Artist Profile: John Fisher

I first met stone carver John Fisher during one of his public sculpting events, which took place over a 3-month period in 2012. I visited John weekly while he sculpted a 12-ton block of Texas limestone, transforming it into 11 life-size human figures (8 adults and 3 children), along with a dog, a cat, a mouse, a squirrel, a lizard, an owl, a fox, a chicken, a turtle and a rabbit--all done on the spot and made up entirely from his prodigious imagination.

As John and I became friends I grew ever more impressed by his generous spirit, passion for art, and joyful pursuit of excellence.

For a more in-depth look at John Fisher and his art, please see my interview with him here.

Tribute: Fred Fixler

I'm sad to report that the great Fred Fixler died yesterday. Fred was an extraordinary artist, teacher, and friend, and one of my mentors. He was the original owner of the California Art Institute, and inspired hundreds of artists in Southern California—several of whom are among the world's best. It amazes me how Fred's influence has prospered. Jeremy Lipking never knew Fred, for instance, but some of his early teachers did, and because of this I can see Fred's influence in Jeremy's work.

Fred didn't complement his students much, but if he liked one of your drawings or paintings, he would put it up on the classroom wall. In time, if he really liked it, he would transfer the work to the main hallway wall, where visitors could see examples of the school's student work. Believe me, it was a high honor to have one of your pieces placed on that wall.

One day when I arrived at a class taught by Mark Westermoe at the California Art Institute in Calabasas, Fred approached me and said that Mark was too busy to teach that day, and could I take over for him? I was nervous as hell but accepted the invitation, and did my best to give a good demonstration for the other students and teach them well. Apparently I passed the test, because from that time onward whenever Mark couldn't make it, I was called upon to substitute. Before long Mark became busy enough with his freelance work to stop teaching many of his classes, and I was asked to take them over. Soon I was teaching three classes each week—sometimes four—and I continued to do so for 15 years, even after Fred retired and sold the school to Buddy Schumann.

Let's see: an average of 7 students per class, 3 days per week, 4 semesters per year... that equals some 1,260 students. Wow! And it all started with Fred having enough confidence in my abilities to ask me to teach. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity he gave me.

I wish to express my sympathy to Liz, Evan, and the rest of Fred's family and friends. We all miss him, and are profoundly grateful for what he gave us.

Postscript: Greg Pro has put together a wonderful website as a tribute to Fred, which can be found here. Many of his past students have left comments (including myself), and the list is growing. Check the website often as more items are being added all the time.

Artist Profile: Clayton J. Beck III

After graduation from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Clayton studied at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts with Richard Schmid. Clayton’s career began while still at the American Academy, exhibiting at Jody Kirberger’s Talisman Gallery and winning awards from the Midwest Pastel Society, the Palette and Chisel and the Pastel Society of America. He began teaching Saturday classes in Chicago after graduation from art school.



Artist Statement: “My love for painting has always been enhanced by my love to teach. Any artist who thinks they understand painting should try teaching. They will soon realize how little they know. I have always felt that I have a responsibility to teach because I have been given a generous gift from my teachers (i.e. Bill Parks, Ted Smuskiewicz, and Richard Schmid) and it should be passed on to the next generation of painters who share this love of art.



Visit Clayton's website.

Photographer Profile: Christiane Covington

Today I learned that a friend of mine from may years ago died on May 13, 2009, of a drowning accident on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Her name was Christiane Covington, and she was a lover of motion pictures and the craft of film making; I never knew anyone so passionate about cinema as Christy. We met while working together on Alex Seligman's UCLA graduate student film "Macaroni Casserole," where I discovered that Christy was an excellent photographer—the best I have ever known. She also had a lovely singing voice, and I had the privilege of recording a few songs with her.

In more recent years Christy worked as script supervisor on many feature films and TV programs, too numerous to mention here. But if you're interested, here is her biography on the Internet Movie Database.

Christy was a dreamer, and if she decided to do something, she would follow that path relentlessly until her dream was fulfilled. She was the first female dolphin trainer at Sea World--at a time when the field was dominated by men. She basically hung around until they realized that she wasn't going away, so they HAD to hire her. That was the way Christy operated. If she wanted something, nothing could stop her.

