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ART STRINGS 2009–10 PAINTED VIOLIN RAFFLE
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of last year's Art Strings fundraiser and helped us raise over $10,000! Please check back soon for information and images of our 2011 collection of violins.
Art Strings combines the visual and performing arts to raise funds for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s extensive education programs. Ten local artists were commissioned to create individual works of art using violins as their canvas, drawing inspiration from a musical program or work the NJSO is presenting in its 2009–10 season. Devoted NJSO Ambassadors generously donated their time to display the violins and sell raffle tickets for a chance to win one of these works of art. These transformed violins were displayed at NJSO concerts and selected art galleries throughout New Jersey during the 2009–10 season. |
For more information, please contact: |
Renée Pachucki
Sr. Director of Patron Relations
973.624.3713, ext. 270
rpachucki@njsymphony.org |
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2009–10 ART STRINGS COLLECTION
Click on photo to enlarge and view both sides of the violin.
Photos by Fred Stucker Photography: www.stucker.com |
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Violin #1:
“HITCHCOCK: SYMPHONY AT THE MOVIES”
Artist: Raquel Bonassisa, Belleville, NJ
Winner: Suzanne Klar, Livingston, NJ
“Symphony at the Movies was inspired by my affinity for classic movies and a graphic designer named Saul Bass, known for his collaborative work with Hitchcock’s movies. Much of Hitchcock’s early work was in black and white so I kept black as the predominant color and created a collage of the great director’s movies for the front. A running movie frame encompasses the sides and a free-hand painting of the famous Hitchcock silhouette graces the back. I also incorporated a sound clip from the original Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series theme.”
Raquel Bonassisa is the art director for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has also worked in theatre, film and music and looks forward to gallery representation someday. A Parsons School of Design alumni, she founded a graphic design firm, Hit Designs, and is the driving force behind many noteworthy, award winning designs that she has created or directed in her illustrious career.
E-mail: contact@hitdesigns.com
Website: www.hitdesigns.com |
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Violin #2
“MEET THE ORCHESTRA”
Artist: Vicki Reikes Fox, Montclair, NJ
Winner: Janice Fulton, Bloomfield, NJ
“My violin celebrates the creative nexus between composer and visual artist. Although each a discrete art form, music and visual arts do share overlapping similarities in approach. Both artist and composer layer many elements— whether it is color, paint and pattern or rhythm, tempo and harmony. In creating my violin, I have layered color, images and patterns as well as a variety of media including wood stain, paint, glaze, hand carved rubber stamps, pen and ink. The golden marks flowing from each music stand across the surface of the violin suggest the many layered relationships flowing with the music.”
Vicki earned a degree in Art History from Tulane University and a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College. She is both an illustrator and author with numerous publications that cover Jewish life in the South. Vicki has been a creative consultant for Zimmer Children’s Museum in Los Angeles and a project director for Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Jackson, Mississippi, among other work she has completed for museums in L.A., Worcester, MA, Cincinnati, OH and Montclair, NJ
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E-mail: Vicki@reikesfox.com |
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Violin #3:
“MOZART’S JUPITER 41”
Artist: Mikel Frank, Maplewood, NJ
Winner: Mel Kraft, Livingston, NJ
“Music has always been a powerful inspiration in my art making process. I’ve been inspired by Mozart for years. As I designed the violin, I listened to the Jupiter Symphony and decided to use realistic images to create a narrative work using the collage technique. I wanted the design to be representative of art and music so I combined found images with abstract spatial devices on the front, using old master paintings and drawings as well as present-day realistic images and a generic music hall as background. Around the sides is a repeated photo of the NJSO, and the back is Jupiter himself and a degas drawing which references Man Ray’s famous photos, ‘Le Violon d’Ingres.’”
Mikel Frank began his career in the arts in live production in the early 1980s on independent film projects. He worked in lighting, sound effects and production. He has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1985 and is currently the production stage manager in the Concerts and Lectures Department. Mikel is also an accomplished artist with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. His work is exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the New York-New Jersey area.
