmade monsters.  Each of his creatures is vivid with emotion and their own individual stories.  Now instead of the creatures wreaking havoc on Calvet personally, he is able to release them and imprison them on canvas.

Collage of Jean Marc Calvet by Larry Hamill

Calvet works with a ferocity that defies most; often working non-stop until a work is complete.  He is regularly found to be painting 12-18 hour days and so despite the intensity and detail required to complete one work, he is able to turn out a generous volume of work.  It is this work ethic and an accountability that he shows in his work of his prior life and his pursuit of a bright future that ensures the dynamism of his work.  Despite his output, the works are never repetitive or tired.  His commitment to the creativity that wells from within him is absolute.

Today, Calvet is based in Granada, Nicaragua.  He has exhibited his work in Europe, the United States and South America including several solo shows in New York and Nicaragua.  His work is held in several private collections and work is about to placed in several museums.  His life story has also been captured in a feature documentary which is planned to premier next year.

Calvet is a charismatic man, warm and generous.  On first impressions you might not imagine him to be the source of his paintings.  However salvation can be a slippery slope and he understands the warning:

“Those who forget where they came from are bound to relive their past”

Looking at Jean Marc Calvet’s paintings allows you to experience an explosive visual arts experience and glimpse the depths of his soul from the safety of the other side of the canvas, a place that he also stands today thanks to the grace of redemption.

-Bob Hogghe,  Monkdogz Gallery,  New York

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View larger photos from the gallery please enter the FS button.

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Jean Marc Calvet began painting at a point in is life when severe crisis metamorphosed into a form of redemption and rebirth. With no training, he discovered the need to paint by complete chance.

Not only did it save him but it changed his life. Art is his catharsis and his evolution has been astounding. For him, it is about exorcising the insanity of his past and slapping down on canvas the dirty truth of life. He paints 14 hours a day, seven days a week and lives now in Nicaragua.

* * *

“Yo pinto por necesidad …. sin pensar, una especie de automatismo libre.  Dejo que mi inconsciente dirija  mi mano. Cultivando  las obsesiones, los miedos, seguramente para poder sentir y apreciar las buenas cosas de la vida.

“Yo creo que los artistas ante de todo son antenas, receptor de emociones, puertas, pasaje adentro de diferentes mundos.

“En mis pinturas cada personaje esta lleno de historias, creaturas,  un movimiento permanente de muerte, amor, sexo, de vida simplemente. Somos hechos de detalles nuestra vidas están  ritmadas por ellos, sin ellos no existimos……….. Nos volvemos trasparente.

“Afuera somos palabras y adentro somos colores …”

-Jean Marc Calvet

* * *

To view others works including his poetry visit: http://jmcalvet.com

Copyright © 2010 – Jean Marc Calvet

A Path in Delta, oil on canvas, 23.6” x 19.7”, 2010

A wonderful state of mind

______________________________

The Artist’s View

The matter of landscape as a state of mind is essentially a very vast domain.

The landscape in art is an expression of the human spirit, particularly due to the communion of man with nature, his material and spiritual house. Each man is part of a matrix, of a specific universe, a part of an area with individualist and morphologic character. Each of us feels a resonance in front of a pattern, created in our minds by the very area we grew up in, the places of our childhood where our character was formed.

No matter where we then go in life, we carry these marks of our memory. Landscape and nature have surrounded me since I was a little child, they gave me the joy of a deep and truthful living and I have always been attached to the clear atmosphere of the marks of my own memory, rooted in my own space. Whether it is abstraction, expression or impression, they are all related to the representation of the same motif: nature displayed through landscape.

Nature is for me as a basis for the comfort of the soul, reverie, calm and faith. I had different views on my artistic itinerary, different representations of the same universal motif, nature.

This work represents a synthesis of my artistic and expression research of the last years.

Reeds on Water

The essential motivation of choosing this analysis theme comes from my belief in  the force of expression of the landscape, the simple message of nature and its echo in our souls, the state of mind conveyed by the landscape (whether on a macro or micro level).

“My motivation is purely pictorial, it is the art of turning the landscape into a wonderful state of mind.”

