Years ago I was vacationing with girlfriends through New England, and ran across an artist I loved. I didn’t buy that day. Many years later I was again treading the same terrain, I was found myself, admiring Todd Bonita’s work and realizing that I had seen it many years prior. This time I bought the painting in his window of an ethereal, white row boat with his distinct oars in the window. Little did I know that the day would come that I would open a gallery. He was the first one I asked to show his paintings here. He was quite sweet. It was a new adventure for me and he asked good, pointed questions. Many things I hadn’t even thought of. At the end of the questions he said, well you answered them all as I would like so “yes”, I’ll be part of your new endeavor. I was so excited…but it took a while to get his work. He usually sends a couple of pieces at a time, and once they sell I will get a few more. He is an excellent artist, and business man. He is also generous with his time and knowledge. Recently, I was in Palm Beach talking to another new member of the gallery. I mentioned his name off hand about something unrelated and she exclaimed that he was one of her favorite artists and she hoped to take a workshop with him at some point. Todd graduated from the Art Institute of Boston, He continued post baccaulaurette study of classical painting and drawing at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He then enjoyed a twelve year career as an illustrator, that included a creatively-explorative period, working as a muralist, sculptor and designer followed. He focused full time on fine art oil painting in 2006, creating works for art galleries and collectors. He now is blessed to call his craft a full-time occupation. He runs a Summer School of Art, has exhibited in four Art museums, take painters abroad to train in plain air. His works are in hundreds of corporate and private collections world wide, including 41st president George H. W. Bush. Only after I had moved into the space, and received some of his work did I realize how similar our buildings are… his newest works felt perfectly at home.
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Pointe of View Gallery is a little “non-conforming” gallery on Astor Street connecting Mackinac Island’s Main Street to the first main street of Mackinac which is called Market Street. The little building was built between 1908 and 1912. The roof has only been replaced once in it’s 100 years. That replacement process is a funny story for another time. I have many people come in the store with “Remember When” stories. The first person with the earliest history was a woman who said she lived here in 1972 with three other girls. It was employee housing with only a toilet and a sink. I didn’t ask what she did about bathing… we live on an island so I imagine the lake is a huge bath tub to many. I then had a young (ish) island guy painting my front door one day. He said, ‘do you remember when this building was a video arcade?” I stopped in my tracks! I had totally forgotten, but then I had a flashback. I was newly married. Had taken three months off from work, and was here with my new husband who’s family had businesses on the island. I had a little Yorkshire Terrier that took up some of my days but by and large, I was pretty bored. I know because I have many pictures of “Ted” with my AE1 Canon…in black and white posing for ‘his mom’. I also know I was bored because I would bring a roll of quarters to the arcade and play Ms. Packman. I felt like the oddest duck, old at 26, and female but I loved the game. So I looked at the painter and said, incredulously, “How old were you then?!" He said, 5 or 6! Here we were almost 40 years later in the same building. I don’t know what happened to the store for a while… but around 1994- 1996 Gracie reminded me that she owned the Western Shop in the building. We had a local rummage sale at community hall and she talked about all the horse paraphernalia she sold and how much fun she had. After that, Ben Horn, from an old island family, opened a “vintage” store that had native American objects, pop, water, knives and other assorted, unrelated and possibly underground items as a recent visitor told me. It wasn’t here too long before the most lucrative of the operations moved in. That was Peter Mirabelle. He adopted it and eventually opened up the Birkenstock store. It did very well and he was here selling the popular shoe until 2015. I still hear people go by and say, ‘That was the old Birkenstock Store.” I marvel at how many shoes he could get in the store with seating and salespeople. It is really so much more. It is single oak boards laid inside to make a slate board perfect for hanging and rehanging art. It is only about 700 square feet but you can do so much with that amount of space. It has a wonderful window to look out, and the open door allows you to hear 10 year old boys banging the horse head hitching post handle across the street at the Mustang. I didn’t notice it until a friend who had used this building for a Human Resource office through COVID (2020-2021) pointed it out. Now I hear it all the time. Thanks Ryan! Peter came in and said he loved looking at all the activity going by throughout the day. I have to say, I see most of the ambulance runs, sometimes a fire truck. I watch the hay wagon go by with the hay that comes fresh off the Coal Dock at the base of Astor Street. I get to see the horses come back to the island three abreast with their winter fur. I get to see them leave again in the fall. The drays deliver supplies to Starbucks and Patrick Doud’s Irish Pub restaurant out in front. There is an impish horse who likes to knock over my bike with his nose. They sort of look alike (sorry horses) so I have to figure out his name so my bike stays out of his way. May’s Fudge owned this building and rented it out through most of these years. Victor Callewaert and Marvin May had a friendship and Victor was given right of first refusal at Marvin’s death. When he passed this building came with the fudge shop. So here sits Pointe of View Gallery for the time being. The geographical location of this little building provides great scenery inside and out.
