K.S. Art show of R.M. Fischer's sculptures makes the TOP 10 New York Magazine's art shows of the year in NYC!!!!!

The fabulous R.M. Fischer show that was just named one of the Top 10 BEST art exhibitions list of 2009 in New York city by the chief art critic for New York magazine, Jerry Saltz!  Congratulations R.M. Fischer for creating the amazing sculptures and to Kerry for designing such a fantastic display!!!

The story in the link below:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/12/best_of_art_2009.html#photo=1

The opening of R.M. Fischer's exhibition of new work in October 2009.

by: Monica Forrestall

Tom Forrestall and his family geneology by film maker Chuck Lapp

Researching, while writing magazine articles, always takes one down interesting paths. One can learn so much about topics you never knew much about. Part of an upcoming magazine feature, that I am working on, will involve the Forrestall family history and how they came to be in Nova Scotia. Our family history is a little sketchy pre-1800's, but up till then there is a wealth of documentation that exists on where we came from, lived, married, had children and passed away. My aunt Kitty Forrestall (my dad, Tom Forrestall's younger sister) had done a lot of research and has the most amazing memory of family folklore
above: Tom Forrestall, Chuck Lapp, Bob                                               and facts. My aunt Winkie DeVries (Patricia, Tom Forrestall's older sister) has a great sense of the family history. Both of my aunts are extraordinary story tellers: humorous, detailed and thorough. But well known Canadian filmmaker Chuck Lapp, a member of the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, who has been working on a documentary on our dad for the last couple of years, has taken all of the family folklore and fueled by his passion for geneology (and need to research the Forrestall background for his film) has amassed some fascinating family history.  Chuck manages, without any family emotion, to sift through fact and fiction. And he has been very generous with sharing his research. Our long talk today was something I wanted to share. The Forrestall family are so lucky to have so many talented, creative, kind hearted and generous people in our lives.

In July 09, when Canadian filmmaker Chuck Lapp and his cameraman Bob traveled down to the Annapolis Valley with dad to do some filming at Three Oaks (our family summer home) I hosted a barbecue for them at our summer house.
                                              

Tom Forrestall, Kerry Schuss, Max Schuss, Monica Forrestall

Chuck Lapp, Kerry Schuss, Monica Forrestall; Tom Forrestall, Max Schuss with baseball bat.

                            Walk on the path to our Karsdale beach; dad, Kerry Schuss, Chuck Lapp & Max.

Tom Forrestall's lithograph print for Beaverbrook Art Gallery's 50th Anniversary

I wanted to share an image of the lithograph print that dad made for the 50th anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. An old friend of dad's, Bernard Riordon, is the Director and CEO of this museum and he asked dad to do this commission as a fund raiser.

Beaverbrook Art Gallery Special 50th Anniversary Commemorative Limited Edition Print

By Tom Forrestall, ONS, CM   Title: So Many Look and So Few See (2009)

Size: 20” x 30”     Medium: Lithograph – 5-Colour (Edition of 50)

Master printer: Jacques Arseneault

Price: $1,000 unframed.

In the words of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's Director Bernard Riordon, "This limited edition lithograph is a commemorative print by internationally recognized Canadian artist, Tom Forrestall, ONS, CM, and has been created to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.  The print is titled, So Many Look and So Few See, a reference to Lord Beaverbrook and his vision in establishing a world-class gallery for New Brunswick and Canada in Fredericton.  The artist worked directly for Lord Beaverbrook when the Gallery opening in 1959 and he remembers the effect that this personal contact had on him as an artist.  Tom remembers Beaverbrook’s bushy eyebrows, hair on his face and the impression of his eyes as are now expressed in the lithograph.

     Tom completed a painting of a similar subject from the upper floor of the New Brunswick Legislature facing the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Saint John River.  Also, the artist researched archive images of Lord Beaverbrook and viewed many of the 13 portraits that are in the Gallery’s collection including the Jacob Epstein sculpture of Lord Beaverbrook. 

