american society of contemporary artists NUMBER 49 WINTER 2012-2013

By Dorothy Koppelman

I have learned from Aesthetic Realism how every woman wants to see and be seen from the time she

opens her eyes as a baby; first,—she wants to see the world as it is, because truly seen, the world has a struc-ture which is beautiful. In Self and World Eli Siegel writes: "Aesthetic Realism, in keeping with its name, sees all reality, including the reality that is oneself, as an aesthetic oneness of opposites..." I learned that the only way a person can see the out-side world as friendly is to see it wholly as it is and the only way we can like ourselves is to see the aesthetic relation of the world and ourselves. In Aesthetic Realism lessons I was seen by Eli Siegel not as a disdainful critic, blasé at twenty, but as a woman yearning to like the way I saw the world around me. I have had the honor of being seen truly by Eli Siegel and I know that every woman wants to be seen this way—as having the opposites of reality itself. He asked me: Are you the same person alone as you are with other people? It had never occurred to me before that such a thing was possible. I learned that assertion and retreat, inside and outside were opposites in the world, and that I could see this in the objects I liked to paint—that it was this presence of opposites that made me want to paint. I wanted to see and to like myself and the world at the same time. Learning this made my life coherent—that I wanted to see the world all the time in every situation, the way it is seen in the paint-ings I cared so much for. This is Eli Siegel’s great principle of Aes-thetic Realism: “All beauty is a making one of opposites and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in our lives.” I believe this statement, embodying Aesthetic Real- (See Vuillard page 2)

EDOUARD VUILLARD OR, HOW A WOMAN WANTS TO SEE AND BE SEEN

By Maurice Taplinger Gallery and Studio

T he 95th Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Contemporary Art-

ists (ASCA) once again lives up to its title theme “Alternate Ave-nues” by encompass-ing a wide variety of methods, media, tech-niques and styles (some of which are reproduced here, since the show includes many more works than it would be possible to adequately review in an article of this length). Abstraction, for ex-ample, comes in many forms: Neva Setlow em-ploys clear, brilliant col-ors and precise yet styl-ized floral shapes set afloat on a brilliant blue field in a manner that harkens back to Matisse’s “Jazz” series. Aptly attuned to her uplifting forms, Setlow’s buoyant collage is entitled “Abundant Joy.”

Hank Rondina, on the other hand, uses a com-bination of sharp geomet-ric shapes and fanciful signs –– suggesting stick figures that morph into musical notes and bright-ly colored exclamation points that appear to have slid off their circular bases –– in his composi-tion in acrylic and cut mat board, “Flamenco Sketch-

es.” Here, Rondina’s subtly modulated tangerine and blue background adds a lyrical counterpoint to his sharp-ly defined shapes. (See ASCA page 4)

THE ASCA TAKES THE HIGH LINE FOR ITS 95TH ANNUAL SURVEY

"The Crowded Room"

Miriam Wills

Richard Karp

Ray Shanfeld

2

(Vuillard Continued from page 1)

ism, is the greatest seeing the world itself has come to. I have seen it to be true historically about all art, about my

own work, and about people, I am considering the work of Edouard Vuil-lard as a lesson in paint showing how deeply an artist has looked at women and their lives. The early paintings by Edouard Vuillard put together the opposites in every woman’s life—the intimate and the

large, closeness and distance, thought and motion or energy and repose. Vuillard shows how the opposites, the structure of a timeless reality, are present in us and in a work-a-day world; I care for his work and have been affected by it very much. A woman wants to be seen in relation to all things, all the time. When, in an Aesthetic Realism class, Eli Siegel showed me the way opposites--beginning with the hard-ness and softness of the chair I sat in—were all around me, I said three words to myself I had never thought of before: “I am related, I am related, I am related! My self took on a new dimension. In the Fifteen Questions, Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?, those beginning opposites of reality are asked about by Eli Siegel—Sameness and Difference DOES every work of art show the kinship to be found in objects and all realities?—and at the same time the sub-tle and tremendous difference, the drama of otherness, that one can find among the things of the world? In “The Seamstress” Vuillard shows “the kinship to be

found in objects and all realities.” Here is the plain, blue back of a woman who seems to be absorbed in herself as she is absorbed in her sewing. But the artist sees the act of sewing as an act of relation. The materials on either side of the seamstress share her soft shape; under her arm is a white triangle,

and to her right, a blue one. The slim, straight lines of the chair on which she sits are the same color as her hair,

W e need volunteers to help continue the survival of our ASCA Newsletter. We welcome art-related articles, reviews of exhibitions and your upcom-

ing shows. Send your material to:

Hank Rondina 209 Lincoln Place,

Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376;

or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

the same as that mysterious vertical column which con-nects her head to that pink and red triangle, like a medi-tative and lively cap. Andrew Ritchie, in his 1954 book on the artist says: [Vuillard] presents the quiet, ordinary relationships of the animate and inanimate, the fusion of person and thing until both become one, and every shape, every color, every accent merges into sustained, tapestry-like rhythms.