We went to Manhattan for our son’s engagement party recently. The party was just beautiful. The whole evening was a wonderful melding of family and friends, but the surprise of the trip and essential for a lover of the arts was staying at New York’s famed Hotel Chelsea. Born during the Gilded Age and once the tallest building in New York, the twelve-story landmark has long been a magnet for artists, writers, musicians of all stripes. A few of the figures who occupied one of the most alluring, and storied residents at one time or another are Jackson Pollock, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs, Janis Joplin, Eugene O’Neill, Rufus Wainwright, Betsey Johnson, R. Crumb, Thomas Wolfe, and Jasper John. If you are interested, it became the star in a recent documentary about its history entitled, Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel. It had closed its doors to the public for 11 years and reopened in March of 2022, so 6 months prior to our visit. It had been a soft opening and most don’t know the hotel is available to the general public. Interestingly there are still around 50-60 people who call the hotel their personal home and who did not die or move out during the long, long grueling renovation process. Stanley Bard, who was the 50 year manager and part owner of New York’s notorious Hotel Chelsea, acquired many works of art during his tenure. Bard died in 2017 at the age of 82, and one hundred works of art, acquired personally by him went under the hammer at Freeman’s Auctions in Philadelphia. More than any other individual he can be credited with curating the residents whose diversity defined the legendary institution in the second half of the 20th century. Stanley fostered a unique attitude of respect, tolerance and a willingness to accommodate all guests, regardless of their unconventional lives, and believe me there are stories that will make your toes curl! As the gatekeeper of this creative enclave, his mission was to appreciate the need for professional and personal privacy and it is this incredible foresight and determination to create a safe haven for all types of creative genius that made him legendary and adored. The Featured Lots in the May 16 2017 Auction entitled The Stanley Bard Collection: A Life at the Chelsea included: Tom Wesselmann (American 1931-2004) “Face #1.” Estimate $600,000-800,000 ,Tom Wesselmann (American 1931-2004) “Study for Blue Nude #14.” Estimate $50,000-80,000 , Larry Rivers (American 1923-2002) “Art and the Artist: Portrait and Painting of Arshile Gorky.” Estimate $20,000-30,000 , Barry Flanagan (Welsh 1941-2009) “Jackass and Elephant.” Estimate $150,000-250,000 Philip Taaffe (American b. 1955) Untitled. Estimate $20,000-30,000 , Christo (Bulgarian b. 1935) “The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi (Project for UAE).” Estimate $12,000-18,000. I haven’t follow up to see what actually happened at that auction but I was interested in some of the pieces left on the walls while I was there, or where they curated by someone recently? Previously artists would simply place their works on the wall and the collection would rotate! Can you imagine?! The hotel has finally landed in the hands of Hoteliers Ira Drukier, Richard Born and Sean MacPherson of BD Hotels. It is decorated with such deep style that only the legendary Sean MacPherson knows how to create. Among the paintings (not quite as arresting as Tom Wesslemann was inspired to create), We also found velvety Art Deco carpets, lusciously chubby mohair sofas, inviting breakfast seating with the perfect coffee, yogurt and granola. The sheets were crisp and monogrammed. Heck, even the door handles and inlaid wood floors had monograms. From a visual arts perspective Hotel Chelsea was a feast for the eyes. From a hotel owner’s perspective it was a long and winding road. From an art history buff’s perspective, you could almost hear and see ghosts, of decades past, pirouetting down the corridors. The hotel is a tribute to the spirit of so many who live(d) on the fringe. It is a singular tribute to a great salon that will not let art go unnoticed, but like Thomas Wolfe said in the book he wrote here, You can’t go home again. |
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August 2023
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