Carol E. Frappier, in her Placitas studio

Portrait oil painting, Aryeh,by C. E. Frappier

Signpost featured artist of the month
C. E. Frappier Portrait Studio and Gallery to open in Placitas

—BILL DIVEN
In the radical '60s, Carol Frappier quickly discovered her love of Renaissance style made her the odd artist out.

She would need to find her own path, she realized, leading her through decades of study and the classical galleries of Europe. But it would take an unexpected move to New Mexico before doubts disappeared and the disparate elements of her search came together for the portrait artist about to open her own studio and gallery in Placitas.

“When I was in art school, it was the age of abstract expressionism,” Frappier said. “Traditional painting was frowned on.

“If you wanted to paint anything that looked like anything, they laughed at you.”

In other words, after graduating from the Boston College of Art, she was on her own. So she sought teachers and spent much of the 1990s living on the southern coast of France, with its expanse of sky and ocean.

“I went to most of the great museums in Europe and saw classical paintings with my own eyes,” she said. “I was trying to figure out how they did it.

“How did they get that luminosity? I couldn't figure it out.”

Back in Massachusetts in 2002, Frappier (pronounced frah-pea-A) was beginning to find the tree-covered landscape confining, when she met Anthony Mastrandrea. A financial planner at the time, he had vacationed in Santa Fe for a week in the 1980s and was himself ready for a change.

“”Everything gelled,” he said. “I just wanted to make a dramatic move to a place that had a lot of mystery to me.” Frappier's sole connection to the Southwest was an appreciation for Georgia O'Keeffe begun in art school with a Life magazine article clipped and saved when the legendary New Mexican was one of the few women artists prominent in the male-dominated ‘60s.

“She always stood her ground as an artist,” Frappier said. “I thought I would like to see where she painted.”

After the couple relocated to Placitas, through her membership in the Portrait Society of America she discovered classical Santa Fe artist Anthony Ryder and took a two-week class with him, followed by an intensive twelve-week course in 2005.

“It was heaven,” she said. The decades of preparation met a master of process, giving her the skill and confidence to open a studio and seek commissions, she said.

The process is painstaking routinely taking sixty hours to produce an oil portrait, starting with scores of photos of the subject and a small impressionistic sketch to gather light and colors. An increasingly complex sketch follows on Masonite board prepared with gesso Frappier mixes from scratch, using traditional materials.
The sketch is first covered by an underpainting, which she then covers over in detail to achieve the depth and radiance of the classical style which, despite the opinion of her early teachers, has held court for hundreds of years.

The cost equates to a studio portrait by a top-quality photographer, she said.

The C. E. Frappier Portrait Studio and Gallery, at 3 Homesteads Road Suite D, in Placitas, will hold its grand opening September 15 through 17, starting with a reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. that Friday and continuing from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. During the weekend, Frappier will conduct portrait demonstrations.

Mastrandrea has shifted his career from financial planning to managing and marketing the studio and gallery, which will be open by appointment by calling 771-1896.

A sample of Frappier's work can be found on the Signpost Web site, www.sandovalsignpost.com, with additional examples on www.placitasartists.com, a site featuring local artists.

“Purple–Orange–Green” to open at Beautiful Spaces gallery

Stoneware, basketry, and paintings in water color and pastel will be featured in “Purple–Orange–Green,” a show at Beautiful Spaces, 416 Central Avenue SE, in Albuquerque. Featured artists are Sally Rutledge, owner of Beautiful Spaces, Doreen Goodlin, of White Spirit Dove Studio, and Sylvia York and Shari Adkinsson, both members of Magenta Art School. Opening receptions are on September 22, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. and September 23, 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. The show will run from September 22 through October 21. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday from11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. For further information, call 883-4815.

New Mexico Bead Society plans Albuquerque-area bead crawl

Join members of the New Mexico Bead Society on Saturday, September 9, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., for the first-ever NMBS Bead Crawl. Many of your favorite Albuquerque-area bead shops are participating and offering special values to Bead Crawl participants. Visit your favorite bead store to pick up a list of participating stores, special offers, and a Bead Crawl map. Or log on to newmexicobeadsociety.org for additional information.

