Artist Portrait

This week at the Museum we have been busy preparing for an upcoming exhibition on portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, who began his career as an illustrator. I believe the Museum is offering an auction to have your portrait done by the artist during the run of the exhibition--I'll see about filming that. 

This past summer we had a special exhibition featuring a local artist named Sol Schwartz, who sketches at the various cultural events in the Berkshires. You could say that he is a portrait artist of a different sort, documenting musicians, actors, and dancers in action. I added some music and clips from Tanglewood, one of the locations Sol frequents--the footage was originally filmed for my TV music show Berkshire Soundstage (if you look closely at the opening sequence you will see Martin Scorsese sitting in with John Williams and the Boston Pops during their annual film night!).

It was nice to learn more about Sol's work-- over the years he and his wife Elayne had been pretty active supporters of the arts in the Berkshires. Sadly, Elayne passed away this past fall. I had the chance to meet her when we filmed the interview with Sol earlier in the year, and even had her sit in to have her portrait created by her husband. Sol's family appreciated the document, and requested a copy of the footage to play during her memorial service. I also reedited the exhibition video slightly to pay tribute to Elayne during the remainder of the show's run at the Rockwell Museum. One of the instances where my work has served an even greater purpose, and it made me feel good to do so.

The artist's website: solschwartz.com