Artistic Allies
By Colleen Koestner
Oct. 1, 2008 9:00 p.m.
As a scenic artist in the entertainment industry, Bridget Duffy has painted around wild animals, worked in Japan, and even helped to create a banner that broke through the Earth’s atmosphere on a NASA shuttle. But this past month she was given a much different artistic opportunity.
The Art Directors Guild’s exhibit “Art Unites III,” running through Sunday at the NoHo Gallery LA, gives artists in the entertainment industries (graphic artists, scenic artists, art directors and production designers) the chance to share personal work created on their own time.
Duffy, a 1975 fine arts alumna from UCLA, is just one of about 50 artists participating in the exhibit and also just one of a number of UCLA alumni featured.
According to Nicki La Rosa, special projects coordinator for the guild, “Art Unites” provides a unique opportunity for artists in the entertainment industry to create beyond the boundaries of a supervisor’s constraints.
“They’re beholden to what the vision of the director needs,” La Rosa said. “In a show like this, they’re not beholden to anything but their own creative magic.”
Each active member of its approximately 1,500-member chapter is invited to participate in the show and submit up to six pieces to the curator of NoHo Gallery LA. Of those six pieces, at least one is guaranteed to show and the rest are chosen based on the gallery’s spacial demands.
Admission is free, and all work is for sale.
“The most fulfilling thing about being an entertainment artist is that while I’m doing my artistry I get to be on stage listening to the actors or the violinist or working the Oscars as stars come parading down the red carpet,” Duffy said of the Hollywood scene. “I go from my ugly paint-splattered clothes and shoes to putting a ball gown on.”
Jim Fiorito, a scenic designer and 1963 UCLA theater alumnus, believes that “Art Unites” is an opportunity for audiences to be a part of the Hollywood scene while also peeling away the glitz and glamour to discover the individuals who help create it.
“Everyone goes to motion pictures and theater,” he said. “They’re familiar with what they see on screen, and now they can come in and see that these people are real and their art is real.”
When Denis Olsen, a member of the guild’s board of directors, first conceived the idea for “Art Unites,” he gutted the first floor of the organization to pave a temporary gallery for the art show. The move to NoHo Gallery LA since has allowed the endeavor to continue on a larger scale. La Rosa said that the exhibit has grown exponentially since its inception three years ago, garnering viewers that amass to an opening night head count of 800.
But if one thing hasn’t changed about the exhibit, it’s that it provides an outlet for artists who normally contribute to someone else’s vision.
While creating Greek vases for a set, Duffy encountered how precisely movie makers peg each detail of set design.
“The art directors came, and they brought several types of research. They want the coloration to look like research A; they want certain imagery like research B; they want the aging to look like research C,” she said.
When not painting sets for film, television and theater, Duffy enjoys “plain-air painting,” setting up an easel in an outdoor environment and taking inspiration from the elements.
As for Fiorito, he paints a variety of subjects in oils, from nudes to landscapes to abstracts.
Though he enjoys cooperating with other artists to produce a collaborative project, Fiorito said that complete control over a piece of art can sometimes feel more rewarding.
“All of my work in the show is mine from beginning to end. I thought it up. I composed it. I painted it. I selected the colors. I selected the subject matter,” he said.
In spite of the individualistic manner in which the gallery’s artwork was created, creators of “Art Unites” intended for the collected works to bring together all local members of the guild.
The exhibit, originally titled “Visual Jam Session,” was renamed to celebrate the merging of the Art Directors Guild local 800 chapter with the 816 chapter.
“Denis Olsen wanted to unite all the new members in our artistry and, without any political agenda, focus on what we do best, which is art,” La Rosa said.
“It was intended to unite artists within our membership. And now it’s grown to uniting everyone and anyone who comes to our show.”
La Rosa believes this unity provides a great opportunity to network, both among established and potential artists, in a business that is all about who you know.
“If students are film majors or television majors or communications majors, they can reference these artists and know who they are or even look them up on the Web site,” she said. “They can go in any direction from there and contact them if they wish.”
Fiorito said he appreciates the duality of working with others as an artist and working alone.
“The thing that I like about (the entertainment industry) is the communal aspects of the business. We might have a dozen or more scenic artists working on a project. … That’s a different kind of pleasure. You’re working with each other; you’re making a contribution.
“But it’s fine to go home into the studio and focus on your own work too. It becomes meditative. It’s just two different sides, and they’re both enjoyable.”
