Something to Do with Wings

Joe Novak

• 24 februari 2010
• 9781440197796

Samenvatting:

This memoir of the life of a Harvard trained lawyer turned artist is about the power of commitment and the miracles that can flow from it. Something To Do With Wings tracks a seventy nine year journey that is an account of a life on the move-one that has encompassed an array of creative endeavors in a variety of geographic locations. After an education at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Joe Novak practiced law in San Juan, Puerto Rico until his early forties. At the age of fifty, he became a full time painter, living initially in New York City and East Hampton, New York and later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Significant others, mentors and friends are an important part of his story. In his late twenties, Novak was a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt during the last four years of her life, 1958-62. He writes of his visits with her, including an overnight stay in her home, Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, New York During the sixties Novak practiced tax law as a partner in a major San Juan law firm, and in the early seventies was a consultant on tax reform to the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis A. Ferre. While working for the governor, Novak proposed a plan to extend capital ownership to low income workers on the island, a plan that Governor Ferre later stated was the most important agenda of his administration. Novak's pursuits after leaving the law included publishing a major monograph on the Cuban artist, Agustin Fernandez; designing a residence on Fire Island featured in House Beautiful; and co-producing an off-Broadway musical. In the late seventies in New York many creative people were living in the fast lane, and Novak got caught up in that life. One of his favorite hangouts was Studio 54. The title of this memoir came from a conversation there one night between Novak and Andy Warhol. In March of 1981, Novak joined Alcoholics Anonymous, which added a spiritual dimension to his life that he had not previously experienced. Within three months, through an act of serendipity, he started on the path of becoming a serious full time painter. He has pursued this career with passion, and is still going strong almost three decades later. His principal mentor during his early years in East Hampton was Peter Busa, an original member of the New York School. Novak writes of an afternoon spent together with Busa and Willem de Kooning in de Kooning's studio. He also describes how he ultimately found his own voice as a painter with his break-through painting, Just Red, and the part that Busa played in that. During his early years in Santa Fe he explored the effects of light on perception in a project called Light Emanations, which involved the use of computerized lighting equipment to create changing light levels and configurations in the illumination of his paintings. In his later years there, he concentrated on painting and print making. A retrospective of Novak's paintings from the nineties was held at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in 2002 in conjunction with his fiftieth reunion. Novak's work is in hundreds of collections, public and private, including major art museums. He has donated many of his paintings to hospitals and medical centers out of a strong belief that art makes a difference there. Novak lives in Rancho Mirage, California with his partner, Willie Lebron. After completing a series of 350 small paintings on panel during the years 2006-08, he spent most of 2009 writing this memoir. His website is www.joenovak.com.