Francesca Filanc

Category: Friends

A Visit To An Artist’s Studio

The artist, Tom Leedy, in front of his painting “Horses Aqua”

Earlier this week I got a call from a friend. Fran I’m calling to invite you over to see my artist studio. I was thrilled to receive his invitation!

Here are a few excerpts from my interview with Tom—

Tom: There were two things I knew when I was growing up: one, I was going to marry and have a family, and two, I loved Art! . . . the most amazing achievement and expression of what humans can do! To me there is nothing better than making a good piece of art! I built this space two years ago and I am thrilled with the studio!

Tom has his bachelors in fine art and was a professional artist for many years. He concentrated on stained glass because it was big in the 70s.

Having four children is a lot of mouths to feed so Tom went into the computer industry. He thoroughly enjoyed his work in the corporate world traveling to Japan among other countries.

Tom is a well-rounded individual with many passions; sports, all sports, but running daily and playing tennis two to three times a week, reading, traveling to Hawaii and excursions to see his grandchildren just to name a few.

Fran: Tom, I see a photo of your dad. Did your father’s love of art influence you to be an artist growing up?

Tom: I suppose it did subliminally. I remember looking at a portrait my father did of my brother Dave and I thought, I’m going to do that when I grow up. I was interested in all the things boys are interested in growing up: sports, rockets, cars, but I knew that art was my thing!

Tom has been painting throughout his life but when he retired he started a routine of painting every afternoon.

I will never forget the date I retired, May 31 2013, etched in my memory forever as a very Happy Day!

I couldn’t wait for the time in my life when I could be doing art every day. I realized one day talking with Martha that we could survive without a corporate salary. Then I did it. Kids were raised, out of school and on their feet. I was then free to go back to my first love and passion. I felt liberation, freedom to return to that! I feel like a kid in harmony with the world. I am grateful.

Now my days are my own –I take a run either up here in the hills or down on the beach. I think about painting and inevitably images come to mind that I want to capture on canvas. Then I come home, have my lunch and head out to the studio in the garden.

The creative process —If you could only do one thing to leave a piece of art, that is great, that would be Success! Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to be a businessman and build corporations -–awesome achievements in the business world, but great art. . . !

The struggle–I am maybe too much of a perfectionist to look at one of my pieces and say WOW, that’s it! The danger is that you are so examining of yourself that you overwork it! Not to leave it soon enough, know when to stop.

Tom has this quote on his wall from author John McPhee:

People often ask how I know when I’m done – not just when I’ve come to the end, but in all the drafts and revisions and substitutions of one word for another how do I know there is no more to do? When am I done? I just know. I’m lucky that way. What I know is that I can’t do any better; someone else might do better, but that’s all I can do; so I call it done.

Tom: I love that one by McPhee. Especially the part about knowing that he can’t do any better even though someone else might; I find that very liberating, very helpful in accepting one’s own work. I try to remember that!

Lately Tom has also started sculpting again. He is trying something new, carving in granite.

Fran: It seems to me Tom, that you are not afraid to start new things, to jump in with both feet and start something new.

Tom: It’s not scary for me to start a new process because I’ve never done it before. I am not afraid because it’s just for fun and to learn something new. I have confidence that I can draw and make forms and shapes! Can I do it again for a painting, to me, is the struggle because painting for me is the foremost form of art. I am a painter before a sculptor, a drawer before a painter, less scary to mess with sculpting. Like almost easier to excel when your expectations are lower, not so high.

“The Wave” in Granite

Tom: I carved a wave in stone – I find this amusing, cracks me up. Stone has seams and stuff like that. The process of working in stone is almost delicate in a way, even though it is granite! When you start to do something new you know how amazing it is and the amazement for the people who do that kind of art goes up! Blows me away!

Fran: Who are your mentors?

Tom: The guys who could refer to the real world not just the mind. I respond to it. Nobody touches Matisse in color, line and expression. Vermeer is a sheer marvel and Goya to name a few.

Tom’s studio is large, organized and light filled. He has photographs of people and relatives whose beauty or differences inspire him to paint. He has several pictures of his beautiful wife and his daughter. Look, wasn’t she a beautiful woman?! Tom exclaimed as we looked at a photo of his deceased mother-in-law.

