Ed Valfre’s Dreamland - an exploration

Ed Valfre,
Photographer/Musician/Writer

           Enter the world of Ed Valfre’s Dreamland, where Ed Valfre combines words and images to create the introspective quality of a series of elegiac voyages.

           He illuminates the viewer’s vision by making fixed images of things otherwise only momentarily glimpsed and not remembered or valued. This precise definition, the freezing of movement, -- something Henri Cartier-Bresson named the “decisive moment – and Valfre’s occasional brief commentaries create unique partnerships. There are times that music accompanies the works, serving to highlight Valfre’s skill as a musician.

 After the new works are installed on his website, the photographer/musician republishes his work on his Facebook page, which is where I first encountered the magic and was visually seduced into becoming a regular follower.

            His photographic inspiration came from Robert Frank’s, The Americans.  Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and William Joyce’s A Day with Wilbur Robinson inspired his children’s books, Backseat Buckaroo and Vacationers from Outer Space.

            “I wanted to create a story about a kid in the backseat of a car on a family vacation,” notes Valfre. “Everything he would see from on the road would become part of a story from gas station logos to miniature golf courses.”Vacationers from Outer Space, his second book, was a continuation of the theme of the never-ending road trip. “The main theme in these books was that the real world is quite fascinating and imagination can be triggered by simply looking at the world around you.” 

Tomorrow the Stars

The spacecraft was ready. The boys packed cheese whiz, jelly sandwiches and packets of instant lemonade for the trip. Tomorrow at 7AM sharp the journey to the stars would begin. Tonight it will be impossible to fall asleep.

           And look Valfre does, with an intuitive inner eye that seems to recognize the occult in the ordinary and the surreal in everyday detritus. He can look at commonplace sights that most people would walk by without noticing and recognize the mystical and the magical, from the sleek design of a modern fixture to the stark, contrasting lights and darks of a backlit window.


 METROPOLIS STORY

She had been waiting over an hour. Clark Kent was late again. He had been suffering from depression ever since Rupert Murdoch bought the Daily Planet. He was given hack assignments covering social events and human interest stories until he was eventually let go. His attempt at a blog about crime in Metropolis had been a complete disaster. It turned out, he didn’t know what a blog was. When he arrived she would tell him it was over.
Lois was going to restart the relationship with Superman who was having mood swings of his own. She never understood why a man with super powers would wear his underwear on the outside. When Superman didn’t work out, she dated Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy was in love with Superman. In the end, she wound up with a cat… and that cat wears his underwear on the inside.

 

Ghost Dance

There is an old haunted ballroom in New Orleans. Over the years, the ghosts had observed many a soiree.  On very rare occasions, when the music was just right and unknown to the revelers, there would be a dance between the living and the dead.

           Valfre calls himself “an observer of the world,” as well as a storyteller and often wondered if it were possible to combine the dichotomy of the two forces. At first, he felt that it would be akin to “combining vodka and Silly Putty.” Fortunately, in the century-old tradition of the Dadaists’ original 20^th century manifesto that contained the words, "as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella,” he went on to launch his website.
           “The inspiration was the feeling I used to get opening the morning paper and seeing Gary Larson’s, The Far Side. It was the perfect way to start the day with a dose of humor and absurdity.” He says that he wants people to look at his work and have a little moment of the world being funny or magical. “If I can make a few people feel like that, then I’m happy.”


Big Dreams (Animal Walk, Meteor City)

 Leland’s big dreams of a petting zoo had fallen on hard times. Every great idea he ever hatched ended much the same. He looked out onto the yard and saw the last duck and some kid in a face off over a Snickers bar. He poured himself another drink and cursed the government for his own personal crap storm.



Dreamland is a chance for Valfre to complement his photographs with a paragraph or two that trigger the viewer’s mind into traveling across space and time into flights of fantasy and fading memories.  “For me, I like it both ways,” he explains. I do many images with no text which can be found on the Dreamland website but the stories, as I call them, are a chance for me to have a little fun and express things I can’t do with the image alone.”

