My drawings have always mattered to me. Their simplicity helps me to internally understand what is going on behind the marks, to understand process. It is the process of making art that fascinates me most. The process begins with recognition, a trust in recognition. I first begin to make marks, varying pressures and tones—just drawing. If then I persevere, I see something personal, a clue, something that I recognize, and something that feels familiar and resonates unlike any other work I have seen before. I leave the drawing alone. I leave the studio. I come back and spend time with it, getting to know it better. If it still surprises, I then look for more clues. Content begins to make itself known to me.

The process becomes a communal experience. The drawing is giving me information: how to proceed and where to go. I am not interested in intellectual concepts. The work has to be experiential. I try to take significant moments in my life and draw them in a believable way.

-Marilyn Kalish

www.marilynkalish.com

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) is widely considered one of the preeminent figures of 20th century American Art. Creatively active for over five decades as a sculptor, print-maker, painter, illustrator, critic, book publisher, and educator, Baskin represents a consistent, powerful, and important voice for humankind both visually and intellectually. Baskin’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Nation Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Seattle Art Museum, the Vatican Museum, the Smithsonian Institute and the Tate Gallery in London.

Barry Moser (born 1940) is a renowned artist, most famous as a print-maker and illustrator of numerous works of literature. Some of his most celebrated work has been his illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, each of which consisted of more than a hundred prints, and the former of which won him American Book Award for design and illustration in 1982. He has illustrated nearly 200 other works as well.

In 2007 the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Moser to create a print for their Small Treasures series, the sales of which benefit educational and cultural programs through the Smithsonian Associates.

Ormond Gigli was born in New York City in 1925. He became famous early on during the 1950s for his photographs of theater, celebrities, dance, exotic persons & places. His work appeared prominently on covers & editorial pages of LIFE, TIME, PARIS MATCH, SATURDAY EVENING POST, COLLIERS, and other major international publications. Gigli’s groundbreaking portraits include Sophia Loren (at age 21), Anita Ekberg, Marcel Duchamp, John F. Kennedy, Halston, Gina Lollobrigida, Diana Vreeland, Giancarlo Giannini, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Sir Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Richard Burton, & many more. Most of these images have not been widely seen since they first appeared over four decades ago.

Gigli worked more like a film director than a photojournalist. His ability to earn his subjects’ trust in his vision – - often during complicated, uncomfortable, even dangerous setups – - was as important to the photos as his technical finesse with the camera. His disarming way with his subjects is evident in the revealing anecdotes of the people and times he so vividly recalls. He was welcomed backstage on Broadway as readily as he was in the private lives of celebrities. Some of Gigli’s favorite photographs were self-assigned, international award-winners, such as “Girls in the Windows” photographed in 1960.

During the 70s and 80s Gigli turned to advertising photography, while continuing his editorial work. His assignments took him around the world many times.  Today, his photographs appear in prominent Galleries throughout the world.

“I was sent to Afghanistan to document the news of the day (December 2001–January 2002). I became aware of the history and pride of this war torn land, and I witnessed the innocence and birth of a new nation. I fell in love with a culture and… It truly changed my life.”

- Craig Walker