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 Cafe
- Sue Walters On the Go!
- Dino Muradian's Adoration of the Shepherds
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White Rabbit, |
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José Pelegrina Being Presented with
a Serigraph |
On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Office for the Development of Arts and Crafts, which took place at the Compañía de Fomento Económico de Puerto Rico, José Pelegrina was presented with a serigraph portrait of himself. He was one of four to be honored in this year's series of posters, which are awarded annually to four distinguished Master Crafstmen of Puerto Rico.
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In the Kitchen |
Above is a recent work by José, whose story and work were featured in last July's issue of Pyrograffiti here in WOM and in the José Pelegrina Salon in the E-Museum.
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Afghan Poppy |
>From Marathon, Texas, multi-media artist Abby Levine recently wrote with an update following her
Pyrograffiti segment The
Folk Art of Abby Levine, featured in the May-June 2002 issue of WOM.
That article lead with Abby's big colorful wood postcard
Greetings from Big
Bend Country. That piece was chosen as the promotional image
for an annual event in Alpine, Texas called "Gallery Night"
and was used on all of the cards, t-shirts, and posters advertising that
event.
Shown above is a piece from Abby's latest works, obviously motivated by
recent historic events (like another of her pieces entitled Homeland
Security) that were exhibited at the
Terlingua
House Projects gallery in Alpine, which is about 80 miles north of
Big Bend.
It seems the art world is really taking notice of the Big Bend area as
well as of Abby's town of Marathon (and Abby!). An enjoyable article in
The Dallas News
The
Big Bend area has become a mecca for artists tells the story of this
area of the American west that is even getting the attention of the well
established Santa Fe art world.
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Portrait of |
George Anderson of Ghana is a student in art education at the
University of Education of Winneba. Readers may well remember his
brother Samuel
Anderson from the July-August 2000 issue of WOM, who, George says,
"is regarded as one of the best pyrographic artists in the
country."
For a final project in one intensive 8-week course, George chose to
research for his long essay the topic: "Identification of Modern
Tools and Materials for Pyrography." To accomplish his assignment,
he selected pyro artists at the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art, and sent
them each a questionnaire to learn their views on pyrography and how
they worked in this little known medium.
According to George, pyrography as fine art is not common in Ghana and
unfamiliar even to his professors who are exposed to many kinds of art
works. In Ghana as in Mali,
pyrographic work has been mostly traditional decorative art used to
embellish gourds and drums. Fortunately for George, because people are
finally now beginning to take notice of pyrography as a fine art medium
in Ghana, his topic was welcomed when he chose it.
As the practical aspect of his project, George did two portraits of U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan: one rendered in pyrography and color on
watercolor paper and the other (shown above) in monochrome pyrography
on wood.
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Nomad Family, detail |
In last May's issue of WOM, in the Pyrograffiti feature entitled Folk
Art Interpretations, Abdulwahab "Houba" Mihoub showed us
his works depicting life in the Sahara and in his hometown of Touggourt.
By July, Houba was showing those works in a very successful one-man
show at a gallery in Algiers, the country's capital city on the
Mediterranean.
While Houba is essentially introducing pyrography as an art medium in
Algeria (where it is very little known compared to West Africa where it
is a traditional art), he is at the same time trying to
preserve--through his art--the look and traditions of his hometown
Touggourt and other cities in the region.
Thanks to his exhibit, which got some excellent press coverage, not only
did Houba's art get a favorable critique in the El
Watan Journal, but a second part of the newspaper article (written
in French) was dedicated to telling Houba's own story, promoting his
mission to preserve the historic sites of Touggourt, and providing some
good publicity for pyrographic art.
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Portrait of |
Back in the July 2001 issue of WOM, David Wickenden's story "Fighting
Fire with Fire," was an article full of good news and the
promise of more good things to come. One of those things was a
commission to do a pyrographic portrait of Canada's Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien.
Pictured above is the finished portrait and one more of David's fine
accomplishments.
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Fireside at the Ziryab Café Tayseer Barakat's Ziryab CaféTwo highly recommended internet sites
provide an insight into Palestinian art life in general, and Tayseer
Barakat's motivations and goals for his café in particular.
Excerpts from an engaging article by Charmaine
Seitz describe the atmosphere at Tayseer's café:
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Tayseer Barakat at the Ziryab
Café
"'The art,' says Barakat, 'is really the reason the café
exists at all.'"
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Sue Walters On The Go!The last big wood show of the year in
Australia is the Melbourne Woodshow in Sue Walters' home State of Victoria. It is an enormous show and
the grand final of all of the huge state shows of Australia. It also is
the one with the national woodworking championship.
As many readers know from her exuberant e-mail posted October 29th to
the IAPA message board, Sue returned home from the Melbourne Woodshow
with one news item after another, going from good to better to best!
In brief, she took first place in decorative woodworking and third best
of show, was offered a
feature article on herself and her pyrography, plus her beautiful
elephant pyrograph on the cover of The Australian Woodworker magazine.
Be sure you're signed up at Sue Walter's website
for her next newsletter, due out about the same time as this issue of
WOM, to read all the details of her latest great success and all her
latest articles.
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The Adoration of the Shepherds |
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All...
Click here to go back to page one
Click here to go back to page two
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The AuthorKathleen M. Garvey Menéndez learned her pyrography techniques in Guatemala in 1975-1977. Her sister, Artist Sharon H. Garvey, later joined her there to collaborate on a pyrography project designed to promote this art form in the United States by means of a didactic book and a pyrography tool made by Navarro of Mexico.Thanks to the internet, this is the end of the sixth year of articles on pyrography for the WWWoodcarver Online Magazine (WOM), started January 1997, and the fifth year of the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art, which opened its virtual doors January 1998. In March of that year, the International Association of Pyrographic Artists (IAPA) was formed and members began meeting on line. Linked from the E-Museum's Café Flambé, which hosts the IAPA meetings, is the Yahoo Groups uniting_pyrographers mailing list, member list, and chat forum set up by IAPA Co-founder Mixo Sydenham of Australia for IAPA members. |
2002, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
