What now my Friends!?

Recently my long time friend Patricia of PVE Design posted a very poignant feature discussing her reasons for blogging and asking fellow bloggers to share our own stories and one benefit from blogging.  

The image above conveys how writing The Arts by Karena has made me feel over the years. Expressive, inspiring, uplifting, a woman of strength, and vibrancy.  (could not list just one!)

All of you who have both read and contributed to my blog have given the gift of your art, creativity and insights. Sharing in this venue make me feel so honored! From your many comments, my features on the arts, unique visions and originality has made a difference to many.

After seeing a specialist and receiving test results, I have been diagnosed with a fairly rare disease, Gastroparesis. It is a life altering condition that although there is no cure, we are working on treating the symptoms, which can be severe.

Over the years my mission has been to be a positive influence to all who visit, and I hesitated to write about this as I rarely discuss personal issues on social media. In this case I felt it is an important topic to share.

This has made me realize more than ever how people we know who look perfectly healthy, may be dealing with challenges every day of their lives. 

My friends, we have been together through so many of the ebbs and flows over the years. I cannot begin to express how much each and every one of you mean to me.

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

Featuring International Artist Lee Bowers

Recently my friend Lee Bowers was in town for the opening of her fine art exhibit at MLB Designs and Boutique in the Kansas City Arts District. It was so good to catch up with her.  Please enjoy our conversation, some of her fabulous art, as well as her new venture!

Lee's art will be on exhibit for the month of October and I will also include her own website links below.

1) Lee, when did you first become interested in the arts and find that you had a creative side to unleash on the world?

When I was 8 my Mother commissioned a very well known Topeka portrait artist, Margaret Wakeman, for portraits of my older brother and myself.  I sat for her in her studio and she showed me her materials and talked about her techniques.  I told my parents that day that I wanted to be an artist just like her.  Taking me seriously, and also because we have other professional women artists in the family, they signed me up for drawing classes at Washburne University on Saturdays.  I never changed my mind and the the skills came naturally to me.

Artist Lee Bowers

2) Do or did you have mentors who encouraged your interest in art?

All of my teachers encouraged my talents in drawing and painting through grade school up through graduate school.  Mentors though were only three, Larry Schoulder, my printmaking teacher at SMU, Carmelita Maracci, my ballet teacher for ten years after Cal-Arts in Los Angeles, and Jules Engel, my animation mentor at CalArts.   

Carmelita possessed a brilliant mind and took me under her guidance regarding, not only dance and music, but also art history and philosophy and literature.  She was great friends with artists such as Frieda Kahlo, Rico LeBruen, and Edward Weston.  While in graduate school at CalArts I had the great pleasure to have Jules Engel as my official mentor.  He was from Budapest and after escaping to Hollywood, was hired by Disney to design for Fantasia.   

Mentor Carmelita Maracci

3) Are there certain artists past or present that you especially admire?

I admire many artists and it is always changing depending on who I have been exposed to.  In the early days, Georgia O'Keefe, of course, and I visited her home and studio in 1978.  Early also are MC Escher, Magritte, Goya, and all of the french landscape artists like Millet etc.  

Later I fell for the abstract expressionists and today I love April Gornik's landscapes, Walton Ford's wild and provocative watercolors....and a French painter on my SpartaApp, Patrick Boussignac....truly the finest Surrealist Figurative artist living today.  John Singer Sargent, Edwin Church, Helen Frankenthaler, Motherwell, Hudson River School gang, Degas.....I also have great admiration for Kansas artist and friend, Lisa Grossman.  This could go on and on...but not now.

Cerro Gordo

4) You have lived in many wonderful cities around the world, How did this inspire you art? What else inspires you to create paintings?

My inspiration has always been nature.  Wherever I am the landscape wraps around me and then I interpret.  It is very simple. Additional Landscape Influences:  Bierstadt, David Hockney, the skies of Gainsborough.

Flint Hills

Seated Clouds

5) Lee, would you tell our readers about your exciting venture, Gallerie Sparta?