Pressfield says it well:

Steven Pressfield, author – If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist? chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Tom: What I like about Pressfield’s statements is that they reflect the almost compulsive love artists must have for their work – something they can’t not do, regardless of how hard or scary it gets for them.

Tom: I am free again, back in my own skin and I am in the journey, I am starting the run. I think people who can do it well are amazing!

I came away from the morning with Tom totally inspired to get back into my own studio! As I left I couldn’t help but notice this inspiring quote on his studio door:

Art is not a thing. . .it is a way~! Elbert Hubbard

Bye for Now,

Francesca

The artist in his studio

February 20, 2014
Summers Growing Up in Del Mar

Del Mar was a sleepy little beach town when I was growing up, coined Gasoline Alley by some. There were at one time thirteen gas stations in our little town when Highway 101 was the main thoroughfare to the City of San Diego. The County Fair was a big deal for folks when it came to town! Within a few days of the County Fair closing the Races would start. WOW! Movie Stars all up and down the beach! Summer Days in Del Mar

Lucy and Desi Had a House on The Beach!

I remember summer mornings swimming in the ocean, warm, sleepy afternoons painting and playing with our Barbie and Madame Alexander Dolls and plastic horses with my sister and friends. Our step-grandpa was John Lloyd Wright and we lived right next door to him. We called him Grandbot. Grandbot invented five toys. The most famous one was Lincoln Logs. He also invented a toy called Wright Blocks. They were sooo much fun to play with!!! Wendy and I loved making horse corrals and pastures on the grass for our plastic horses to run! The most fun part of our play for me was setting up the elaborate houses and pastures and placing our plastic horses in them, dressing and undressing the dolls in different outfits!

We also loved playing Indians (Playing Indians) and I loved playing Queen and Geisha girl. I would get bored of those two games quickly because once I was dressed up there was nothing for me to do except sit on the throne and be waited on. I remember one time my sister and our friends bowed down in front of me and said Salami Salami Baloney Baloney! We all fell into gales of laughter! My mother would help me get all dressed up to be a Geisha in a kimono with an obi. But once I was dressed up all I could do was sit, the outfit was so binding! After all that I would ask my mother to please help me get out of the outfit!

As a child I would become bored with some of the games. Looking back on it I am so happy to be an adult! Sometimes with all the stresses of adult life we may look back on childhood as an idyllic time of endless freedom and happiness.But in actuality many of us have more freedoms as adults. I guess what I am saying is even with all the seriousness, grief or traumas that we go through, when immersed in happy work, exercise, helping others we can free the passion of life!

Happy summertime! On that note I am going to go take a swim in the ocean!

Happy Swimming or whatever you love to do for exercise in the summertime.

Have a safe, Happy Fourth of July!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

“Beauty”
By Francesca

July 2, 2013
Maui Revisited Thirty Six Years Later!

Betty’s Beach

When our oldest child was a baby I used to say Yvette would be upset when she got older because she lived in Hawaii for almost half of her first year of life. Too young to remember the amazing time we had! Although being exposed to such beauty at a young age definitely went into her psyche.

That was the year that I said I had three summers! My husband, Pete, was working for the government installing the first computer system for the sewage treatment plant at Pearl Harbor. Yvette was three months old and we lived in Honolulu from October to November of 1976. We then returned to live there for the months of May and June in 1977.

In those days my folks used to vacation at a friend’s private shack in Kihei, as Betty called it, twice a year. They would go for two weeks in the fall and two weeks in the spring. Betty had a guest house on stilts. Rolling grass and palm trees extended out in front to her private beach. (Beaches in Hawaii are public, but her little beach was so secluded, being at the end of the road, it was rarely used.)

The view took one’s breath away! And the beach had the softest creamiest colored sand. The way the sand felt between my toes was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The ocean felt like velvet on my skin and the snorkeling off Maui was stupendous! The most colorful coral and water teeming with fish I have ever experienced to this day! The colors of the coral were every color in the rainbow and more; vivid pink, orange, blue, purple, red, violet and white!

Pete and I had decided we had seen the best and knew that the island had been developed. So we chose to remember Maui the way we experienced the Island staying with my folks one week in the fall of 1976 and one week in the spring of 1977.

As our girls grew up we vacationed on the North Shore of Kauai several times.We also frequented the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawaii and Oahu, but I had never returned to Maui until two weeks ago.

