Hiro Takeshita – “Slices of Beauty on the Hudson”

December 15, 2013 - January 19, 2014

Hiro Takeshita was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and from an early age was interested in art and American culture. Born two years after the atomic bomb blast in his native city, he can still recall his mother’s searing memories of that day. However, he also recalls the kindness of American soldiers and being captivated by American television shows on television, which ultimately motivated him to move to the U.S. in 1977 after studying art and print-making in Tokyo.

The bright colors of his native city and his fascination with American pop culture led him to admire artists of the post-Impressionist period, particularly Henri Matisse, Abstract Expressionists like Richard Diebenkorn and Pop Artists, especially Andy Warhol.

He moved to Hoboken in 1985, where he creates artwork that reflects his fascination with the Hudson River and its views of New York City. If you stroll along Hoboken’s waterfront walkway, you may have seen him with a large 14”x17” sketchbook, finding inspiration in the ever-changing panorama it offers.

“I always enjoy sketching scenes on the Hoboken waterfront, of people enjoying the outdoors, walking, kids playing, the happy moments,” he says. “Art is communication; I like to share the joy and beauty with other people.”

At first glance, his works appear to be delicately painted in saturated colors and fine lines. The lights of New York City twinkle across the Hudson, a fine tracery of fireworks showers down over the river, tree branches twist in the wind. But step up closer to the pictures and you just might be able to detect the sliced paper. In some cases, there might be four or five layers, but he uses fine origami paper, so the surface is virtually flat. It’s a technique known as “kirigama,” in Japan, but is practiced in many forms, including much of Matisse’s late work.

Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.

The Museum’s Upper Gallery featured his latest creations in a show titled, “Slices of Beauty on the Hudson, Cut-Paper Works by Hiro Takeshita,” on view from Deccember 19, 2013 – January 19, 2014. View more of his work at www.hirotakeshita.com.

This is Takeshita’s second exhibit at the Hoboken Museum, and his work has been exhibited in New York City and elsewhere. He has also created works in oil paints, pastels, watercolors, and print-making, but his prime concentration these days is in cut-paper works. Each year, he contributes works to a group art show dedicated to the Peace memorial at Nagasaki on the anniversary, August 9, of the atomic bomb blast.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Peter Gutierrez – “Let It Fly!”

November 3 - December 8, 2013

Ever since his mother took him to an airshow and let him take a ride in a B-24, at age 9, Peter Gutierrez has been fascinated by airplanes. He started making drawings of aircraft, and then his grandfather, a civil engineer who spent a career working on cars, trains and other machines, encouraged him to work on model aircraft and gave him books on how to fold paper into airplanes. Before long, he ran out of room to display all the models he’s made from kits or from balsa wood or paper.

Part of his growing collection of invented aircraft were displayed in an Upper Gallery exhibit titled, “Let it Fly: Model Airplanes by Peter Gutierrez,” which opened Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013 with a free reception from 2 – 5 p.m. Peter returned to the Museum to give a demonstration of his aircraft-making skills on Sunday, Nov. 17, during the city’s regular Third Sunday Gallery Walk.

Peter has read nearly every book he could find on the history of flight, from Leonardo Da Vinci to the Wright brothers to the airplane manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed, and can identify most fighter planes and other planes, even the Russian models. He’s also a big fan of World War II movies, including Memphis Belle and Saving Private Ryan. For inspiration, he transcribes quotes that he finds in his reading about inventors and scientists and posts them on his walls. A recent one, very appropriately, was Carl Sagan’s “Somewhere, something is waiting to be known.”

Peter has channeled his passion for making airplanes into his science club, which met on Mondays at his old elementary school, as well as the robotics club. With other members of the club, he would make bomber-style planes out of paper, and devise wind-tunnel tests for them using a fan and string. Through persistent experimentation, he learned which designs would sustain flight the longest – he estimates that about 90% of his designs will fly. He credits his grandfather’s advice, “Just stick with it!” for the persistence to keep trying new models and figuring out how to make his robotic Lego sets work.

Now entering the 9th grade at Hoboken High School, Peter has set his sights on studying aerospace engineering in college, eventually working at an aircraft manufacturer like Boeing or Lockheed and then hopes to start his own aeronautics company someday. He’s also an invaluable assistant in the Museum’s summer camp and family day programs..