The rhythm of relation, of sameness and difference is here in, for instance, the way the seamstress’s neck is painted with the same thick strokes of a light color, the same shape as the rectangular boxes to her right and to her left. Vuillard, in his work puts together the opposites every woman wants to see as one every day, every morning—the near and far, the everyday and the strange, the famil-iar and mysterious. Vuillard, who lived from 1868 to 1940, was a Symbol-ist; affected by the poet, Mallarmé, he went after “nuance,” suggestiveness, and what the poet called “atmosphere.” In one passage of the Journals he kept for over 40 years, recording what he saw, Vuillard wrote: "This morning, upon awakening I was looking at the dif-ferent objects that surrounded me…the curtains, the chair, the paper on the wall…the knobs of the open door, glass and copper, the differences of perspec-tive through the two win-dows….I feel pleased to try and understand the character of objects…to thus understand the world was…I believe, the goal…to find grand emo-tions….And then…I was astonished to see Maman enter in a …peignoir with …stripes…There was a vivid atmos-phere…a living per-son…"

In painting after painting on small pieces of brown cardboard, using thick paint and layers of theatrical glue used in stage sets, Vuillard showed that in the crowded

"Under the Lamp"

"Woman with Foliage"

Vuillard: The Seamstress

Vuillard: "Woman Sweeping"

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Edouard Vuillard’s “The Blue Sleeve” exemplifies that “criticism…” which is the “loving acceptance of the world.” It is a study in contempt, anger, the ac-companying limpness and the grand opposition to those feelings which exist in our very selves and in the structure of things. The scowling woman asserts anger, but the artist asserts a counter-offensive in that very bright blue arm. The girl’s hand, so large, so limp, rests however, on a rising triangle of light which leads quietly back to another figure, almost indistinguishable but serenely there in the background. Because Vuillard was a master at bringing distant depths to the surface, we feel this person is inextricable—like our whole selves—from the sidewise view of the unseeing girl. This woman, so brightly in the center of the painting, is simul-taneously held in the girl’s curving arm, while her head and hair merge with the multi-colored, spreading world behind her. “The world cannot be seen as good until it is criti-cized,” said Eli Siegel, and that is what Vuillard does here: The dark, almost religious arches of that chair in front support the worship of contempt and anger; the art-ist changes them in depth to the light, vertical and hori-zontal divisions of the spreading wall; and light and dark have changed places on the two faces. The angry divi-sion of light and dark, with its scowl, has been reversed so that we see an open eye in bright light and a most pleasing vivid, and yet symmetrical relation of light and shadow. In Aesthetic Realism consultations women learn to see that even when we are asserting anger or scorn for

the outside world, there is another, wider aspect of ourselves—no matter how hidden or sub-merged—which wants to be pleased rightly by the wide world. In “Art As Criticism,” Eli Siegel writes: In art, what the eye and self do is for the honor and full truth of reality; in what isn’t art, the eye can change reality

out of fear, and in a manner dishonoring it. “Interior: Mother and Sister of the Artist” of 1893 is perhaps Vuillard’s most courageous and powerful paint-ing. There is such a perception of evil

( See Vuillard page 4)

rooms, the routine domestic activities, there is the ro-mance of the wide, mysterious world: opposites as one. In “Woman Sweeping” for instance, one soft color brown pervades the room, showing subtle changes as it min-gles with shadows, and defines the ever-present bureau, the light open door, even the sweet, round cap of Mad-ame Vuillard. But she is not sweeping everything away so she can forget things. That slim, diagonal broom is the means of relation between her round body in its striped gown and that bulky form with its patterned sur-face, rising so mysteriously right in the foreground of the room. It is that weighty shape, like a nucleus, which al-lows the objects of this room to go out, spread beyond the edges of the canvas. I love teaching with my colleagues in Aesthetic Real-ism consultations what we have learned about the only antidote to that boredom, irritation and loneliness which arise from the idea that we have to separate what goes on inside our homes from all that goes on in the outside world. The only opponent to that kind of contempt is to see the vivid presence of the opposites—beauty itself—in everything that exists. Often, when a woman is cleaning, two things occur—feverish activity and then exhaustion. Is there, however, in this painting, a relation of impediment and ease, which makes for serenity and, as Eli Siegel described, there must be in all art, a sense of stir?—Do we see here the oneness of opposites we want in our lives? Does the fact that so many objects and shapes be-yond the edges of this room suggest that the sweeping woman has a relation to a wider space, a world beyond that cozy room? I am sure that every woman wants to be asked as Mr. Siegel asked me: “Is a person’s business the whole world, or snug warmth?—Do you want to be in relation to all space or just in a cupboard with a heater?” I see Vuil-lard’s painting as not only an affirmation of relation but a criticism of the desire in a woman, or any person, to sweep things out of sight. Vuillard, as he showed in his painterly perception the shapes and colors of relation, also criticized visually the notion of separation in one’s life.

