Ukrainian Artists Bidniak Kholodny

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I have written before about the importance of viewing distances in art. Whether it is sculpture or one of those well-designed perspective drawings that you have probably seen via the Internet if not in person on the street (or other “3-d” artworks in a 2-d format), the position of the viewer can make or break the impression the art gives. But even in “normal” paintings, this distance from the artwork changes our perceptions and sometimes emotions when experiencing a work of art.

I have heard it said that gallerists can tell when a visitor is an artist vs. a collector (or perhaps wearing one hat or another because artists can be collectors too!). The collector tends to allow a single or few works grab his attention, paying little heed to the others in the room. The artist examines every single work, most often moving up close to see each stroke.

Today, I am wearing my artist cap (or should I say beret?). Here are two more landscape paintings that I saw at The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art recently. This first “Untitled” oil on board was painted in 1963 by Ukrainian artist Mykola Bidniak (1930-2000). The detail image (particolare in Italian) appears first.




This second painting is by another Ukrainian artist, Petro Kholodny (1876-1930). His untitled landscape was painted (oil on board) in 1927. Odd that my choice here happened to be of two landscape artists whose lives perhaps never touched, the one dying in the same year that the other was born.




And finally, this last painting has little to do with this post other than I wanted to show it to you. It was also a part of the exhibit (although part of the permanent collection) at The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. I looked at “Traffic” up close and later from across the room. It gave me a headache wherever I stood, regardless of viewing angle or distance. However, I had to admit that this 1948 oil painting by Harold Hayden truly captures the agitation and confusion often felt when people start crowding one another. “Traffic” did impress me that I felt this uncomfortable-ness from everywhere in the room whenever I placed my eyes on it.

Alexander Archipenko Art

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

After I left London, I flew to Chicago to spend the weekend with my friend Dilbarra Arapova before returning to Texas. She is the wife of my friend and mentor, sculptor Vasily Fedorouk.

We had a good visit and a bit productive despite the brevity of it. Dilbarra took me with another friend to The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in the Ukrainian Village of Chicago.

I saw there two works by Ukrainian-born American artist Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), one of Vasily’s favorite artists. This first is titled “La Coquette (1950),” a lithograph on paper. The second lithograph is simply titled “Two Figures, 1921.”




Here are a few shots of the museum environment. More to come next time . . .

Indianapolis and Chicago

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I recently returned from my visit to Indianapolis for two art events at the Franklin Barry Gallery. I was charmed to meet my formerly only-through-Facebook friend and fellow artist Travis Little. Travis also has some of his mixed media figurative works at the gallery. He not only supplied the digital projector for my presentation of “My Life as On of the Madonnari (Italian street painters)”, but he also showed me around downtown Indy a bit whenever we found time away from business. I am afraid I teased him about being a groupie because he was so friendly and supportive, as well as complimentary of my work. I am honored to have made his acquaintance for real.


I hope you enjoy this self-portrait I took on a timer of Travis and me showing off some of our artwork in the gallery while owner Don Elliott was busy choosing frames and taking care of the details for the upcoming exhibit. I wanted to share this cool story: that morning I had a minor “ironing incident” with some olive oil and my skirt and Don ended up pulling some of his mother’s dresses from a closet. So, this may have been the first time I have ever worn orange before! [Don gave me this dress and the vintage slip that went with it before I left his home. How cool was that?!]


I love seeing how Don and his assistant Chuck frame my drawings and paintings. I was delighted that Don chose a thin metallic magenta frame for the oil painting “Insatiable.” I do not have an eye for framing, but this choice made this painting even more colorful and fun. For November, Don has featured this colorful large sensuous mouth in the front window of the Franklin Barry Gallery aka The Frame Shop. He also exhibits several of my series of “Lips” stone carvings. See them if you can!


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The morning after the First Friday Gallery Walk in Indy, I headed to Chicago to see the family of my late friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk.. Vasily’s wife Dilbara and I enjoyed our time together and spoke a lot about ways in which we can keep alive the memory of Vasily and his art. I was thrilled to see my friend’s latest marble sculpture, but so sad to realize this was also his last. Although I am tempted to share images of this composition with you, I defer to his family on this point. Instead, I hope you enjoy this image of a vine growing in their back yard. Can you tell me what plant this is? I have never seen one like it before.

Artist Vasily Fedorouk

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Today the body of the great artist Vasily Fedorouk was cremated. I wish that I could have attended the funeral service for my friend and mentor in Chicago yesterday. I asked his wife Dilbarra if there was anything I could do for her, knowing that nothing will bring him back. She said, “Continue to tell the world about Vasily’s art. He was always so happy each time you wrote something for him or about him.”

Ukrainian born sculptor Vasily Fedorouk died in a horrible freak accident after saving his beloved dog Era during a family outing last Sunday in the Chicago area. In minutes, everything changed.

I share with you here three of his sculptures, the first two in stone, the latter in terra-cotta. He was a prolific artist with a great sense of design and a full understanding of quality.



This next image was taken during my last visit with Vasily in his suburban-Chicago home in September 2008 before I left for Florence, Italy. We are shown here with his beloved dog Era at his dining room table. We often kept in touch via the Skype and e-mail and I had an enlightening and wonderful conversation, as all were, with him on his birthday on August 16th. He had just earned 59 years. He had joked with me that while the number was not too high, all of his body parts were still working just fine. We both laughed. He had more energy than most people.



At the time of his death, some of Vasily’s sculptures were part of a 2-person exhibit at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago. The exhibit has been extended to at least September 6, 2009, so if you have the opportunity, please, please go see his wonderful artworks in person.


I know that Vasily changed my life in a significant way. I have grown as an artist because of him. I only hope that some part of his spirit can live on through me. And I will miss him like no other. And we all will never know the compositions never realized from his fertile imagination.

Sculptor Vasily Fedorouk

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

My good friend -- and the best sculptor I know -- Vasily Fedorouk picked me up at the Chicago aeroporto recently and I was able to spend some time with him and his family. I always learn things from him and was excited to see some of his new projects.

While we damn-near polished off a bottle of Armenian Arazat brandy (for whose name my keyboard does not have characters) and looked at images on his computer, the sun came streaming into the dining room window at a blinding angle. When Vasily pulled the curtain across the glass, we were pleased to see the following image cast by the shadows of two of his latest sculptures. The one on the left is a composition in metal. The sculpture silhouette on the right is a beautiful figure that Vasily carved from Turkish marble.





I took these next two images the next morning as Vasily and I went down into his basement, which doubles as a gallery. I love this space and it is so wonderful to have a place to see his works anytime. Vasily is shown here with his companion Era. The other picture is in the back room where he decided to show me some more images of works he did long ago in Ucrania (The Ukraine).

I never tire of seeing these photographs of marble, wood, and granite sculptures, as well as his drawings. He says he does the drawings (especially) for himself, but I cannot help but envision them framed in an exhibition for everyone who loves art to see.


Vasily Fedorouk is truly an amazing, sensitive, and generous artist. If you would like to see more of his artworks, please visit his site: http://vasilyfedorouk.com

Clouds

Always having been a dreamer of sorts, I am constantly watching the sky. One of my favorite pastimes is to photograph skies while I am flying. This image was taken around 8 am while I was just about to land in Chicago en route to Italy. From the ground shortly after I took this image, the skies looked dreary and it was snowing. But above the cloud line, something amazing was transpiring. I am often reminded that photography just cannot capture the feeling one has when surrounded by Nature’s beauty. Yet, I still strive to take a good image.

I hope you enjoy. Tomorrow I tell you more about my return to Italia.
Ciao, ciao.