CONTENTS
Page One:
- Salvatore Polistena's Nostalgic Imagery
Page Two:
- Gabriela Lezcano and Alejandro Veneziani: Working as a Team
Page Three:
- Wonderland Puzzle
- Special Recognition for José Pelegrina in Puerto Rico
- Abby Levine and the Big Bend Area of Texas
- George Anderson's Art Education Project
- Abdulwahab Mihoub Exhibits in Algeria
- David Wickenden Completes Portrait of the Prime Minister
- Tayseer Barakat's Ziryab Café
- Sue Walters On The Go!
- Dino Muradian's "Adoration of the Shepherds"
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La Giovinetta |
Italian pyrographic artist, Salvatore Polistena currently resides in Pisa in the northern
part of Italy. However, he is originally from the region of Calabria,
from the small city of Mileto located in the toe of the boot that is
Italy. It was in Mileto that his artistic career began as well as an
art movement that he co-founded with other artists there back in the
1960s.
Salvatore works in various media and over the years has exhibited with
great success in numerous group and individual shows. His works are
exhibited in both public and private collections in Italy, Northern
Europe, Canada, Australia, and The United States of America.
Besides his pyrography and other art work, Salvatore spends some of his
time organizing and participating in a special vacation package he calls
an "artists' get-together without borders" on
the beach in beautiful Calabria.
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Ballerinas |
"I have noticed," Salvatore says, "that [pyrography]
lends itself a great deal to works in decoration and is, in particular,
a way of doing stupendous copies of old photos or reproductions of old
prints and engravings."
Although Salvatore is well known for his excellent portraits, his
portraits are not rendered in the usual technique of photorealism.
Moreover, his copies and reproductions are not intended as exact
replicas but are stylized interpretations. He incorporates contemporary
details and techniques. He uses unexpected contrasts. At times he uses
chiaro-oscuro to effect an antique look, yet it is not at all the look
of works by Rembrandt and the other Old Masters of that technique.
Likewise Salvatore makes use of a pointillism that is heavier and
sporadic--not at all the pointillism made famous by Seurat and others of
his era. In brief, he incorporates a wide variety of techniques in his
own way and effectively creates his own personal style: It evokes
nostalgia, it suggests memories, it touches the emotions. As one critic
said, "[Salvatore creates] figures from time past projected into
the present."
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My Father |
Here are some translated excerpts from the writings of one (very poetic)
critic of Salvatore's
portraits:
The encounter of the visitor with the author is a wholly internal
journey through his works, the gift of a generous spirit, rich in human
values. One feels that he/she is traveling the path together [with the
artist]; it is never a solitary or solipsistic path.
The protagonist of these works is the spirit, the emotional 'status' of
the artist, which is at times embodied in the man child, at times in the
feminine figure in all its sweetness, and at times in that of an elderly
man.
The author appears to us as a new Dante journeying in the catharsis of
life, guided by the masters towards the Master of the masters, the
Absolute.
From the burnt wood an infinite sweetness shows through in a crowd of
images evoked from memory.
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Portrait of Fidio Bartalini |
Salvatore recounts that it was 1960 when he felt the need with other
artists to unite in order to give vent to their art and to free
thinking, outside of the rigid dogmas then prevailing in the field of
ethics as well as classist politics and a culture tied to the prevailing
respectability.
The name they gave to their school of thought then was "Accademia
degli Scapigliati" (Academy of The Disheveled), which came to be
known in English as the Messy Hair Movement. The name
came about because of the distinctive way they showed off their thick
hair flying in the wind. No doubt it was also partially in deference to
the original 19th Century art and literary movement that had come out of
Milan in the north of Italy, which was likewise called Gli
Scapigliati.
Their movement--complete with "hair flying in the wind"--was
also their way to "go against the grain" to express (artistic)
freedom outside of certain scripted (i.e., set) clichés.
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Miscellania |
It all started by chance one day when Salvatore had in his hand a simple
80-Watt soldering iron to heat some tin and wire he was going to use to
decorate a table top. He noticed that the heated pieces of metal that
had fallen on his worktable left sepia-colored marks very similar to the
color of old time photographs. And also that those burn marks took on
different tones according to the intensity and duration of the burn. It
was this observation that led Salvatore to experiment with this new
approach to drawing and to use the chiaro-oscuro that is part of what
characterizes his distinctive style.
Now, in fact, Salvatore has bought a series of diverse soldering irons
with a temperature control that he built himself; in addition, he is
beginning to make points that he shapes with a file and other tools.
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Girl |
View more of Salvatore Polistena's works, including some in other media,
at the Salvatore
Polistena website
and in the E-Museum of
Pyrographic Art as well.
Only recently he set off one day for nearby Carrara to get some of that
famous marble to try his hand at sculpture.
He is already into planning and organizing the 2003 vacation
get-together for artists and intellectuals that goes from May to
September (except August) and takes place in a beach resort in the
Calabria region (the southern tip of Italy's 'boot'). From all over,
suggestions poured in from last summer's get-together, and Salvatore is
more enthused than ever about the upcoming vacation season. He welcomes
inquiries, so click on Artists' Get-Together in
Calabria if you'd like more information.
Another goal of Salvatore's is to find an opportunity to receive
commissions from the United States for his works in portraiture.
In regard to his pyrography, Salvatore currently wants to experiment
doing some works combining this medium with figurative art. He is
thinking he would apply color to create a veiled effect and yet at the
same time leave it transparent enough to allow glimpses of the wood
grain. He plans to start off by drawing a nude in a classical design
such as in the style of Leonardo, then have the pyrography and painting
gradually fade away creating an asymmetrical frame for the figure.
Perhaps one day soon the results of these intriguing ideas will turn up
in a follow-up segment...
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2002, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
