The Bruce S. Kershner Gallery in the Fairfield Library will be showing, "Play Ball", the baseball paintings of Busch and Leonard Everett Fisher, and the photographs of Glenn Callahan from May 25 to July 6 during library hours. A reception will be held on Saturday, June 1 at 4:30-6:00 pm with a talk by the artists at 5:30.
LEONARD EVERETT FISHER (b. 1924 - ) studied with Moses Soyer, Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League, Olindo Ricci and Serge Chermayeff at Brooklyn College. After his wartime military service, he attended Yale University's School of Art where he earned BFA and MFA degrees.
His art has been seen nationwide since 1939, including exhibitions in New York at the Brooklyn Museum, Seligmann and Hewitt Galleries, Museum of American Illustration, New York Public Library, Hebrew Union College Museum, Cavalier Galleries (CT and NYC); and New Britain Museum of American Art, Brandywine River Museum, Chicago Art Institute, and Smithsonian National Postal History Museum. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge (UK) included him in its Y2K compendium, 2000 Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century.
This show includes Leonard's "Classic Baseball All Stars" series as well as his illustrations for his book, Noonan, A Novel About Baseball, ESP, and Time Warps published by Doubleday and Company, New York in 1978.
Leonard says, "My perceptions of the real world are romanticized or intellectualized. My personal visions take over to where what one thinks one sees as a reality is a reinvented idealized version of what began in actuality, was processed internally, and ended up as a representation of what I visually experienced originally. I view art to represent human experience, recognizable in terms of a connection with what is perceived as "reality", but at the same time tranformational. For art to be "ART" it must have a human connection; it must transcend mere representational recognition or decoration and have a life of its own -- a uniqueness skillfully executed."
He is represented by Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, CT.
BUSCH is a self-taught artist, who paints from the soul and evokes varied emotions throughout his neo-expressionistic and colorful paintings.
He was born in Rochester, New York and raised on a small farm. He now lives in Fairfield. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from the University of South Carolina and Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.
A successful sports and entertainment attorney, publicist and marketer by trade who has represented tennis icons Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, as well as 3-time Indy 500 and 2007 "Dancing With the Stars" champion, Helio Castroneves and an NFL Pro Bowl player, among others, Busch is first and foremost an artist.
He is represented by d.o.c.s. gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. His paintings have been exhibited in New York, Chicago, and Vail, at the Alexandria (Louisiana) Museum of Art, the New Orleans Contemporary Art Center. They have also been featured in the Canadian television show "My Global Adventure", which was televised across the globe to more than 300 million viewers. His work is sold, commissioned and collected nationally and internationally.
Busch says, "Through color, I simply sought to capture the sadness of gentlemen of character, talented baseball players, who endured racial taunts, slurs and exclusion during baseball's era of the 'color' line."
GLENN CALLAHAN is a classically trained photographer with a diverse set of interests. A native of Fairfield, Connecticut, where he still lives, Glenn graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in Photography.
His extensive work as a freelance photographic assistant for a prominent editorial photographer has exposed him to many heads of state, captains of industry, and celebrities. His editorial and assignment work has introduced him to a diverse set of subjects and settings. He has made images in helicopters, factories, operating rooms, housing projects, speeding cars, private jets, and the Emergency Room at Bellevue. This exhibit is his first formal public exhibition.
Glenn says about his photographs in this show, "To date nothing has brought me the sense of satisfaction that these players' images deliver...The past few summers....I went to almost 70 little league games each season... in pursuit of a very unique group of kids. Kids on their way to the New England Regional Championship, kids on their way through life's journey. Good portraiture is tough sport. I know the pictures I'm looking for. The trick is crossing the divide with a nervous or self-conscious sitter. Ultimately all the pictures you see on these walls are...my constructs; my vision of what's to come. I'm trying to scratch the surface and reveal the players underneath. I want to deliver something unique. I want to produce something that belongs to me that people haven't seen yet. Ultimately, I want to produce something that does the kids justice - that pays honor to their sacrifice, simplicity, and humility.
I saw tears, I saw smiles. I saw frustration, anger, fear and elation. I watched the kids wrestle with the pressure of this great game, each in his own way...I saw the future. It's on their faces. Baseball is explosive, there's a lot of waiting. The action happens fast. Players who practice often do well, those that don't...fail. I've thrown my arm out pitching buckets of balls in the batting cage only to realize that my little player needed something more from me. That "more" turned out to be guidance with his mental game. Over and over we try to teach our kids, "Just have fun out there!" It's really just a lame refrain highlighting our inability as adults to teach the "mental game."
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