     For many years Forrestall has had affiliations with ‘eyes’ in his drawings, sketches and paintings and the ‘eyes’ are normally many times life-size.  While the artist has had affiliations with other objects such as arrows, balls and spears, the “eye” has always been a consistent motif.  As Tom says in reference to the current lithograph and Lord Beaverbrook, “So many look and so few see”, Tom is expressing the passion that Lord Beaverbrook had for New Brunswick and Canada and his gift of the Gallery and its contents to the people of the Province."

We lived there for the first thirteen years of my life, and Fredericton holds a lot of happy and wonderful family memories for all of us. As one of the the two most important cultural centers in Fredericton, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery was a place we often visited, both as a family and on school trips. I have a particular strong memory of mom and dad and the family going to a black tie opening there of an exhibition of dad's, and mom was wearing a really stylish turquoise 2-piece hot pants (it was the 70's) and a full-length slit-sided skirt outfit with lace up patent leather white sandals, which I deeply coveted. Mom had the opportunity to travel a lot and brought fabulous clothes back from her travels, which she wore to events around town. Natalie LeBlanc Forrestall was a style trend setter in Fredericton, in her day and dad was always proud to have mom there with him on his arm.  

-Monica Forrestall

Tom Forrestall painting video with grandson Max & Monica

With all the American holidays looming (Thanksgiving next week) I'm feeling sentimental about family. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, is one of our dad's (Tom Forrestall) favorite expressions. So I'm re-visiting summer in Nova Scotia, and family whom I love, by sharing a little video, below,  that my husband, Kerry made of our dear dad painting watercolors with Max. Dad started the painting session after lunch one afternoon, at our house in Karsdale. Taken with a vase of purple phlox that my friend Lorraine Beswick gave me after a visit to her gardens, dad pulled out his paint kit. The bouquet was sitting on a windowsill with pretty light behind it. Max watched his grandfather painting for a little while, then announced he wanted to paint too. I had set up a summer studio in the back porch for us, but I moved a small folding table in place with Max's watercolors and brushes. Max created an arrangement of a plastic super power figure scotch taped to the fridge. Undisturbed by the goings on (my dad is impervious to minor distractions once he is painting) which my sister Renee hilariously commented on in an earlier blog. Dad is telling a funny story here about when he was in Rome doing watercolors a couple of years ago. A group of tourists crowded behind him and wanted to photograph the very scene he was sketching believing it must be a truly fine view, if an artist chose to re-create it. Inspired by dad and Max I set up a small table to do a watercolor as well, and soon all three of us were painting. I didn't realise that Kerry had turned on the camera and shot a few minutes of film. He probably realized how much we all miss dad and this was a wonderful way to preserve that moment in time. Here's the link to the short video and some photos Kerry also took below. A little window into a happy family visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4VMQODCMc

  
Dad starts to paint
and Max is watching him.

Then Max sets himself up and paints with his grandpa.






  An artful shot Kerry took through screened  window (below)

Phlox watercolor dad made in Karsdale.

Max and his cousin Jasmine paint at Annapolis Royal's Paint The Park event in August 2009.

Max and Monica's watercolor pieces for the Paint The Town art show in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

will's electric car

My brother William has been obsessed with cars since he was a kid. Along with his daughters Rachel and Bess, William built two cars (one electric and one pedal). Bess and Rachel and their cars were invited to participate by the local arts community organizer in the 2009 Canada Day parade arts floats section! 
As William says, "My interest has always  been more on the unique prototype,  one of, homemade hand made small car makers. The Aurora Safety Sedan (one made), Berkeley t60, BSA ( three-wheelers), Bristol, Morgan, Orient (pre 1905), Peel P50,  and one you might like  a make called the  Monica (a  French 4 door sport sedan about 40 "hand" made early 70s). My first car the OPEL GT  featured a hand made body.  My automotive interest is really on the more creative aspect of design - forum and function as well as the  resolutions found within the constraints of the designers frame of reference -  for me this is the most engaging aspect of automotive design and  history."

