The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

8 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, January 7, 2009 Basic Black by Arthur Black How to stirrup the art world Emerging artist alert: have you seen the paintings of Cholla? Abstracts, primarily. Watercolours for the most part. Stunning. I'm no expert on the visual arts, but it seems to me Cholla's canvases positively resonate with glimmers of A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. But don't take my word for it - ask John Yimin. He IS an expert. He's a California art lover and an art critic - and he's absolutely smitten with the works of the painting phenomenon. "The brush strokes Cholla uses to get his vision down on paper," writes Yimin, "the watercolours' dance...and especially the fascinating completion of the works...grabs me and holds me with the fire of Pollock and the fixed gaze of Resnick." High praise for an artist who's only 23 years old with decades of creativity stretching out before him like the Woodbine racetrack. And Cholla appears to be embracing his destiny at full gallop. Already he's been a featured guest on Martha Stewart's television show. He's also had exhibitions in San Francisco and New York. Best of all, for those of us who lack the deep pockets of major art collectors, Cholla's works are still fairly affordable. You can pick up some of his earlier works for as for as little as $900 U.S. Even his best canvases seldom fetch more than $2500.00. But my advice would be hurry. Cholla's got a landscape called The Big Red Buck that will soon be featured in an art show called Arte Laguna in Mogliano Veneto, Italy. Once his work gets international recognition his prices are bound to go supernova. Yep. Major shows in U.S. galleries. National exposure on television. An upcoming gig at one of the most prestigious art exhibitions in Europe... Not bad. For a horse. Yes, Cholla is of the equine persuasion. A coppercoloured buckskin mustang /quarterhorse cross born on a Nevada ranch in 1985. Cholla might have spent his life rounding up confused little dogies and absent-minded cows had not his owner, an amateur artist, noticed that he loved to pick up things with his teeth. On a whim, she tacked a piece of paper on a corral post, stroked a paintladen artist's paintbrush across it and held the brush out to Cholla. The rest was Art History 101. Cholla graduated to an industrial-strength easel which stands in his corral. Nobody rotates the paper or manipulates the easel. Cholla chomps down on the brush and paints what he likes. But is it Art? His customers certainly think so. So does Kurt Kohl, an art curator based in McLean, Virginia. "(Cholla) is creating art on the level of a young child," says Kohl. "There may not be a lot of thought behind the process, but one could ask the same question about Pollock or De Kooning or Rothko." Indeed. Or of Jan Fabre, Subodh Gupta and Jeff Koons. Gupta gave us the mammoth skull made out of ice buckets which sits outside the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. We can be grateful to Jan Fabre for the giant bug impaled on a seven-foot high steel needle in Leuven, Belgium. And who can forget Jeff Koons' seminal work, Three Ball 50/50 Tank, which, last I heard was still enthralling audiences at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan? It consists of three basketballs floating in distilled water in a half-filled glass tank. Philistine? Moi? Well, maybe just a little. Seems to me that if Art was a game of tennis, the lads could be accused of playing with the net down. But what do I know? Art's flickering standards have long been a source of deep confusion to me. Take the case of Newport Nude, a painting by Sir Gerald Kelly which was bought by a public gallery in England in 1947 but then removed from public view and locked in a vault on the grounds that the woman portrayed in the painting was...well, nude. Very nude, if you catch my drift. Indecent and what not. This past summer, what with our new relaxed standards and all, Newport Nude was re-instated in the public gallery. Alas, the authorities have seen fit to ban the painting once more. Not because the model is full-frontal nude. No problem with that. But she has...a lit cigarette in her hand. If Cholla could read this, you know what kind of a laugh he'd be having. Classified Business Directory LARRY Debra Inglis Interior Design JACKSON PLUMBING & WATER CONDITIONING Automotive Specialties BRIAN COUVIER Licenced Technician 117 Mill St. Orono L0B 1M0 "Look to us for all your general repairs to most make & models" Rims · Tires · Brakes · Tune-Ups Custom Exhaust Systems Castrol Engine Oil & Filter Service Specials Car & Truck Accessories Professional Installation Custom Drapery "Energy Saving Specials" & LDR CONTRACTING * Snow Removal * * Bobcat & Minihoe Service * Dump Trailer Service * * Tree Planting & Stump Removal * · Backhoe Work/Trenching · Pump Repairs & Installation · UV Lights · Water Softeners · Free Estimates For Friendly, Expert Service 905-9 9 83-9 9 919 Luke or Lindsay Porter Dealer H. 905-983-9924 C. 905-914-6979 Phone: 905-987-4636 91 Cowanville Rd., Newcastle, ON L1B 1L9 JOE MENDONCA Manager 905-9 983-5 5900 4312 Conc. #6, Kendal RESTORATION & General Contracting Inc. Emergency Service Water · Fire · Smoke Wind Damage Custom Homes Additions · Renovations Interior/Exterior Certified · Licenced Insured I&T Carpenters · Licensed · 27 Years Experience · Custom Homes · General Contracting · Additions · House Trim · Stairs · Decks ·Windows ·Doors · Barns And all carpentry related work. 24 Hour Orono Veterinary Hospital Complete Residential Renovations, Additions and New Structures Windows · Soffit · Interlocking Waterproofing · Doors · Roofing Ceramic Tile · Siding Eavestroughing · Chimney Repair ~ Specializing in Stone Facing ~ Fine Finishes by T. Osmond Furniture Repair and Restoration Caning · Veneering · Carving French Polishes & Wicker Repair COMPLETE Dr. Derek de Haan Dr. Mathew Stephenson 30 Cobbledick St., Orono L0B 1M0 Tel: 905-983-9010 Fax: 905-983-5308 Experience You Can Trust 905-786-2477 Authorized Consumers Gas Dealer Independent Lennox Dealer Furnaces · Air Conditioners and Appliances Heating · Electrical Air Conditioning ROBERT E. JACKSON "We're here to serve you" 6221 Main Street, Orono 983-6 TYLER SMITH sales representative "KRACO" CARPENTRY & CONTRACTING Since 1976 · Custom Built Homes · Renovations/Additions · Designing 905·983·3393 Award Winning Real Estate Service * Residential * Farms * Rural Properties * Investment 9 0 5 -6 6 9 7 -7 7172 adamrci@bellnet.ca ADAM CUMMINGS IVAN JONES TONY FANARA Orono 905-983-5303 Hampton 905-263-9988 FREE ESTIMATES Call Mike Bonneau 6495 Leskard Rd., Orono L0B 1M0 Mobile: 905-435-4181 Home: 905-983-9005 Orono Weekly Times 905-983-5301 Rudy Kraayvanger www.homesmiths.ca 905-623-1101 www.kraco.ca