Christy was born with an aesthetic eye, and with creativity in her blood. She wrote many screenplays, directed many plays, and made several independent films. Her dream was to be a feature film director, and I know that if she lived, one day she would have met that goal, too.

I should also say that Christy was a very spiritual person and a peaceful soul, always seeking to know about life and her place in it. She had a boundless curiosity, a kind disposition, and loads and loads of talent. The world has suffered a great loss because she is no longer here to contribute to its well-being.

Here is Christy singing a song.

Here is a lovely video tribute, made by her sister, Cassandra.

This one's for you, Christy.

Artist Profile: Jennifer McChristian

Award winning artist, Jennifer McChristian, was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be an artist. Upon completing high school, McChristian began her art education at Dawson’s College in Montreal, Canada. In 1986, she and her family took permanent residency in California, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree with Honors from Otis Art Institute in 1990.



McChristian was employed as a full-time animation artist and worked on projects for various animation studios including Disney and Nickelodeon. She has continued her studies under the tutelage of renowned artists Robert Blue, Karl Dempwolf, Scott Burdick and Steve Huston. Her inspirations consist of notable artists such as John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Nicolai Fechin and Cecilia Beaux. McChristian primarily paints in oils and occasionally watercolors. She has an affinity for painting ‘en plein air’ and also enjoys creating studio works using her outdoor sketches as inspiration. “Plein-air painting is somewhat of a spiritual experience for me. Although challenging at times, the end result evokes within me a sense of elation, nostalgia and harmony."



Since 2000, McChristian has devoted herself to painting full-time and actively participates in art events and community building programs. She conducts an ongoing, uninstructed figure drawing workshop twice a week out of her spacious 1200 square foot studio (that she refers to as her ‘sanctuary’) located in the heart of Los Feliz Village, CA. In addition, McChristian teaches private painting lessons once a week. She also finds the time to pursue other artistic interests such as classical ballet. McChristian believes learning is a never-ending process and continues to develop and refine her artistic talent through workshops, research, travel and frequent excursions to museums and galleries.

Visit Jennifer McChristian's website

Artist Profile: Ann Gale

Ann Gale (born 1966) is an American figurative painter based in Seattle, Washington. She is known for her portrait paintings, which consist of an accumulation of small color patches expressing the changing light and the shifting position of her models over time. Some of her main influences include Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, and Antonio Garcia López.

Gale works from live models and her process is lengthy. Once she begins to paint, she works for three-hour sessions, and takes from four months to two years to complete a painting. Her pieces possess a strong psychological component due to the amount of time she spends with her models.



Gale received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1988 and her MFA from Yale University in 1991. She has been the recipient of several awards including: Western States Art Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1996), Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1997), Trust Grant/GAP Award (2003) and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2007). The artist's work has been shown in galleries and museums across the United States including solo exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon (2007) and the Weatherspoon Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2008). Gale is a professor of painting at the University of Washington School of Art.

Artist Profile: Chelsea James

Chelsea James feels that painting is a study of our existence, spirit, and environment, derived from experiences in life. She chooses objects that evoke childhood memories, create situations of atmospheric mystery, and bring visual interest through interaction. She is intrigued by subtle shifts in value and color; yet seeks a personal interpretation of the objects rather than a replication. She finds that personality is revealed through the process of painting. Abstract remnants from her process remain visible in the final product. The hand, she believes, must obey the spirit.



Chelsea earned a Bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing from the University of Utah, and attended intensive workshops in Helper, Utah during the summers of 2002-2004—including landscape, figure drawing and figure painting. Her work has been represented in prominent exhibitions and she has received numerous awards—including being featured in Salt Lake City Magazine's “Upcoming Artists” in Sept. 2006.



Visit Chelsea James' website.

Artist Profile: Monte Rogers

Award winning painter Monte Rogers is a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. For 30 years he supported his family as a commercial freelance illustrator of books, magazines and advertisements. Monte also taught figure drawing and picture making at the California Art Institute.