Here is William's short video of the three of them driving the cars.
                                                                              
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxJLN6A67SU&feature=related

And another video of Bess and Rachel driving the pedal car with Bess giving a tour of the car's interior workings at the end. "It's a three wheel home made car pedal car made from junk -made by Bess , Rachel , William , and others."  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xfkPvdvAWM

     Below from left: William Forrestall, Rachel, Bess, Tom Forrestall, Aunt Monica Forrestall, Anne Forrestall

Artists of Forrestall Studio

Hi all,

My youngest (of 4!!!!) brother Frank is an extraordinarily talented digital animator with a studio
that reps not only his amazing work, but the artwork of several other Nova Scotia artists. He put
together a short video demo reel of images of the artists of Forrestall Studio. 
It's all so varied, from graphic illustration to large scale

painterly work for murals, he has something for every conceivable project!

It's great stuff, take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjqXhYDq0HI

-Monica Forrestall

Poster Art: Designing for Not-for-profit events

I don't have a lot of time to make art these days, although I do have a degree in fine arts and always love it when I am asked by someone to create a design for something that touches me. Twice a year, I take it upon myself to design posters to advertise the children's gardening events I head up in Washington Market Park in our hood, Tribeca. For these occasions I turn a blind eye to technology and make collages with some of my collection of paper scraps. Below is this years design for last week's event. I print the copy out on a colorful piece of paper, then I cut out garden themed shapes and stick them down. My inspiration for this collage work comes from the artist Birdie Lusch, whom my husband Kerry Schuss represents at his gallery, KS Art.

 Birdie was an outsider artist from Columbus, Ohio who made everything in her apartment into a piece of artwork. The books of collages she created in the 70's were particularly wonderful. Birdie turned simple shapes cut from pages torn from magazines into other things. She was one of those amazing characters who didn't create art as careerist activity, but more as a natural impulse that made her days happier. Making these posters, and passing by them on the street as I walk in our neighborhood, leading up to an event makes me happy.  And another poster I just finished below was for a not-for-profit Tribeca Foundry, who are helping to build a library of book for children with Jumpstart.  My good friend, Christine Sciulli who heads up the Tribeca Foundry, asked if I would donate the original poster, so they could frame it for the library. I said of course, what an honor! I'll do anything to inspire kids to read.

R.M. Fischer new sculpture opens at KS Art Gallery

An amazing show of sculpture this week by artist R.M. Fischer. The opening on October 29th was packed with artists of every generation, curators, friends and admirers of his work, who have been waiting to see this body of work which announced a distinctive, fresh direction for the New York based artist. 

To quote from the gallery press release: "Breaking with the functionalism of his earlier industrial assemblages and public sculpture, Fischer's new combinations of soft and hard forms evoke softly armored figures. Organic shapes crafted out of colorful vinyl, felt, and upholstery and sewn together with thread to suggest body parts. These seemingly upbeat, cartoon-inspired figures are tattooed, pierced, and adorned with metal amulets. Fischer's combination of the soft and the hard elements create a replicating army of fleshy machines suggestive of what William S. Burroughs called the human body: namely, "the soft machine". Fischer replaces utilitarian functionality with a Pop palette and playful figures and forms. The inclusion of orifices, tongues and other fetishes pushes the toy-like sensibility to a polymorphous perversity. This turn of the screw, at once mischievous and more menacing, explores the dark mechanics of popular culture and its sexual underbelly."

                  

R.M.Fischer, his daughter Dena and wife, Patti Page.     Tray of RMF initial cookies Patti made.

This is R.M. Fischer's first one-person exhibition here. For the past twenty-five years, Fischer has been blurring the lines between art, architecture and design. Fischer is acclaimed for his monumental site-specific public art commissions and he has had over 30 solo exhibitions, including an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1984. His work is included in numerous public collections including, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Carnegie Museum of Fine Art.  

