As with all of my artists, Kurt is very accommodating.  If a client needs something in a specific size or color, he will be happy to do a commission piece.  At RosettaStone Fine Art Gallery, I specialize in emerging or mid-career artists who have not gone crazy with their pricing.  However, some of the artists that I have handled, or been the first to show in the United States have gone on to increase in value by a whopping 500%.  I don’t guarantee that any of my artists will increase in value and believe that art should be bought because you like it and not as an investment.  However, it is fun to try and pick the rising stars of the art world while they are still attainable!

The two images above represent 18×18 inch square planels which are part of the artist’s “Notions” assemblage.  The center part of the panel is clear plexiglass that has been painted on the reverse side and the 1.25 inch border is sand-blasted to create a framed look to each piece.  Each piece is mounted onto the wall with stainless steal brackets that hold the panels two inches away from the wall’s surface.  This creates a very dramatic shadow boxing effect.  The one that I have in the gallery consists of nine of these squares, which covers 62×62 inches plus or minus depending on how close you hang them.

Curved plexiglass wall hanging painted on both reverse and front sides

“Cascades” to the left is a new spin off.  Here the artist has taken rectangular pieces of plexiglass and curved them.  He then paints on the reverse side and does some painting on the front.  Then he attaches three of these panels together and hangs them on the wall by attaching them with a bracket attached to the top panel.  Here he has chosen to put them in a cascading pattern on the wall.  However, if the client wants them hung straight that is strictly up to them.

The nice thing about this piece is the undulating effect when the piece is viewed from  either side and the rhythmic shadows that it casts on the walls.  All this adds to the overall movement of the piece.

Chris Hill’s artwork cannot be appreciated by viewing it on the Internet.  Therefore, I urge you to set up an appointment to come by at your earliest possible convenience to see this talented artist’s work in person.  Don’t forget that I have no set gallery hours and everything is by appointment only.  But because of that I save a lot in overhead and am able to pass those savings onto my clients.

I wanted to introduce you to a bright new emerging artist who you should definitely know about.  I was recently asked to jury a show at the Lighthouse ArtCenter Museum and chose this artist to win first place.  I immediately decided that I wanted to rep her in my gallery.  To date her work has caused a lot of excitement.  It is fresh, unique and makes a strong statement about the world we live in and the environment.

Originally Debbie Mostel was a very well known jewelry maker.  Shots of her work on glamorous models have adorned many important fashion magazine pages over the years.  She has incorporated castings of these jewelry elements into her paintings.  Most of her work is half painted and half collaged with not just the jewelry, but many other found objects that contain special meaning to the artist.  A lot of these elements include computer parts such as hard drives, wires, and mother boards.  Globes of the world are another prevalent feature in her work.  They are transformed by paint, cut up into sections and applied to her finished pieces in some very intriguing configurations.  Some contain little rooms inhabited by people.  You never know what you will find in a Mostel work of art.  There are even mirrors so you can see your own reflection as part of her created world.

Winning work of art from the Lighthouse ArtCenter Exhibit

“Southwest by Sky,” the image immediately to the left is a commentary on how we may be losing our spiritual battle and the therefore, the world, to technology.  It is a piece that is infused with a great deal of drama, packed full of individual symbols and found objects, yet never losing its way.  Somehow it manages to hang together without losing itself in the minutia.  This is not an easy feat to accomplish but this artist manages to walk the very pecarious line between much and too much without crossing it.

Below left is the “He Beast” one of two sculptures on display in my gallery.  Notice the small globe on its right shoulder.  Below right is a beautifully textured piece of the sea, a subject that the artist is extremely fond of portraying.  Notice the silver crustacean crawling off to the right.  This was one of her original jewelry pieces.  To see a video on her work go to the following  link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIyTDvn1FOQ&context=C39516d7ADOEgsToPDskLcyjLKrtnYu-4AS_WFM14-

"Kelp"

One of two of her sculptures on display at RosettaStone Fine Art Gallery

To journal is to make use of pen and paper to record events, thoughts, emotions, possibilities, priorities, and just about anything else on our minds.  Journal keeping as a tool for self-reflection allows us to shape vague thoughts and feelings into coherent language.

It is a way to organize, prioritize, and find an outlet for the incessant chattering of the mind.  Journaling can also be a powerful tool for releasing pent-up emotions.  It is a way of making the inner voices of one’s heart, mind, and soul more  audible.

In this course we will explore the many techniques of journaling.  We will be writing and having discussions.  It will be fun and inspiring.  More importantly you will learn a new form of self-discovery as well as an effective way to calm and organize your thoughts.