II. What Women Want Is the Aesthetic Criticism of Self

The most dramatic, romantic and important thing that can happen in a woman’s life—has happened in mine and continues to happen—is to learn how to see the dif-ference between contempt and its selfish pleasures and the true criticism which is the same as respect, the same as love, the same as art. Eli Siegel was the first to see and to say that all art has the criticism we need in order to like the way we see the world. In his essay, now published in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, “Art As Criticism,” he writes:

To see is to criticize….The world cannot be seen as good until it is criticized; and art is the criticism and

through criticism, the loving acceptance of the world.

Vuillard: The Blue Sleeve

Interior: Mother & Sister of the Artist

4

W e need volunteers to help continue the survival of our ASCA Newsletter. We welcome art-related articles, reviews of exhibitions and your upcom-

ing shows. Send your material to:

Hank Rondina 209 Lincoln Place,

Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376;

or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

(Vuillard Continued from page 3) in close quarters, and such a stunning aesthetic opposi-tion. This is the desire in a woman to be unseen—the triumph of contempt in a woman—presented and master fully opposed. In the deep perspective of this room, the young lady retreats, backs into and almost succeeds in merging with the patterned wall. She is fearful, suspicious and she emerges slyly above the central, implacable black form of the thickly masked, unseeing woman—her mother. Eyes and selves here have “dishonored reality,” as Eli Siegel described. But the artist’s eye criticizes as we must criticize ourselves. The wall, as wall, will not allow retreat and it welcomes otherness in its active surface. The dark mother is center stage; blackness asserted is lightened, less frightening. And she is surrounded by the friendly red warmth of that bureau with its many drawers. The speed of the straight black bar at the base of the wall lessens the distance between these women and joins them just as surely as the light color of their four hands. I learned from Aesthetic Realism that objects are ethical because they put opposites together. The bottle, tall and curved, attached to the white, round plate, the cloth, soft and sharp, all say, as Eli Siegel said to me, “There’s something to be seen around here.” Aesthetic Realism teaches this: “The seeing of a per-son or an object should contribute to your seeing the uni-verse as it really is.” I am immensely proud and grateful to be able to study that way of seeing, to have learned more from the paintings of Vuillard and the writing of this paper, and to be a means of having the Aesthetic Real-ism of Eli Siegel seen truly by all the persons of the world. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet “Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.”

— Christina Rossetti, Author

( ASCA Continued from page 1)

The technique of pointillism is revived by Santina Semadar Panetta to create an abstract composition in which a multitude of tiny dots of col-or create a shimmering overall sur-face that yields subtle tonal shifts with prolonged contemplation. As its title, “Mystical Vibrations,” indicates, however, Panetta intends this large oil in a perfectly square format to project a spiritual as well as optical

effect. The title of Doris Wyman’s oil painting on handmade paper, “Jemez,” refers to Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Wyman, however, is a quintessentially sophisticated New York painter, and her bold approach boils her im-pressions of the expansive Southwestern landscape

down to a few minimalist shapes and subdued yet dy-namically delineated color areas. By contrast Maria de Echevarria gives us the lay of the land and its particular light and color in her painting “Barrier Island Dawn.” However, even while evoking such specifics, she creates a spare composition with a quiet chromatic simmer reminiscent of Rothko. Rose Sigal Ibsen, a Romanian born practitioner of Asian and ink painting who seems to turn up in exhibi-tions everywhere these days, is represented by a char-acteristically graceful calligraphic work, exemplifying the

Bonnie Rothchild

Yanka Cantor Barbara Browner

Schiller

Esther Berman

Anita Adelman

Cari Clare

5

of a lost culture. Either way, it is a convincingly crafted and mysteriously thought-provoking object. Then there is Lea Weinberg whose work in wire mesh and mixed media “Mother’s Gift” combines organic ab-straction with anatomical allusion in a manner that suggests life in the womb before birth. Like Kiki

Smith, another female sculptor willing to go out on a limb, Weinberg approaches bodily imagery from a radical perspective.