William Forrestall's Art Triple Header

My older brother, William, who makes his home in the big old Victorian house we grew up in, on University Avenue in Fredericton, New Brunswick, has been very busy lately. Taking on a mammoth amount of openings and launches, William has been working away on a new body of paintings, organizing a museum show of his work with a book, and is gearing up for a panel lecture on portraiture, all to happen starting tonight and unfolding over the next two weeks.  
First up: William Forrestall - Exhibition/book: New Brunswick Museum, opening Friday, November 6th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the New Brunswick Exhibition Center in Saint John, New Brunswick. 
Next a gallery exhibition to go along with the museum show: William Forrestall feature: Peter Buckland Gallery, November second to tenth. And finally tonight, a lecture Back Talk presents: The Making of Portraits, (guest speaker) Friday, October 30 at the Imprint Book store at 16 King Street  in Saint John, NB. If anyone is New Brunswick in November, try to take in one of his events. 

Renee Forrestall's Icon of St Peter goes on display

The Icon of Saint Peter for St. Peter's Church
My sister, Renee Forrestall was commissioned by St. Peter's church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to create an icon of St. Peter's, and after months of meetings, and sketches and research the finished Icon of St. Peter was unveiled at St.Peter's Church at the morning mass on October 25th, 2009. My sister Renee, has been creating icons for many years for herself, for exhibitions and some other commissions. (She even gave me an small Icon one year as a birthday present).  She became intrigued by iconography after seeing so many extraordinary examples on our family's month long trip to Rome for Holy Year in 1975. Many years later, she studied the process and techniques of Iconography with Brother Roman, a monk in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wanting to get more technical information, she purchased a set of how-to-videos from the Prosopone School of Iconography in Whitney Point, NY and used these to hone the technical side. The materials Renee used are egg tempera paint and gold leaf on gessoed wooden panels. Not satisfied with colors that exist, Renee went the extra step to create her own brilliant, more metallic blue and green pigments for this Icon by crushing Izrite and Malachite stones.  The church board who hired Renee to create this Icon have been familiar with her work for many years, as my sister makes St. Peter's a regular destination for worship. Their thoughts on why they commissioned this Icon:

"When we enter St. Peter’s Church we are able to see many artistic signs and symbols that help us to pray by directing our hearts and our minds attention toward Christ. Holy images draw our attention toward our Savior, reminding us that we are not alone, and that we are part of a Church that spans both Heaven and Earth.  That is the purpose of our new icon of St. Peter, patron of our parish community." Renee further points out ," Prayer and contemplation envelop each phase of the icon writing process and the process is very much a spiritual journey between God and the iconographer." Some of the symbols seen in the icon are a fishing net, referring to St. Peter's daily work as a fisherman and a set of keys, referencing the keys of the kingdom. For years to come Renee's Icon of St. Peter, will be proudly on display in the church, and will hopefully inspire the parishioners and visitors. 

Additionally professionally produced signed reproductions, mounted on wood blocks in three sizes (small: $35, medium: $60 and Large: $85) will be available as a gift for a donation to the church soon. (http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/religion/StPeters/)

Back to School: A Forrestall Family Figure Drawing Session

This week some of my family went back to school! To brush up on their figure drawing and enjoy some fam time (we all really LOVE to be together) my dad, Tom Forrestall, my sister Renee (who teaches anatomy at NSCAD) and my brother Frank, who owns an animation studio went to a regular weekly Monday night faculty figure drawing session at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design on October 26th.  The figure drawing sessions are organized by a faculty member for other faculty and board members, and she charges $10 per person to pay for the models.  Renee got to work using water soluble oil pastels, Frank chose water soluble drawing pencils for his figure interpretations and dad worked in pen and ink. Dad's drawing of multiple figures is actually the same model, seen from many angles. During one pose, dad sketched the model, then moved to another area of the room and sketched the model again on the same piece of paper and then moved again. They did some beautiful work don't you think?