Naturally the development has continued on the island in the intervening years, but nonetheless I was not disappointed and had a fabulous time!

The very first day we arrived I found Betty’s Beach. The property is now covered with condos but the beach is the same! My friend and I stayed at the Maui Coast Hotel in the town of Kihei.

The hotel has good prices and they have a great concierge service with Expedia. Whether or not one choses to do some of the many activities the island has to offer, it is great to hear the options! We met in the lobby of our hotel with other guests to hear the fun things available to do!

The author at the top of Mount Haleakala

We chose to go on a 45 minute helicopter ride that toured Molakai and Maui. We also chose to take the snorkeling trip to the Molokini Crater and lastly to take in a Luau at a neighboring hotel.

The day that we went on the helicopter tour, we then took a drive to Kula experiencing a botanical garden and then driving up to the top of Haleakala. The day was crisp and clear!

We ate dinner at the Kula Lodge on the way back to our hotel. It was beautiful and romantic. The views were spectacular and I would go there again even though the food was underwhelming.

The highlight of our snorkeling trip was a surprise sighting of whales fluke waving and breaching right in front of our boat! I was disappointed to discover that much of the coral has died and lost its color. Development and agriculture are the most significant threats to Hawaiian coral reefs because of runoff containing sediments (soil and silt) and chemicals and nutrients from lawns, farms, golf courses, construction sites, storm drains, cesspools and septic tanks. The runoff of sediment reduces sunlight penetration and smothers corals. The reef then starves to death because it can’t manufacture food from sunlight any longer.

We had a fun experience of being there the same week as some friends who showed us excellent snorkeling spots! Honolua Bay offered some great underwater sights. My friends had the amazing experience of swimming with a pod of dolphins back in the mid 1980s in this same Bay. Honolua has treacherous surf in the winter-time but amazing snorkeling in the spring and summer.

Snorkeling in Honolua Bay

After visiting with friends in Napili Point we drove up around the end of the island. The road is a single lane in areas and rules dictate that the person heading downhill has to back up and make room for the person coming uphill, often a dangerous situation and the map reads,

The road around this north side of Maui is desolate but very picturesque. It also has a very narrow section of road and a sheer cliff and no guard rail before you reach Kahakuloa. Not for faint-hearted. Drive at your own risk.

All in all the eight days were fun, beautiful and had new surprises to offer!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

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May 16, 2013
SUMMER DAYS –PAINTING AND PLAYING INDIANS

The Author & Artist in her first Studio

My mother, Pat Welsh, realized I had an aptitude for art at a very young age. Gallery of my current work. In the summertime she taught painting to some of my friends, my sister and me. Mother would encourage me to paint on warm summer afternoons when we were tired of playing imagination games or had had enough beach time for that particular day. I recall so vividly painting in the afternoon after lunch as I matured into adolescence.

To this day I actually remember the upwelling of joy I felt when painting some particular paintings at ages six to eleven years old. My Mom thought them special herself and saved these paintings, having them framed for my oldest daughter Yvette when she born.

Long before I vacationed with my husband and children on the Snake River in Wyoming I recollect painting a scene depicting two Indian men with their canoe. One Indian was leaning into the canoe, the other Indian to the side with a thick forest in the background. I took hours to paint this painting in watercolors. I really felt the Indians getting ready to take the canoe out onto the water. Possibly the games I had played as a very young girl influenced my deep emotion in painting this scene. I loved playing imagination games and I believe my mother encouraged us to play outdoors.

Indians was one of my favorite games. I was a squaw princess and my name was Falling Waters. I have no idea where I got that idea! But I loved the name and no other child could borrow the name, Not Even for one day of play. A little bossy I would say! In those days we had a huge area of Eucalyptus and Monterey Cypress trees growing out of sandy soil. It was a great place to play Indians! We also had an area on our property that had solid clay, which enabled us to have fun making clay pots and cups like the Indians did back in the day!

Playing Indians

We were a neighborhood of girls and we all played together. There were at least seven or eight, Barbie, Katherine, Patty, Annette, Mija, Tina, my sister Wendy and me. There were actually more girls, but they were older than we. They played with us in a more in charge role like being mothers’ helpers. We adored these older girls, Joan, Trudy, and Chris.