Figurative painting also makes a strong showing here: Roberta Millman-Ide with a realist work in oil, ges-so, and kosher salt (the latter, presumably, as a textural enhancer) called “Enlightenment,” depicting a kneeling woman in East Indian dress with her arms raised to em-brace various luminous rhythmic forms symbolic of the title. Figures and symbols are also combined in the wa-tercolor, ink, and crayon compositions of Margo Mead. In “Hear No Truth, See No Truth, Speak No Truth,” Mead adopts the old saying, substituting the word “truth” for “evil” and replacing the proverbial mon-keys with graceful, classically proportioned human figures gathered around a globe in a metaphysical cosmic space. Con-trastingly down to earth, Jo-Anna Mel-rose’s gouache monotype “Dream” is a lyrical vision of a rosy, reclining female nude in a combination of line and pale, lyrical colors reminiscent of certain bordel-lo scenes by Jules Pascin or Toulouse-Lautrec. Adding their own visions to a group survey remarkable for its variety: Gary Shaw shows “Attacking Beasts,” a semiabstract composition that offsets the violence of the artist’s theme by virtue of the tactile translucence and the glowing colors he achieves in the ancient wax-based medium of encaustic; and Lisa Collado, whose intricate mixed media and collage memorial to the victims and heroes of 911, a veritable maze of images and fragments of text, amounts to an affecting emotional roadmap.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only

more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” —George Bernard Shaw

“Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.” ― Woody Allen

sensitivity to line and tone that has won her the admiration of numerous modern Chinese and Japanese masters. Sculptors also show a variety of styles: In the unusual mixed media combina-tion of bronze and driftwood, Sally Pitt creates a winningly goofy prehistoric dino-dragon she calls “Calissius.” In another odd mix conjured by Pitt, a rusted and battered metal box becomes the Pandora’s container for an assortment of miniature headless,

limbless semi translucent dress dummies in confection-ery hues suggesting lollypops for Dada.

Working in tri-colored metals, Julie Joy Saypoff creates a complex “Tree of Life” configuration called “Seedlings.” The title seems to refer to the tiny human figures perched on the platform-like leaf forms jutting out from its sinuous branches.

Sachie Hayashi’s white midrocal sculpture “Spirit of the Wind” gives palpable form to an elusive ele-ment of nature. Suggesting both flames and the Phoenix that might rise from their ashes and take flight, Hayashi’s piece projects an exhilarating sense of velocity.

Then there is Raymond Weinstein, whose curva-ceous marble torso “Etude” is a timeless embodiment of voluptuous femininity. Weinstein turns hard, cold stone into soft, warm flesh with the aesthetic alchemy of a latter-day Pygmalion. By contrast, Marcia Bernstein’s abstract mixed media work, “Unnamed # 16,” simultane-ously suggests a classical column and a primitive artifact

Dominick Botticelli

Estelle Levy

Janet Indick

Leanne Martinson

Olga Kitt

Min Myar

Harriet FeBland

6

stave off the children’s realization of what was in store for them. It is said the children were dressed in their best each carrying a knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Even as Korszak went with the children to the trains destined for Treblinka, he was offered sanctuary by Na-zis who knew of him. Korszak continued to refuse. Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Pianist wrote: “He told the orphans they were going out in to the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, Streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood. The little column was led by an SS man…” Joshua Perle of the Holocaust Chronicles wrote: “Korczak was also marching, his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt around his waist and wearing high boots.” Janusz Korszak once wrote: “I am not here to be loved and admired but to act and love. It is not the duty of people to help me.

I was invited to be in a traveling exhibition held to honor Janusz Korszak. I did not know of him nor any-thing about him. I said YES—why not! The research shook me emotionally. It was not, for me, only a matter of: THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I It was seeing the children in my imagination marching to trains that only went to Treblinka. It was imagining his efforts to protect the children from knowing about their fate for as long as it was hu-manly possible while he knew about his own. It was imagining him going with the children—refusing all chances to save his own life. It was struggling to understand his profound and ex-pansive sense of duty and love that grew in him over time. During the research, I was struggling to grasp Janusz Korszak’s humanity and his need to protect all these chil-dren for as long as he was able to. Quite a while elapsed before I was able to create a work. I created a summary of his life. It is a collage. From their home base in Krakow, Poland, Artist Tere-sa Zebrowscy and her gallery owner husband Leszek Zebrowscy assumed the extensive responsibilities in-volved in bringing about this memorial traveling exhibi-tion honoring Janusz Korszak. Teresa and Leszek Zebrowscy used their talents and devotion to make this Exhibition a reality. I had the good fortune to meet the Zebrowscys here in New York. They flew in from Krakow for the Exhibition’s American opening held in Greenpoint, N.Y. at the Polish Cultural Center. Fifty-two artists from Denmark, Poland, Slovania, Sweden and the USA sub-mitted work. American artists Atanaska Tassart and Mira Satryan were my American links to this Exhibition.

(See Estelle Levy Collage next page)

By Estelle Levy

O ne given, the other chosen yet a twice named man with one heart whose life lives on in the annals of

history! Are the acts honoring his life decades later done merely as a tribute or could it be to rattle us with awe and disbelief or is it perhaps to inform and teach us—maybe even to make us humble. Surely a universal answer is not possible.