He began showing and selling his paintings at art shows and galleries and his sell-out shows allowed him to abandon his career as an illustrator and devote full time to doing paintings of his own choosing.

Regarded as a Western artist, Monte's cumulative work shows the influence of a childhood spent in Oregon's Hood River Valley and California's central coast. In subjects from rodeos to amusement parks and beaches, his paintings reflect the West Coast style infused with a "plein air" approach to light-filled images made up of full-intensity paint applied in boldly expressive, unblended strokes of color.



Monte's paintings can be found in private and corporate collections. Residing on the southern Oregon coast, he enjoys a following in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Monte Rogers can be contacted at:

monterogers@charter.net

'Hidden' Van Gogh painting revealed

A new technique allows pictures which were later painted over to be revealed once more. An international research team, including members from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and the University of Antwerp (Belgium), has successfully applied this technique for the first time to the painting entitled Patch of Grass by Vincent van Gogh. Behind this painting is a portrait of a woman.



It is well-known that Vincent van Gogh often painted over his older works. Experts estimate that about one third of his early paintings conceal other compositions under them. A new technique, based on synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, reveals this type of hidden painting. The techniques usually used to reveal concealed layers of paintings, such as conventional X-ray radiography, have their limitations. Together with experts from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg and the Kröller-Müller Museum, TU Delft materials expert and art historian Dr Joris Dik, and University of Antwerp chemistry professor Koen Janssens therefore chose to adopt a different approach. The painting is subjected to an X-ray bundle from a synchrotron radiation source, and the fluorescence of the layers of paint is measured. This technique has the major advantage that the measured fluorescence is specific to each chemical element. Each type of atom (e.g. lead or mercury) and also individual paint pigments can therefore be charted individually. The benefit of using synchrotron radiation is that the upper layers of paint distort the measurements to a lesser degree. Moreover, the speed of measurement is high, which allows relatively large areas to be visualised.

Patch of grass

This method was applied to a painting by Vincent van Gogh. The work in question, Patch of Grass, was painted by Van Gogh in Paris in 1887 and is owned by the Kröller-Müller Museum. Previous research had already discovered the vague outline of a head behind the painting. It was scanned at the synchrotron radiation source DORIS at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg using an intense but very small X-ray bundle. Over the course of two days, the area covering the image of a woman's head was scanned, measuring 17.5 x 17.5 cm.

The measurements enabled researchers to reconstruct the concealed painting in unparalleled detail. In particular the combination of the distribution of the elements mercury and antimony (from specific paint pigments) provided a 'colour photo' of the portrait which had been painted over.

The reconstruction enables art historians to understand the evolution of Van Gogh's work better. The applied technique is expected to pave the way for research into many other concealed paintings.

Image credit: DESY Hamburg.

Delft University of Technology

Creativity Tip

Ira Glass, host of NPR's excellent program This American Life, offers some excellent advice to those who do any kind of creative work.



Thanks to Mano Singham for this link.

Artist Profile: Abram Arkhipov

Abram Arkhipov was a Russian artist trained at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Vasily Perov, Aleksey Savrasov, Vladimir Makovsky and Vasily Polenov. He joined the WANDERERS (Peredvizhniki) in 1889 and the Union of Russian Artists in 1903. While indebted to the realist painting of Perov, Arkhipov also gave particular attention to effects of light, rhythm and texture, even in his most didactic canvases, such as Washerwomen (late 1890s; two versions Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal. and St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.).



Arkhipov found a rich and diverse source of inspiration in the Russian countryside and the peasantry; he painted peasants at work, the melting of the snow, the local church and priest, the villages of the far north and the White Sea. Works such as The Lay Brother (1891) and Northern Village (1903; both Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.) are evidence of Arkhipov’s important position in the history of late 19th-century Russian landscape painting. His concentration on plein-air painting was shared to a considerable extent by other representatives of the Union of Russian Artists such as Baksheyev, Leonard Turzhansky (1875–1945) and Sergey Vinogradov (1869–1938).



See more paintings by Abram Arkhipov at A World History of Art.

