Bruno Zupan is one of those gentlemen with European manners. He always makes me feel special, and I’ve heard he makes everyone feel that way.
Plus, he’s a very, very talented artist.
As I walked from one venue to the next to see Bo Bartlett’s exhibit at ArtWalk, I was thinking about how much time and effort it takes to organize such an event. But wouldn’t it be great to do it every other year, with different artists?
Bruno could be the 2013 artist and Mike Howard the 2015 artist.
Why not? They’re both accomplished artists with local ties who are well-known outside of Columbus.
Back to Bruno, when I saw him at the W.C. Bradley Museum at Bo’s exhibit, he invited me to his studio.
The next day, he called and asked me to visit the next morning.
Since I’d been to his house, he and his wife, Jane, had added a complete studio in his back yard. It’s a beautiful studio that looks like a two-story space with skylights.
Bruno has an exhibit in Boston that opened last weekend, and he was preparing 40 paintings for the gallery.
They are gorgeous. He’s also working in a new medium -- watercolors and they are, as you might expect, spectacular.
So ArtWalk organizers -- you might want to consider Bruno for the next one.
A soap opera diva speaks
I’m proud to call Louise Shaffer a friend. When I met her, she was easing out of working on daytime dramas because she said the trend was going toward younger actors, and she was of a certain age.
She later wrote for the soaps and is currently writing novels.
I’m a big Louise Shaffer fan.
So I emailed her last week to get her thoughts on the cancellations of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.”
Here’s her reply:
“I’m never on the cutting edge, but the day before ABC lowered the boom, I had posted on (stepson) Colin’s new website about reality TV killing off scripted television.
“As to the death of AMC and OLTL, I have to admit I haven’t been watching any of the shows myself but I do feel badly for my friends who are now out of work. Beyond that, I guess I feel that for a long time now the real problem has been that the advertisers have been pressuring the networks to deliver a very young demographic, and the soaps are a verbal medium which generally appeals to an older audience.
“The soaps are about talking and relationships -- that’s what they’ve always done best -- and younger audiences want more action and special effects and all that stuff. So the way I see it, in an attempt to draw an audience they never could have had, the suits made serious mistakes which have lost them the loyal fans they did have.
“I think some form of serial story telling in the soap tradition will survive -- it’s too good a format not to -- and it will probably be on the internet.”
Thank you, Louise.