The New Mexico Bead Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the study, discussion, and exchange of information about beads and beadwork, and to share knowledge through educational programs, workshops, and newsletters. Its objective is to educate members and the general public about the historic and artistic importance of beads and beadwork. Meetings are held on the fourth Monday of each month, except July and December, at 6:30 p.m. at the Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 8600 Academy Road NE, Albuquerque.

Todd Moore and Mark Weber

Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler of Bayou Seco

Duende Poetry Series to hold seventh reading at Anasazi Fields

—JB BRYAN, CO-ORGANIZER, DUENDE POETRY SERIES
Duende Poetry Series is planning its seventh reading at Anasazi Fields winery on Sunday, September 17, at 7:00 p.m., featuring poets Mark Weber and Todd Moore plus music with Bayou Seco (Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie). We’re calling this one “Blood on the Porch: Tales and Songs of the Real West,” reflecting the nitty-gritty work of the poets, plus some of Bayou Seco’s more unusual songs.

Poet Mark Weber is well known as publisher of Zerx Press and Recordings, a jazz disc jockey on KUNM 89.9 FM, and leader of numerous music ensembles, including the avant-garde country band The Bubbadinos. His photographs of the Los Angeles jazz community in the 1970s and ‘80s are now archived at UCLA. Todd Moore is the author of a multitude of small-press chapbooks, and his work has appeared in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Drinking with Bukowski, and other anthologies. His poems are often short but intense and full of razor slices of everyday images—mean streets, dives, railroad tracks, rivers, and corpses. “I want to write a poem that will make the top of your head roll into your soup.” Weber and Moore have been working on a series of poems around Cherokee Hawkins, a mythic proto-cowboy hobo troubadour.

The core of the popular band Bayou Seco, Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie, will finish off the evening doing music they don’t often get to do in their regular concerts. Many years ago they heard a tape by The Gu Achi Fiddlers and were bowled over. After finding out who the musicians were, they contacted the since deceased Elliott Johnson of the Tohono O’Odham tribe and had the chance to visit him. He taught them his own fiddle tunes plus traditional social dance songs and they have released all of these on a CD called Memories of Cababi. It is music that otherwise would be lost. If you have caught their concerts before, you know that Bayou Seco is always joyous, inspiring, and a tradition unto themselves.

Anasazi Fields wines will be available for tasting and purchasing. Books by the poets will be for sale, as will CDs by Bayou Seco. There is no charge for admission.

Any donations will go to the poets and musicians.

To get to the winery, take I-25 to Placitas Exit 242, drive six miles east to the village, turn left at the sign just before the Presbyterian Church, and follow Camino de los Pueblitos through two stop signs to the winery entrance.

For further information, contact Jim Fish, Anasazi Fields Winery, 505 867-3062, anasazifieldswinery@att.net, or Cirrelda Snider-Bryan, Duende Poetry Series, 505 897-0285, cirrelda@laalamedapress.com.

The sky’s the limit for the Rio Grande Children’s Chorale.

Rio Grande Children’s Chorale now holding auditions

The Youth Singers of the Rio Grande Children's Chorale are now holding auditions for the 2006-07 season. The choir, a community-based secular group, is comprised of boys and girls in grades five through eight who reside in Sandoval County. Performance-oriented, the group involves children who want to sing and have fun while learning music theory, sight-reading, and vocal technique.

Founded in Placitas in 2004 by Dr. Susan Passell, the group has grown to include singers from Bernalillo, Corrales, Placitas, Rio Rancho, and Santa Ana Pueblo. The children have performed on Good Morning America (on Christmas Day, 2005); at Coronado Monument's “Christmas at Kuaua”; and have sung the national anthem at Isotopes Stadium. Winter and spring concerts are also produced each year by the chorale. A mountain retreat to the Manzanos is planned for September, as well as a possible trip to San Antonio in April to compete in the Alamo Showcase of Music.

Practices are held each Saturday at the Rio Rancho Mid-High from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. The enrollment cost per semester is $50, and scholarships are available based on need. Further information may be obtained by contacting Laurie Schuller, at 259-8035 or lschuller505@comcast.net. Appointments for auditions may be made with Dr. Passell, at 867-0987, 264-2680, or spassell@rrdo.rrps.k12.nm.us.