E-mail: mikesbrain@verizon.net
Website: www.mikelfrank.com |
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Violin #4:
“RUSSIAN ROMANTICS”
Artist: Luis Gallinat, Newark, NJ
Winner: John Carter, Asbury Park, NJ
“My inspiration to paint this violin in the theme of The Russian Fantasy began when I was a teen listening to classical music. The music of the great Russian composers was some of the first that I fell in love with. They have been with me all my life, giving me many hours of pleasure in concert halls and at home. Also, while visiting Russia, I fell in love with the magnificent architecture and folklore; clearly those were the inspiration for painting this violin.”
After leaving communist Cuba and moving to South America with his family, Luis Gallinat began his studies in the arts. This education continued when he moved to the United States. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe, which provides inspiration for his work. One of his greatest passions is capturing an individual’s personality in a portrait. His artistic style is classic with an impressionistic slant.
E-mail: gallart@optonline.net
Website: http://studiogallinat.blogspot.com/ |
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Violin #5:
“THE FIREBIRD”
Artist: Beverly Goldschmidt, Westfield, NJ
Winner: Colman Carter, Summit, NJ
“The inspiration for my painting was Stravinsky’s 'The Firebird,' based on a Russian folk tale. I immediately saw the firebird in the shape of the violin. The bright colors of his feathers and the golden apple tree below create a lively upbeat feeling, which is how the story commences. In contrast, I painted the back of the violin in more somber tones to represent the darker parts of the piece. The princess, whom Prince Ivan falls in love with, is held captive. Meanwhile, the firebird has been captured by a witch. Ivan befriends a wolf and sets off on his back to free the firebird and princess.”
Beverly is an artist and illustrator specializing in oil painting and watercolor/ink renderings. With a background in graphic design and art direction, she began painting for shows and commissions after her retirement from the corporate world to focus on her family. While Beverly has taken several classes in different art mediums, she is primarily self-taught.
E-mail: goldschmidt3@comcast.net |
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Violin #6:
“THE FOUR SEASONS”
Artist: Vivian Olshen, Livingston, NJ
Winner: Ina Roffman, Montville, NJ
“In The Four Seasons, Vivaldi illustrates the changing seasons in Italy’s Venetto region. I attempted to capture the four seasons using water as the central motif as it flows and connects one season to another. We find spring and summer on the front and autumn and winter on the back of the violin. The various skies occupy the sides. The ‘strings’ on the top reference a lightning storm in the spring. The landscape is seen from above, flattening the space and creating a pattern composed of areas of color.”
Vivian has been involved in and passionate about the arts since her teenage years. As a graduate of Pratt Institute, Vivian teaches painting and conducts a museum and gallery course at the JCC of Metrowest. Most of her work uses nature to reflect her concern with interpersonal relationships. Her paintings, prints and drawings are in many collections throughout the United States and Canada. Vivian is the Vice-chair of the Arts Council of Livingston.
E-mail: vivolshen@aol.com |
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Violin #7:
“FINLANDIA”
Artist: Melissa Bronwen Pyle,
Spring Lake, NJ
Winner: Joan Zielinski, Lake Forest, IL
“‘Finlandia’ speaks to me in a universal language of broad ranging musical tones and phrases that need no cross-cultural translation and is the inspiration for my violin. A sacred hymn that accompanies the ‘Finlandia’ melody, ‘Be Still My Soul,’ has long stirred my being, providing solace and strength in difficult times. My work speaks to that same place in which the creative spirit seeks and sometimes finds balance. I am always made aware of a greater power when listening to my environmental muses, some of which are incorporated in this piece, including feathers, sand, eggshells, birch bark, sweet-pea pods, bamboo, wasp nest layers, pine cones and resin.”
Like many people, Melissa is inspired by nature and seeks to emulate it through color, depth and motion. She blends her training as a textile designer and love of nature to produce botanical landscapes in oil and abstracts in mixed media. Working with resin mixed media stirs a certain energy in her. The placement of a found element upon a brushstroke, texture upon texture, spontaneous splatterings and pools of paint—all of these diverse applications are caught in separate stratums to bring breath to her art.