Thanks to Max Turner for this information.

Artist Profile: Felicia Forte

Felicia Forte was born in Los Angeles, California. She has lived in Florence, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco. Her influences include Sargent, Vermeer, Duveneck and Whistler. Her mode, primarily, is the portrait. She says of her work:



"When I see a portrait, I feel a connection with the subject—there is a thread that runs through time and class. And the tired old man, or the grand lady who I am allowed to stand and gaze at for as long as I'd like, are part of what we are all living today, and what others will be living some day. To be beautiful, destroyed, triumphant or simply at peace. This is what life is. When I can assist in the capturing of these moments; these truths, I feel my strongest creativity. For an instant or for a day I hold fast to that connecting thread as I paint, and thereafter each painting adds to the tapestry that is art and history."



Visit Felicia Forte's website.

Artist Profile: Max Turner

For many years I have had the privilege of calling Max Turner my friend. He is the most skilled artist I have ever known, and continues to inspire -- and awe -- his students and fellow artists alike. You may not have heard of Max, for he is a humble and unassuming fellow. But local artists know who he is. Max is the sculptor's sculptor, whose breadth and quality of work would astound you. He's the consummate draftsman, whose head and figure drawings rival those of the renaissance masters. He's the gifted painter, whose bravura style is startling and magnificent. Max is, quite simply, a master.

Growing up during the depression in the small mining town of Bingham Canyon, Utah, with no culture to speak of, somehow Max's interest in art was kindled and the creative seed was planted. It took sixty years to take root, for during the interim he was a soldier in World War II, a printer, a machinist, twice a husband, and a dedicated and conscientious foundry worker. Later he had the good fortune to meet a fine artist named Hal Reed, who encouraged him to pursue painting. Since then art has been his passion.

Over the years there have been many artists whom Max has admired, but a few that stand out in his mind are Frank Brangwyn, Sergei Bongart, Mariano Fortuny, Abram Arkhipov, Nicolai Fechin, Antonio Mancini, and the sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. Among present day artists Max appreciates the work of Richard Schmid, Dan McCaw, Peter Liashkov, and Jeremy Lipking.

Max's taste in music varies, but he enjoys listening to the Big Bands, Ellington, Billie Holiday, Gershwin, and Ray Charles, among so many others. For entertainment he enjoys watching football and Nascar on TV, and attending the Saturday workshop at the California Art Institute in Thousand Oaks, California.

Max has published two wonderful books, both of which are available on his website: Faces, a gallery of his amazing head drawings, and Figures and Faces, a marvelous compilation of some of Max's incredible figure and head drawings, plus a generous sampling of some of his sculpture and paintings.

Both books are reasonably priced and highly recommended.

Visit Max Turner's website

Artist Profile: Ed Terpening

Painting diverse landscapes “en plein air” (in one sitting, on location) is Ed Terpening's passion. California’s hills scattered with oak trees, bay marshes, and of course our beautiful coastline provide him with constant inspiration. He applies his contemporary California Impressionist skills both outdoors and in the studio for larger works.



Terpening seeks to capture the essence of a location and time by painting the movement, rhythm and color harmonies unique to that day. To his eye, the disparate elements in the landscape (land, sea, and sky) have an interchange and relationship that is fascinating and inspirational. Each effects the other and work in harmony. That’s why he’ll often paint the same location again during the year several times. As the seasonal fauna come and go, and the weather changes, the color harmonies are endless! Terpening's early music training and career established his perception of “visual rhythm,” which he strives to represent in every painting. It’s the interesting interchange between all elements of the landscape that create these rhythms and provide the perception of movement in what otherwise might be considered a photographic still.



As a collector of early California art, Terpening follows the traditions set by the innovators such as Edgar Payne, Colin Campbell Cooper, Seldon Gile, Tom Tompson and in particular the seascapes of Franz Bischoff, Paul Dougherty, Joseph Kleitsch, Armin Hansen, John O’Shea and Alfred Mitchell. He is grateful to these men and women for the inspirational legacy they’ve created. He also admires contempory plein air artists, such as Edward Seago, Fred Cuming, Ken Auster, Joseph Mendez, Ovanes Berberian, Don Stone, Ted Goerschner and Camille Przewodek.

