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Remembering Leo Kaplan

11/14/2012

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As you have probably noticed, I have a page of links here on my site to other mixed media/assemblage artists.  One of those artists whose work I have really enjoyed has just passed away recently at the age of 100...Leo Kaplan.
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From an article that was written about him in the Miami Herald back in 1985:

"Rummaging through relics found at antique shows and flea markets, Leo Kaplan usually comes home with a collection of items most people would describe as junk. Marbles, rubber balls, old letters, typewriter keys and screws, they’re all things that once they’ve outlived their usefullness are usually thrown into the trash.

But Kaplan, 73, takes these common articles and arranges them into assemblages and collages, works of art. Each one is carefully designed in a wooden box to tell a particular story, centered around a certain theme.

“Something that I see in a flea market will trigger an idea for a box and I’ll develop around it,” Kaplan said. “They are little worlds, little environments that have a nostalgic feel.”

His garage is packed with boxes carefully marked for the valuable contents inside, the items he uses to make his creations. Designing collages and assemblages is more than a hobby to the Tamarac artist, who has been doing them for 25 years. It’s a second career.

Collages and assemblages are two distinct works. A collage is primarily a composition on paper that gets it name from the French word “coller,” which means to glue. An assemblage is a collage where an artist takes objects and through his imagination gives them a new identity in a new arrangement, Kaplan explained, “combines a person’s memorabilia into something he can hang on a wall and treasure rather than keep in a drawer where they can get lost.”

He is paid between $1,500 and $15,000 on his creations and has been featured in 650 public, private and corporate collections nationwide including the Alan Brown Gallery in Hartsdale, New York; Oxford Gallery in Rochester, New York; and the Barbara Gillman Gallery in Miami.

Article in Woodlands Magazine about Leo Kaplan:
Kaplan has also won several awards at art shows such as the Merit Award in the Annual Hortt Memorial Competition and Exhibition in Fort Lauderdale and the Best of Show Award at the Brockport State University show. He has traveled to Spain, Japan, China, England, and Africa collecting pieces that would eventually become part of an assemblage. Kaplan started his career making assemblages in deep frames of ash, maple or cherry wood.

Each type of wood has its own feel, designed to compliment the items in a particular composition. “Something about wood type is that it could whisper or shout ,” he said. “I felt they worked better when they were confined in a box,” he said. “They relate better and become more a part of a complete composition.”

Kaplan has always been interested in art. He attended Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and graduated as a commercial artist. Although he did some painting in college, it never held his interest.

“I get no satisfaction from painting, but I feel more or less a feeling of accomplishment when I complete a box and somebody wants to own it.”

He worked for the Great Lakes Press, a Rochester-based color lithographing firm, for 30 years and designed annual reports, catalogues, advertising literature, displays and packages. He was the company’s art director for 20 years and the creative director for the remaining 10.

During his tenure with the company, Kaplan combined both careers, occassionally using an assemblage for the cover of an annual report. He worked on his collages and assemblages during the evenings and weekends. When he retired and moved to Tamarac seven years ago, it became a full-time job.

Kaplan has been married for 44 years and considers his wife, Jane, one of his greatest supporters. Remember, what may be junk to others is not junk to Kaplan but part of a work of art.

“There’s nothing that you can’t use,” he said."



Find out more about him and his work on my links page.  
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The Book

11/12/2012

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The five artists involved in the Glean Program (gleaning at the city dump for art materials) have published a book documenting our experiences while working for six months at the Metro Transfer Station (for more information on this program check out my very first blog  here that I started several months ago).  Special thanks to one of the artists, Chandra Glaeseman, for her work in getting this book put together.  Have a look:
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SCRAP  for artists 

11/10/2012

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Are you a local artist (or an artist soon to travel to the Portland, OR. area)?  You may enjoy a stop at our local recycling center, SCRAP, (a small warehouse) filled with all kinds of interesting donated stuff from both industry and individuals.  The prices are often "dirt" cheap, and there seems to be a steady stream of items coming in each day (they have a special "donation door" to accept all kinds of items that can be put to good use).  This is not your typical Goodwill/thrift shop/garage sale, etc. kind of place.  They sell no clothing, pots and pans, furniture...instead you'll find all kinds of "materials" that might be of interest to many creative types.  I've donated many of the things that I gathered up during my six months of gleaning at the city dump...the kinds of things that I ultimately had no use for, but were obviously destined to go somewhere else other than our landfill.   I took a few photos while visiting SCRAP the other day:
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SCRAP also has a special side room that sells the work of several local artists who use primarily recycled kinds of materials:
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Movie Stars           

11/4/2012

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I took a big load of interesting "stuff" to SCRAP (our local recycling store)  that I had found while gleaning at the city dump during my six months art residency.  I had a number of things that I  knew I'd probably never use, and wanted them out of my studio (garage)...especially all those new golf clubs that I'd found in August (they were all missing the club part).  SCRAP was glad to get everything...they sell these kinds of things to artists (and others) quite cheaply.  I had made the decision to drop off everything at their "donation door" and then just leave (quickly) without going into the store to be tempted to find and purchase any more discards that I might want to bring home with me.   Needless to say, it didn't exactly happen that way.  I decided that since I was there, I might as well go in and have a quick look.  That was a good decision as I found quite the treasure...a scrapbook filled with old pages torn out of old movie star magazines from the 1940's...two dollars for the whole thing!  These wonderful old images have great collage (and assemblage) possibilities.  Here's a sampling of the more than two hundred images stuffed into plastic sleeves in this scrapbook (sorry about the poor photography...these are just quick snapshots):
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