1878 is the year an agnostic was born to a Jew-ish family in Warsaw. Before he was a teenager, his life was disrupted; his father died; the family had to move to less spacious quarters. After school it is said he worked as a tutor. However it is also said he often sat at a win-dow and watched the “Street Urchins”—the poor, un-clean, unschooled street kids playing freely on the streets below. Wanting to yet not permitted to join them, one can imagine the depth of his boyhood wish. Gold-szmit studied literature and used JANUSZ KORCZAK as a pseudonym when he entered writing contests. The name JANUSZ KORCZAK came from a book: “JANASZ KORCZAK AND THE PRETTY SWORDSWEEPER LA-DY.” He took that name for himself. Korczak became a Pediatrician; he wrote “CHILD OF THE DRAWING ROOM;” when in Berlin, Korszak worked for the Or-phan’s Society. It is in Warsaw that Korszak designed and built an orphanage for Jewish children. Named the Dom Sierot Orphanage, it was where he worked and where he lived in an attic room of the very building he designed. Korszak’s love and respect for the children became widely evident. He made it possible for the Dom Sierot children to begin a newspaper of their own. Their “Little Review” became a weekly addition to the daily Polish-Jewish Newspaper: “Our Review.” While en-gaged in all this, Korszak also had his own radio pro-gram which he used as a way to foster Children’s Rights. Korszak was awarded the Silver Cross of the Polonia Restituta; he traveled to Mandate Palestine, went to its kibbutzim causing him to become estranged from the non-Jewish orphanage he also worked for.

His volunteering for duty when World War II be-gan was rejected by the Polish Army because of his age. Korszak witnessed the Nazi takeover of Warsaw and the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazis forced the children of Dom Sierot to leave their home and move into the Ghetto. Korszak moved into the Ghetto with them. There he continued to work with the children and had them put on Tagore’s play: THE POST OFFICE. In the meantime, the terror of the Holocaust moved closer and closer to Korszak’s 196 children. Eventually the word came; the Nazis were coming for the children! Korszak was offered a chance to flee to safety. This man with two names simply said he could not abandon his chil-dren. Offered sanctuary a second time, Korszak said he would go with the children. Korszak worked hard to

TWO NAMES ONE HEART

7

Sponsors Neva Setlow, Harriet FeBland, Allan Simpson,

Samuel Rosen, Gerda Roze, Barbara Browner Schil-ler, Maria Echevarria, Santina Semadar Panetta

Donors Estelle Levy, Margo Mead, Rose Ibsen Sigal.

ASCA’s Award Fund consists of the following categories:

Benefactors: $500 to $999; Sponsors: $100 to 499;

Donors: $10 to $99. Please make out your contribution check

to ASCA and mail it to: Gerda Roze, Fund Raising

3 Park Lane, 1-B Mount Vernon, NY 10552

Estelle Levy “TWO NAMES ONE HEART“

Collage

ASCA ANNUAL EXHIBIT ALTERNATIVE AVENUES

ASCA’s INDIVIDUAL ANNUAL AWARDS

Congratulations To All Our 2012 Award Winners!

Nicolaj Buglaj - Jo-Anne Melrose

Leanne Martinson - Sally Pitt Annette Lieblein - Uri Shulevitz

Bonnie Rothchild - Rose Sigal Ibsen Allan Simpson - Sondra Gold Erin Johnson - Lisa Robbins

Raymond Weinstein - Hon. Men. Hank Rondina

The American Society of Contemporary Artists (ASCA) presents Individual Annual Awards,

Memorial Awards, College Student Awards and Grants, as a means of recognizing superior

achievement in art. These awards are presented in honor of your name, a fellow artist, friend, family name or family member. The awards to different

artists each year are honors mentioned in their re-sumes during their entire careers, which means the name continues to be honored during the lifetime of

the artist, and is an outstanding, ongoing tribute. Please note, your gift is 100% tax free and presented

in a fitting ceremony and reception at ASCA’s Annual Award Exhibit, traditionally scheduled in

November. But because of weather conditions last Fall, ASCA’s 95

th Award Show had to be resched-

uled and was celebrated at the High Line Loft in Chelsea on January of this year.

We wish to thank all ASCA members and friends who have made donations in 2012:

ASCA ANNUAL EXHIBIT

Continued Next Pages 6 to 11

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Erin Johnson “Despite The Media”

Mixed Media Esther Berman

“Miracle” Collage

Annettte Leibllein “Cooper Sly” Mixed Media

David Green “Rhapsody” Walnut/Wood

Hank Rondina “So What”

Acrylic/Cut Mat Board Dominick Botticelli “Nefertiti”

Acrylic

Neva Setlow “Abundant Joy” Cut Paper Collage

Hedy O’Beil “The Dance”

Acrylic

Harriet FeBland “Biography”

Painting/Wall Relief

9

Gerda Roze “Serendipity”

Monotype

Julie Joy Saypoff “Seedlings”

Cooper Brass White Bronze Patina

Raymond Weinstein “Andante”

Marble

Elaine Alibrandi “Drop of Water, Grain of Sand”