The preparatory choir for the Rio Grande Children's Chorale, the Kokopelli Singers, also has openings for the fall semester. Children in grades one through four may participate and auditions are not required. Information may be obtained by contacting Debbie Fleming, at 896-5555 or dfleming@rrdo.rrps.k12.nm.us.

Placitas Artists Series launches season with Helios Quartet Reunion

—JACKIE ERICKSEN, VICE-PRESIDENT, PLACITAS ARTISTS SERIES BOARD
On Sunday, September 24, The Placitas Artists Series opens its twentieth anniversary season with members of the Helios Quartet, the ensemble that started it all. Former Helios members Krzysztof Zimowski and Jonathan Armerding, violin; Willy Sucre, viola; and special guest and Helios founder, cellist Adam Gonzalez, will perform quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn, Silvestre Revueltas, and Maurice Ravel.

The concert is generously sponsored by Lucy Noyes, Dick Hopkins, and La Puerta Real Estate Services.

Placitas’s favorite cellist, Adam Gonzalez, was a member of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra before moving to Albuquerque and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and, of course, the Helios Quartet. Since leaving New Mexico, he has held teaching positions at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.; Montgomery College, in Rockville; and the Columbia Institute of Fine Arts, in Falls Church, Virginia; and as director of instrumental music at the Waldorf School, in Baltimore. His commercial recording work has included music for the History Channel and National Geographic. He is principal cellist of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Mariner String Quartet.

Violinist Jonathan Armerding, Helios Quartet member from its inception in 1987 to 1994, currently performs with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and teaches orchestral strings and guitar at Albuquerque Academy.

Preceding the concert, a reception will be held for September exhibiting visual artists Carol Chamberland, Kathy Glidden, Mikki Roth, and Dianna Shomaker. Former Placitas artist and PAS board member Madeline Randle, who passed away this year, will also be honored in memoriam.

Multimedia artist and outdoor enthusiast Carol Chamberland creates vivid Southwest landscapes. Oil painter Kathy Glidden's subjects range from figurative work to New Mexico landscapes to still life. Photographer Mikki Roth features New Mexico subjects as a real art form. Her work has appeared throughout the area. Mixed-media artist and PAS board member Dianna Shomaker was awarded both a first- and a second-place prize, among numerous other awards, at the New Mexico State Fair fine arts show.

The concert will take place at 3:00 p.m. on September 24 at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church; the artists' reception begins at 1:30. Tickets for the concert will be available at the door one hour before the concert, or may be purchased in advance at La Bonne Vie Salon and Day Spa, in Homestead Village Shopping Center, in Placitas; at Gatherings, 9821 Montgomery NE, in Albuquerque; or on-line at www.PlacitasArts.org. Prices are $18 for general admission and $15 for seniors and students.

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The facility is completely accessible, and free child care is provided for families with children under six. Las Placitas Presbyterian Church is six miles east of I-25 on NM 165 (Exit 242.) For more information, call 867-8080.

Calling all parents, artists, and scientists

—LINDA HUGHES, COORDINATOR, PLACITAS ART IN THE SCHOOLS
Art in the School needs volunteer presenters and assistants for all grades at Placitas Elementary School.

Volunteer for Art in the School, and you will enjoy fun and motivating training programs that prepare you to teach four comprehensive art units to the children in our community.

The interesting background lectures and hands-on studio workshops by local experts and educators will help you to teach art lessons that reinforce science and math concepts.

AIS, Inc. is a private nonprofit art-education organization that provides a comprehensive visual-art curriculum to schools. Our program at PES is purchased through donations from the school and parents, and proceeds from the Placitas Flea Market.

The theme for this year's program is ”Art and Science.” Units to be taught are:

• Mission Possible! A Career in Bridge Design
• The Mobile: A Calder Creation
• M.C. Escher: The Aesthetics of Symmetry
• Scientific Illustrator: A Career for the Naturally Curious

Training and art classes start in September with three lessons and again in January with two lessons.

If you are interested in volunteering or would like more information, please call Linda Hughes, at 867-0027.

Range Café opens new wine shop, gift store, and art and furniture gallery

Labor Day weekend marks the grand opening of the latest expansion of the Range Café in Bernalillo. In addition to their gift shop, Home At The Range, they have expanded to include a wine shop, a furniture and art gallery, and more. The new expansion is next to the Lizard Rodeo Lounge, in the space formerly occupied by Something Else.

