I am very pleased with the artwork gracing the walls for our Premiere Exhibition. There is so much great work created by the participating Members of the Pasadena Society Of Artists, it is hard to choose which fine sculptures, paintings, assemblage, photographs and prints, should fill the gallery. I selected this group of artists because each has a distinct personality fused in their art, not to mention how dedicated they are to producing collectibles of value, and how helpful they have been in making the show a tangible reality. I thank them deeply.

I use to be an art-snob, holding an arbitrary standard in my brain, to quickly dismiss anything that did not measure up. However, now I appreciate life more when it is spiced with the unexpected, and realize that diversity evaporates within a small frame of mind. Every work of art has a story and it is always exciting to meet a new one.

It is amazing how one builds a relationship with resident artwork, like my father's 1959 gouache painting of a winter house and naked trees, which I passed on the narrow curving stairway many times a day as a child. As we moved from house to house this painting was always had a presence. My imagination would speculate who lived there and why Dad painted that desolate manner so exactly. It made me long for summer. This piece can be viewed as permanent part of the Smollin West Coast Collection, which I saved from death forty-one years after its beginning because it felt like a dear companion. I had the original frame restored, the white matt freshened, and it still looks fabulous. It has a new life that can only be appreciated from a moderate distance, and then you can see smoke rising slowly from the chimney as an optical illusion. Of course now, I am also blessed to live with a whole new set of characters I would like you to meet.

Unique works of art offer such vital relief to American-mass-culture, so prepare to set a spiritual tone in your home and surround yourself with beauty.

     – – Mark