Michael Toenges

Michael Toenges is a Cologne, Germany based artist whose paintings make great use of color and light. As he explained at his solo exhibition at the Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, MA a couple of weeks ago, he paints in twilight type of darkness. And indeed, when the gallery lights were lowered, the paintings glowed.

Michael said that he grew up in Germany where there is "northern light" as opposed to Italy where there is brighter "southern light". Although in Italy the light is diffused in a warm and sort of foggy way.

Michael's show is up until May 19, 2009 so if you are in Boston, stop by the Howard Yezerski Gallery at 460 Harrison Ave in the new Sowa arts district.

Martina Secondo Russo

Martina Secondo Russo is the artist who painted the wonderful women who form the basis of my bathing beauty photos. Other unknown artists added some flourishes to her work that then created a new series of artworks. Martina emailed me with the background to the bathing beauty series and also sends a link to her website which is terrific! I love her work! Please visit her site to see her art:


mfgallery.net and click on 'martina' at the bottom of the page.

Marvin The Poet

We used to call Marvin "The Mayor of Greenwich Village". That is until he moved to the very trendy Lower East Side. He used to be a gallery owner, representing some of the best emerging artists of the time. Now he is an accomplished poet whose work is haunting, despairing and cutting. Just like one needs a biscotti with every cup of espresso, art needs poetry.

Marvin is a fitting cresendo close to Poetry month.

Here is a video of Marvin in action.