L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano T he San Francisco Bay A r e a h a s a t t r a c t e d g i f t e d i n d i v i d u a l s from its earliest days and recently we were graced with an exhibition by one of the best contemporary figura- tive artists in the USA, Oceana Rain Stuart. Oceana's "Eternal Bliss" bust is part of the permanent collec- tion of the Modern Art Museum of Catania, Sicily, and 13 of her bronze sculptures were exhibited a t t h e L o u v r e M u s e u m . H e r work has been exhibited and recognized nationally and inter- nationally, as we will appreciate below. These laudable achievements are why the Leonardo Da Vinci Society, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, was p l e a s e d t o p r e s e n t O c e a n a ' s December 2017 San Francisco exhibition. L'Italo-Americano was invited to attend and inter- view this lovely and talented Italian-American Bay Area resi- dent. Oceana Rain Stuart was born i n C a l i f o r n i a a n d h a s b o t h American and Italian citizenship with an artist atelier in Sausalito, California. She grew up in an artistic family and has lived in Europe as a young adult where she was inspired by many of the masters. It was at a young age that she knew her path was to create art as a sculptress, poet and painter. L ' I t a l o - A m e r i c a n o a s k e d what inspired her artistic career. "As a figurative bronze sculp- ture artist, my journey involves communication. It is my hope that through my work, someone will find a connection to the message I try to convey. Creat- ing art is and has always been my refuge and where I feel the most free to express what it is I need to share." S h e s h a r e d h e r t h o u g h t s about her Italian heritage and how it encourages her art. "I grew up in a multi-generational artistic family in California. At age 12 my family and I moved from a very small town in the Sierra foothills to Mill Valley. As a toddler and child, my mom, who is also a figurative artist, introduced me to painting and sculpting as a way to keep me occupied while she created her own art work. I have a photo of m e a t a g e t w o s c u l p t i n g i n water-based clay with her in the garden that is very dear to me. Both my mother and grandmoth- er were plein air painters and their art inspired me as well. "From the Italian side of my CATHERINE ACCARDI Oceana Rain Stuart – Figurative sculptor test of my dedication and pas- sion." Oceana has begun work on her next bronze sculpture series, which she plans to unveil in 2018, along with several exhibi- tions to be announced on her website and via mailer in the coming months. Explore more Oceana Rain Stuart by visiting h e r w e b s i t e a t h t t p s : / / w w w . oceanarainstuart.com. Oceana in her studio. Photographs courtesy of Oceana Rain Stuart SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN COMMUNITY family, my great grandfather Gerard Carbonara, who was a composer, conductor and violin- ist, taught my father how to play music and how to succeed pro- fessionally in the music indus- try. Gerard Carbonara was edu- c a t e d a t t h e N a t i o n a l Conservatory in New York and at the Naples Conservatory. He also studied with Martucci Dworczak. He was an opera coach in Milan in 1910 and a concert violinist and opera con- ductor throughout Europe and the United States. He scored numerous films with Paramount pictures. He also composed sev- eral cues for Stagecoach (1939), but did not receive screen credit because of a clause in his con- tract. Although the score, which featured the music of several composers, won an Oscar he was not counted among the win- ners." We asked Oceana to tell us more about her exhibits and future plans. "In 2017 my Eter- nal Bliss bronze sculpture was selected as one of 48 sculptures in the United States to be exhib- ited at the 84th annual National Sculpture Society. A week later my bronze sculpture Eternal Embrace was selected by Art Comes Alive out of over 2000 works of art and I was awarded the 2017 Figurative Artist of the Year. "My European debut was in an international group exhibi- tion at the Carrousel Du Louvre in Paris, France. At this exhibi- tion I exhibited 13 of my sculp- tures in 2016, which included the Eternity series and the Frag- ments collection which consists of 6 bronze fragments of the Eternity series. "In December of 2017 I did a presentation and lecture about my Eternity series and Frag- ments bronze sculpture collec- tion at the Italian Cultural Insti- t u t e i n S a n F r a n c i s c o . T h i s event was hosted by the San Francisco chapter of the Leonar- do Da Vinci Society. The Italian C o n s u l G e n e r a l , L o r e n z o Ortona, attended and gave a wonderful introduction about m y a r t t o t h e a u d i e n c e i n advance of my talk. I felt very touched and honored by this beautiful evening. " T h e E t e r n i t y S e r i e s i s a seven piece bronze series (two o f w h i c h a r e c o u p l e s ) t h a t expresses aspects of life that have an eternal effect on the human condition. I created this series after a time in my life where I was questioning why life and aspects of life are not permanent and yet we embrace life to the fullest. These seven pieces represent aspects of love, life and passion. "Many people don't know that I sculpted this series a sec- ond time after it melted due to a heat wave (two days before I had planned to deliver it to the foundry). And since I work in oil-based plasteline, just imag- ine the consistency of the medi- um of wax and how heavy clay is. So when it softened (like but- ter) due to the heat wave, some of my pieces collapsed due to gravity and others dripped down the armatures. The next day I began the six month process of re-sculpting all seven pieces of the Eternity Series. It was a real Oceana working on Eternal Warrior. Photographs courtesy of Oceana Rain Stuart

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