Journaling Sessions with Minx Boren

Minx has been studying and teaching the art of journal-keeping for more than 40 years. Minx is a motivational speaker, a writer, a facilitator, and the author of 4 books of poetry, co-author of 5 books for women and columnist for several online magazines.

Journaling Workshop – Fall 2011 to Winter 2012

Four Sessions starting October through January, 2nd Tuesday of the Month
5:30pm – 7:30pm at the gallery

$27 per evening or $90 for the series

Room for only 30 so Subscribe Now
Call 561.743.3340

Download and view the full invitation using this link Journaling with Minx Boren.

Read the rest online at http://www.palm2jupiter.com/ebooks/P2J_OEI15_14April2011/ page 11.

Three seniors at Dreyfoos School of the Arts awarded scholarships

At this same event we will be featuring the work of well known artist Clemente Minum.

Hope you can make it!

RSVP to 561-301-9371 or 561-743-3340.

An evening of Art and Music

Of course, the longer you wait for one of them to break formation the faster you will speed up to cut past them.  You have to fight these impulses for revenge or the need to make up time, because that is when you can get into trouble.  But I have calculated that there is a corresponding, exponential increase in your breakaway speed of five miles per hour for every one minute that you have to wait for an opening.   To fight such facts of life can be difficult if not impossible to overcome.

I have often wondered what psychological reasons would prompt these do-gooders to insist on screwing with the unwritten rules of the road.  Can it be possible that they never heard of these rules?  Have they been living under a rock?  It could be that they have a ‘higher’ calling.  Maybe their goal is to prevent others from breaking the law?  Perhaps they consider themselves highway missionaries who want to convert all speeders to their way of driving!  Well, in my humble opinion proselytizing has no place anywhere let alone on the road!

Maybe, it’s because they are married to control-freaks and this is the only area in their lives where they can exert control over others?  I have no need for exerting such control.  When I see someone barreling down the highway doing more than ten miles over the speed limit, I simply pull over and let them by.  It’s nothing personal.  If they want to risk getting a ticket, so be it.  I just don’t understand why these slow pokes don’t move over when someone wants to get by them.  Cars can be whizzing by them, people are on their tails within a half-an-inch, and doggedly insist on holding their ground.  It’s like they have taken some sort of moral high ground and refuse to relinquish it for fear of going to hell.  Meanwhile, it’s the rest of us that are living in hell, a hell they’ve made with their holier-than-though righteousness!

All I can say to you drivers who insist on doing the speed limit in the left or next to the left-hand lanes is ‘to get over yourselves’ and ‘get the hell over to your designated lanes’, which according to the unwritten rules of the road would be the right or next to the right-hand lane!

I have a long list of topics that I enjoy talking about:

“The History of Print Making”

“All About Giclees”

“How to take your Art Career to the Next Level”

“Tips on Hanging and Displaying Art”

“What to Look for when Buying Art”

“The Future of the Traditional Gallery Model”

JB Lecturing to the Brandeis Group

The event lasted an hour and a half, from 10:30am till 12:00pm.  There was a 15 minute meet and greet session where all the ladies congregated in my studio while waiting for the rest to arrive.  When all were present I conducted a docent-like tour of the gallery pointing out some of the outstanding artists that I represent.  I then gave a twenty- minute lecture about my career with a ten-minute Q and A session.  After that, the women took their time taking another look at all the artworks and made some purchases.  My staff served coffee and tea and some sweet edibles.  There were even Mamosas offered, but there were no takers.  I did not charge for this.  I was more than happy to provide all of the above for free in turn for the exposure.  No one, other than the organizer of the event, Norma Kaminsky, had been to my new location so was definitely a win-win proposition.

Norma Kaminsky awarding me a donation given in my name to the Brandeis Library

Goodies offered with a Choice of Mamosas, Coffee and Tea

"Benefits Superviser Sleeping" by Luecuan Freud

In 2008 “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” by Lucien Freud fetched 33.6 million dollars at Christies Auction House in New York City.  This was a new record for a price paid for a living artist’s work.  It was bought by Roman Abramovich who is ranked the 4th richest man in Russia and the 50th in the world.  He is a self-made man of questionable business practices who today is perhaps most well known for owning the Chelsea Football Team.  In that same year he set another art world record when he bought Francis Bacon’s “Triptych” for 86.3 million dollars, the most ever paid for a post-war work of art.  These purchases were most likely bought to help promote his new gallery that he and a partner opened in Moscow, a very smart marketing move.

