Elizabeth Woodbury Kasius, Laura Andrea Leguia, Bobby Kendall, Brian Melnik and Zorkie Nelson of the musical ensemble Heard played live world jazz Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Millbrook Library in the first of three winter concerts sponsored by the Millbrook Arts Group. Over 100 people attended, enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres with the music.
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Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.
L. Tomaino
Cella greets visitors while talking with a fellow painter who comments about his work and Cella himself: “Eclectic, amazing! Victor is decidedly loved in the community and exhibits to everyone his completely open heart.” She added, “He inspires the rest of us who paint.”
Cella began devoting himself to painting about four and a half years ago. He remembers taking art classes in high school. He had finished all his credits early and was allowed, in his senior year, to take art for four hours a day. He credits his art teacher, Mr. Owen, with giving him a good foundation in art.
“Now that I paint, I rely on my teacher’s words: ‘To unify a painting, pick a color and wash it over the painting,’ or, ‘You need to mix the colors!’”
He won a scholarship to New York University to study art, but his parents said no.Instead, he attended North Adams State College, where he also took an art class at Williams College, repeating a pattern from high school in which he finished his required credits early and used the extra time to study art.
He earned a teaching degree in special education and ended up working in schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut for 37 years. He retired in 2019.
Then, four and a half years ago, he got the urge to paint, and the paintings flowed out of him.
He has sold 757 paintings, with 95 of those sold since May 7. “I am having bizarrely good luck with my paintings.” He estimates he has painted 2,000 paintings in four and a half years.
He modestly attributes his success to “I sell low and I have a built-in client base of 51 years,” he said, referring to recurring customers in his antique shop. “A billion people give me feedback.” He has two patrons who each have several of his paintings. “Unbelievably,” says Cella, “one person owns 32 and the other owns 27.”
His studio is in the back of the shop. He paints now on 16-by-20-inch canvases, some of which he recycles, finding them at Goodwill.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
To keep his painting fresh and himself interested because, as Cella explained, “I can’t stay with one idea for long,” he has gone through several phases: crazy dogs, grids, flowers with black backgrounds, a geometric phase and “weird people.” The “crazy dogs,” as he calls them, are popular now. One person bought eight, left to go to her car and came back for a ninth, spotted in the shop’s window — the one that brought her into the shop in the first place.
He may even illustrate a children’s book with the “crazy dogs.” A local author liked them so much she asked Cella if he’d illustrate a story about three dogs if she wrote one.
Cella was also approached recently by a person who said, “Do you know you were my favorite teacher?” She came into The Little Store, attracted by the paintings in the shop’s window. It turned out the former student owns Crystal Essence on Railroad Street in Great Barrington and has asked to sell Cella’s paintings there.
Cella, who will soon be selling the building where The Little Store is located and move it nearer to his Southfield home, was glad to be offered a new venue for his paintings.
An artist he knows, Scott Prior, a painter from Nantucket, bought one of Cella’s paintings and gave him this advice: “Never go to art school. You are an artist. Let it pour out of you.”
Cella said, “You have to follow your own path.” He mused, “If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.”
To see more of Cella’s work, visit The Little Store (88 Main St.) or Crystal Essence (39 Railroad St.) in Great Barrington.
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Jessica Landau creates jewelry from glass. She welcomed visitors to her studio during the Cornwall Open Studio tour on Sept. 5.
Ruth Epstein
The couple were part of the Cornwall Open Studio tour held Saturday, Sept. 5. They and their two young children cheerfully welcomed guests.
Their workspace is attached to their home on Cemetery Hill Road, where Willis’ large glass paintings are displayed on the walls and Landau’s jewelry can be seen neatly placed in compartmented cases.
A walk to the rear of the property offered a view of two of Willis’ sculptures, which appear to float in the air. Stainless steel is twisted in large loops, giving it a cloudlike feel, while long, thin glass tubes hang from its bottom edge.
David Willis creates sculptures from glass and stainless steel. Ruth Epstein
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Willis began working in glass in 1994.
“Glass is firm, unexplored because of things like painting, metals and ceramics. But it’s made art for centuries,” he said. He likes its shine and the fact that he can bend it with his hands.
Willis has taught at several schools, including the University of Washington, Corning Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, which is where he met his wife.
During the visit, a woman purchased glass tubing for flower arrangements, another of Willis’ creations.
Landau’s calling is designing tiny sculptures as wearables by infusing minerals into glass.
A graduate of Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, she spent some years in Hawaii, where she apprenticed in her field for four years. She also served as a glassblower from 2014 to 2019 for the renowned Chihuly Studio and has taught the art at several schools and galleries.
“I’m drawn to the whimsical,” she said, pointing to pendants and earrings that feature figures of bacon and eggs, beer steins or mustaches. There are also many with floral patterns and other designs from the environment.
She noted that a lot of her designs come from either her love of nature or are inspired by childhood.
She pointed to the three kilns where she works with glass that she described as similar to Pyrex, the familiar cooking material.
“Glass is a material that cares how you treat it,” said Landau. “When you work with it, you come to know its rules. It’s precious, but in a different way from gems.”
Others who opened their studios that day were Lauren Brinkers, David Colbert, Magaly Ohika, Nick Jacobs, April Stewart Klausner, Legacy Glass Studio, Stephan Sagmiller, Souterrain Gallery and Sally Van Doren.
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