Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Fine Arts - Scripps Luncheon on Sam Maloof



Hal Nelson of the Huntington Library gave a powerpoint preview of the exhibition "The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945-1985" to the Scripps College Fine Arts Foundation in the Hampton Room of Malott Commons on a beautiful spring day on the Scripps Campus (Wednesday, May 11, 2011). The late Sam Maloof is the world renowned furniture maker who lived nearby in Alta Loma with his artist wife Frieda. Both were students under Millard Sheets at Claremont Graduate University and Scripps College in the years after the Second World War when Sheets guided several dozen of that generation's finest young artists into a Golden Age of Art in Southern California. Several of the artists or their family members attended the luncheon, which at 72 persons for lunch was a season-high success.

Nelson's talk was well informed and quite interesting. The Huntington exhibition, which opens September 24, features Maloof's furniture and some of his art plus selected works from 35 other noted artists across several artistic modes, such as ceramics, sculpture, painting, crafts, pottery, weaving. The exhibition provides a stunning mosaic of the art produced in this notable era.

The Fine Arts Foundation will be heading off to view the exhibition by bus on Wednesday October 5 (call Paul Myers 9090-908-2877 for additional info).

Friday, May 6, 2011

Fine Arts - Scripps Senior Art Exhibition



My wife Minche and I attended the Scripps College Senior Art Exhibition Opening last Friday night (April 29) at Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery on the Scripps campus. In February, we had toured the student art studios with the Fine Arts Foundation and got previews of the students' ideas for their projects. The quality of the art last Friday was impressive, and, possibly even more so, was the striking originality of many of the young women's artistic vision. You can see imaginations at play!     And the wine and cheese were excellent and the band playing on the terrace was superb: a modern rendition of a sound seemingly coming from the classic 1960s. Fun!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

"Paris 1935" print edition up for sale on Amazon

Paris 1935 Amazon Print Copy

The print edition of "Paris 1935" is up and available for purchase at $10.99 at Amazon. Ebook editions are available at Kindle, Smashwords, and other ebook etailers for $3.99. My production rollout was to do Smashwords first (iPad, Kobo, BN, Diesel, Sony etc thru Smashwords--some of these are still "shipping"), Kindle second, and CreateSpace for print last. (The above cover is the ebook cover; the print cover has a little blurb at the top and a smaller main title). I produced the entire book myself through pdf interior on Word and pdf cover using a Book Cover software program. It took me two iterations to get the print proof correct. The process went surprisingly smoothly. And Kindle is much easier than it was 2 years ago. Smashwords is a dream!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Fine Arts - Scripps Scholarship Luncheon

Minche and I attended the annual Scripps College Scholarship Luncheon Friday April 29. The event is always fun as we are usually seated with the young ladies who are recipients of the Fine Arts Foundation's scholarships. This year we met students in studio art (sculpture), art history (getting ready to go to Barcelona and Florence next year!), and a freshman biology major. The student presentations included a discussion of Alzheimer's Research by an aspiring physician/medical researcher, the Mock Trial program for aspiring lawyers, and a beautiful cello duet by two music students. The Alzheimer's research was undertaken while an exchange student at Aix-en-Provence in France; Minche and I spent several days in that beautiful city several years ago.