Waits for Thunder

Today's house shaking thunder reminds me of a small piece I had published in 1993 when my mom was still alive. It was entitled "Waits for Thunder" in a book by the same name.

For some long forgotten and deeply buried reason, my mother's entire family lived in fear of thunder. As the last of her generation move into their 90's, minds clouded with age, I accept the face that the reason for this behavior will never be revealed. My mother was determined that I would not be victim to this  debilitating fear that drove her into closets, armed with a book and a chair, to wait out the storm.
When I was a child, as dark clouds approached, we set up camp in our small screened -in porch. Mother placed me on her lap, and together we would wait for thunder. She bravely spoke of cold fronts and loud noises and the beautiful lightening  that would follow. And then it came, and the force of her jump raised us both out of the chair. My mother still waits in fear for thunder.  I wait with open arms and a trembling heart.

image from 10 days of science website

In Memorium: Paul Pitt. May 5th, 2012

One of the dearest, sweetest artists I've ever represented died today in his prime. Paul Pitt was a gentle giant of a man. Quiet and soft spoken with deep family ties and an enormous talent. He was also a tender caretaker for his mother and his brother Charlie, who passed away in recent years.


His luscious, folk art paintings brought us back to a simpler time, filled with a strong sense of community and extended family. Even if we had never personally experienced his subject matter, it rang a responsive chord. A county wedding, nuns skating with their charges, a Shaker horse sale, concerts, night trains, snow scenes, a night at the opera. His talent for story telling was as charming as the man himself.

His work teemed with activity, and was populated with up to two hundred and fifty children, adults and animals from Paul's imagination. He meticulously and compulsively repainted each scene up to six times before he was willing to pronounce them completed. Within each painting, many small stories unfolded, each with their own considerable charm and humor. And always, you would find his surprise signature-- two small boys running--one black, one white, taking turns wearing the ever present red scarf.

Folk art enthusiasts loved Paul's work, and a large body of his paintings have been included in several important private and museum collections. Paul Newman used one of Pitt's "Barn Raising" paintings to illustrate an article about his communitarian projects. When folk art collectors, Baron and Ellin Gordon opened their museum in Norfolk, VA, they displayed Paul's  "Country Wedding", one of at least nine works they had purchased over time.

Everyone who knew Paul adored him and I am beyond sadden by this unexpected loss.
In Memorium: Paul Pitt
folk art, non-mainstream art, self-taught art, outsider art, artbrut art

Gift of a Century: Petullo Collection to Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee collector Anthony Petullo has made a gift to the Milwaukee Art Museum of over 200 pieces of self-taught art, making this institution the holder of the largest collection of this type of art in the United States. These wondrous works are in a show entitled "Accidental Genius" and they will be punctuated with lectures, films, and parties through May 6th.
As a guest in Mr. Petullo's home, I can attest to the magnificence of his vision and his collection. He has included in his gift, masters, such as Bill Traylor, Anna Zemanokova and Adolf Wolfli, as well as works, lesser known, but equally worthy of contemplation.
On Thursday, March 22, the Museum will host a discussion concerning what the meaning of and the problems are with the terms Self-taught, Naive and Outsider. Lisa Stone (curator at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago), Jane Kallir (co-director of Galerie St. Etienne, NYC) and Margaret Andrea ( curator of the exhibition) will be the panelists.

image by Carlo Zinelli

Laura James: Praying Out Loud

With an Antiguan heritage and a love of subject matter, both secular and religious, self-taught artist Laura James has made quite a splash in the art world. In the year 2000, she completed thirty four images commissioned by the Catholic Church for their new version of The Book of Gospels. Each of these inclusive and magnificent paintings, which were first on display at the Divinity School at Yale University in New Haven, CT, have been sold. So have all her works in a series called Nannies and Other Mothers.

A new body of work featuring goddesses, such as the revered Mami Wata, and guardian angels, has just been delivered to the gallery and will be here through July. This is a rare opportunity to see an entire body of Laura James' paintings, and her elegant presentation copy of The Book of Gospels will be on display during this show.

The Baron Paints a Life Remembered

Baron Corso de Palenzuela was only 8 years old when his titled family fled Cuba to avoid Batista's corruption. The trauma of this sudden and unexpected move from their beloved homeland has remained with de Palenzuela and is clearly evident in his art. His memory paintings, depicting the family's luxurious life in Cuba, illustrate both love and loss for Corso the child, and haunting fragments of memory still carried by Corso the adult.

In his paintings, the main figures are always large and in the foreground, flat in perspective, often flanked by both armed soldiers and the lush vegetation of this tropical paradise. White deer, called Dama Dama, almost forced into extinction because of their prized flesh, white peacocks whose feathers are decorated with gold coins from the family's fortune, white dogs both prized for their hunting skills and their devotion as family pets, enormous fields filled with sunflowers, cocoa and tobacco, and mother tending to her gardens, fill de Palenzuela's colorful canvases.

There is a strong folk aesthetic to this unschooled work which has been shown at the American Visionary Art Museum, The Miami Fine Art Museum, The Jewish Museum in NY, The Havana Municipal Museum, and Vassar College. The artist's spiritual side, reflecting his Sephardic heritage, is depicted in powerful biblical paintings with illustrative text. Corso de Palenzuela says, “I’m religious, but I don’t believe in institutional religion. I’m more of a mystic.” These wonderful paintings are mystical indeed! Most of the work is painted in oil on random shaped boards, often surrounded with framing constructed to protect these vivid and cherished memories. There are fascinating stories told in each work and a goodly amount of the vintage pieces are still in the artist's personal collection.

Edward Gomez wrote of de Palenzuela in Raw Vision magazine, these paintings go “…far beyond the Cuban-American dominated zones of Miami and South Florida reflecting both increasing and broader popular interest in Latin-American culture in general, and the ever-widening scope of the Outsider Art world, where interest in styles, techniques or themes associated with particular peoples or places has significantly enriched appreciation of the genre.” De Palenzuela's work has also received glowing write-ups in the New York Times on four occasions.

Vintage and current works by Corso de Palenzuela are now available at the Beverly Kaye Gallery in Woodbridge, CT tel: 203 387 5700