Oil, Mixed Media

Lea Weinberg “Mom’s Food”

Wire mesh /mixed media

Brentano Haleen “Creation”

Prismacolor pencil

Sally Pitt “In the Same Basket”

Metal and Polymer

Gary Shaw “Constitutional Flag”

Encaustic

Estelle Levy “Tower of Babel”

Found Metal

10

Maria de Echevarria “Barrier Island Dawn” Acrylic/Oil on canvas

Maria Mutz “Shades”

Mixed Media Lisa Collado

“9/11’s Impact Doesn’t Fade” Collage, Acrylic on canvas

Uri Shulevitz “Ancient Egyptian”

Acrylic Latex

Sal Tagliarino “Halloween Gryphon”

Acrylic

Esther Ibisch “Rising Suns”

Acrylic, Tissue Paper

Lubomir Tomaszewski “Sophisticated Dancer”

Smoke on Paper

Olivia Koopalethes “Arcanum”

Encaustic on Paper

Sondra Gold “Wall Piece 1” Painted steel

11

Joseph Michael Amabile “Construction Pegs”

Wood/Paint

Gilbert Passarella “The Red Fence”

Oil

Margo Mead “Hear No Truth, See No Truth, Speak No Truth”

Mixed Media

David Green “Male Torso”

Marble

Richard Karp “Cerebral Bridge”

Oil on Canvas

Rose Sigal Ibsen “Explosion (After Sept.11)”

Watercolor On Rice Paper

Marcia Bernstein “Unnamed #45”

Mixed media

Alan Roland “Spring Melt”

Watercolor

Bonnie Rothchild “Retraction” Aqua Resin

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Anita Adleman “Haight Ashbury”

Watercolor

Helen Henry “New York Temple”

Oil on Canvas

Fumiko Kitada “Unexpected Lines”

Acrylic/Oil Pastel

Ray Stanfield “Duo” Marble

Jo-Anna Melrose “Dream”

Monoprint/Gouache Janet Indick

“Nose Cone Destruction 9/11” Aluminum and Bronze

Leanne Martinson “Black Star #3”

Mixed Media

Nikolai Buglaj “”Choice” Man”

Pencil, Ink

Santina Samadar Panetta “Untitled”

Oil

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Georgiana Cray Bart “Little Dancers#3”

Graphite Miriam Wills “Vases with Red” Acrylic and Collage

Amie Ilva-Tatem “Pompei”

Mixed Media

Min Myar “Homage to Erte”

Acrylic Collage

Basha Maryanska “Welcome Home” Acrylic on Canvas

Roberta Millman-Ide “Enlightenment” Oil/Mixed Media

Barbara Browner Schiller “Sunlight and Shadows”

Fiber Linda Butti

“Summer II” Oil, Craypas, Arches Paper

Mihai Caranica “Torso”

Wonderstone

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For more information on this book log on to www.Xlibris.com About the Author New York artist Gerda Roze was born in Riga, Latvia (1925) and came to the United States after WWII. A painter, printmaker and constructionist, she earned her B.S. degree from Columbia University, and studied Art History at New York University. Her formal art training began at the Art Students League in NYC under Sid Dickinson. Independently, she has studied painting at The Chelsea College of Art in London, England and printmaking with Pratt at the Scuola Inter- nazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. Among her most influential art teachers were Donald Pierce, Harriet FeBland,. Roberto DeLamonica and Clare Romano. The artist’s non-objective abstractions have ruled her creations since the early 1980’s and continue to reflect her independence and innovation. Her works are repre-sented in corporate and private collections in the USA, Canada and Europe, including four prints in the National Art Museum ‘Arsenals’ in Riga and six paintings in’ The Diaspora Museum for Latvian Art’ in Cesis, Latvia. Since 1979, the artist has had 18 solo shows. For detailed in-formation, interested parties may log on to www.gerdarozeart.com. ‘To Peel an Onion’ by Gerda Roze The Lives of Gerda Roze, A Memoir Publication Date: 12/18/2012 Trade Paperback: $19.99, 155 pages; 978-1-4797-3427-6 Trade Hardback: $29.99, 155 pages; 978-1-4797-3428-3 eBook: $3.99; 978-1-4797-3429-0 To order call 888-795-4274 ext. 7879, Order online at www.xlibris.com; www.amazon.com; or www.barnesandnoble.com

Gerda Roze Shares a Slice of WWII

History— and a Tale of Survival

In her memoir, “To peel an Onion”, Ger-

da revisits a past influ-enced by tradition and ancestry and the chal-lenge of perpetually rein-venting herself in the face of war and its devastation.

