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How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break

From writers, musicians, and actors, to tech magnates, to mom & pop businesses and food, beverage, or cosmetics entrepreneurs, New York-based startup attorney Michael Prywes (www.Proud.Lawyer) takes the audience on a deep dive into the world of creative business building. Every innovator has an important story to tell, and lessons to share. For more information, call 212.206.9104 or visit www.Proud.Lawyer
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How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
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Now displaying: Category: art
Dec 25, 2016

Nelson Ruger grew up along the beaches of southern New Jersey, finding his stomping grounds among Ocean City’s 7th Street and North Street beaches and boardwalks.  Loving art from an early age, he dove into a career as a theatrical artist, designing scenery and lighting for stage productions up and down the eastern United States, lending his creative style from tiny one-room shows to huge regional theaters. In 1998, he fulfilled his dream of designing on Broadway.  With this life goal achieved so young, Nelson began searching for new horizons and artistic possibilities. Nelson eventually left the theatre industry to pursue his surf painting and zen watercolor art.

He formed the ‘Nelson Makes Art!’ Studio in Virginia, where he spent several happy years developing commissioned pieces in his flip-flops. ‘Nelson Makes Art!’ then led him far far west to the opposite coast of sunny Los Angeles.  As Creative Director at RGH Themed Entertainment, Nelson worked with a diverse team of artists across many disciplines, designing theme parks and attractions around the world.  

In 2014, Nelson discovered a passion uniting two of his favorite things - painting, and tropical beverages.  This led him to his most exciting works to date - the Huli Pau Glassware series - painted glassware featuring the beautiful waves of oceans from around the world. He's the guy who believes you deserve to live the life you've always wanted.  And he's gonna do everything he can to help get you there.

Notes from the show:

He didn't like the "drama" offstage of theatre. He went to work for Apple. He was invited to build a theme park in Los Angeles.

He opened an Etsy store.

Can Infringement on Etsy, Ebay, or CafePress be Considered "Fair Use?"

Helped by Amy Colella

Kim Bloomberg Designs

The One of a Kind Show

Winsor-Newton paintbrushes

Liquitex enames to be discontinued.

Gordon Firemark

Jason Fellerman Glass

Buck's Rock

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly

James Schramko's SuperFast Business

SoCal vs. Hawaii

Ocean City, NJ

A Crash Course on Taking on Centuries-Old Brands... and Succeeding

The Virgin Way by Richard Branson

Simon Sinek's TED talk

No, No, No, No, No, Yes. Insights From a Creative Journey: Motivation & Self-Improvement (Creative & Innovation series Book 1) by Gideon Amichay

etsy.com/nelsonmakesart

facebook.com/nelsonmakesart

instagram.com/nelsonmakesart

NelsonMakesArt.com

Mar 17, 2016

Rhoda Sherbell is an American sculptor whose work has been compared to Rodin's. She has been commissioned by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY as well as private commissions from Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Aaron Copland, among a host of other celebrities. Her sculptures are in the permanent collections of twenty-five museums throughout the country, including the the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Jewish Museum, the State Museum of Connecticut, William Benton Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. She is a member of the National Academy Museum, and is on the board of the Portrait Society of America. In 1960, Rhoda was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters alongside Philip Roth and Norman Mailer. In 2013, the National Association of Women Artists awarded Ms. Sherbell as Artist of the Year, an award previously bestowed upon such luminaries of the art world as Mary Cassatt and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

Notes from the show:

 

She grew up going to Brooklyn Museum of Art; she didn't love Rembrandt's as her father had. She loved the Egyptian rooms; she would hug the giant cat sculptures.

Her father believed you weren't a complete person if you didn't have a fill exposure to the arts and literature.

Her parents wanted her to go to Cooper Union, but the artists she admired were all at the Arts Students League. She asked for, and received, a scholarship, and asked to study with Reginald Marsh and William Zorach.

She was by far the youngest student there in the 1950s, and Zorach took her under his wing and called her "Baby." He quickly asked MOMA to have her teach sculpting during Christmas break.

Rhoda works on a half-dozen to a dozen pieces at a time.

Her focus now is a series called "The Woman's Question."

She was not interested in portraiture until Zorach asked her to do a portrait of him and his wife Marguerite.

She was not and is not interested in commercialism and wonders if it is a fault. She is interested in exploring "truth."

It was tough to be a woman in sculpture in the 50s and 60s. But she became an academician very early.

"You never feel like you arrived. There's always another hill to climb."

Oronzio Maldarelli didn't want her to be in the American Academy of Arts and Letters because she was a woman, and it would be "a wasted vote."

The foundry with which she initially worked would ignore her and only take care of men. She eventually switched to "Roman Bronze."

The owner of the Portland Sea Dogs Boston Red Sox affiliate commissioned her to sculpt "American Baseball Family."

Zorach didn't use tools, but Rhoda likes tools--she will use anything that works.

Rhoda doesn't sketch, because then the sketch becomes the work of art, and she doesn't want to do a second version.

Rhoda would not take photographs of her subjects.

She recommends going to Shu Swamp Nature Preserve in Mill Neck, NY.

She sculpts from memory, sometimes in the near dark.

You should always strive for a "unity of opposites" in line and volume.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is her favorite museum.

Artists must acknowledge and try to connect with an audience.

She loves Pierre Puvis de Chavannes' paintings.

Her discovery that "Las Meninas" by Velasquez was painted impasto.

"Spirit of the Dance" killed William Zorach.

"Artists need a William Zorach in their life."

Rhoda always knows when to stop sculpting a certain piece.

Yogi Berra was lots of fun. His wife was fiercely protective of him. He wanted "Sherbell portrait" like Casey Stengel had.

Percy and Joanne Uris were Rhoda's Medici-like patrons.

The story of Aaron Copland's confused Great Dane.

The camaraderie of MacDowell's Artists Colony and Rhoda's decision to leave.

"To be an artist, you need to know who you are.""

"If you're a person of purpose, you have to say 'My time is valuable, I'm not going to live forever. Protect the time..."

This podcast hosted by New York attorney Michael Prywes was sponsored by Prywes Schwartz, PLLC, a law firm devoted to artists and entrepreneurs.

This podcast may contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.

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