— Claudiu Presecan

A Curator’s View

“…In the creative strategy of this creation stage (solidly underlain in theory by the systematic investigation of the impressionist painting) the primordial factor of provocation is nature – pure existence, homogenous, non-sequential and all-comprehensive, while the motivation of the pictorial act is the re-experience of a paradisiacal state, of total participation at the mysteries of a genuine nature, of grand expansive vitality: the nature of the Danube Delta.

And the reeds and the water lilies – innate beauty from waters, are felt as a real archetypal symbol of this miraculous and fascinating encounters with moving still waters, earth flooded with vegetation and sun bathed skies – which is the Delta. To this nature, which ignores anthropomorphism (as it is ready only to attract, absorb and protect the fragile human being) the artist relates as to a constant and explicit guiding mark (he doesn’t suppress the natural referent nor does he put it in brackets), but he considers the referential activity from a double perspective; the one of his own sensitivity of poetic essence and of his endowment of colorist and drawer – admirably polished by a sustained atelier practice) and the cultural perspective of the passionate dialogue with an already existent visual code: the morphologic and syntactic code of the impressionist art. In other words, the artist proposes, in an attractive and persuasive way, a dialogue style of his own (with undisguised cultural appetence) with a style historically constituted (in the 19th century) long persistent (towards the half of the 20th century) in the modern painting and assertively re-introduced in actuality (in different aspects), in post-modernity. The reception charm, the lyrical exultance of the immediate experience are expressed in simple and undulating forms, built with a simple drawing, in a fluid and sonant color, dominated by cold accords – only partially autonomous in relationship with the motif: virtuous drawing and vibrant chromatics, masterly enhanced in value by the excellent domination of the white extended with oriental refinement on large surfaces. Besides this explosive hedonism, the intensity of the artist’s sight is exerted stupendously in the decoding (in the very act of painting with detached gesture) of sub-adjacent dynamic structures, of an expressive order, beyond the strict horizon of appearances. Clear and aired, refined without ostentation and lyric without sentimentalism, the images of the reeds and water lilies – crossed by harmonious rhythms, with expressive accents and energetic resonances, become spaces, without any narrative ballast, of some thrilling communication ritual with a fraternal, cordial cosmos.  Each and every one of them composes a sensitive pictorial essay about a personal poetics of purity.”

—Dr. Livia Drăgoi, Director, Art Museum Cluj-Napoca, 2008

To view larger photos from the gallery, please enter the FS button.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born on April 12, 1969 in Cluj-Napoca, a city located deep in the heart of Romania’s legendary Transylvania, Claudiu Presecan received his B.F.A. from the Cluj-Napoca High School of Fine Arts in 1987. From there, he pursued graduate studies in painting at the Cluj-Napoca Visual Arts Academy which ultimately lead to his earning a Masters of Fine Arts. He has exhibited in Romania, Denmark, South Africa, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, Canada and United States.

The famous Transylvanian silversmiths, Sacks and Szeckler, together with Judaic, Armenian and Turkish artists, brought about a special contribution to the expressive fusion of Transylvanian art. This provided inspiration for contemporary Romanian artists. Presecan’s art reflects the period of graphic art borne between traditional and modern language, and contributes to modern Romanian culture — a fresh contrast to Transylvania’s legendary, dark history.

________________________________

website and blog:  http://www.presecan.com/

email: claudiu@presecan.com

Fredrick Broden vs photography at the Clark/Oshin Gallery

Texas-based photographer Fredrik Broden’s work has appeared in Time, Wired, the New York Times Magazine and GQ. The Swedish artist’s conceptual work is direct and humorous, leaving no question to its intended message.

Fredrick Broden vs photography

Clark/Oshin Gallery

June 5 – July 16

5450 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles California 90036

Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties at The Getty Center.

Photojournalism in the second half of the 20^th century gets the Getty treatment in this fantastic exhibition of independent photojournalists whose work has diversified from magazine spreads into powerful book-length projects that have documented the world. Both are on display here by such photojournalist luminaries as W. Eugene Smith, Lauren Greenfield and Leonard Freed with images from the American Civil War to turn of the century activism.

Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties

The Getty Center
June 29–November 14, 2010

West Pavilion, Terrace Level,

J. Paul Getty Museum,

1200 Getty Center Drive,

Los Angeles, CA 90049

Eye Photo at the Bob Poe Gallery

Bob Poe’s i-Phone photography is exhibited at the photographer’s gallery at Bergamot Station and features intimate i-Phone images of the human eye and one non-human eye for viewers to guess.