This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

John Cheney – “Spontaneous Hoboken”

August 25 - September 29, 2013

Hoboken resident and longtime Macy’s Parade Studio float builder John Cheney loves the challenge of drawing in ink. “Ink won’t allow you to go back and erase – you can accommodate errors, but just like in life, you can’t go back and erase a mistake,” he says.

He often takes a sketchpad and a foam cushion and looks for a perch where he can observe scenes of typical Hoboken life. Using good drawing pens with archival ink, Cheney launches right in to a sketch, with no pencil underdrawing. Unlike other media, such as charcoal or pencil or paint, which require the artist to push the medium around on the paper, “ink is excited to come out of the pen,” because of the way paper pulls ink out of the pen. “I know it’s going to be good if the line tingles as it flows out of the pen,” he adds.

His ink drawings fairly dance with vitality. About a dozen were on display from August 25 – September 29, 2013 in the Museum’s Upper Gallery, in an exhibition titled “Spontaneous Hoboken: Ink Drawings by John Cheney.” The exhibit opened with a free reception at the Museum from 2 – 5 pm on Aug. 25.

Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.

Cheney has been doing these types of drawings since he was about 20 years old. Like many of his generation, he grabbed a knapsack and left his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire to travel the world, with a sketchpad and ink pens at hand, learning his craft as he went along. “Many of my drawings are pen-and-ink sketches of my travels to Egypt and France, but many are inspired by my adopted home, Hoboken, where I have lived and worked for almost 40 years.”

Cheney returned from his travels to enroll in some classical art training, so he would be comfortable in many media, from large-scale constructions to quick, impressionistic line drawings. He studied art at the University of New Hampshire, the Art Students League in New York, the New York Academy, and the National Academy, but he often prefers working in the medium he fell in love with before his formal schooling, as an itinerant hippie in the ’60s. “My drawings still reflect some elements of what I learned along the way.”

He moved to Hoboken in 1981 after landing a job at Macy’s Parade Studio in 1976, when it was based in the former Tootsie Roll factory at 15th St. and Willow Ave. He obviously enjoys his work, as he has been there ever since! “My career as float builder with the Macy’s Parade Studio enables me to engage all aspects of my artistic training and allows me to construct large-scale innovative parade floats, some as large as 70 feet long, made to be collapsible for easy transport through the Lincoln Tunnel.”

Last year, he applied his skills as a float builder as a lark with some friends for the Coney Island 30th Annual Mermaid Parade. They built and pulled by hand an elaborate 30-foot float, in the theme of Cleopatra’s barge, to honor the anniversary.

This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Benjamin Roman – “A Child’s Innocence”

May 5 - June 30, 2013; June 9, 4 pm: Artist Talk

Growing up in the Bronx under the watchful eye of a very protective grandmother, Benjamin Roman Jr. and his sister had a lot of time to while away indoors. He would fill hours sketching scenes of his apartment, images from TV, whatever was in front of him. He enjoyed drawing, but didn’t consider pursuing art as a career until he enrolled in New Jersey City University and met his faculty advisor, Professor Dennis Dittrich, who was also acting President of the Society of Illustrators in New York.

“He encouraged me and inspired me to be a better artist,” Roman says. “He told me, ‘You don’t need a degree to be an artist, but there’s a lot you can learn here.’” In Roman’s final year at NJCU, Professor Dittrich encouraged him to try his hand at watercolors, a medium he had been avoiding because he’d heard it was difficult. He quickly fell in love with the medium, and only regrets he didn’t try it sooner.

A series of Roman’s watercolor portraits of children were on display from May 5 – June 30, 2013 in the Upper Gallery of the Museum in an exhibit titled, “Portraits of Childhood, Watercolors by Benjamin Roman.” The Museum invited the public to an opening reception from 2 – 5 p.m. on May 5, and again for an artist’s talk on June 9 at 4 p.m.

Roman earned a B.A. in Art Communication with a minor in Early Childhood Education, and has been an art teacher for kindergarten, pre-K and pre-school children in area schools for the past 16 years. He now teaches at Beyond Basic Learning, in Hoboken, and paints at least three or four times a week, working on commissioned portraits as well as paintings just for the sake of painting.

Naturally, as a teacher, he finds children a fascinating subject matter, but he also paints portraits of adults, and landscapes. He’s fascinated with the challenge of depicting in his subjects’ expressions the essence of what it means to be young and innocent. “To capture the warmth and heart revealed in a child’s face is my ultimate goal.”

