Tammy Vitale - Chestertown Spy

On Art and Collecting with Cambridge’s Janet Fanto

February 12, 2024 by Tammy Vitale

Janet Fanto is an artist who is a collector of wonderful things as well as a former antique dealer.

The antique dealer part is important because that business gave her access to many pieces of her collection – pieces that were given new lives in her mixed media art in addition to pieces used to create her fascinating home.

Fanto first came to the Eastern Shore after a show in D.C. to visit with a friend. What she remembers about that night is, “The ducks were noisy!” And that was her introduction to the mid-shore.

Between 1995 and 2008, Fanto had an antique shop in Easton as well as selling on the road. With the economic downturn, she closed up shop but continued selling her antiques on the road in places like Texas, Chicago, Nashville, Miami, and Jacksonville. Then gas prices went up, and prices for antiques went down, so she left the road and settled into her Cambridge home, bringing much of her collection with her.

Fanto’s art journey is engrossing! Prior to attending the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), majoring in ceramics, where she didn’t finish her degree, she spent a year in Vienna, Austria. Next, she wound up in Mexico for six years because she wanted to do independent study, still under the auspices of CCAC. During her time there, she exhibited her detailed pencil drawings in Mexico City. Then there was a stint at a Manhattan, New York, gallery doing drawing restorations, after which she was off again, this time to London and then back to Vienna to study painting at the Academy for Art. At the time, the Academy was free for anyone. She stayed in Austria for about 6 years.

At the Academy for Art, Fanto studied oil painting, taking all her classes in German, “The only class I needed help with was physics.” The degree she obtained from the Academy is equivalent to a Master of Arts in U.S. schools.

Drawn back to Manhattan by her cousin, a major influence in her life, Fanto was introduced to antiquing. Here she learned the art of selling on the road with no shop as home base, which later stood her in good stead as noted above..

Now in Cambridge, Fanto had her own studio above Joy Staniforth’s Joie de Vivre gallery for a while. “When I went to my studio, I could sit and work for hours at a time. This period was conducive to my discovering my inclination toward mixed media.”

The day we spoke, Fanto was wearing one of her own creations, a necklace with a pipe tobacco tamp, a wax seal that dated between 1800 and 1820 with two beehives on it, and a dog whistle. “I take things where I find them, “she says, “including in the woods. “

Fanto’s home is like walking into a museum. The walls are crowded floor to ceiling, in an array fit for any decorator magazine, with the art of all media. Because of her own proclivity for detailed pencil drawings, her collection includes Paul Antragne, a French artist who lived in Mexico, as well as framed originals of her own very detailed pencil work. Her taste is eclectic, running from outsider art to traditional art.

Janet Fanto

After the walls come the stationery mixed media pieces that line her many bookshelves, cabinets, and corners. As eclectic as her necklace, these assemblages pull together feathers, sometimes nestled into crystal holders, seashells and seaweed, small skulls, diminutive antique figurines, and rocks from crystal to turquoise. There are interesting twisted branches set in Mexican pueblo-type pottery and underwater scenes under glass domes. Four-foot dried seedpods sit in a wicker basket complemented by an old stool with decorative metal twists. Scattered everywhere are more seashells, barnacles, and rocks of every sort, complimented by even more statues, and all of this lives with other antiques that she has kept to live with.

The only time Fanto shows her work is during The Dorchester Art Center’s members show and annual show “to thank members for their support and to showcase their best original work,” usually in June. In 2023, artists could enter up to four pieces of their work.

At the 2023 Members show, among several other mixed media pieces, Fanto showed a work made from the frame of an old clock with the guts removed. An antique, the back shows what Fanto identifies as oriental markings. The inside gathers together her repeating motifs of stone and shell, feather, and figurine. Back home again, the piece sits next to a work that looks like a miniature Roman temple, topped with crystals.

All of the above is showcased in just the living area, with much, much more to be found in the rest of the rooms on the first floor.

Surrounded by 25-year-old trees and plantings, Fanto’s house, including the interior, is a work of art itself. She has used a life’s passion to create a serene, vibrant, and welcoming home that displays at every glance her artist’s eye.