Email: mbpyle@artspan.com
Website: www.melissapyle.artspan.com |
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Violin #8:
“MAHLER FIVE”
Artist: Marleny Romano, Ocean, NJ
Winner: Cindy Lamy, Maplewood, NJ
“As a typical person of my generation might do, I found inspiration listening to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony 5 on Pandora Radio and watching performances of the piece on You Tube. A likeness of his silhouette and those of a few musicians in the orchestra are painted on the neck of the violin. The rest I drew from pictures of faraway places. The soft and dramatic tension that excites you seems like the travels portrayed in the photos. I also references graffiti and impressionistic flowers, things I find to be oddly precious. I was inspired by how Mahler was able to bring you out of where you are and into a world of soaring with ease.”
Born in Peru, and now residing by the Jersey Shore, Marleny is a young artist who seeks to paint the feeling a person gets when they connect with a sight, song, person or moment. Her inspiration is drawn from far reaching sources such as modern “hip-hop” music, graffiti, contemporary poetry, folklore and native beliefs. Her work combines the mixing of old-fashioned portraiture and the layering of colors and textures.
E-mail: marlenyswork@yahoo.com
Website: www.mainavegalleria.com
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Violin #9:
“BEST OF FAIRY TALES”
Artist: Kerrie Wandlass, Cranford, NJ
Winner: Suzanne Lapore,
South Plainfield, NJ
“Fairy tales often have two sides—dark and daunting as well as bright and happy— much as the sounds of the symphony both entice us into darkness and then carry us into the light. This violin embraces the brighter side, following stories which over time, have inspired both music and art: Cinderella escaping from the festival; Sleeping Beauty discovered by her prince; Mother Goose flying on her gander; the Firebird’s feathers of flame; and Scheherazade’s ship of Sinbad, aground on a surprising island. Looking carefully, once may also spot hidden fairy wings and a tiny portrait of the instrument in its unpainted form.”
After residing in New York for 25 years and working as an accessories designer, Kerrie Wandlass has returned home to her native New Jersey, which she has said, feels like her “new found love.” She is currently taking inspiration from the local neighborhoods, parks and backyards of Cranford, NJ where she now lives. Kerrie has a Bachelors degree in fine arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology and has studied under acclaimed painter Barbara Yeterian. She works in varying styles of art such as impressionism, realism and abstract imagery using oils, acrylics and pastels.
E-mail: kerrie10@verizon.net |
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Violin #10:
“BEST OF TCHAIKOVSKY”
Artist: Gisele Zeitler, Scotch Plains, NJ
Winner: John Osborne, West Milford, NJ
“As a former dancer, and 20+ year subscriber to the New York City Ballet, for me the name Tchaikovsky is synonymous with ballet; the archetypal ballet being ‘Swan Lake.’ In tribute to my favorite composer, images from this work are featured on my violin. I sought reference material that shows both the majesty and ethereal quality of this ballet and its music. Greens and yellows were chosen to represent its setting in nature, as well as the purples of the night. The visage of the composer supervises the proceedings, hopefully approving of them. Since the two faces of the violin are oil paintings, I treated the edges as though they were a gold frame with black highlights.”
Born in Hamburg, West Germany and emigrating with her family to the United States when she was 12, Gisele has been an artist all of her life. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in art and film from Douglass College and continued her education at Parsons School of Design in New York City and the Graduate School of Architecture at New Jersey Institute of Technology. For 18 years, she worked as a contract interior designer doing offices for diverse clients such as the New York City Opera and Annhauser-Busch. During this time, she continued painting, studying under such renowned artists as Paul MacCormack, Lois Woolley and HongNian Zhang.
E-mail: gzda@aol.com
Website: www.martinfeldgalleries.com |
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New Jersey Symphony Orchestra · 60 Park Place, 9th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102 · Telephone 973.624.3713 · Fax 973.624.2115 |
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