One of his paintings, “Treasure of Innocence,” depicts a group of children in a grassy park, and hangs in the collections of the Union City Museum of Art at the William V. Musto Cultural Center. He’s also self-published two books of his paintings, as well as a book of poetry. Find out more about his work at benswatercolor.com.

Roman likes to work in layers, to give his paintings more detail and depth, almost like working in oils. He finds inspiration in artists as varied as Norman Rockwell, Mary Cassatt, Vermeer and Rembrandt. Though their styles are very different, they have in common the ability to tell a story and convey a moment in time that seems special. He’s also learned a lot about working with watercolors by studying the work of New Mexico-based Steve Hanks and Peruvian Rogger Oncoy. “Children are unpredictable, watercolor is too.”

This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Mac Hartshorn – “Photographs”

March 17 - April 28, 2013; April 13, 4 pm: Artist Talk

The Museum is pleased to open a new Upper Gallery art exhibit on the same day as Hoboken’s 3rd Sunday Gallery Walk, March 17, with “Mac Hartshorn, Photographer,” an exhibit of artistic photographs of babies and children by professional portrait photographer, Mac Hartshorn. The exhibit opens with a free reception from 2 – 5 pm, and all are welcome.

This exhibit consists of photos Hartshorn has taken for the art of the image, which usually results in something more abstract than a typical family portrait session. Describing his process, Hartshorn explains, “I approach the photo session being open to whatever happens. I want families to feel totally comfortable and interact naturally. That’s when the magic happens. Little toes or a baby’s tiny hand grasping a father’s finger can be appreciated by all, not just the parents.”

The artwork is both as unique as the people he’s taking pictures of, and universal enough to be appreciated by all. Please stop by on Sunday, or before April 28.

Visit his website at hartshornportraiture.com.

This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Thomas F. Yezerski – “Meadowlands, A Wetlands Survival Story”

January 27 - March 10, 2013

For Tom Yezerski, all roads seemed to lead to the Meadowlands. Literally.

As a recent transplant to New Jersey from Allentown, Pa., Yezerski moved to Rutherford 14 years ago seeking a reasonably affordable community close enough to New York City for him to pursue his dream of becoming an established children’s book artist and author. As so many newcomers discover, the dizzying array of the area’s highway signage conspired to lead him astray, and more often than not, he found himself driving into this vast wilderness with the reputation as the source of what made New Jersey the butt of many jokes in Pennsylvania.

Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.

A nature-lover, Yezerski found his curiosity piqued, so he did some research into the history of the Meadowlands and visited the nature center at the heart of it, and soon hatched a project that became his fourth work as a writer and artist of children’s books, Meadowlands, A Wetlands Survival Story, published in 2011 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The Museum is pleased to present an exhibit of the original watercolor and ink paintings that comprise the book, with an opening reception on Sunday, Jan. 27, from 2 – 5 p.m. The show will be on view in the Upper Gallery until March 10.

Ten years in the making, the book plunged Yezerski into research not only about the history of the place, but the biodiversity of the species that once teemed in the tidal marshlands and are now returning, after a concerted effort by federal, state, and local authorities and environmental activist groups. His book details in images and text—simple enough for elementary school readers but complex enough to suit the enormous scale—the fascinating story of the return to health of this natural treasure at the western edge of Hudson County.

Yezerski wrote Meadowlands and sketched the drawings while living in Rutherford, but painted the final art after moving to Hoboken. He currently lives in Hoboken on Garden Street, with his wife, and says they both enjoy hiking and canoeing through “the Meadows” and excursions with the Hackensack Riverkeepers organization.

Yezerski’s first work as a professional artist came in creating prints for children’s clothing. Eager to return to illustration, he started writing and illustrating his own book, about his Polish and Irish immigrant grandparents, a Romeo-and-Juliet love story set in the coal-mining country of eastern Pennsylvania. That story became his first published book, Together in Pinecone Patch, in 1998. Subsequent picture books Queen of the World and A Full Hand also depict family members as comic or historic characters. He has also illustrated 10 other books for other authors. The New York Times listed Meadowlands in its Notable Children’s Books of 2011, and the New York Public Library listed it among its Best Non-Fiction Books of 2011. It earned an inaugural Cook Prize Honor from Bankstreet College.

