Michael Crespo
Featured Artist
(Salute will be auctioned at the Grand Auction on May 8, 2010)
Born and raised in Louisiana, Michael Crespo earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his M.F.A. from Queens College in New York. His oil paintings and watercolors have been exhibited across the country in many public and private collections including the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Nordstrom, Inc in Seattle and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Crespo is also a best-selling author of four art instruction books. Crespo is currently a Professor at LSU where he has taught for over 30 years and received honors such as Distinguished Professor of the Arts in 1998 and Outstanding Teacher for the College of Design in 2000. Today he lives, teaches and paints in Baton Rouge with his wife Libby Johnson and their two dogs, Rose and Lucca. Michael Crespo is represented locally by the David Lusk Gallery where is work can be viewed, commissioned or purchased. He is currently working on an original work to be auctioned at the 2010 Art of Good Taste Grand Auction on May 8.
“As I would have it, the painting cycle parallels my life cycle. There seems to be a continual unfolding – growth. The vocabulary of my motif slowly expands along my methods of making. There is always re-visitation, a resumption of a subject previously viewed; perhaps in a slightly shifted light, or temperature, or as the principal in a thought on another day, in another field of mind, in another act of doing.” – Michael Crespo
A Country Untouched, 2010
Patrick Memmott
2010 La Dolce Vita Original Artwork
A native of the Napa Valley, Patrick's love of art springs from the beautiful surroundings of the place he calls home, California's beautiful Wine Country. Horace wrote that "adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant." In Patrick's case, it was his colorblindness, which led him to unearth his talent. From an early age learning to identify colors the way the world perceived them was instrumental in perfecting his artistic skills. He has attended many art classes and seminars over the years, but his technique remains largely self-taught. Although his passion still lies in the monochromatic beauty of charcoal or graphite sketches and rubbings, paint has become the medium of his expression. Most recently he was the featured artist for the acclaimed Napa Valley Rootstock 2009, and he continues to create original, imaginative and commissioned pieces of all mediums. Patrick still lives in Napa Valley. He spends most of his days working in the hospitality facet of the wine industry, sharing his personal joy and love of his native culture with the many visitors to the Napa Valley each year.
"Art is my passion, not my business. I have always felt as if the creative freedom and joy and fun would be completely sucked out of my pieces when I began to take it too seriously. That is why I have never directly chosen a path as a career artist; I'll leave that to the professionals and do what I do best, which is imagine, see, begin and love what I create." -Patrick Memmott
Jay Etkin
Etkin will create a live piece during the Patrons Dinner on May 7, 2010 which will be auctioned at the end of the evening.
For the last thirty years, Etkin has considered community involvement an important facet of this busy art career. As far back as 1971 (having just graduated with an art degree from Brooklyn College in New York), Jay immersed himself in teaching art classes at inner-city daycare centers throughout New York. He was later funded through the South Brooklyn Council for the Arts to conduct printmaking workshops for at-risk teens in Brooklyn.
Jay continued to create his own work while teaching throughout N.Y.C. Etkin's life in Memphis started in 1983 with an exhibition at the Memphis College of Art. Jay immersed himself in the art scene quickly supporting and advocating the rich visual arts talent he encountered here. Ever committed to his personal work as a painter, Etkin also saw great value in supporting various causes outside the arts community. His idea was to involve the arts in all areas of life in Memphis. Whether it be St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Heart Association or Friends for Life, the arts could be used as a tool for fundraising while putting emphasis on the larger value of the arts in a growing city. Etkin's work is in corporate and private collections throughout the United States, Geneva, Switzerland, Israel, and Japan.
The following pieces will be on auction at Brooks Uncorked on April 16, 2010:
Joanne Berg
Shelley Hopkins
Suzy Hendrix
Ashley Leem
Nancy Willingham
Barbara Lieberman
John Robinette
Adam Geary
The following pieces will be on auction at the Patrons Dinner on May 7, 2010:
Rose Harrington Brown
The following pieces will be on auction at the Grand Auction on May 8, 2010:
Lisa Weiss
Terri Panitz