I co-owned Gallerie Sparta in West Hollywood with my partner, Stephan Sparta.  We represented both International established artists and celebrity artists...and me, of course.  It was a wild ride.  Google Gallerie Sparta to see thirteen pages of our openings and press.  We even held an exhibit of the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian paintings....yes he painted...and quite well. 

In addition, my personal website is http://leebowersart.com/ 
Our online site is Gallerie Sparta

6) What else is in the works for the near future, upcoming exhibits, etc? I know you are the featured artist at MLB Designs & Boutique for the month of October, for anyone in the Kansas City area.

SpartaApp, SpartaApp, SpartaApp.  We launched our new International Art App that connects collectors directly to artists....worldwide in March and are very much consumed with it.

       

You buy directly from our artists without any commissions.  We empower artists in over 55 countries and adding daily.  Free download to iPhone and Android in the works.  I think that I have been training for this adventure my whole art life.  I know what artists desire.

Sparta App

7) How do you like to spend your down time to relax and recharge? 

What down time?  Yoga in the mornings by myself, walks with Lilly the Golden Retriever everyday, cooking with Stephan each evening.  We do get to travel quite a lot as well.   

I am taking sculptures classes here in Palm Springs in clay.  It is one medium that I had never tried.  Working on a large "Boteroesque" like horse.

Lee and her partner Stephan

8) What advice do you have for the beginning artist of any age? 

We just started representing a new artist who began only one year ago with her whimsical and sensual "Assemblage" artworks.  She is 75.  Just do it if you have the calling.

Lee, thank you so much, and I really love your last thought on advice for the beginning artist!

Thank you to my Family, Friends, and Followers who support The Arts!

Please do leave a comment as they make my day!

Sign up for email alerts or add me to your blogroll to receive notifications of new features! 

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

Visit my India Hicks website for an introduction to an elegant, 

high quality lifestyle line! The holidays are coming!

www.indiahicks.com/rep/karenalbert  

Artist Nathaniel Galka

When I first viewed paintings by Nathaniel Galka, I was very impressed by his ability to combine an ethereal Asian sensibility with nature and florals. He then brings a surprise, whether a nest, a bird, and even a moose that looks like he belongs right where he is standing amongst the trees.

Enjoy these paintings and the interview I had with Nathaniel recently. It opened my eyes to yet another artist's aesthetic, views and inspiration for his works of art!

1) Nathaniel, when did you first realize that you wanted to create, to paint?

I really never had a choice. I stared painted at age 3-4. I came from a family of artists. My grandfather was a photographer and my mother a sculptor. I never saw myself doing anything else. They were very encouraging and saw that it was the only thing I liked doing, and saw that I was always honing my talent and craft.

2)  What inspires you? Nature, travels, your own thoughts.....

The randomness of nature, the elegance and play of architecture on couture fashion. Using paint to convey an idea; the influence of Japanese wood-blocks is implicit. Bringing together time periods, mark making, waves and clouds.

I start with a kind of destruction on the canvas and then start bringing in the beauty. A journey then develops that my collectors want to travel along with me.

3) Do you have a mentor or who are some artists past/ present you admire?


A professor, James Valerio at Northwestern University,  in Evanston, Illinois, where I had a Full Scholarship and Fellowship. Also Dennis Drummond at the Columbus College of Art and Design, where I had a top scholarship.


The artist that I feel is the true master is John Singer Sargent. He is awe inspiring. His brush strokes are perfection, a hand done with so few strokes of paint, yet literally placed perfectly, effortlessly. One feels an insignificance in front of one of his paintings.

4)  I see that you are formally trained even though you started painting at such a young age.

Yes, and I was also the youngest artist accepted at age 13, into The Tennessee Watercolor Society and in high school to The Marie Sharp Art Foundation.

5)  Nathaniel, what do you enjoy doing to relax in your spare time?

I go into my studio and paint, paint paint. I am a night person, so can be found in the studio many nights at 3 AM. It is what I love and it is a kind of escapism.

6) Would you give some words of wisdom to the aspiring artist of any age?