Eye Photo

June 19 – August 15

Bob Poe Photographic Art

Bergamot Station

2525 Michigan Ave., Gallery G8A

Santa Monica, CA 90404

Ginger Liu

A face is just a mask

… 

A face is just a mask, a covering to protect the soul.  The mask is a disguise to hide what one is by appearing as something else.  Inherently we are all the same inside and out.  Regardless of race, creed or color of our skin, we are all human beings.
I consider myself to be a human being and a student of the human condition. I am a barometer that measures the relative pressure of society.  As a result, I am an Artist.
My purpose is to be an observer of life, to better understand myself and my place in the world, to touch others and allow myself to be touched by them and to create deep spiritual connections to myself and those around me.
I investigate these themes through mask-like portraiture, stylized landscapes, woodblock and monoprints.
My work explores a desire to communicate effectively. Most often with great frustration I fail. Sometimes I have moments of soul to soul connection. 

— Roy Grillo 

… 

The eyes, from top to bottom: Roy Grillo, George Clooney, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins.

Other works…

I ask the question “Where are we going?”  My answer is “Home.” The Landscapes are the journey and the destination.…
 

 Road Home III Oil pastel on paper 16″ x 20″ 

Road Home IV Oil pastel on paper 12″ x 20″ 

Road Home Oil pastel on paper 12″ x 20″ 

Untitled. Pastel on paper.  

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“Why do we create art? What does the artist see that the viewer is unable or unwilling to see? The answer for me is to encourage people to exercise the courage to open their minds and not be afraid to feel and to reach out to your neighbor. Who am I? Where do I fit in? What is really going on? These thoughts are what drive’s my journey. I am not trying to master my craft as it pertains to mediums which are the reasons why my techniques are varied.  I am trying to master life and to be a master of my own destiny. Each medium has a life and a direction that it wants to go. I simply let it be. Depending on the subject, the ideas and feelings I want to convey. I have been influenced by Picasso and his business acumen. By Van Gogh and his struggle. I have studied the German expressionists and their mastery of so many genre. I have read Machiavelli and can relate it to our existence now. Mostly I am moved by my own thoughts, past, present and future and my relationship to those in the struggle to survive.”  

-Roy Grillo 

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Roy Grillo’s website: http://www.roygrillo.com/
Grillo can be contacted at: roygrillo@bigplanet.com  

The Encaustic Photograph

Images to Last a Lifetime

Artist Charles Bremer has explored a wide breadth of creative medium in his career ranging from photography and drawing to theater stage sets, sculpture and experimental sound. His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and art centers both in the United States and internationally. Most of his graphic work explores a synthesis of the natural elements with the human body through his highly developed method of hand painted prints. He is an accomplished master in the technique of encaustic wax glazing. His recent exhibitions have included a study of old art supplies, collaborative project exploring text and image, and a photographic series Two Dancers at the National Museum of Dance.

Beginning in the mid 1980’s, in collaboration with his wife Martha, he hosted a series of regional exhibitions exploring the natural elements in art. These large exhibitions; Waterways, Art on the Wind, Earthworks, and Art on Fire brought together many artists to share themes related to environmental concern and understanding important to the upstate region. Much of Bremer’s work has aimed to educate and celebrate the importance of protected natural spaces both urban and rural. He has designed unique teaching programs for young students emphasizing the art of listening and unique outdoor instruments activated by the natural forces: wind, fire, and water.

Upcoming projects for 2010 include publication of a photographic portfolio by the University of Utah; an aeolian harp installation at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY; and an exhibition of encaustic wax images at the Anthony Brunelli Gallery, Binghamton. Charles Bremer is married to Martha Bremer. They have three daughters. Their workshops and studios are located along Briar Creek in Otego, New York.