Visit Ed Terpening's website.

Artist Profile: Sunny Apinchapong-Yang

Sunny Apinchapong-Yang was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where his Chinese parents settled after World War II. He arrived in the United States in 1970 where he received his first formal art instruction. He attended Art Center College of Design, and California State University, Los Angeles, earning both B.A and M.A degrees in Fine Arts.

In 1977, he began studying painting on scholarship at the Sergei Bongart School of Art in Los Angeles, and later worked as Mr. Bongart's assistant at the Los Angeles school and at the Summer workshops in Idaho. From 1987 to 1989 Sunny lived in Dublin, Ireland and participated in anexhibition sponsored by the Royal Academy of Arts. Sunny also had a one-man show at the Polo-one Gallery in Dublin. He has won numerous awards for his paintings in regional competitions and has held many private workshops around the country. In addition, he has taught at Brandes Art Institute in Los Angeles, California, the Businessmen's Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Fechin Institute in Taos, New Mexico.



He has held solo exhibitions in 1992, 1996 and most recently 2003 at the Moresberg Gallery in Los Angeles and in 1984, a one-man exhibition as well as, 1991 a duo exhibition at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington, and also participated with many group exhibitions, including theannual Gold Medal show with California Art Club at the Pasadena Historical Museum.Galleries that have exhibited Sunny's paintings are: The Saks Galleries, Denver; The Taos Art Gallery, Taos, NM: The Amparro Gallery, Scottsdale: Esther Wells Collections, Laguna Beach.

Sunny has been working for Walt Disney Studios since 1992, as a Background Artist in the Feature Animation Department. Most recently he has been working as an Art Director at the Disney TV Animation division. He is a resident of Glendale, California where he lives with his wife Pennee and their two children Tess and Jason.

Sunny Apinchapong-Yang is a Signature Member of the California Art Club and a member of its Advisory Board. He is also amember of theOil Painters of America.



Visit Sunny Apinchapong's website.

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These inexpensive yet high quality paint brushes may be purchased through Amazon by clicking here.

An Interview with Eolake Stobblehouse

Eolake Stobblehouse was born in 1963 in the small town of Karrebæksminde, Denmark. His father was a house painter, and his mother an artistically inclined bohemian out of Sweden. From early childhood, he exhibited a keen interest in philosophy, technology, and not the least, art. He studied the various techniques and disciplines of fine art avidly, and when he got a camera at age 11, he became absorbed by the possibilities of the photographic medium.

Stobblehouse has won many titles and medals for his fine photographic work, work which he later has expanded and refined in the digital realm. He also maintained an occasionally-successful career as a fine arts painter and draughtsman.

Beyond that, Eolake Stobblehouse is a writer of science fiction short stories for acclaimed American publications, and is currently writing about art and Macintosh computers for various magazines. He is published in the USA, the UK, France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Italy and Spain. He is working on a book about art, creation, and aesthetics, and how they relate to the universe.

Norm: Eolake, you seem to have an eye for seeing the ordinary in life and turning it into an extraordinary photograph. What's your strategy here? Do you plan your shots beforehand, or simply carry a camera around with you wherever you go and shoot whatever catches your eye?

Eolake: Very kind of you. Well, I know photographers who work by putting on a camera like a shirt in the morning. But it never worked for me. If I'm not particularly looking for pictures, I rarely see them. Making photos is a intense mental process for me. I have to "kick the motor into gear" when I do it. Sometimes when I close the camera down and decide I'm done for the day, I can almost feel those high-velocity flywheels start to wind down.

So it's rather wearing, I can only do it when I'm fresh and I've specifically decided to do it.

I don't usually have specific pictures planned ahead, it comes about as a "collaboration with the world."

I often find that the pictures from one session tend to follow a thread, and be of similar mind and compositions. Maybe there's a particular Inspiration that one taps into and plugs into the world when one works like that, and the products reflect it.

