You're Inivted to Art/Jazz Reception 4/5 (LA) Gloria Bohanon's Art

[OMG PR]

Greetings:
I'm attaching pertinent information on educator, therapist and
collagist/painter, Gloria Bohanon and the exceptionally exciting Closing
Reception of her one-woman show replete with jaz 4/5/98. All info attached
should be of use. Please contact me, Sylvie Schneble, Omniartists at
310.202.0390 if you require more information.
Attachments include
Media Alert
Biodata of Gloria Bohanon
Art Review
Many thanks,
Sylvie Schneble

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4/2/98

MEDIA ALERT - ART/JAZZ CLOSING ART EXHIBIT

TO: Planning Desk & Assignment & Photo Editors
CONTACT: Sylvie Schneble (310) 202-0390 or Gloria R. Bohanon (310) 839-8084

WHAT: The Gloria Bohanon one-woman exhibit, “The Angel Is You”

Sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department

DIRECTED BY: Mark Greekfield, Executive Director, WTAC

WHEN: Reception held Sunday, April 5, 1998 2:00-5:00 p.m. at....

WHERE: Watts Towers Art Center
1727 E. 107th Street
Los Angeles, California
(213) 847-4646 (no RSVP required)
Public Invited Free

RECAP: Closing Art/Jazz Reception Sun. 4/5 @ 2:00-5:00 p.m..
Accentuating Bohanon's mixed-media collage/paintings will be the inimitable
jazz musicianship of Benni Maupin (Herbie Hancock's famed Head Hunters saxman)
and the virtuosity of composer/pianist Todd Cochran; and the sorcery of dwight
Tribble's Ensemble, oasis of Peace. The Closing Reception promises not only to
be well attended, but fortuitous to have such well respected musicians
compliment the visual art and "sing the praises" of "The Angel is You"
Exihibit.
______________________________________________more__________
Contact: Sylvie Schneble
Omniartists Creative Management
Tel: 310.202.0390 ~ Email: OM...@aol.com

BIODATA OF GLORIA R. BOHANON AS EDUCATOR AT ....
Associate Dean Student Activities (1993-95)
Professor of Art (1973-Present)
Chairperson—Art Department (1983-91)
Director, Center for the Performing & Visual Arts

While serving as Associate Dean of Student Activities at Los Angeles City
College, supportive students, teachers, counselors and administrators knew of
Gloria Bohanon’s deep commitment to her students. In 1992 she was honored in a
special ceremony and received the Standard of Excellence Award from faculty and
staff for her innovative work in the development of an art program for
dis-abled students at LACC. KCBS’s Joseph Dyer delivered Bohanon’s tribute.
Bohanon pioneered the program, which was unique among community colleges in the
U.S., at a time when many college cur-ricula were being eliminated or
consolidated.
"It is a lamentable fact that our community college system has never been
adequately funded,” Bohanon said. Fourteen more community colleges throughout
the state would be needed to benefit an additional 50,000 students in L.A.
alone. Starting with a single class in 1989, two years later, she received a
two-year grant to pilot the program. The agenda called for teaching four
classes of art to students with three categories of disabilities: the legally
blind, those with auditory or sensory prob-lems, and those with mild
neurological disabilities. Bohanon more than met her original challenge of
improving students’ their self-esteem and potentiate latent artistic
abilities. Soon, they main-streamed into other classes and, eventually,
society itself. In 1990, she organized a very successful silent art auction
to renovate the LACC’s Da Vinci Art Gallery.
She organized rallies, baseball games, programs and other functions to educate
and inform instructors, students, and the community at large about substance
abuse and possible solutions.
This wasn’t the first time Dyer and Bohanon worked together on college
community projects, KCBS has been actively involved with the Disabled Arts
Students Program for several years; and now sponsors art exhibits by these
talented artists.
In 1993 Bohanon co-organized mentor, sportscaster Jim Hill Celebrity
Basketball Game/Ethnic Fair and a successful fundraiser honoring Bree Walker’s
(then KCBS’s Action News Anchor) for her continued work with the disabled. As
a result of her efforts, she was awarded “Person of the Year” by staff and
students at LACC and elected to the board of advisors for “The California Arts
Project”.
In 1994 Bohanon again co-organized the former L.A. Laker, Michael Cooper
Foundation’s fundraiser honoring Laker’s owner, Dr. Jerry Buss for his
unparalleled commitment to the city of Los Angeles. As chair of LACC’s 1994
graduation, Prof. Bohanon procured LA Mayor Richard J. Riordan, as speaker for
the schools 82nd commencement (and, no coincidentally, it’s 65th anniversary.)