— John Brunelli

Photo-Oil-Paint-Tubes, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Felix, Plein Air, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Fireside-Studios-Pigment, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Kodak-Sky-Filter, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Leaf, Photograph with Encaustic Glaze

Welcome

Another New Beginning

The end of one year and the beginning of another … the end of one decade and the beginning of another.  Looking back, it’s kind of hard to believe we’ve learned anything about ourselves we didn’t already know, and many times tried to change. We’ve seen greed unbridled from Wall Street to Dubai, sports figures and politicians  revealed for the human beings that they are, common people with uncommon talents taking center stage, a victorious political party unable to deliver on its promises, and a world still waiting for its next real heroes to surface. Thank god for the arts. When all else fails, they still deliver.  
We’re glad you’re there for us; we’re glad to be back for you. This issue ofWe’re glad you’re there for us; we’re glad to be back for you. This issue of ragazine.cc , the on-line magazine of arts, information and entertainment, continues into its 6^th season with the usual eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, photography, art, politics, the law, and more – all of which has helped keep us afloat these last five years. If you haven’t taken the time to read through the Creative Non-Fiction pieces selected by CNF editor Leslie Heywood, take twenty minutes or a half hour and do yourself the favor.  You won’t regret it. Need a laugh? Find out why everyone should go to law school in the Casual Observer piece by Mark Levy. Wondering how to protect your intellectual property? Check out our Feeding the Starving Artist column by Mark and his associate Ryan Miosek.  Poetry editor Joe Weil has harvested the poetry of Raymond Hammond, and poetry in translation from Mario Moroni. See a world deconstructed by artist Roger Williams, and a long view of Iceland by photographer Chuck Haupt. Step into the fiction of Elizabeth Spencer and Alex Straaik; sneak a peak at Art Basel Miami, and hear Jeff Katz’s take on music, starting with the complex issue of vinyl packaging. Leave us your comments. Your feedback means a lot to us.

Thanks for reading! And don’t forget to tell your friends — we need all the help we can get. But then, who doesn’t?

Happy holidays, and a healthy and peaceful New Year!

 – MRF

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Dude, Take Me Apart

The deconstructivist art

 of Roger Williams

Photos Courtesy of Larry Hamill

Roger Williams, now a voice  from  Columbus, Ohio, went to New York  as  a postmodernist artist in 1978, and lived  there for 15 years.  He worked  for art galleries, including  John Weber,  Nina Nosaie and Al Salvatore, and for artists Sol Lewitt and Basquiat. His paintings were shown in Soho, the East Village and uptown galleries.   Here he speaks about his art and career.

A commission, under deconstruction

     
I came back to Columbus in 1993 to take care of a sick friend.  That year I joined the deconstructivist movement with information that I learned in New York.     Deconstructivist (alternatively called “deconstructionist”) art is an outgrowth of postmodern art, a thought  process  by which you analyze … tear apart, the existing  academia.    

Singing Smilies ... 46" x 48"

The result is a lot more energy, with use of conceptual properties overlapping, and layering of rhythms and transparencies. According to the architect Frank Gehry, you can deconstruct anything.

Party on the Island of La Grande Jatte ... 43" x 60"

Gehry deconstructed a fish in Barcelona .  With that in mind I deconstructed  a number of portraits,  cartoon characters,  people, objects, and events that define the decade. 

Gee Haw Whittle Diddle ... 72" x 72"

  
I have my my own  style of deconstructionism. It is formally articulated and the drawing goes to painting dark lines and flat shapes with bright transparent color,   with rolled-on glazes and arbitrary overlaps to find space. 

Mojo the Monkey ... 43" x 60"

The technique is not so painterly or pickled, but with sharp crisp lines with a straight edge built for each task. The subject is very important, as the lyrics must define current events and recent history. This tells the viewer where I am in time. 

Rap Boy ... 48" x 48"

Hometown art-politics here (in Columbus) translates into a popular appreciation for folk art, outsider, untrained, and prison art.  I am the only deconstructivist artist in town . 

Elijah Pierce: Woodcarver, Barber

I have Resistance, but I also have pieces in  many important collections, corporate, private and public.  This  month I am working on five commisions, including a  7′ x 12′ mural called Flight of the Dragon Fly deconstructed  for Cosi’s 10th anniversary celebration. It will be installed at the Cosi building, 333 West Broad Street, Columbus. 

Deconstructed Ellipse

I  have made the transition to deconstructionism and  plan to continue   

Waxing Abstract

D.C. artist’s encaustics capture

moment, emotion

Cliffs of Mohr, Ireland #1, encaustic, 8" x 10"

Karpathos Island, Greece, Encaustic on Wood, 8" x 10"

Le Point Sensible, Oil on Paper, 50" x 61"Traces of Contact, Oil on Paper, 44" x 50"

Traces of Contact, Oil on Paper, 44" x 50"

California Summer #2, Encaustic & Mixed Media, 9" x 12"

The varied influences and experiences in Angela White’s life come through clearly in the ranging images of her work. From international travel in pieces such as “Karpathos Island, Greece”, to explorations of the inner and outer self in  ”Traces” and “California Summer”, her encaustics capture moments and emotion that, as is common with abstracts, allow the viewer to fill in the blanks from their own lives.