The bird flew Away
The bird flew away.
It had been there your entire life
and you did not see how truly beautiful it was
until it was gone.
- for Ofelia Valfre 1913 – 2008

           Valfre uses the Nikon D5000 for night shots with long exposure and images when he wants higher resolution. He’s also been carrying a small camera called the Samsung TL500 for about a year. “It has an excellent wide angle lens which can shoot under low light and a pretty good sensor that gives you an image you can work with. For the last two years I have attempted to take photos every single day and this little camera has made that possible. I take it everywhere. So many images happen when you least expect. Now I'm always ready. I would say at least 75% of the photos were shot using the little camera. I am really not much of an equipment guy. I just want something that is simple and dependable and hopefully my eye will do the rest.”



The story of DEATH JR.

It was always assumed Death Jr. would take over the job the day his father retired. He began his training by accompanying small animals to the other side, but on several occasions, he would sneak an old bunny or a sick bird under his cloak and take it back to the world of the living. Maybe he wasn’t cut out for this kind of work, because when it came to walking toward the light, he preferred the light of morning.

 Writer’s note: Photography is an art that most think is easily mastered as it is within almost anyone’s technical reach, but the truth is, it resists all but the truly gifted.

(at bottom) View Ed Valfre’s Dreamland at www.edvalfresdreamland.com. He has shown his work at Every Picture Tells a Story Gallery in Los Angeles that specializes in original artwork from children’s books. He was also part of a group show of New American illustrators for children’s books that exhibited in Bologna and Rome, Italy. His dream is to create a book based on the collection of images and stories from Dreamland. He notes that he “currently resides in Los Angeles, or possibly in an alternate dimension.”

And God Spoke

God admitted mistakes were made. The moon was supposed to be so much bigger and as some astronomers had stated, Pluto was not a planet but an accident. Oh yes, and squirrels, not humans were meant to rule this world. It’s nuts how things worked out, God said.

Enrico Donati - Master of the Unplanned and Accidental in Art

Writer's Note: This is an archived article of an interview I did with Enrico Donati, approximately twelve years ago, at his home and studio in New Canaan, Connecticut. He is known as the "last living Surrealist artist." This story was published in the Times-Mirror Newspapers syndicate.




Enrico Donati, 1934
Courtesy of Google Images

             On a bright fall day, Enrico Donati, painter, sculptor and master of the “unplanned and accidental in art,’’ and subject of the newly-published “Enrico Donati: Surrealism and Beyond” by Theodore Wolff, (Hudson Hills Press, Inc.) sits relaxing in his bright yellow living room in his house on a hill overlooking the woods of New Canaan, Connecticut.

            The artist’s older and more recent paintings, kachina dolls collected during a Southwest trip in the 1930’s, two impish table-top sculptures given to him by Avant Garde artist Niki de St. Phalle, as well as a surreal, life-sized figure of a sheepdog loudly proclaim the artist as collector and add to the comfortable, yet elegant ambiance of the room.

            Donati has owned the cozy, sprawling ranch home for over thirty years and readily admits his preference for the weekend serenity of the Connecticut landscape over the art-scene Hamptons of his younger years. He and second wife Del, a graphic designer, also maintain a Central Park West apartment in New York City.

            His work has been exhibited at venues throughout the world, including the Zabriskie Galleries in New York and Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Guggenheim Museum and the Biennales in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Venice, Italy.

            Today he is dressed in his favorite black. A pipe juts from his mouth and he wears a cowboy hat from his collection of haberdashery which adorns his nearby studio walls, interspersed with paintings past and present, tribal wooden masks and various objets d’ art. A model of his famous “Fist,’’ a larger-than-life bronze hand with two glass eyes sits nearby, along with a photograph of Andre Breton, the poet and grandmaster of Surrealism, admiring the work at the 1947 International du Surrealisme in Paris, Surrealism’s last big hurrah.

Fist by Enrico Donati
Sculpture with glass eyes

            Donati had a long and distinguished career which took him from near-poverty in the ateliers of Paris to the post World War II heyday of the New York art scene, shared with fellow European emigres. He still paints or sculpts each day, giving credence to his motto that “before the age of 60, do what you like, but after you reach 60, work!’’ He adds, smiling widely, “I work days, nights, weekends, even New Year’s Eve.”

