Can you describe your first encounters with art?
My mom was a designer and my father was a chef at his catering business and restaurant; I saw and tasted creativity all around me. My interest in art was instilled into me in my childhood. My mother would take me to the museums and plays in New York. Art was an early love for me. My aunt and uncle owned the Chelsea Hotel where many artists lived and because of its permissive atmosphere, artists, writers, musicians, and dancers were allowed to do most anything they wanted. I heard wonderful stories and saw the works of many artists from the hotel. The most famous was Andy Warhol.
As a young woman, I started selling my work in a parking lot on La Cienega Boulevard, which was the home to all the major art galleries in Los Angeles in the 60’s and 70’s That is where I really learned about selling art. I was also a frequent visitor to those galleries and I was able to develop my own taste and aesthetic based on the seminal shows I saw over a fifty year period.
Have you taught any courses?
I started teaching in 1973 at Los Angeles High School. I was in the art department and taught printmaking, intaglio, lino cuts, and collography with my teenagers and some of the staff. After the earthquake of 71, the school was moved into a temporary structures and then we had a chance to reconstruct the art department. We researched the records and were able to restore the department to its previous status and that is how I got the etching press. We were dealing with kids that were really underserved and the teachers in the department were able to offer a bounty of selections which enabled our students to flourish. I also taught ceramics and did a lot of sculptural work with them. I established a fabulous art gallery at our school. A local artist with a large format camera taught kids about photography and we got to have a gallery for a whole year before they made it into an office. This gave students with little art exposure a chance to curate shows for professional artists as well as themselves. At the same school, I insinuated myself into a performing arts workshop and taught a stagecraft and art production. I knew very little about the craft, but with my students, forged ahead and helped create sets, lights, costumes, and promotional material for such plays as: Hair, Anything Goes, Godspell and others. This experience added to my understanding of the use of space and light on images.
I took classes in printmaking at UCLA as part of its professional printmaking program. Then I purchased an electric printing press for my own use and ran a workshop for professional printmakers, mainly in intaglio in a store front established by a friend. There, I was able to observe some fine artists use their skills and create series of prints to sell in galleries.
I’ve heard you talk about owning gallery in California. Can you tell us more about that and your Collector’s Club that you started?
I left teaching because my father died and mother had a stroke, in a sense, they were both gone in about a period of one day. I knew I needed more money to take care of my mother who was in a convalescent hospital and whose special care was left to my sister and me. We started out with a picture framing store, I had worked in several throughout college, which sold art, but mainly offset prints. After a year, I took over and expanded to an art gallery and picture framing business. The art scene was graphics in those years because Los Angeles was a hub of burgeoning workshops and ateliers. I sold serigraphs, intaglios, mono prints, and lithographs. There were many ateliers, which were like studios, but much more. I started out slowly and purchased pieces and then convinced the ateliers and wholesale galleries to let me take things on memo. In one evening, I may have had over a $100,000 in borrowed art because the workshops saw my sales records and trusted me with their work. I invited people to look at them, and then brought back what didn’t sell. Purchases started slowly at first, until I started educating clients on the process and demonstrating how some of these pieces of art were made. Then collectors began to purchase more than one piece at a showing and the business grew from our visits to ateliers and artist’s studios. We went all over Los Angeles looking at the top of the graphics market, viewing and discussing local artists as well international artists. My clients became very inquisitive. Some of them had 30 or 40 pieces. Eventually I started to branch out and I made contacts with ateliers in Europe. I brought in original Matisses, smaller ones around $5000 in range, and Chagals. I also was able to buy several legitimate works by Dali, some were images from the book of Dante’s Inferno.
One reason the gallery was able to be solvent during some tough financial times was that the gallery did a lot of picture framing and display work. I framed all of the gold, silver, and platinum records for Warner-Electra-Asylum records. Also, I did display work for an famous eye surgeon who wanted to take samples of his surgical process to conferences. We framed a wide variety of work for all types of businesses and it always astounded me that people found me in that small corner of Valley and trusted me with some rather major projects.