Artist’s statement excerpt:

“Body prints I created in 2007 interpret memories held within the body, as well as the body in motion. Body printing is well known within art history, but my unique focus has been to show movement with the body. Using a digital camera, I took digital images of my body prints and then transferred and embedded them into new encaustic paintings – fusing translucent layers of luminous encaustic surfaces allows me to create visual depth and density in my work.

“The seascapes and landscapes are created using encaustic and water-based oil paints, and are occasionally embedded with gold and silver leaf and covered with iridescent oil paints. A deep sense of awe and reverence for the beauty and power of nature is expressed in all of my water and land paintings. These natural landscapes, along with the body print paintings, all reflect a desire to show constant movement and natural rhythm.”

More of White’s work can be seen at www.angelawhiteart.com, which also provides a link to contact the artist.

Leslie C. Wood

“Capturing a Minute Piece of Reality”

By Robert Hazzon

Leslie C. Wood is a Philadelphia-based artist whose art is expressed in both photography and the written word. She feels that mankind has always searched for ways to express and explain the world, and that while the world was being expressed in visual imagery, it was also simultaneously being expressed in words. “Both use a rich, colorful language, which allows a story to be told, a moment to be captured, and emotions to be experienced,” she explained.

Wood sees her photography as a journey of exploring both the familiar and unfamiliar. “I believe that the only way to understand the unfamiliar is to understand the similarities it has with the familiar, and that understanding or response is different for everyone,” she says.

Wood feels that creative thinkers look at things differently than non-creative thinkers. “Although photography requires technical ability, it’s the photographer’s overwhelming desire to gain knowledge of everything around him/her that makes the difference between an ordinary photograph and an exceptional one,” she says. “Because, as new knowledge is gained, there’s a drive to witness an entirely new form being born. And, for creative thinkers it doesn’t matter if it happens in six minutes, six months or six years; they simply have the faith that it will happen.”

Many artists and nature lovers may have no interest in mathematics, but Leslie finds fascination and enjoyment in some of the parallels between nature and numbers.

“For example,” she says, “often times the number of petals in a flower is one of the following:  3, 5, 8, 13, etc., and those numbers belong to the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is obtained by adding the two preceding numbers. It all contributes to my sense of discovery,” she claims.

Wood’s philosophical approach to photography best explains the essence of who she is as an artist. As she sees it, it’s not the goal of the photographer to change the subject, but for the subject to change the photographer.

Contact Leslie C. Wood at:     lcw@writer4u.com

Or visit her website at: http://www.lesliecarolwood.com

A Lifetime’s Work:

The Watercolors of Noel G. Miles

            Born in 1936, Noel G. Miles was raised and still resides in Philadelphia, Pa.  As a child he remembers what he calls urban removal and renewal.  “I felt I was witnessing the beginning of American style; which I thought of as the beginning of civilization.  I was so impressed with all the interesting buildings that were being developed in Philadelphia.  For me, architecture epitomizes the totality of how people live,” he says.

Miles belongs to the old school of “pleine aire” artists (meaning to work outside).  Whether it’s in front of City Hall or some obscure building, you can easily spot him sitting on his stool with his drawing board, pencils and watercolors, recreating what he considers to be another architectural wonder.  “I am drawn to certain buildings by a feeling I get in my gut.  As I begin to make closer observations, I am drawn into all the details and colorations” Miles explains.  If weather conditions deter him from working outside, he continues his pieces from memory in his studio.

Crowds of people who pass by and bombard him with questions and comments are another deterrent.. Miles finds it difficult to not engage in conversation since the majority of his success has come from private sales.  He feels you never know who your next customer could be.  “My pictures ring true to people.  I think when you remain honest to your vision and love of creating art, people can’t help but feel it.  It’s more than just an accurate rendering of columns and windows; it’s an extension of my own emotional history that merges with architectural history.  Many times the feelings can be dark; other times it’s sensual” Miles says.  People are often impressed by the fact that he has rendered a building to life; one they may have noticed but paid little attention to.