Is it the shock value of having a morbidly obese women commanding center stage in the canvas that grabs people’s imagination.  Is it the ’800 pound gorilla in the room’ mentality that rivets our attention and obliterates everything else from our view when it/she is present?  Is it the fact that Lucien Freud is Sigmund’s grandson? Is it that Lucien is no doubt a very painterly and accomplished artist?  I say it is all of the above.  I also say that in this person’s, artist’s, and dealer’s opinion, it is not worth 33.6 million dollars.  It is fitting that Mr. Abramovich also set a record for Francis Bacon who also specialized in the grotesque.

Please take note:  I greatly admire both of these artists, especially Francis Bacon who was an innovator of the highest order, so don’t misconstrue any of my comments as a rebuke of their talent.  What I am exploring in this article is how and when did our ideal of beauty, or perhaps better stated, what we covet visually above all else, become something perverted and grotesque.  Today, for most major collectors and museum curators there is a third factor to their adoration quotient:  The more they don’t understand what the artist is trying to convey the more they covet it.

"After Cézanne" by Lucien Freud

I could rationalize the high price that Mr. Freud’s work commands if he had started a new school of art as Bacon had, or if he had been an originator.  But he wasn’t.  “After Cezanne” which he produced in 1999-2000 is so reminiscent of Philip Pearlstein’s work, who had originated this style of nude genre in the 1960s, that it almost borders on  plagiarism …except for the fact that Pearlstein did and does it so much better.  But unfortunately for Pearlstein, his work is done so well that it almost seems pretty and we must keep in mind that the uglier it is the more money it commands.  “After Cezanne” was bought by the National Gallery of Australia for 7.4 million.

For most artists who like myself would rather paint images of beauty this whole ‘grotesque esthetic’ can put us at a tremendous disadvantage.  For us the world is full of enough carnage and injustice and what we want to provide our viewers is a respite from all that, a place to escape in these dire times.  For this we are punished and relegated to the dustpan of culturati.  This is the inside circle, a very small handful of players who control the art world.  Yes, my friends, there are literally only a dozen people out there who determine the tastes and opinions of the art world and dictate to the rest of us what we are suppose to appreciate and desire as ‘fine art.’  I could name them but I don’t want to burn any bridges.

"2 Models" by Philip Pearlstein

I was recently commissioned to do a four by ten foot painting for a collector of mine who wanted me to do one a scene of Giverny.  After 600 hours I produced “Weeping Willow Serenade.”  In a painting as intricate as this every turn of a leaf can affect the composition.  If a clump of waterlilies become too over powering or attention grabbing it would have the effect of pulling down the whole.  Every stroke and nuance is calculated to sweep the viewers eyes gently across the canvas enjoying each and every detail on its own merit but without distracting it from the appreciation of another.  It’s a tightrope dance that is very difficult to pull off.  And no offense to Lucien, but it takes a whole lot more brain cells to organize this sort of composition than placing the focal point of your painting in the middle of a couch in the middle of a room in the middle of your canvas!  For all this beauty that I created that took infinitely more synapse charges than Lucien sparked I got a measly 33,000 dollars, which is exactly one-tenth of one percent what his work fetched.

"Weeping Willow Serenade" by JB Berkow To see a larger image of this painting go to www.rosettastonefineart.com

I bring this up, not as a complaint, but more as an example of how far we have drifted from what we once cherished as our visual ideal.  Maybe it is a reflection of the times or maybe it’s the exact opposite, and it is the arts that is helping to shape times we now live in.  In the mid 1970s I remember when Truman Capote’s novel, “In Cold Blood,” was made into a movie and shown on television in a prime time slot at nine in the evening.  I was outraged and wrote a letter to the Washington Post editor complaining about this sort of violence being brought into our homes at such an early hour.  How quaint that seems now.  Today we have the most violent programing imaginable being run all day long on television, video games that teach our youth to become impervious to the consequences of violence, and an epidemic of bullying and hate crimes.

Maybe if we watched less violent programing, if the news would cover more stories of good endeavors and not relegate it to once a year around Thanksgiving, if we went to museums that were not afraid to defy the dictates of a dozen jaded art aristocrats and exhibited more esthetically beautiful work, maybe we could get our society back to one that valued compassion towards our fellow human beings.  Maybe we would be more civil to one another.  Maybe there would be less bullying.  Maybe Congress would compromise more and respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that if a person’s opinion doesn’t concur with their own it doesn’t mean that that person is a traitor or will go to hell.

We have to start respecting each other and relearn what it means to be considerate and polite to one another.  This will take reeducating ourselves to a forgotten set of values and sensibilities.   Perhaps one important part of that process is to learn to appreciate beauty all over again.