In 1996 she was again funded by the KCBS Foundation to organize and curate an
art exhibit for artists with special needs. “The Four From the Heart” were
four artists who were part of the Art Program for the Disabled Gloria started
in 1989. Six of the college’s mentors and their students took part in a
two-hour TV special on the state of education in America, narrated by famed
actor Edward James Olmos.
Her primary legacy as an educator/therapist was bringing out latent potential
in her most depressed students, re-instilling hope and liberating latent
artistic talent. (In fact, Bohanon was accredited with saving the lives of two
of her most troubled students: John Marabella, 40s, a bi-polar and David
Suggs, suffering from severe neurologically-induced depression. For the past
four years KCBS Foundation funded Bohanon to organize and curate art shows or
special needs patients. She will curate the “Art & Soul” exhibit featuring
10-12 special needs artists (including Marabella’s and Sugg’s works!) at LACC,
then tour the show throughout the LA area in the summer of 1999.

LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE [article sidebar]
Los Angeles City College is a respected institution in Los Angeles. With
well over 1.3 million students passing through its portals since 1929, alumni
can be found in every sector of society (medicine, government, law, media,
information & computer technology, architecture and the arts).
With over 30 different languages reflecting the cultural diversity that is
Los Angeles, Gloria Bohanon is a prominent force as an educator and mentor o be
reckoned with. Her collage-paintings are now available for sale and
commission..
African-American artists are renown for placing a high value on mastery of
the medium, soon to be as well known and emulated as their counterparts in
literature, music, film, TV and sports. There is little doubt that Gloria
Bohanon’s art will keep on inspiring all young artists (black and white and
brown and yellow—like her pallet) who choose learn and follow her into the 21st
Century of a new African-American renaissance.

Bohanon’s awards include the Standards of Excellence, Appreciation Awards
Program for Students, and chosen Person of the Year by the staff and students.
In 1972 she was conscripted into Outstanding Young Women in America and
Personalities of the West and Mid-West. She authored Black Artists in Art,
Vol. II (1971) Afro-American Artists Bio-Bibliographical Directory (1973).
Gloria Bohanon is a Registered Arts Therapist with a BS and MA in Art
Education from Wayne State University (Detroit) and am MA in Painting & Design
from Otis/Parsons (Los Angeles) and an MA in Art with a specialization in Art
Therapy, California State University (Los Angeles).

BIODATA OF GLORIA R. BOHANON AS ....
REGISTERED ART THERAPIST(ATR) & COLLAGIST/PAINTER

For the past 30 years, Bohanon only taught college art; but as a registered
Art Therapist (ATR) she counseled many challenged individuals in her Culver
City Loft Studio/Office. She conducted a workshop at UCLA “A Celebration of
Adulthood, The Therapeutic Use of Art with Older Adults.” She worked with the
elderly (Alzheimer’s) and those suffering chronic and debilitating illnesses
like AIDS and cancer, and mentally challenged.
In her capacity as ATR, Bohanon organized, counseled at the House of Uuru (a
drug and alco-hol abuse program), indoctrinating counselors and teachers about
the importance of art therapy to combat substance abuse. She taught kids with
behavioral problems at Kedren Mental Health Clinic.
In 1972 she was conscripted into the Outstanding Young Women in America and
Personalities of the West and Mid-West. She also authored Black Artists in
Art, Vol. II (1971) and Afro-American Artist: A Bio-Bibliographical Directory
(1973. For many years, she was an active member of LACC’s Foundation Board of
Directors and the Hollywood Arts Council.
And this is just the beginning. Plans call for conducting Art Therapy
Workshops through the Learning Annex, private groups, corporate stress
reduction groups, the mental health sector, substance abuse programs, the
recently divorced/widowed or victims of violent crimes, AIDS and chronic
illness, and impairments of the elderly.
Besides her memberships in many prominent associations, federations, boards
and the Otis/Parsons Alumni Association, Bohanon is also a member of the Art
Therapists Association, Inc. and the Southern California Art Therapist
Association.

“Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I may remember
.But involve me and I’ll understand.”
Chinese Proverb

Gloria Bohanon understands that Chinese proverb all too well--to “involve”
rather than merely “show and tell.” It is one of the reasons her therapeutic
art classes and therapy are so successful. “Using the allegorical angels to
reach the ‘unreachable’ is cognitive foresight--a kind of ‘divine’
intervention,’ if you will,” explains Gloria. “I remind my students and
patients that the ‘angel that is you’ would never abandon them or think them
damaged beyond repair.
“Unfortunately, many think they are impaired for life (from years of negative
re--enforcement). So I utilize many types of therapies: cognitive drawing,
painting, sculpting, music/poetry, journaling, and drama therapy—to first
unlock the mystery, then ‘repair the missing link. The challenging part is
convincing them that once the weak link has been fixed, it becomes even
stronger.”

THE PAINTER/COLLAGIST GLORIA BOHANON ...
[See the attached review of “Gloria Bohanon’s Collage/ Paintings Exceed all
Expectations,” reviewed SM Serra, The Independent Review, March 1988.
***
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ART REVIEW
"GLORIA BOHANON'S COLLAGE/PAINTINGS EXCEED ALL EXPECTATIONS
AT ONE-WOMAN EXHIBIT WATTS TOWERS ART CENTER, LOS ANGELES"

The Angel is You~ stirs up excitement over “discovery” of African-American
collagist/painter, Gloria Bohanon, who reminds us all that those who teach in
fact, can! Art Professor reinvents herself and unveils a brilliant artistic
sensibility.
By SM Serra
THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW
Copyright (c) 1998 SM Serra. Permission given to reproduce in whole or in
part. Citation as to source is appreciated.
_______________________________________________________________