Miles knew very early on, that watercolor was his medium.  He has never been impressed by what the art world considers “in”.  Even more so today, he realizes the value of having been true to himself.  “Whoever I wanted to be in my painting, I was.  That can sometimes take you away from popular interest and demand.  My work is not reminiscent of any other artist’s.  I can never be anyone except who I am.”

            With a long list of credentials and clientele, Miles is most proud that Prince Charles has one of his Philadelphia watercolors in his collection.  Also, The State Department Of Economic Development And Tourism will be publishing a book of his Philadelphia watercolors, a lifetime’s work, due for distribution sometime in 2010.  He collaborated with the city for the 100^th birthday of City Hall and they published “The Splendors Of City Hall: An Artist’s View-The Art Of Noel G. Miles.  In 2000, the Republican National Convention commissioned him for their official poster along with a portfolio of his city watercolors as a gift for their conventioneers.

           Miles has been a member of the American Watercolor Society for most of his life, and is affiliated with the Philadelphia Watercolor Society.  He can be reached at:  215-665-8546, or by email at Noelgmiles@verizon.net

Junior Year Abroad

Lights, Camera, Magic!

 The big little world

of Charmaine Caire

Guest Curator

     In a 2500-square-foot studio in midtown Philadelphia, photographer Charmaine Caire creates magical images using articles scavenged and collected from city streets and thrift shops. Shelves of boxes filled with objects from years of collecting are piled from floor to ceiling – the makings of a miniaturized MGM movie studio, or the largest flea market on the Eastern Seaboard.  She calls her studio the “Artfarm”.  I call it  “ArtFUN”.

Senso Unico

Hundreds of dolls, toys, plastic accessories from aquariums, pieces of games, fake flowers, posters, to name only a few, are the elements that make up her colorful, playful and thought-provoking photographs. Charmaine’s favorite sources for these things include yard sales, flea markets and junk stores.  “Dolls, toys, all have a history.  These things speak to me and I listen.  It’s all very symbolic.  Those messages are an integral part of the development of each photograph,” she explains.  She also belongs to a group of artists called the “Dumpster Divers” who meet once a month and share and trade “stuff” they’ve found on the street, and other places.  Her studio, once called  the “Please Take Museum,” was a meeting place for the group; the public also was invited to participate and indulge. 

Pfizer

    In the middle of her studio, Charmaine has arranged one of her miniature sets with backdrop, props and figures that tell a particular story. She uses small flood lights and colored gels to create the dramatic effects that are so predominate in her work.  Working with a Mamiya 4×5 camera that still uses film, Charmaine says with some sadness,  “I see myself as one of the photographers of the old world. I feel great remorse that my way of working has become basically obsolete. I miss Polaroid cameras.  The only thing I use Photoshop for is removing dust particles from the image and slight color saturation.  I almost never crop my images.  I do most of my own printing.”

In My Room

     It’s not hard to understand when she says, “Children really get my work.”  Her images have a campy, surrealistic quality; the kind of pictures ideal for children’s books.  They also seem reminiscent of still photos from a movie set.  Charmaine explains: “I like to tell a story, but I want it to feel unfinished.   I let the viewer fill in the ending.”  For adults, there’s a lot more in the message of her work.  With her intricate assemblage of props, Charmaine finds it the perfect venue for expressing her observations about the world we live in.  “Sometimes the work focuses on politics. Other times, I create images that propel people to face their fears.  I also enjoy eroticism.  I like being racy.”  In a recent series of self portraits depicting her many wonderful trips to Italy, her spirit is invigorated when she says:  “The woman in the gondola…THAT’S ME!”

Country & Western

   Charmaine has been working in this style for about 12 years and has shown her work in over thirty exhibitions; six of them One Woman shows.  At the beginning of October,   she took part in an art show at Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Garden on South Street in downtown Philadelphia. 

     More than anything else, Charmaine wants to work with children.  When she mentions that she will have them come to the “Artfarm”, I imagine them scrambling through her boxes and playing.  In a serious voice she responds, “Oh, no. We ‘re going to be discussing the issues of our rapidly changing world!”

Charmaine Caire with portfolio of prints.

        Charmaine Caire can be reached at www.charmainecaire.com