Norm: What are your favorite cameras and lenses, and why?



Eolake: Oh boy, I can go on about that. (And sometimes I do on my blog.) My home is full of cameras, many of them classic ones bought cheap on eBay just for decoration. All of those are metal bodies, which you sadly almost never find on new cameras these days.

Back in the film days, camera evolution was slow enough that you could keep a Favorite Camera for ten years. But here in the first decade of the millennium and the digital camera revolution, things are going so fast that even good cameras seem obsolete practically after a week. This will surely level out after a while though. Maybe.

What I tend to like is cameras and lenses which let you work fast, and give high quality images. Especially when combined with a portable camera. So my ideal camera would be shirt-pocket sized and make pin-sharp wall-sized pictures, and take photos hand-held at night. It may take a couple decades for us to get that one.

I like compact cameras, because I'm usually a walk-around photographer, and a big camera gets irritating after a while, and attracts attention.

I also like automaticity. Auto-focus and auto-exposure allows me to concentrate on the composition. Of course, if you need to do special looks like a very blurred backgrounds for example, you need to know what the camera is doing and control it tightly. So automaticity will only take you so far.

Norm: It intrigues me that you run Domai, a website featuring lovely figure photography, and yet your own work seldom contains people. Can you explain why this is?

Eolake: Ah, that changes back and forth. I've done quite many pictures with people in the past, and I'll probably do so again. It only takes a bit more time to arrange and do properly.

Norm: Your photography seems to encompass the entire spectrum of emotions, but in a subtle way. For instance, here is humor, sadness, loneliness, and aggression. Do you find that your own emotions inspire your work, or steer it in different directions?

Eolake: I tend to work with pictures in visual terms, forms, lines, colors, textures, light. But people will always invest emotions into pictures, just try and stop them.

Norm: I personally enjoy your "theme" photos, for instance, your "Study in Scarlet" series is an awful lot of fun. Do you consciously seek to create themes in your photographs, or does it happen spontaneously?

Eolake: Often spontaneously, but it varies. In the case of the Scarlet series, I noticed it happening, and started looking for more subjects with red in them.

Series are fun. If you're lucky you get a bigger-than-the-sum thing happening. And they also make you work more consciously with the pictures, and grow.

Norm: Do you have any advice for beginning photographers who wish to learn more about the craft? How can they learn to be more creative with the photographs they take?



Eolake: These days there are hundreds of web sites where you can see pictures or discuss photography with other happy amateurs.

This may lead to the blind leading the blind though, so I also advice to go to the library and get all the books on photography they have, and also all the books with art photography they can deliver. (You may have to use the service where they get books from other libraries, since photo books are quite expensive, and each library don't have many.)

You can also join a local club. If you're lucky it will have some people who are really interested in pictures. Many people are mostly in it for the chat and coffee though, so you never know.

It is very important to enjoy and study the works of photographers who are better than you. If you can't find anybody better than you, you don't have a problem. Or maybe you do.

See more of Eolake's photos here.

Artist Profile: Ingmar Bergman

In each of our lives there are a handful of individuals who made a real impact, who by direct influence or by example helped to explain the world and shape our character. For me, Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was such a person. He died today, age 89.

Along with my parents, a few family members and close friends, Bergman taught me much of what I know of the world, the human psyche, love and sacrifice, hard work and craft, balance and composition, movement and timing. By exploring its many contrasts, he helped me to comprehend art's many facets and its incalculable value to human beings.



Through his films, stage direction and writing, Bergman explored the full spectrum of the human condition: love and death, madness and compassion, raw selfishness, bitter hatred, joyous optimism, faith and despair. As he said through his character, Eva, played by Liv Ullman in his film, Autumn Sonata:

To me, man is a tremendous creation, an inconceivable thought; and in man there is everything, from the highest to the lowest, just as in life..."

In a Seattle interview six years ago, Woody Allen -- who frequently gave homage to Bergman in films like A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and Interiors -- said:

There's no question in my mind that Bergman is the greatest of all filmmakers. No one else even comes close. His accomplishment is that immense. He is the only movie director to ever probe the human psyche on such a (skillful) or profound level. He's the first director to dramatize metaphysical issues. His body of work compares to Proust's cycle of novels or even the plays of Shakespeare. In art, there's good and there's great and there's genius -- Bergman is genius.