Tom Forrestall creates a print for the 50th Anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery

Recently my dad, Tom Forrestall, was asked by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery to create a lithograph to commemorate their 50th anniversary this year. Dad's history with the Beaverbrook goes back 50 years, when he took a job working as an assistant to the curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. It was dad's first job after graduating from college and marrying our mother, Natalie. He has very fond memories of those early days of the museums history, and the support he got working there from the staff, and from Lord Beaverbrook himself. Dad traveled to Moncton, New Brunswick to work with a master print maker there, Jacques Arsenault, who has a small, yet very specialized studio for the creation of lithographs. It was the first lithograph dad had done in 25 years. The last lithographs dad  created in Rome,while  visiting there with our mom. He had very fond memories of the process of working with these talented and technically savvy printmakers. The image of the print is of the Beaverbrook Art gallery with a conceptual addition of a watching eye, meaning to represent the museum being under the watchful eye of its founder Lord Beaverbrook. The prints are to be sold to help raise funds for the museum. ($1000. each; http://www.beaverbrookartgallery.org/main-e.asp).

Marie meets the Guerilla Girls

My beautiful and talented 19-year old niece Marie Webb, oldest grandchild of Tom Forrestall, loves art. Now in the 12th grade, Marie is very involved in a Halifax, Nova Scotia based art program "Team Possibles", which her mom (my younger sister), Renee Forrestall runs. It's an organization founded for local Halifax teens who have Downs syndrome so they can get together, socialise and create films, books and artwork of all, sorts both individually and as a team.
       On September 18th, 2009, Marie and her mom Renee travelled to Wolfville, Nova Scotia to see the Guerilla Girls who were giving a talk at Acadia University. Marie had forgotten her glasses, so she and her mom went early so that she could get a front row seat in order to see everything. Marie's mom, my sister, Renee, said, "Marie was interested to learn how the Guerilla Girls help other artists, especially women artists. She was very excited to meet with them, get their autographs...and a banana".

Here are some of the links to Marie and the rest of the Team Possible team (and Renee's) amazing art, writing and film projects. This term, Fall 2009, they are creating zines, which they will share with family, friends and the community through a local Zine Collective: Anchor Archive. Marie (and Team Possibles) rocks!

http://teampossibles.blogspot.com/

http://teemzine.blogspot.com/

Lord Grinner

And another illustration "Lord Grinner" by my brother, Frank Forrestall.

Frank's Fantastical Fables

                                                                     "Sword of the Well"
My younger brother Frank Forrestall is an amazing animation artist with an artists agency, Forrestall Studio ( http://www.forrestallstudio.com/home.php) that he recently founded. While negotiating deals for other artists whose work he represents, Frank continues to find time to develop his own story ideas. He talks a bit about his inspiration for his latest installment of his Willow Wind series. 

"In this illustration, Willow has just fallen for the Hag's trap! She thought that taking the sword would give her an easy solution to the problem of the Nine Sisters; but as she grasps the sword from the well the 9th Sister emerges cackling with delight. The sword will be fused to Willow's hand until she completes the hag's long and dangerous quest", explains Frank.

"These are characters and situations from stories that I would tell my oldest daughter, Gwen at bedtime", elaborates Frank. "The stories were made up on the fly so I don't remember a lot of detail but I borrowed heavily from folklore and fairytales from the 'color' fairy books. Some recurring characters were the hero of the story Willow Wind, her spirit horse Silver Stream and the villainous 9 Sisters each with a number of horns on their head to indicate their position in the family. At the moment, I'm working on an image of Willow Wind and her horse as they escape from their Aunt's castle, which will probably take a few days to complete".

Through his Art studio, Forrestall Studio, Frank works on promoting and selling the work of several other talented Maritime provinces based artists, which include his brothers Curphey, William and his sister, Renee.

 

Have a "Folk Art" Seat

A year or so ago, my Aunt Kitty (Katherine Forrestall, younger sister of our dad, Tom) started to paint chairs around her house. They are deeply fanciful and colorful works of art that I am in Love with. Kitty has an unbelievably beautiful and enormous garden and she gardens all the time in the summer months, but in the winter, this has become her new passion. She has taken painting classes for years in and around the valley. I keep urging my dear Aunt to make enough chairs  to have a show somewhere, as they truly are works of art. 