            Right now, with a twinkle in his eyes worthy of Kris Kringle himself, he delights in talking about the present, his three grown daughters, Marina, Sylviane and Alyssa; an actress, an artist and a writer, and then slips back into reminiscing about the past, sharing anecdotes about his friends and fellow artists, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Yves Tanguy.

           

          Donati’s life-journey has been paved with exploration and discovery. Born in 1909 in Milan, Italy to Federico, a distinguished scholar and Janna, a talented painter, his main interest was playing the piano and composing music. He studied music at the Milan Conservatory of Music, then moved to Paris with his first wife Claire.

            When he discovered he couldn’t make a living from his music, he decided to try art and attended art school in Paris before his first visit to America in 1934. “I wanted to meet the Indians,’’ he recalls, “the real Americans.’’

            His travels took him to reservations from Santa Fe to Alaska to Canada, where he lived with Hopis, Zunis, Apaches and Eskimos. He bartered Venetian beads, feathers from European pheasants and Swiss army knives and returned to New York with the foundations of his collection of kachina dolls and masks. “I met the Indians,’’ he says, “and now I wanted to meet the people of New York.’’



Tower of the Optimist
Creation of the Sun
oil on canvas, 1948



            In New York, he tried working at commercial art and engraving, but became disenchanted with the work and in 1936, returned to Paris for further art studies. With the advent of World War II, the Donatis, now a family of four, returned to New York, a city which was also home for many European painters and sculptors.

            It was here that he explored his fascination for the process of regeneration, “the passage from life, through death, into life again, that occurs regularly in nature, art and myth.’’ He set out to paint his feelings about the mythological mandragora root (or mandrake as it is generally called) and its transformative capabilites. exploring the mysteries of life, death and the creative process.

            In 1942, he met Camilo Egas, the co-director of the gallery at Manhattan’s New School for Social Research. Egas exhited Donati’s works in the gallery where Lionello Venturi, the art historian saw the show and introduced Donati to Andre Breton who was also living in New York.“I was just a kid...’’ Donati recalls. “But Beton accepted me into the Surrealist movement and suddently I was surrounded by giants -- Max Ernst, Tanguy, who lived in Woodbury, Connecticut, Marcel Duchamp, all of the big guys.’’



Enrico Donati at the age of 98,
The MH de Young Memorial Museum
Courtesy of Google Images

             Mr. Donati’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Art in Houston and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

                  

Note: Enrico Donati passed on April 25, 2008, at the age of 99. He is remembered as the last living Surrealist artist.     



Fire In New Canaan II, 1991



Works in Progress

After a weekend of celebrating an "up there" birthday and a few too many delectable treats, I'm back to work on my Art Scene blog. For those who like a sneak peek at upcoming topics, I'll list a few:

• An interview and profile of a photographer who captures reality in a magical way and adds his written observations to the work. I discovered him on Facebook, of all things, and am constantly drawn to his wonderful world.

• An interview and profile of an artist who "paints because she loves to dance." While that may have thrown a more cautious writer a curveball, it just intrigued me and I searched to discover the true source of her artworks. I discovered an entire realm of styles that will fascinate the viewer.

• An interview and profile of an artist who threw mathematics to the winds and wound up creating whimsical and colorful figures who are caught up in their own dance with the "muse."

• An interview and profile of an artist who keeps exploring new methods and ways to express her fascination with the world of the visual.

Again, any artist reading this blog who may feel that their work should be included with the other devoted denizens of the art scene, please feel free to follow this blog and in turn, post a message with contact information.

Bob Callahan, Renaissance Man: Actor, Artist, Graphic Designer, Poet



Bob Callahan



           If Bob Callahan lived in Japan, he'd be designated a Living National Treasure, a title awarded to "bearers of important intangible cultural assets." For Callahan, who never ceases to stop searching for new forms of artistic expression, has seamlessly expressed his visions as an award-winning graphic designer, a dynamic actor and narrator, an up and coming writer and a fine artist who puts into artistic form, his feeling of engagement with the world.

While expressing his lifelong creativity, Callahan raised a family of six in Stamford, with his wife, Lou.  Four of his children have followed his artistic example. "I showed them what a great way it was to go through life, even though you didn't get a paycheck every week."