Yezerski took his first art lessons while in the third grade, riding his bike to an artist’s studio every Saturday morning to copy greeting cards in chalk pastel. During high school, he studied drawing and color theory at The Barnstone Studios, in Coplay, Pa. Yezerski earned his B.F.A. in Illustration in 1991, at Syracuse University. Visit his website at http://www.thomasfyezerski.com/index.html.

This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Raymond Smith – “En Plein Air: Seeking a Sensation”

November 11 - December 23, 2012

Hoboken’s physical character is known for its storied waterfront, its compact and walkable streets, and its rows of well-preserved late-Victorian homes. But not since the Elysian Fields were converted to industrial use in the early 1900s has it been known for its natural vistas.

The crush of modern urban living poses a challenge to Raymond Smith, a painter who has been seeking to capture the sensation of light and atmosphere in natural settings in the “plein air” tradition favored by the Impressionists. It’s hard to avoid the jarring elements that can ruin the mood he’s trying to render on canvas, but the artist perseveres and has developed a process that translates these fleeting sensations into oil on canvas. The results can be seen in his second show in the Museum’s Upper Gallery, En Plein Air: Seeking a Sensation, by Raymond Smith, which will be on view through Dec. 23.

Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.

The scenes in his paintings range from a sun-drenched beach filled with brightly colored kayaks in Hoboken Cove, to a moody, fog-blanketed tugboat moored to a pier, to a thoughtful young woman sitting on a patch of grass or a buoyant woman (the artist’s wife) in a bright sundress and hat strolling along the edge of the water.

To explain what inspired this series, he refers to a quote from an essay by Henri Matisse: “One starts off with an object. Sensation follows.” He says he keeps his mind open to receiving sensations or ideas and then he works on how to translate them on canvas. Each painting is the result of a careful process of making notes and sketches on site, with color swatches and measurements that he uses later to recreate on canvas the feeling he responded to in the first place.

Sometimes in working with a model, he says, “the expressions or postures before or after the sitting are what strike me the most—the unguarded moments are most revealing.” He enjoys painting outdoors, but doesn’t like the disruptions. If someone wants to talk to him while he works, he’ll put his paintbrush down and talk to them, at which point they tend to move along. But if it’s a young kid, he says, “I’ll let them take a brush and make a few strokes.”

In addition to his fine art, Smith is an art instructor and professional illustrator, who has worked for many brand-name companies. A couple of his iconic works include the 9/11 Memorial Flag composed of children’s handprints that hangs in the Board of Education meeting room, and the “Greetings from Hoboken” image reproduced on t-shirts, posters, mugs and greeting cards. For more information on Smith’s work, visit his website, www.raymondsmithart.com.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Roslyn Rose – “Hoboken from Afar”

September 15 – November 4, 2012

Sometimes you have to get away—far away—to see your hometown from a fresh perspective. Or, you can stop by the Hoboken Museum’s Upper Gallery this September to see Hoboken From Afar: Photomontages by Roslyn Rose.

A New Jersey native and longtime Hoboken resident, Rose credits her travels abroad for her latest series of photo montages. The foregrounds of her artworks include slides, photos, and found pictures that she collected while traveling in Europe, which are digitally superimposed upon images she’s taken of familiar Hoboken sights.

Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.

The resulting depictions, about a dozen of which will be on display from Sept. 15 through Nov. 4, convey the odd sensation of looking through foreign windows and doors onto familiar vistas of home.

“During my European travels, I always seemed to meet someone who had either visited Hoboken, had a relative living in Hoboken, or who knew of Hoboken’s history, which led to many delightful conversations about my adopted city in far away places,” she says. “By inserting my Hoboken photographs within images of foreign windows, doorways or archways, I have combined travel memories with local scenes.”

The images can evoke the mixed feelings that many of us experience while traveling—the thrill of new experiences with occasional pangs of homesickness. Rose hopes visitors to the exhibit will think about their own favorite Hoboken vistas. Meet the artist at the free opening reception for the show from 2 – 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15. She returns to give a talk about her work on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 4 pm.

An artist since early childhood, Rose was a nationally recognized etcher and printmaker before becoming intrigued with the medium of computer-manipulated montages. Although photography is now her main focus, she considers herself a fine artist using the medium to create collages. See more of her work and peruse her extensive resume of exhibitions and affiliations at roslynrose.com.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.