On some occasions I remember playing at a friend’s house observing wide-eyed while the older sister got ready for a date, dreaming about the day that I would go to a dance all dressed up in a beautiful shiny dress having been given a corsage by a boy!

Painting is something I have enjoyed doing my whole life thanks to my mother’s encouragement to paint! As an abstract artist I paint my thoughts and feelings.

Here’s to lazy Summers Swimming Painting Gardening sipping Ice tea in beautiful environments!

Happy Summer!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

July 10, 2012
SUMMER DAYS – FOURTH OF JULY, DEL MAR

OUT OF THIS WORLD

The 4^th of July is just around the corner and I am reminded of summer days growing up in a sleepy little beach town in southern California, Del Mar. Not so sleepy now, but back then it actually was, despite the fact that it was a Mecca for the movie stars.

Stay tuned for more in my Blog on Movie Stars and Del Mar California once the racing season begins in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, here is a true story about lazy Summer Days Growing up in Del Mar.

My parents had a 4^th of July party every year. My father was a lawyer in Los Angeles. Daddy commuted by train, leaving from the train station on Monday morning and arriving home on Friday night. Orange County was considerably far away to drive in those days. Back in the day, home fireworks were legal. They were illegal to buy in San Diego and maybe in Los Angeles too, but in Orange county fireworks were sold. I remember vividly Daddy driving to Orange County a week or two before the fourth of July to buy fireworks for our party. The excitement my sister Wendy and I felt was palpable! With anticipated glee Wendy and I counted the days till we would be able to light our fireworks!

It was like Christmas in July when he would come home with all the beautifully wrapped fireworks! Packages labeled with the names: Sparklers, Sky Rockets, Black Snakes, Fountains, Roman Candles. Wendy and I adored the sparklers! It was like shooting stars on a stick. In the night air you could write with them and they twinkled like little stars or fireflies. Being California girls born and raised we did not have fireflies. We did experience them when we traveled to see our grandparents in Pennsylvania.

The morning of the fourth would always start with a swim in the ocean. Oh, how good the water felt! After breakfast Wendy and I and the other girls in the neighborhood would have a parade. I think it must have been one of my mother’s ideas. We dressed up like revolutionary war characters and would march up and down the streets once I started playing the flute. I played I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy and other patriotic songs. Wendy brought up the rear playing the drums.

FIREFLY

The evening festivities started about 5:00 or 6:00. So exciting! Wendy and I got to have our Black Snakes on the driveway! For those of you who are not familiar with these fireworks, after lighting a small tablet, the tablet starts smoking and an ash resembling a snake is created via an intumescent reaction. Then it was all we could do to wait for darkness to fall and light our sparklers.

As much as I loved the 4^th of July there was only one part that I dreaded, making it a some what bittersweet experience. Being hugged tightly by the grown-ups! By the 4^th, I had had three weeks of ocean and sun. Back in the 1950’s and 60’s they did not have sunscreen except for the hideous white paste, Mercurochrome. So by the 4^th of July my back was red as a lobster! My front side would be all freckled and brown but my back would be on fire with sunburn. I would try to tell people please don’t hug me because I am sunburned but everyone was drinking and smoking and my little voice did not get heard. So I would wince when the company arrived and wince when they left! Otherwise, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, watermelon —Yummy. J

Once it was dark the real fun began! Daddy would give us our long anticipated sparklers. After that Daddy would start with the big fireworks.

OOOH AHHHH We would sigh — SOOOO Beautiful!!!!

After we finished our family fireworks show, the whole family walked up the street to the top of the hill to watch the spectacular fireworks from the nearby fairgrounds. It was really dark back then so you saw lots of stars. We had lots of bats in Del Mar and on one occasion a bat flew into my hair and I screamed! We sat up on the vacant lot and waited till 9:00 pm when the fireworks started, oohing and ahing at the colors, all the colors of the rainbow brilliantly lighting up against the inky black background.

Artists’ works are influenced by events and emotions of their lives. Perhaps my subconscious mind took the colors and hues of those remembered fireworks into the artwork that I am producing today.

Happy painting and dreaming… Fireworks in the sky!