I also got a chance, through Title Nine, to compete for contracts. I worked as an art consultant for the Southern Californian Gas Company. Every person at regional offices selected a piece of art for their respective areas. I traveled all over with prints and catalogs to assist them to create a pleasant work environment. Then, I did consulting with restaurants and selected art for their businesses.
I also worked with the historian for the archives of the Catholic Archdioceses of Los Angeles at the San Fernando Mission. I helped restore the works after another major earthquake. I helped set up the displays and reframed damaged documents and art in the gallery as well as the archives. We made sure everything there was properly conserved. I was thrilled to work with Father Weber, the historian, and learn so much about the history of Los Angeles. During that period, I was hired to lecture on printmaking and collecting by a major department store as part of a series of lectures for their employees.
Did you ever return to teaching?
I went back into teaching, while still working at the gallery, when the recession hit; that recession was not quite as bad as what we are in now. I was only going to go back for a year, but I was enjoying myself so much that I stayed. When I left my business to my brother in the 90s, I went back to teaching full time.
I became involved in the Humanitas Program, a national interdisciplinary teaching program. We were trained year after year to connect all the main disciplines to show how they were all linked. Art was one of the major parts of the program at San Fernando High School, were I worked when I returned to teaching. We designed a concept where we would raise money and then take our students all around the Los Angeles area to experience special venues because some of them had never been out of the San Fernando Valley. We started by taking them to major museums. It was so exciting to watch our students makes the intellectual connections. We were trained by the Getty with their scanning method, showing students what to look for in a painting, how to see rather than just evaluate.
Here at Oregon Arts Alliance, you are heading the Collector’s Club. Can you tell me more about that?
The idea is to allow people to feel less intimidated and select things that they like. It could be based on a process they find intriguing or an artist’s demonstration which piques their interest. I hope they will find something new that will open up their eyes. For me, I couldn’t live without my art. If I didn’t have furniture, I would still have art. I would like to pass on that real connection I have…a connection to make collectors out of them. You don’t have to be rich to buy art in this area because the prices are affordable. This is the best time to collect! You can buy it slowly, carefully…lovingly.
What made your decide to leave California? How have you adapted to the changes once you transitioned from a big city to Eugene?
I came to Eugene to escape the frenetic pace of Los Angeles. Sometimes, I really miss all that energy. I miss the selection of plays and films, and most of all, I miss the shows at the museums I frequented. This area is beautiful, but I miss the connection with the art world and major players and major exhibits. Eugene is a university town and I thought that there was a lot going on in the art world, and there is, but it still has much room to grow. I want to be a part of that growth. Eugene has culture here, but artists are not able to make a living. To be a real city of the arts, artists must be able to make their living doing art. Residents seem to leave the city to purchase art elsewhere. Our Art Collector’s Club will focus on artist and sales here, in the Eugene area.
What mediums do you work with now? How have you evolved as an artist?
I’m not doing printmaking because I don’t have any place to work. Now I am working in watercolors because they are so very vibrant. I am trying to rid myself of everything I have done in the past and I have spent the last year experimenting. I have taken a quote from Paul Klee which says, “For me art is taking a walk with a line.“ I don’t want to repeat the same idea of landscape or figure representation. I want to start an image and let the painting take me somewhere instead of me predicting the outcome. I do fractured images which dissect a piece and reconstruct it.
Can you describe your experiences with Oregon Arts Alliance?
First of all, I think the people who work there are so gracious and capable. I was asked to be on the Exhibits Committee. And I joined immediately. The minute I started to serve on the committee, I was so impressed by the openness and willingness to help artists. I got to meet other artists and became involved with the first sampler show. I took part in the 6x6 show too. Since the move to the Willamette gallery, this is one of the most dynamic organizations of its type in Eugene. For me, it’s where the action is! I want to promote art sales and collecting with some of the most vibrant artists I met in the Northwest.