I will leave a detailed examination of Bergman's many works to others more qualified. But let me give you one personal example of his amazing talent.

In 1985 a Strindberg play called Miss Julie was performed near my home in Los Angeles. Cast and directed by Bergman, the play was performed entirely in Swedish. A day prior to the performance, however, I read an English translation of the play and so had the plot fresh in my mind on the evening of the event. Soon after the curtain rose and the play started, I found myself asking a series of unusual (for me) questions:

What is happening between the lines -- or perhaps, in spite of them? How should an actor move across the stage? What should he be doing with his hands -- his body language -- when another actor is speaking? What might be done to enhance the vision of the play? What action may be introduced by the characters that may either promote or contrast with the words being spoken? Scene by scene, moment by moment, how might color and light be used to best effect?

These were questions that had never occurred to me before seeing this production, and as the play progressed it became increasingly apparent that the raw words of the play were being manipulated by a genius. Bergman's direction doubled the play's assets and halved its shortcomings. Like a master illusionist, he took the sparse lines of the play and breathed life into them. It was not only Stringberg's play I was seeing, it was Bergman's as well.

To me these insights were breathtaking and profound, and I never forgot them: a drawing or a painting should be a picture of not only the subject, but the artist as well.

For a complete list of the films and stage productions of Ingmar Bergman, go here.

Artist Profiles: Leopold & Rudolph Blaschka

During the late 19th century, the Dresden studio of LEOPOLD BLASCHKA (1822-1895) and his son RUDOLF (1857-1929) produced beautifully detailed glass models of exotic plants and bizarre sea creatures for natural history museums and aquaria all over the world.

For over a century, thousands of people have peered into the cherrywood cabinets in the Botanical Museum at Harvard University to see hundreds of astonishingly life-like glass replicas of exotic flowers. Each flower was made thousands of miles away from Harvard in the German city of Dresden by the artisanal glassmaker Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf.

The Blaschkas not only supplied Harvard’s Botanical Museum with some 4,400 replica flowers, but over a period of 50 years they created thousands more remarkably realistic glass flowers and sea creatures for natural history museums as far afield as the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and India.

At a time when the public was entranced by the bizarre plants unearthed by explorers and by the splendidly surreal creatures discovered beneath the sea (since the invention of the submarine and deep sea diving kit in the mid-1800s) the Blaschkas offered a glimpse into those exotic worlds.

More Information about the Blaschkas

More samples of the Blaschka's work

Photographer Profile: Alen Sislen

Alen Sislen is passionate about photography; not just the finished photograph, but also the photographic process of visualizing and then creating the printed image from the millions of pixels, that when combined represent what he experienced when looking through the camera's lens. For him, the photographic process is not complete until he tries to convey to the viewer his excitement, whether produced by the play of light and shadow, by bold colors, by subtle tonalities, by rich textures, or by the intensity or even the calmness of the overall image. His goal is for the viewer to be moved or intrigued by what they see, regardless of whether their reaction is the same as what motivated me to make the image.



While he uses the most modern digital photographic equipment, his style and technique are traditional. In the digital "darkroom" it is not unusual to spend hours "processing" and printing an image that may have taken just 1/30th of a second to "capture." Although he takes advantage of state-of-the-art equipment, digital manipulation is kept to a minimum.



Through photography, he tries to communicate what motivates him to press the shutter release. The writer uses words; the musician uses musical notes; the painter uses brush strokes; the potter uses clay. Photography enables Alen to present the world around us in a way that stimulates more than the sense of sight, but hopefully, also evokes our emotion and imagination.



His greatest influences have been those with whom he has studied, including the well-known British landscape photographer Charlie Waite, widely published former National Geographic photographer Bruce Dale, digital expert Thom Hogan and fine art photographic artist and Photoshop master John Paul Caponigro.

Visit Alen Sislen 's website.