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. January 11, 2013 .- In an ac-count that moves seamlessly between the horrors of war and flashbacks into her early years, author Gerda Roze invites the readers to share in her perseverance, in her dreams and in her determination to reach her goal, even though late in life , and to witness the many lives she led. To peel an Onion: The lives of Gerda Roze, a Memoir is an equally poignant and triumphant recollec-tion of a woman who has seen and experienced it all – the war, life’s cruelties and thenew beginning. Prepared to write down the history of her family mainly from her own memoriesand stories related to her by others, Gerda began to recollect a devastating past : The invasion of her homeland Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1940 and the beginning of WWII, followed by 3 ½ years of wartime occupation by Nazi Germany. Her memoir begins in pre-WWII Latvia and then moves through Europe’s displaced persons camps, across the Atlantic and into the U.S. where she struggles to rebuild a new life that proves to have its own wrinkles. The life she would live was not the one the young Gerda Roze had imagined growing up as the only child of parents who shielded her from all life’s evil. Today, in her memoir, she peels back the layers of a difficult, uncertain journey and reveals determina-tion that nothing could thwart. Endowed with a bold spirit and supported by a rock-solid relationship with her moth-er, the young girl who dreamed of being a doctor eventu-ally –at the age of 40 – finds her true voice in art. Over time, it was art that replaced all she had lost in life and gave meaning where that seemed to be missing. Dedicated to her grandson, Peter Dobrzanski, this classic memoir provides inspiration through one wom-an’s search for understanding a past fraught with injus-tice and plagued by unbearable circumstances, a life in search of its meaning.

GERDA ROZE SHARES A SLICE OF WWII HISTORY—AND A TALE OF SURVIVAL

Gerda Roze “Into Exile”

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Location: The .A.W.A. Gallery,80 Fifth Ave,Suite 1405, NY, NY 10011 Dates of Exhibit: March 6- March 29,2013 Reception: March 13, 5-7 PM

T he 55th Solo Show of the internationally renowned artist, Harriet FeBland, will be held at the N.A.W.A. Gallery, 80

Fifth Ave, Suite 1405, NY, NY 10011. The exhibit pays hom-age to the memory of her astute and exceptional friends, Mar-garet Radoff (collector) and Rose Shar - framer to the major NYC museums. Both were active in the arts, and mentored and supported Ms.FeBland throughout many decades.

The 25 works produced in the past two years, are wall-relief constructions. Their smaller size, offers an intimate but purposeful alternative to the monumental outdoor sculptures, totems and box constructions, which gained her recogni-tion. Ms. FeBland's allegiance to geometry continues to be seen through each phase of these works, reflecting the struc-tured yet "universal" element she seeks, and finds necessary to all art that she produces. Her most basic purpose has always been to recognize, personalize and humanize the geometry that exists everywhere. She states, "All I do begins with that...all else comes after it."

A native New Yorker, educated at Pratt and NYU, she lived abroad for 11 years, in England and France. Upon her return to the U.S., she taught at NYU, and founded the Harriet FeBland Art Workshop, which offered master-classes in paint-ing. Ms. FeBland has been featured in museum and gallery exhibitions along with luminaries such as Joseph Cornell, Hans Van de Bovendkamp, Marisol and Louise Nevelson. Her works are in major museum collections in the states and abroad. Please visit her website for more information on this extraordi-nary artist: www.harrietfebland.com

By Lea Weinberg

M otherhood has been a strong theme in the art world for generations and will continue to be so.

"Mother - Child" is a wonderful relationship that can also be very complicated. Many artists have used this subject to create a variety of pieces in many styles and mediums. They range from realistic figures to a very contemporary presentation, from describing an anony-mous mother with her baby or the image of the holy mother and child, the options are endless. A woman artist is a mother in her essence, even with-out children around, she is constantly giving birth to her new creations (sometimes it takes even more than nine months…) and she is a part of a very big family: the Art world. For some women artists it is difficult to separate from her new “baby” born. Many of my sculptures and reliefs have touched on the subject of motherhood, with a theme of togetherness, reminiscent of the relationship that my mother shared with her three daughters until her last day of life. An example of this can be seen in my two wire mesh with mixed media reliefs, that are part of ASCA 95

th Annual

Exhibit “Alternative Avenues” at the High Line Loft in Chelsea, NYC, NY during January 2013. "Mother’s Gift" has double meaning. The mother gives the gift of life to her new born, and the new born is her gift for life. A ribbon of blood stream is wrap-ping the gift package of Mother-hood that comes with pain and love mixing together. The child is outside his mother but still attached staying con-nected forever surrounded by wrappings of emotions. The mother is developing mater-nal feelings and relationships with her baby even when he is still inside her body as embryo. He will be her “baby” even when he grows into adulthood and has his own family. The moment of giving birth and life to a human being is an unforgettable miracle "Mom’s Food" - the embryo’s food is from the mother’s blood, and after birth it is her nursing milk, both supplied from the mother’s body (even when I am bare and naked, I will always provide you food) The sweet surprise of seeing what was alive inside of me, a com - plete human being came out of my body, so small and so