Curphey Forrestall's latest Theatre work

The third oldest son of the Natalie & Tom Forrestall clan is the multi-talented Curphey Forrestall, who lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Curphey has been doing amazing murals and set and scenic painting on movie and theatre production for a number of years. This week he has been working on "Munchipelosa" a traveling children's show in Nova Scotia. Next week another project. He has worked on everything from helping to paint a re-creation of a Viking village for a huge American movie set in Nova Scotia, to murals in stores and on the sides of buildings. With traditional brush-and-paint techniques Curphey creates painted vistas, professional faux-finish, texturing and trompe l’oeil mural installations sing a sophisticated technique of repeated glazing and layering to achieve an evocative sense of depth and luminosity to his work. He is very talented, and can paint quickly--important for contract set work. Although he usually works on sets with others, he has collaborated with his dad, Tom on a couple of large public painted mural projects.

Gallery opening at KS Art Gallery

 September 18th show of his Bill Adams was fantastic. Bill does quirky and interesting drawings and paintings, that are text and interesting graphic work. He became well know for these crazy ball point pen drawings, often of animals, he did for a ball point pen exhibition a few years back. Bill is also a big fan of my son Max, and went so far as to name one crazy cat painting after Max for this show. Here's a photo of the two of them together, in front of the painting "Max".

Monica Forrestall

Dartmouth family dinner

July 2nd in Dartmouth, a big family dinner in the dining room. Frank's wife, Diana's mother was visiting from Wales for the first time in 12 years, and that called for many big, celebratory meals. 

Here Jaimie, Liz, Curphey, Jasmine, Diana, her mom, Jessica, Gwen and Max. Diana's toast "To a full table"...

Tom Forrestall painting with his grandkids at Fred's Hole

Not easy to find, but well worth the hunt, is a local legendary place of peaceful, natural beauty in the woods behind Bear River, Nova Scotia: Fred's Hole. Poetically named NOT, it's famous for cool deep water that kids can jump off of the huge rocks into. Driving up a dirt road in the back woods of Nova Scotia, you come upon this sun dappled tree encircled natural pond in a rushing wide stream, very suddenly on your right. We'd been telling our dad, Tom Forrestall, about this spot for 3 years and FINALLY he made it out there with lots of his family: me, his grandson Max (he's the one racing with the water squirter 1/2 the size of his body on dad's left), my brother Curphey and his daughters, Liz and Jasmine. Dad and I made sketches of the big rocks in the water, while his grandkids drew and ran around, occasionally into the cool water. The pool in the rushing brook was so much higher this year than usual and rushing very strongly because of all the rain in June and early July. Most memorable from our last family visit here, were the hundreds of  iridescent green and blue dragonflies alighting on peoples hats and shirts as well as beautiful butterflies. And they were back! A magical place.
Max Forrestall Schuss and cousin Liz (below right)          Below: Max in Fred's Hole

Max and his uncle Curphey defy the cold water, while grandpa watches.

Dad sketching at Fred's Hole

Tom Forrestall making a watercolor at Fred's Hole.

Max Forrestall Schuss, Millie Webb, Gwen Forrestall at Fred's Hole.

Family time in Nova Scotia Summer 2009

Lots of family time this summer when Monica Forrestall made it home to Nova Scotia for two glorious months. For the first few days of July, our wonderful father, Tom Forrestall, made it out to the Annapolis Valley for a few days. He drove down with me, Monica, and we all had lots of sketching, dinners, visits and relaxed and happy times unfolded. Here, dad was quietly sketching a vase of flowers that he had picked up at the farmers market in Annapolis Royal. Curphey's daughter Jasmine wanted to paint too, and set up a piece of paper next to her grandfather. My son Max immediately wanted to join and soon the dining room at Three Oaks was filled with quiet, focused children painting alongside of their grandfather. It was such a natural and sweet family moment, that unfolded naturally.

above, Tom Forrestall painting with his grandchildren, Jasmine (left), Max (sitting) and Liz (standing on right).

Tom Forrestall's sketch of flowers below, left.