Manager Lynne Bladergroen says the new Home At The Range Too will feature a large selection of New Mexico wines, specialty top-shelf spirits, locally made art, furniture, and home furnishings. To celebrate the grand opening and to receive a 10 percent discount on any purchase, stop by and show your New Mexico driver’s license over the Labor Day weekend from September 1 through 4. The Range Café is at 925 Camino del Pueblo, in Bernalillo.

Baroque to sound in Corrales

The Albuquerque Baroque Players will present a concert of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on period instruments on Sunday, September 10, at 3:00 p.m. The cost of the concert is $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students. The concert will be at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church, in Corrales. For reservations, call 255-7089, e-mail dvik@comcast.net, or visit www.unm.edu/~sbpatric.

Corrales art associations open membership beyond Corrales

By popular demand, the Corrales Society of Artists and Art In the Park is opening up their membership to non-Corrales resident artists. "We were so pleased with our first season in 2005 and now we're having a tremendously successful 2006 season at Art In The Park," says CSA's membership director Patricia Massingill. "At each show we've had more and more visitors who are artists but who don't live in the Village of Corrales ask us if they could be members and exhibit their works of art. We really feel that the more artists we have, the more successful our shows will become. This is the perfect venue for the public to enjoy the creative works of some of New Mexico's finest artists".

Art In The Park is cosponsored by the Corrales Department of Parks and Recreation and the Corrales Society of Artists. Colorful booths offering fine art, photography, sculpture, jewelry, pottery, gourds, stone and iron work, fiber arts and crafts, plus live music from the bandstand lure many to the shady La Entrada Park, adjacent to the library just off Corrales Road, in the heart of the Village of Corrales.

This year’s remaining shows will be held September 17 and October 15 (the third Sunday of the month). Show hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission and parking are free.
For an application and further details, call the CSA membership committee, at 892-2398, or visit www.corralesartists.org.

Gigi coming to the Adobe Theater

The Tony-Award-winning musical Gigi will hit the stage at the Adobe Theater, 9813 Fourth Street NW, two blocks north of Alameda, on September 8 and continue on Friday and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through October 1.

Cy and Jane Hoffman, directors of this charming and intimate musical adapted from a short story by Colette, said “We are thrilled to present this classic Lerner & Loewe musical. The cozy Adobe space lends itself perfectly to this delightful, warm show. We are sure it will work its magic on you.”

The cast includes Phil Bock, Stephanie Burch, Ross Daugherty, Lisette Hererra, Nathan Hererra, Emma Hoffman, Jennifer Lloyd, Martha Muña, Lorri Oliver, Fred Schwab, and Hi Tillery.

General admission is $14; students and seniors, $12. Group rates are available. For reservations or information, call 898-9222.

Chamber Music Albuquerque presents 66th season

Chamber Music Albuquerque presents its sixty-sixth consecutive season of world-renowned chamber-music artists in concert, at the Simms Center for the Arts at Albuquerque Academy. This year's season is divided into four series:

1) “The Classics,” featuring the Takacs String Quartet on Sunday, September 24, at 3:00 p.m.; the Shanghai String Quartet on Sunday, November 19, at 3:00 p.m.; and the American String Quartet, with guest violist Guillermo Figueroa, on Friday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 28, at 3:00 p.m.

2) “Chamber Music X,” featuring Rahim Al Haj with the Sadaqa String Quartet and the De Profundis Choir on Sunday, October 8, at 3:00 p.m.; the Del Sol String Quartet on Friday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m.

3) “Americana,” featuring Imani Winds on Sunday, February 25, at 3:00 p.m.; Music from Copland House on Sunday, April 29, at 3:00 p.m.

4) The June Music Festival, featuring the St. Petersburg String Quartet on Friday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 10, at 4:00 p.m.; Contrasts Quartet and composer Aaron Jay Kernis on Friday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 17, at 4:00 p.m.; the Jupiter String Quartet on Friday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 24, at 4:00 p.m.

There are a variety of ticketing plans available for each series, individual concerts, and the entire season. For more information and ticket prices, please call Chamber Music Albuquerque, at 505 268-1990 or check out the new Web site at www.cma-abq.org for detailed information on all the ensembles.