Tammy Vitale has spent many years of her life regularly visiting the Eastern Shore and moved to Cambridge in 2023. An artist herself, she has fallen in love with all the facets of art available in Cambridge/Dorchester County and wants the rest of the world to get to know and love the arts and artists of this area as much as she does.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Mid-Shore Arts: The Glass and Wood of Artist David Stevens

January 29, 2024 by Tammy Vitale

A Renaissance person is described as someone with many talents and areas of knowledge. Cambridge resident, David Stevens, is such a man, coming to Cambridge from Easton in 2018 after living there and raising his family there for almost 30 years. But that was just the latest of many moves around the country, learning and practicing many different creative pursuits.

Originally from Kalamazoo, MI, David says that he has been an artist all his life. In his bio, Stevens says, “The University of Michigan opened my eyes to the world of art and self-expression. Upon graduating in 1970, I felt driven to pursue life as an artist.” After driving a cab while painting and drawing over a period of eight months, Stevens moved to Los Angeles. “California seemed to be the place to be at the time.” There he worked in a small shop in Santa Monica and learned to work in stained glass. After a year at the studio, he opened his own stained glass studio, and worked there for eight years.

According to the Stained Glass Association of America, the social changes of the 1960s created an environment for stained glass to move from the religious to the secular world as building of churches slowed. “Hippies” spread “eastward from San Francisco…rehabbing the old houses, painting them bright colors and…repairing the stained glass.”

The ’60s also saw developments such as small furnaces for hot glass make the art accessible to individual artists instead of only in large studios that had been previously required. This did away with the requirement of apprenticing to learn the art, and hot glass began moving into college curricula.

Stevens’ largest stained glass work consisted of panels commissioned from by him by a school in Baltimore, using a 1% fund set aside for the arts. The 15 panels, arrayed together, each 30 foot tall by 5 feet wide, depicted Eastern Shore scenes moving from the water onto the land, showing native birds, animals and plants. The entire piece took almost a year to make. Sadly, the school has since been torn down and Stevens does not know what became of the panels.

While in California, having pushed stained glass as far as he was interested, Stevens also took up wood working, which he practices to this day in his home studio. For some time, he melded his skills and talent in stained glass with his knowledge of woodworking to create artwork of bright glass and smooth sinuous wood. “Working with my hands in stained glass and wood comes very naturally to me,” he says. “Coming up with a design and then making it work” is easy and enjoyable. But “the rigidity of the design demands of using wood and glass together lead me to pursue wood alone in the mid 1980s.”

Choosing to make his living as an artist, he found the best way to make a living with his art was through photography, mostly black and white, and worked out of his own darkroom. The advent of digital cameras and phones, however, definitely dampened the market for photographs. Closer to home, he has shown his work in River Arts in Chestertown, the Maryland Federal of Art in Annapolis and Main Street Gallery in Cambridge.

“The thing about art,” he says, “you are not going to make a lot of money. As long as I can just get by that’s enough. It’s also good to be healthy.”

More recently, Stevens created a container measuring 76 inches x 20 inches and ¾ inches wide, filled it with water and started taking pictures of the results of dropping ink into the water, photographing the progress of the process. He notes that he loves the translucence of the ink as it flows into the water, how the ink creates “thin intricate threads of color in the water.” The effect is something like watching clouds, how they melt and slide, and, if you’re so inclined, the results I saw call forth dragons and other such whimsies in the mind’s eye and its need to see “something” even in the most abstract creations.

As a logical extension and follow-up to working with these successfully unplanned art configurations of letting what happens happen, Stevens has moved into using watercolor paints in much the same way he has used the ink in the water container, dropping water color onto wet paper and allowing it to move however it will. “I photograph each step – sometimes the first few steps are the best for a piece that’s totally abstract. It is good to have a record of the steps because sometimes I push the medium to the point of too much.”

When asked how he would explain his art, he says, “the art pretty much explains itself,” and references his website, horizonphotograph.com, as a good place to see the history of his work. He also shows his work on the walls of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Easton (UUFE). UUFE also hosts other of its members’ art work, turning over the offerings once every month or so to keep it fresh and interesting.

These days Stevens says that he makes his art “just for me.” He says that he is retired from the career of art paying his way and now just enjoying the process and the joy of living with the results.

Tammy Vitale. an artist herself, has fallen in love with all the facets of art available in Cambridge/Dorchester County, and wants the rest of the world to get to know and love the arts and artists of this area as much as she does. Cambridge artists (broadly defined) are invited to contact her [email protected], subject line “Arts.”