“Saturday, in the park, think it was the fourth of July.” Chicago

Chicago Performing Saturday in The Park

RED PLANET

I hope you all have a Safe Happy Fourth of July!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

July 3, 2012
BIRTHDAY LUNCH FOR A FRIEND

Birthday girl with flowers and Vegetables

May I take you out to lunch for your birthday?

Fran, I’d rather just come over and have a good girl talk visit.

We talk about deep things — things that matter to us, our children, grandchildren, gardening, and spiritual things, about where we have come from, the sad times and the happy ones. How as we get older, we are each more content in our own skin. That is a gift of growing older. Not worrying so much what others think, but appreciating our own gifts, accepting the struggles and being more present in the present moment. After all, it is all any of us have. There is that saying, The past is gone, the future is yet to be and where I am is in the present.

Author arranging flowers

A friend related to me the other day about the book The Artist’s Way. I read the book years ago. This friend reminded me about how an artist should take an outing once a week by herself – An Artist’s Date With Herself. Whatever it is that turns her on. Going to an outdoor market, going antiquing, going browsing down a tree-lined street in the city. In this way we open ourselves up to the beauty in life and how we fit ourselves into it. When we age gracefully in a spiritual sense we are coming more into our own of who we really are and what gifts we give and have given to the world. Some of us are just coming into our own as we mature in years.

As Leanne and I talked I prepared leek vegetable soup, green salad from my garden and locally caught sea bass from the Del Mar Farmer’s Market bathed in lemon juice and cooked in a skillet.

Recipes

Lemon Lime-water with Sprigs of Mint
Fill two glasses with ice, add fresh slices of lime and lemon, squeeze juice of one slice of lemon and lime over the ice. Rim the glass with lemon and lime, add water. Garnish with sprigs of mint.

Vegetable Leek Soup
Slice four large fresh leeks into one-inch sections. Rinse several times in water to remove sand. Using your fingers peel back all layers of sliced leeks to remove any remaining sand. In a heavy cast-iron skillet saute four chopped cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoon Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. Add to this one large chopped onion and leeks. Cook until color is translucent. Transfer to a soup pot. Dissolve 3 tablespoons Rapunzel Vegetable Broth concentrate in hot water. Add about a quart of water or enough to cover vegetables that have just been sautéed along with the vegetable broth. Dice one to two Roma tomatoes and add to soup. Add pepper and salt to taste along with Garam Masala seasoning, Turmeric, a dash of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. (I also added mint, ¼ cup cilantro, chives, oregano and basil fresh from my garden). Simmer for half an hour to forty-five minutes. Spoon into bowls and top with a little grated Parmesan cheese and toasted sunflower seeds.

Salad

Salad
Fresh greens from the garden
Chopped mint, cilantro and basil
1-2 sliced Roma tomatoes

Dressing
in a jar add two whole cloves garlic,
1/2 cup best organic olive oil,
to that add 1/3 cup good quality fruit
vinegar or vinegar with a little jam mixed in for flavor.
(I used fig and currant vinegar.)
Salt and Pepper to taste.
For people not sensitive to garlic, chop up
two cloves garlic and add to dressing. Shake well.

Rim the salad bowl with garlic; pour about 1/4 to 2/3 cup salad dressing in bottom of bowl. To this add your greens, tomatoes, top with toasted sunflower seeds, and feta cheese. Toss just before serving.

Sea Bass

Sea Bass

Sauté in coconut oil 1-2 cloves garlic, add to this the sea bass washed in the juice of two lemons. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté with chives from the garden, leeks, one sliced tomato, and lemons. I cooked the fish with some finely chopped lemon on top. Cooking times will vary depending on the thickness of the fish. Sauté one side and about half way through turn it over to finish cooking. Serve on plates with Gloria’s Pico de Gallo and tomatillo salsa artfully spooned over the top of the fish and then sprinkle with fresh cilantro and sunflower seeds. (See my March 8 ^th 2012 blog for the recipes)

We walked in the garden to collect the vegetables for the salad. We picked flowers for her birthday bouquet. It had rained yesterday morning so as we wandered through the garden and the air smelled fresh and the plants and flowers that we picked had little droplets of water caressing each leaf and petal.

We sipped lemon lime-water with sprigs of mint and feasted at the beautiful table. The food was delicious.

Here’s to having deep conversations speaking of the art of living a fulfilling life over delicious food in art filled environments.

Bye for now

Francesca

June 6, 2012