(See Weinberg page 16)

MOTHERHOOD- MOTHER’S GIFT AND MOM’S FOOD

“Mom’s Food”

“Mother’s Gift”

HARRIET FEBLAND: "HOMAGE" THE 55TH SOLO SHOW

"Turning" "Biography"

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ASCA OFFICERS President Barbara Schiller President-Emeritus Harriet FeBland Vice-President Raymond Weinstein Vice-President Raymond Shanfeld Vice-President Frank Mann Treasurer Recording Secretary Imelda Cajipe Endaya Corresponding Secretary Lisa Robbins Social Secretary Olga Kitt Historian Frank Mann Board of Directors: Hank Rondina, Fred Terna

ASCA NEWSLETTER

Publication Director Hank Rondina

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Estelle Levy, Dorothy Koppelman, Hank Rondina,

Gerda Roze, Maurice Taplinger Gallery and Studio, Lea Weinberg

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Hank Rondina, Julie Joy Saypoff

COPY DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT ISSUE MARCH 30, 2013

Send your material to: Hank Rondina, 209 Lincoln Place,

Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376; or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

ASCA Newsletter is published 4 times a year.

Copyright ©2013 by ASCA Permission is required to reprint any portion of this newsletter.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

W e need volunteers to help continue the survival of our ASCA Newsletter. We welcome art-related articles, reviews of exhibitions and your upcom-

ing shows. Send your material to: Hank Rondina

209 Lincoln Place, Eastchester, New York 10709;

Telephone (914) 793-1376; or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

Harriet FeBland— "Homage" The N.A.W.A. Gal-lery,Fifth Ave,Suite 1405, NY, NY 10011, March 6- 29, 2013 Reception: March 13, 5-7 PM Janet Indick—Exhibited at the Cathrine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s 116th Annual Juried Exhibit Oct. 2nd –26th. Olivia Koopalethes—Exhibited NAWA juried exhibition Midday Gallery Englewood, New Jersey—ALSO—123rd Annual NAWA that Sylvia Wald Po Kim Gallery Sept. 4

th

– 29th

—ALSO—Painters Affiliates, Art Center of North-ern New Jersey Oct. 1

st – 25

th—ALSO—70th Annual

Audubon Artists Oct. 8th-Dec. 30th.

Basha Maryanska—Solo show at Barrett Arts Center at 55 Noxon Street in Poughkeepsie, NY. Reception: Saturday, Feb. 16th from 3-6PM—ALSO— Exhibited at the Parallax International Art Fair at the Prince George Hotel, 15 E. 27th St.. NYC., Nov. 15th-18th—ALSO—New Century Artists, Nov. 20th— Dec. 8th —ALSO—Spire Studios in Beacon, NY Jan. 18th. Rose Sigal Ibsen—Will Demonstrate Calligraphy at Bloomingdale’s Downtown 504 B’way. 2nd fl., Feb. 9th, 2:00—4:00pm —ALSO—Demonstrated Calligraphy at NAWA 80 5th Ave. Jan. 15th Lea Weinberg— Small Works Exhibition and Fundraiser at Katonah Museum Sept.15, 2012- January 20, 2013 -ALSO-“Inseparable” is one of the 5 Winners of Wom-en’s Caucus for Art Best of 2012 online exhibition; it will be placed on the National WCA website for a year -ALSO-“Feb. 1st -16th, JWAN- Jewish Women Artists Network within WCA, Juried show, New Century Gallery, 530 W 25 St (406), Chelsea, NYC, NY Reception: Sat. Feb. 16, 6-8pm -ALSO-““Monmouth Museum’s 34

th An-

nual Juried Art Exhibition” Jan. 19- Mar. 3, 2013

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. “ —Emile Zola

(Weinberg continued from page 15)

needy, everything my baby needs he can get from me and I am willing to give. This relief is inspired by one of my life model drawings. The model is a big woman with huge breasts, her body seems like permanent pregnant and you can easily imag-ine her nursing two babies at the same time. I created internal organs you can see through the semitransparent wire mesh body, two embryos are outside the body con-nected with cords, a red one connected to the belly bot-tom and a golden one to the nipple, the two mother’s food suppliers. Even when the baby is out of his mother’s body he is still a part of her and the mother will always be part of her child. When she will not be around anymore, she still will be- inside her child’s heart. In Gallery & Studio Magazine review: “The ASCA Takes the High Line for its 95

th Annual Survey”, by Mau-

rice Taplinger, she wrote about my work: “…Then there is Lea Weinberg whose work in wire mesh and mixed media “Mother’s Gift” combines organic abstraction with anatom-ical allusion in a manner that suggests life in the womb before birth. Like Kiki Smith, another female sculptor will-ing to go out on a limb, Weinberg approaches bodily im-agery from a radical perspective.” Nov. /Dec.2012/ January 2013