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Artist Jose Ramirez’s Journey from Guatemala to Dorchester in Color and Light

January 16, 2024 by Tammy Vitale

Born in Guatemala, Jose Ramirez came to the United States in 2012 hoping for a better life and hoping to make that life through making his art. He had studied art in Guatemala between 2007 and 2009, beginning his career as a professional artist in 2009 after attending the Manuel Herrarte Lemuz art school in Chiquimula, Guatemala. He says that he was from a small town in the country, about the size of Cambridge, that had no galleries . “Galleries were for the big cities, and even then there were not many opportunities to sell.”

Ramirez defines his art as “more traditional,” and he prefers to draw from life, not memory. He aspires “not to a photo realistic painting but rather to capture the feeling evoked” in him by his subject. He counts Monet as one of the painters he finds inspiring, because Monet painted outdoors, which he prefers to do himself. He also uses a lot of color in his paintings, and credits Renoir for his love of color. While his art does not support him here (yet), he says that living here has given him the opportunity to keep getting better at his art by providing lots of opportunities to paint outdoors with plein air folks. He is a member of the Plein Air Painters of the Chesapeake Bay based in Easton. On his website, photos of his work are accompanied by ribboned awards in various shows, attesting to his accomplishments.

“Plein Air” simply means painting outdoors with the artist’s subject in full view. Plein Air Easton is the largest and most prestigious juried plein air painting competition in the United States, and Ramirez has also participated with The Working Artists Forum shows held at the same time as the Plein Air festival there.

Ramirez says he was surprised to find that The Working Artist Forum was composed mostly of women. He notes that in Guatemala, professional painting is done mostly by men.

In October and November of 2023, the Dorchester Center for the Arts invited Ramirez to participate in a solo show. As part of the show, he held a well-attended demonstration of how he paints larger paintings using a watercolor sketch. I attended that demonstration and was taken with how comfortable he was at the easel, sketching in the painting first and then speaking to the use of color and light in that painting.

Ramirez notes that he always carries a sketchbook, brushes and a small watercolor pallet with him everywhere he goes since he never knows when he will be taken with a scene or have time to sit and sketch something that will later find it’s way to a larger, framed painting. He works on these larger paintings indoors in inclement weather, which allows him to work at his art all year round.

His watercolor sketchbook is impressive all by itself, and while the paintings are small, they are complete in themselves, perfectly capable of being framed as works of art on their own. Ramirez says he has been known to sell the sketches, which take as little as 20 minutes and up to an hour to complete, unframed if they catch someone’s eye.

“A lot of people think I am a watercolor artist,” says Ramirez. “But my larger paintings are done in oil. I like the process, the ability to do many layers in oil which you cannot do in watercolor. You can also take a rag and wipe away something you don’t like, which you can’t do with watercolors. Switching from watercolor to oil is also a good practice in being present with what I am creating because with watercolor, I work from light colors to dark colors, while with oils I work dark colors to light colors. I have to pay attention to what and how I am creating.” He says that painting soothes him and helps him to remain calm.

Ramirez has been juried into shows in Annapolis and Columbia, MD, in addition to multiple shows around the Eastern Shore. He notes that he has applied to several shows already for this year and is waiting to hear back. He expects to be showing in Oxford at the Fine Arts Show, May 17 – 19 this year, as he was accepted in 2022 and 2023 and did very well there, selling eight of his paintings in 2023. His traditional land- and waterscapes find an appreciative audience of art lovers there. This show, held at the Oxford Community Center, attracts clients from “Baltimore-Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia and New York” according to its website.

In addition to his landscapes, Ramirez accepts commissions for portraits of people and of favorite pets clients want to remember.

Expecting his first child any day now, Ramirez says that may slow him down a little as he works into the new routine a baby brings to the house.

You can reach Ramirez by email: [email protected], find him on FaceBook under his name , Jose Ramirez (and keep up with his prolific sketches and paintings), and on Instagram at joserami9779. You will find more of his work and information on shows in which he has participated on his website: https://joserami439.faso.com/about

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Mid-Shore Arts Profile: 3Ten Creative Design

January 10, 2024 by Tammy Vitale

Sherry Christopher and Lori Dever, owner/artists of 3Ten Creative Design & Gift Gallery, in Cambridge MD, say that they come by their diverse talents from their father who would draw with them when they were kids, their mother who was always crocheting and their Grandmother Dever who made paper-mâché dolls and always gave handmade gifts for Christmas presents. Their older sister, Kim Tyson owns “My Flower Box Events”, and is a floral designer. When you walk into the gallery, everything you see comes from their imagination and creativity. They named their gallery 3Ten in honor of their father who was a Baltimore City Police Officer. 310 was his badge number.