Wife, Lou Callahan, has always been supportive. "We're married almost 50 years and she recently told me, 'Life has never been boring.' I take that as a very high compliment."

            He's a man who is known for his community spirit, having donated his talents to a multitude of arts organizations. It was his association with the Stamford Symphony, as well as his melodious basso voice that led to his recent performance as narrator of "Peter and the Wolf.'" "The kids loved it," says Callahan. "I painted a picture with words."

He's also appeared as the narrator at Sterling Farm's performance of "Our Town" and has acted in numerous shows at Stamford's old Hartmann theatre, where he acted alongside Bob Balaban and Austin Pendleton. His "can-do" attitude is reflected in his recollection of his first acting gig. "I saw a call for auditions over at Sterling Farms and thought, let's see what this is all about." Although he had never acted before, he was cast in Brian Friel's "Philadelphia Here I Come."

"I had to learn to focus so I could become the character," says Callahan. "I believe that taking chances is what makes living such fun."

            Callahan has been drawing since he was a teenager and originally thought of becoming a cartoonist for Disney. He comes from an artistic family -- his father kept sketchbooks when he served in World War I and his maternal grandfather and his uncle started Universal Pictures with Carl Laemmle. "I remember Boris Karloff and Claude Raines and Basil Rathbone coming to the house, but I didn't want to go to Hollywood. I wanted to stay here and become an artist."

When Callahan returned from military service in Korea in 1955, he visited the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he discovered graphic design. His list of past and present clients includes AT&T, Arrow Electronics, Citicorp, GE, Pepperidge Farm, UPS and Yale Rep. He's still a designer at the age of 72, but retirement is not only excluded from his vocabulary, he adds, "Creating is living." He's also just finished a book in which he shows the strong Latin roots of English words. "There's no reason why you cannot do it all," says Callahan. "I follow my passions and I have more than one." He also hopes to continue teaching and has given several lectures at the University of Connecticut on "Visual Thinking."



Cottage, Lake



 He puts his theories into continual action. When he read that Lloyd Richards was the new artistic director at Yale University and Dean of Yale Drama, he called Richards. "I said, you don't know me but I'm a graphic designer and love theater and would like you to consider my doing some of the work. He believes in his work and his motto is: "You cannot be afraid of rejection -- you must take a chance."

Callahan did his graphic design for Yale Rep before there were computers and had to do them by hand, including the typography. "I learned an awful lot about theater because I'd sit there during rehearsals and do sketches and was introduced to Ibsen and Chekov and Shakespeare."

           Callahan's watercolors are an outgrowth of his habit of carrying a sketchbook everywhere he goes, whether it's Bermuda, Watch Hill, Rhode Island or even downtown's Avon Theater on a Friday evening. "I might see someone slumped in a chair, eating popcorn, and I'll do a quick sketch." 



Scene's from Callahan's Sketchbook



           Choosing watercolors was a courageous step, even for a man used to taking chances. Although he was taught color theory and studied with Bob Gill, later one of Pentagram's (London) founders, he is self-taught in watercolor. The artist values "freshness" and loves the elements of surprise that watercolor allows. "You have to figure out what happens when this wet brush hits that wet paper -- what kind of accidents are going to occur. You plan the watercolor in your mind and then execute it quickly. You learn little tricks as time goes by, such as letting the background dry to a certain point and then putting in the mountains in so you get a bit of softness between the mountains and the sky. And then you go to the museum and study how Winslow Homer solved his problems."  In doing this, he raises a simple landscape to iconic status.

Couple in Snow

 Check this blog for more information on Bob Callahan's upcoming shows this spring.

Under Construction but Coming Soon!

To my wonderful Art Scene followers, I've finally bitten the bullet and am taking baby steps to write and publish my first Art Scene blogs. Some of the stories will be from my archives and some will be completely new interviews with artists I've met since my newspaper and magazine days. I'll include upcoming shows and plain-talk interviews and maintain a constant stream of consciousness about the importance of art in today's world.

Please stay posted to read stories coming "real soon" about artists who strive each day to express their feelings about their worlds through their art.