Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art

This article is dedicated to my Japanese (nihongo) Sensei, Atsuko Kuwana, who helped me learn to speak Japanese. Collectors come in all varieties, some plan their collections, others start by chance.  I saw my first kokeshi（こけし） wooden doll in 2005 while participating in a grassroutes exchange program between the U.S. and Japan.  I was staying with a family near Nagoya and the couple’s young daughter had one.  Years later when I was named a Mike Mansfield Fellow from the U.S. government to the Japanese government, and was living in Japan, I would see them frequently at flea markets and souvenir shops next to the natural hot spring resorts in the area known as Tohoku.  Before leaving for Japan, I studied all things Japanese at the George Shultz Foreign Service Institute (FSI), including a professor that covered domestic and family life and some short statements on kokeshi.  After arriving in Japan, the National Personnel Authority ( jinjiin ) was responsible for...

Kaufman was an American pop art icon.  His silkscreens on canvases consisted of soup cans, comic characters, famous actors, and cigars.  His subject matters were not surprising considering his association with Andy Warhol and his work at the Factory, where Warhol produced his multi-numerous prints and works of art. Kaufman had a reoccurring theme in his work, off-limits Cuban Cohiba cigars.  He toyed with images of other cigars, but mostly stuck with Cohiba.  Likewise he did a limited edition portrait of Fidel Castro, perhaps playing with the untouchable subject matter.  Unlike his art contemporaries, he accomplished his hand pulled limited editions on canvas instead of paper.  On the reverse of each canvas, was his signature "SAK" initials for Steve Alan Kaufman.  His signature was mostly in black marker and the edition numbers.  "There's nothing like a fine cigar, a good bottle of wine and a beautiful...you know me," said American Pop Artis...

Russ Conn was a celebrated Boonton, NJ and Palm Beach, FL artist. His successful early years were tracked by his hometown, Boonton. After high school, he went off to college and participated in World War I. Upon returning home from the war he joined the family business of inventors bringing early automation to Wall Street. By age 40, retiring from his career he took up his passion for painting and art. He went off to Florida's Norton Gallery and School of Art, where he studied under the who’s who of great artists: Elliot O’Hara; Adolph Dehn; William Thon; Dong Kingman. Looking at Conn's work, you can see the influence of these teachers. With his fortune he traveled the world, and painted the locations that he visited. There has been an estimate that he might have painted more than 5,000 paintings during his life. In his watercolor, “The Japanese Market”, Conn illustrates his time in Japan. The large white sign above the shop is clearly in Japanese, a combination o...

Stuart Botten, better know just as Stu, understood watercolor magic. Up in the port city of Duluth, he takes on a subject of frozen winter on the edge of Lake Superior, the shore's edge holds the ice. His overlapping tugboats provide a foreshortening of this crowded composition. In the composition, he determines what is important and not important, using color value, placement and proportion, all designed to create his final interpretation of the harbor. "Duluth Tugboats" Watercolor on Paper Approx: 24" X 18" Signed LRC: Stu Botten in Pencil Botten uses brush splatters to create a frozen sky, that adds a richness and nuance to the image. I am not sure there are colors called, rusted iron, gray snow, bright boat white and frozen sky, yet these are the values and hues from his color palette wheel. His color spectrum demonstrates his artistic skills. He served as the first President of the Northstar Watermedia Society, the oldest watercolor society in Minn...

In between old grand mansions and high-rise condo buildings on Bayshore Boulevard there is the occasional contemporary clean line home.  The style first came to America when the leaders of the Bauhaus movement left Germany before and during World War II.  It came with ideas that " Less is More " and was stated by famed architect - designer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He spoke of the virtues of minimalist aesthetics.  No more frou-frou, meaning no more extra ornamentation. If you live in South Tampa, builders are starting to create more of these homes and developments.  Perhaps it is out of the budget planning constraints or an aesthetic ideal that lets a home become a series of architectural planes with squared off windows and doors.  No pretending that we live in Morocco, Algeria, or that we are still part of the last colony of Spain. Street View on MacDill Avenue Ballast Point Neighborhood Still other development designers use a cross between minim...

DuLong Williams creates a painting with high energy sensations.  The path that she followed in this composition creates a balance between order and chaos.  The vase holds the center of the painting while the picture plane is moving all around the vase and its reflection.   It has lyrical beauty due to the use of numerous lines that weave and intertwine into a richly decorative surface.  The painting exudes joy.   Chinese Cloisonne Vase in the Mirror Oil on Canvas 15 X 30 Inches Framed - Signed DuLong - lower left Corner Dulong Williams is a still-life master.  In this painting she illustrates the royal Chinese cloisonne vase with its black background.  It sits in front of the mirror, such that at first glance it looks like there is a pair of matching vases on the hallway table.  Upon closer inspection, it is clear that the vase is sitting on a Chinese entrance table in front of a mirror creating a double image.  The vase...

Any Japanese Child can tell you about Izanagi and Izanami.  Unlike Christian or Jewish concepts, Izanagi and Izanami were central deities in the Japanese story of creation.  After heaven and earth separated out of chaos, they stood on a floating bridge in heaven and put their jeweled spear down into the ocean waters and created the Japanese archipelago. Taking a very long and complicated story, just like the Bible, I will make it short: Izanagi and Izanami had children.  The sun god was born from Izanagi's left eye and the moon god was born from his right eye, and the storm god was born out of his nose.  And of course, there were many islands as children too.  At one time, it was believed that Japan's royal family descended from this heavenly line of deities.  Having lived in Japan, Shinto is still a very active religion - " The Ways of the Gods ."  It is an ancient religion that has great respect for nature, spirits or energies that are within the...