The sisters are not new to the galleries already in Cambridge. Both Lori and Sherry were members of Main Street Gallery. Lori has also curated and showed at Dorchester Center for the Arts, for the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Lori is a board member of Main Street in Cambridge MD and serves on the Arts and Entertainment Committee for the City of Cambridge. Lori says, “We decided to locate our gallery in Cambridge because everyone here is so friendly, there is a sense of community between shop owners, and everyone talks to everyone.” She notes that isn’t true everywhere, and that she and Sherry wanted that for their gallery.

Lees Flowers

The sisters wanted the basis of their gallery to be their own collaborative creations. They consider themselves best friends with a connection that makes it easy to work together. They note (finishing each other’s sentences and thoughts) that they enjoy bouncing ideas off each other, getting excited about an idea and calling each other no matter the time. If they disagree, the idea gets set aside – no argument. When painting together “ideas snowball”. A listener can feel the energy and excitement about the gallery moving between the two as they talk. They say they can be honest with each other and that helps “keep it real”.

When asked to describe the type of art they make for their gallery. Lori says, “The kind of art that is good for our souls.” The sisters wanted to offer some themes and art which would be unique to the area. To keep the gallery offerings fresh and exciting, they rotate these themes every three months.

Sea Nettles

For instance, for the current show titled, “The Land of Misfit Toys”, in the gallery’s small side curated room, they are currently showing a collection of played with Barbies – found discarded in toy boxed and corners and kept in the state that they were found in their nieces’ playroom. Elsewhere, toys are reimagined as misfits in original paintings, such as Woody of “Toy Story” fame riding a unicorn. With this show, the sisters wanted to take you back in time, the theme being their interpretation of would embody, “The Land of Misfit Toys”. This show is fun and lighthearted blast from the past!

The sisters believe everyone should be able to own and enjoy art. To ensure this can happen, for those at any point in their lives, they will be offering installment payments for gallery art. They also offer a special program where anyone who has bought art at the gallery is considered a “collector” and is given a first look and the first opportunity to purchase from the show before the actual opening that happens on Second Saturdays. Emails are sent out via a password-protected website. Sherry says that two paintings sold from the collector’s showing before “The Land of Misfit Toys” opened.

They also do “Painting Parties”. Their goal is to send home a painting with the participant that they would be proud to hand on their walls. The gallery offers drawing and painting classes periodically. It’s best to check their website for a current schedule of classes.

While Lori has studied at Columbus College Art & Design, Sherry is primarily a self-taught artist. They both agree that everyone is born an artist, and hope that the gallery and the classes that they offer will reignite that belief in those who come into the gallery, whether to purchase or simply to peruse. They recently held a large class of bank managers for a “Cocktails and Canvas” workshop that was very successful, the participants happily leaving with their own originals. (see photo).

Past shows in 2023: “Land and Sea”, and “A Rock and Roll Art Show” (with live D.J. Heff and Alli of the AlliCats) and the current show “Land of Misfit Toys”. In 2024, 3Ten will of the following shows:

· The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – February 10-May 9th, 2024

· The Oscars – May 11- August 8th, 2024

· Earth, Wind & Fire – August 10- November 7th, 2023

· A Rock & Roll Art Show – November 9 – February 6th

Sherry says, “We want our shows to feel like an event.” Lori chimes in that she would love to have the May 11th show, The Oscars, have a red carpet and klieg lights outside, with servers carrying trays of champagne and hors d’oeuvres inside.

Sherry and Lori hope that locals and visitors will find the gallery a comfortable place to hang out. They installed the long tables that command the center of the floor, and cafe tables along the sides, for that very purpose. Lori says, “We want people to come and use the space” to journal or write or draw or just talk in an atmosphere that encourages creativity. To further inspire creativity in the community, they will soon be offering artistic inspired movie nights.

3Ten Creative Design & Gift Gallery is located at 440 Race Street, in Cambridge, the heart of the Arts and Entertainment District. Hours are: 10am-5pm, Thursday-Sunday and Monday – Wednesday by appointment.

Tammy Vitale has spent many years of her life regularly visiting the Eastern Shore, and moved to Cambridge in 2023. An artist herself, she has fallen in love with all the facets of art available in Cambridge/Dorchester County, and wants the rest of the world to get to know and love the arts and artists of this area as much as she does.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Sections

More