Breathe and relax. Listen only to those people you really admire, and listen more than you talk. If you like what you are putting your heart and soul into, others will like it too. Your talent makes it art, be a fine artist, be what you feel and breathe.

7) Nathaniel do you have upcoming gallery events scheduled in the next year?

I have a Solo Show at the Muse Gallery, in Columbus, Ohio August, 2015. Details to follow soon.

Another Sole Show will be held at Curlytale Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois, November, 2015. More details to follow.

 

Nathaniel Galka

Nathaniel thank you so much for this wonderful and enlightening interview!


Nathaniel's art is available at both Muse Galleries in Columbus, Ohio and Hilton Head, South Carolina. http://gallery.publishpath.com

His works of art are at The Gitana Rosa Gallery in New York City. http://gitanarosa.com 

He is also represented by Curly Tale Fine Art. http://curlytalefineart.com/section/336847_Nathaniel_Galka.html 

Nathaniel's Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/Nathaniel.Galka.Artist

His works of art range in price from $2200. to 27,000. for his very large scale paintings. 

Thank you to my Family, Friends, and Followers who support The Arts!

Please leave a comment as your thoughts make my day! 

Sign up for Email Alerts to receive my latest features!

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena

A Classic: C.Z. Guest: American Style Icon by Susanna Salk

In her book C.Z. Guest, American Style Icon, Susanna Salk delivers an intimate portrayal of one of America's most legendary style tastemakers. I find this is a perfect book to pick up for summertime reading. CZ was a woman who loved the outdoors and her favorite pastimes of riding, gardening, and  playing tennis. Entertaining seemed to come naturally to her and she was always the supreme hostess. Guest was a woman with the gift to make everyone comfortable around her,  in part because she was completely at ease with herself. She always exuded confidence and self assurance, and though a Boston socialite, she loved wearing her gardening togs just as much as a couture ballgown. 

At Templeton, Old Westbury, New York, C.Z. rode nearly very day of her life, a dream she had from early childhood.

C.Z was a syndicated garden columnist for 351 newspapers, author of 3 books on the subject and even created C.Z.'s Bug Spray. Ahead of her time in marketing, more than 1200 pairs of her Goatskin Gardening Gloves sold on QVC!

On their wedding night, C.Z. with her new husband Winston at the home of Earnest and Mary Hemingway in Havana. Hemingway was best man. C.Z and Winston had two children together, Cornelia and Alexander.

C. Z at age 36 styled in Mainbocher , one of her favorite fashion designers. Jewels by Tiffany

Salvador Dali's infamous portrait of C.Z with a framed note from the artist hang over a fireplace at Templeton.

Cosmetics Entrepreneur Estee Lauder and Guest attending a wedding at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York City, 1989. 

C.Z.'s Charles II gold vermeil dressing table collection, including many family photographs and of course fresh flowers from her garden!

In the grand salon at Templeton, there are two large portrait paintings by John Singer Sargent, this is of Amy Phipps Guest, Winston's Guest's mother. Guest often gave formal dinner parties for many friends, including Yves Saint Laurent, Rudolf Nureyev, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (her children's godparents), Nancy Reagan, Truman Capote and other social stalwarts.

C.Z.'s daughter Cornelia in her Manhattan office with a portrait of her Father, Winston Guest. (a three time world Champion Polo Player) Cornelia and her brother have since sold the family home in the Spring of 2014.

Guest died in November of 2003 at the age of 83 after valiantly fighting cancer for some time.

Including hundreds of photographs and contributions from many of Guest's nearest and dearest friends, you will love having this book as part of your library! Susanna has painted us a very personal portrait of  this iconic woman.

C. Z Guest, American Style Icon is published by Rizzoli New York and may be purchased at Amazon. 

Visit Susanna's website at http://www.susannasalk.com 

Thank you to Susanna for the signed copy of her book and to Rizzoli New York for the images included.

Thank you to my friends and followers who support The Arts!

Please do  leave a comment, they make my day!

xoxo

Karena

The Arts by Karena


Please subscribe by email to get linked with my weekly postings!