When Gloria Bohanon’s long-awaited one-woman art exhibit, “The Angel is
You” first opened Feb. 22, (with a triumphant Closing Reception on April 5.
1998) at the downtown W.T.A.C.), no-one was more surprised by its impact than
the artist herself. The diminutive, and intensely effusive Gloria Bohanon
attributes it to what is right about neo-expressionism and neo-surrealism when
properly applied. “The unconscious is the principal tool in my creating an
your observing the work,” she said. “By putting my subconscious thoughts on
canvas, those thoughts mystically communicate with yours.”
She defines expressionism as “filtering other’s reality through my own
sensibility;” and surrealism ”as articulating an uninhibited dreamstate—without
regard for convention or rationality.”
The show was a tribute to her late father who both adored art and music. He
would have been justly proud.
The collective musicianship of Bennie Maupin (Herbie Hancock’s famed Head
Hunters saxman) and pianist/composer Todd Cochran worked the audience by
masterfully adding emotional fuel to he room’s collective unconscious.
Los Angelinos do love our angels (we’re not called the City of Angels for
nothing); are almost obsessive-compulsive about them in the New Age that
spawned an entire booming angel industry. But that’s not what Gloria Bohanon
is about. She doesn’t just paint angels, she finds the angel that is you
Years of experience as an art therapist, working with the physically and
mentally disabled, taught her how to evoke the inner angels of these tortured
souls. She maintains many have actually worked through their cycle of
self-destruction and self-loathing.
Her work has been exhibited in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the
Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles City College, and galleries in Palos Verdes, Santa
Barbara, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Africa and Japan. Her commissioned art
hangs in private collections of educators, prominent entertainers and political
figures and is for commission and for sale.
Bohanon is a two-dimensional, “mixed-media” collagist/painter who took her
cue from early Expressionists. While these turn-of-the-century artists
frequently aggrandized and distorted human-ness (using galvanizing colors and
exaggerated lines to obtain intense emotional response), Bohanon’s
“neo-expressionistic” collages are more subdued. Still, there are no set
boundaries, no limitation of materials or fixed rules of implementation, but a
melding together of texture, patterns, stains, finishes and whatever elements
currently at hand. The collagist rips, precision scissors, glues, ties,
staples, nails and paints using indigenous barks, natural wood, textured
papers, autumn-ripened leaves and snippets of writing and photos to achieve an
emotional response.
But what transforms her collages is the delicacy and balance of their
emotional content. Simultaneously sobering and transfixing, Bohanon’s art has
a sense of intuitive vitality and innocence. Her adroit brushstrokes and
deliberate use of the materials exude confidence that only comes from a deep
commitment and love for her subjects. The out-stretched hands so ubiquitous in
her paintings seem to reach out and embrace what is possible and enduring in
all of us.
Equally alluring is her ability to use fragments of literary works and
desultory splinters of reality to evoke memories both lost and stolen from her
African-American heritage and three decades of teaching children and adults
with disabilities.
Currently, she is “reinventing” well known media icons., Bohanon presently
is finishing a retrospective collage of Dennis Rodman. Somehow his deceptively
negative NBA-bad-boy image has been transformed into a beatific Beau Brummell.
“Turning Rodman from an apostate to apostle must’ve been quite a challenge!” I
asked, meaning it. Another enigmatic smile: “I research my subjects
rigorously before I pick up a brush ... Let him discover himself how my
perception of him evokes similar response in others.”
Okay, so that’s Rodman. What about people already high up there on St.
Peter’s list of good guys? Whoopie Goldberg, Johnny Cochran, Oprah, Whitney
Houston, Denzel Washington (not Michael Jordan nor Michael Jackson—they’re
already airborne!) And lest you think Gloria only does famous
African-Americans, she reminds me her trademark use of outstretched hands are
neither black nor white, human nor angelic; that an artist’s creativity must
always be above personal prejudices and reproach. “Everyone’s biography is
unique; every life is full of personal dramas and triumphs; failures and
successes; an admixture of feelings, memories and encounters that when put on
the ‘cosmic’ pallet, colors fill in courageous and altruistic inner realities.
“My gift to the world is finding the angel that is you—there’s enough
media-ocrity out there.” She steered me towards one of my favorite pieces:
“Forever” (1997)—ubiquitous angels hovering over a photo of her lovers now
gone. They were embracing under a heavenly sunset surrounded by swirls of
purple and gold and fine lace set on silver textured paper.
Other favorites include “Gemini” 1998, “Meditation” 1997, “The Frustration
Factor” (1997) “The Sleeping Angels” 1998, and “Fire Within” 1998.
Said Bohanon: “as a Humanist, I see the human spirit as cosmic; a colorful
web of feelings, each strand of the web becomes our emotional tapestry of
existence. The many strands of this web form a fixed pattern of textures that
are translated into our identify of self as ideals.”
“You mean like both the open and closed universe—as physicist Stephen
Hawking stunned us recently?”
“Yes, space—continuously and simultaneously expanding and imploding ....”
Space, the macrocosm. The microcosm? unexplored human reality (feelings,
emotions) are just as open and closed boundless and determinantly finite.
Bohanon’s future plans include conducting Art Therapy Workshops; run corporate
stress reduction groups; enrich the mental health sector; substance abuse
programs; recently divorced-widowed or victims of violent crimes; those
afflicted with AIDS, chronic ill-ness; and impairments of the elderly.
Despite an unwavering commitment to others for the past thirty years,
Bohanon is making a commitment for more time to her artistic expression and
fulfill a lifelong dream.
Don’t miss “The Angel is You,” the Complete Works of Gloria Bohanon
continuing Tues.-Sat 10a.m.-4:p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4:00p.m. at the
Watts Towers Art Center, 1727 E. 107th St,, Los Angeles, Calif. 90002
The Closing Reception will be held Sunday, April 5th 2:00-5:00 p.m. --
again accompanied by the brilliant jazz musicianship of The Bennie Maupin
[Herbie Hancock's famed Head Hunters saxman)/the virtuosity of compsoer/pianist
Todd Cochran and the sorcery ofDwight Tribble's Ensemble-Oasis of Peace.
The public is encouraged to call all The Art Center at (213) 847-4646 and
check for last time changes, if any -- and best of all, it is free!
***
SM Serra c/o OM...@aol.com
review.aol
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