Cab Calloway on left and Arthur Singer on right in Jericho for dinner circa 1975
I grew up in a household with art and music, mostly because my parents were both involved in the visual arts, and my father had close friends in the Jazz World! We went to see Cab Calloway at The Westbury Music Theatre and after that he came over to our house for dinner. My father did a lot of design work for Cab, including his bandstands and a number of famous posters for the Jazz star.
If you saw the exhibition we had last winter at The Rundel Library, you would have some idea of how important it is to build a community that supports the arts. When I was younger I worked for publishers and got started writing about art while I was living in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1970s. My first articles appeared in The Prospect Press, and I interviewed artists for American Artist Magazine.
Now, almost 50 years later, I am still interested in writing about art and artists, and I do that through this blog you are reading... I can't say how important it is to belong to a vibrant visual arts community, and I certainly found one here in the Rochester area. Being part of this community came about for me because I was hired to teach in the School of Art at R.I.T. in 1988. I was very thankful for this since there was a terrible economic crisis in the late 1980s.
Bill Finewood at Pittsford Fine Art
When you walk into Pittsford Fine Art right in the center of town, you find a vital group of artists you can relate to. This month, Bill Finewood is on deck, and I have been following his work for many years, both as a colleague at Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow painter and illustrator. I actually met Bill many years ago when he was giving a talk at a convention in New York City. His work was all about three dimensional paper composition - some of which is now on view in Pittsford. When I found out he had an office nearby, I introduced myself and he later came out to teach illustration at R.I.T.
Sodus Light at Pittsford Fine Art
Oil on board by Bill Finewood
Some outstanding paintings are now on view, and I was drawn to the painting above of the lighthouse in Sodus. Bill has a great eye for detail, and his work is strong in composition and color. Bill Finewood is the featured artist this month,, and included in his section are drawings he made in Montana, with wonderful gradations of tonality that indicate space in the distant mountains.
When I speak about the art community, I am also thinking that it is just over a year since I moved out of The Hungerford Building. Many other artists have moved away too, and I was speaking with a friend who moved - Suzi Kuhn who is also represented in the Pittsford Fine Art Gallery. She recently came back from a voyage to Iceland where she was attracted to the landscape ( and the seascape! ).
Suzi Zefting Kuhn
There is more to see in Pittsford, and I thought that the sculptural glass work by Nancy Gong stood out and I had a chance to talk with her about the techniques she uses - so different than painting! If you are going to work in glass - be ready to deal with the physics of the materials.. Nancy took some time to educate me on the ins and outs of glass work which seems to me like a science experiment.
Colors are sometimes applied to the surface of glass, and sometimes the colors are in the glass itself. Sometimes strands of glass can be used almost like a drawing material that retains its shape as it cools down. You can see this in the big circular piece she has at Pittsford Fine Art. Many stages and considerations of color and texture are in this work, and I don't think I have seen anything quite like it before...
Glass work by Nancy Gong
There was also a sculptural piece that looks like it could be a sort of Valentine gift by Nancy Gong, and it reminded me of the little sculptures I saw recently in The Memorial Art Gallery shop made by my friend Tarrant Clements. Nancy Gong has some of that humor in her piece, and it is another reason to stop by Pittsford Fine Art for a look.
Nancy Gong with her Glass work
at
Pittsford Fine Art, Pittsford, New York
