Coastlines
Creativity good for business
Ceramic caricatures: Mariene Gutman's sense of Itumor is reflected in some of Iier earlier parodies of rock stars.
The best marks Vancouver's Mariene Gutman ever achieved at Eric Hamber secondary school art classes were Cs.
Watching her slap molding paste on two giant papier mache animal heads she is creating for a Fogg 'N' Suds restaurant, it's obvious Ms. Gutman is having the last laugh.
The contract with the restaurant chain is the latest commissioned work for Ms. Gutman's company, MARFWerks Custom Ceramics Inc. Not your typical starving artist, the 27-year-old Ms. Gutman has seen business escalate since opening less than two years ago, much to her own surprise. "I still can't get over it," said Ms. Gutman, wiping her hands on paint-splotched green overalls. "It's a dream come true."
Ms. Gutman hasn't been afraid to think big, something that is reflected in the works she creates. Comfortable with large projects, Ms. Gutman's current creations for Fogg 'N' Suds — a beer-swilling giraffe and rhinoceros — are almost life-size. She has done other large-scale projects, including four 2.5 X 2.5-metre A/Jce in Wonderland murals and giant plaster teapots for im-
presario Sam Feldman's daughter's bat mitzvah.
While many of the pieces are costly, the amount of time spent perfecting them means "I probably make about $5 an hour," the York University fine arts graduate said with a slight grimace.
Ms. Gutman started doing massive projects while a university student. During her student years, her sculptures, such as a massive head being ripped apart by disembodied hands, reflected a gloomier frame of mind, a time which she refers to as her dark period.
Her current works, satirical and foil of humor, reflect a happier state. In 1996, for example, she exhibited a collection of rock star figures at Vancouver's Canadian Craft Museum. About a third of a metre high, the figurines are mischievous caricatures of rock 'n' roll's biggest legends, from Jerry Garcia to Cher to Mick Jagger and Tina Turner. The parodies are amazingly life-like except for such exaggerated features as Jagger's pouting lips and Turner's famous legs.-
"Someone starts out true to life and evolves into something more. I like to find the comedy and life
in someone," said Ms. Gutman, her long dark hair tied back in a curly pony tail.
In the same vein, Ms. Gutman also created a remarkable likeness of a 13-year-old Seattle teen that his parents commissioned to grace 17 tables at the boy's bar mitzvah. The statue is holding a soccer ball and standing on a pedestal of piano and computer keys, representing the boy's favorite pastimes. "I like to make it a little bit fon," she said. □
— Roberta Staley
Phraseology
(A weekly taste of Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino)
A shlekhter sholem iz beser vi a guter krig.
A bad peace is better than a good war.
Don't worry, Phraseology will not become a battleground for political statements. We just like the way this one sounds.
Loose M Quotes from media arounti the world and at home.
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If you want to pursue propagators of liate, you can start with [Raymond] Villeneuve, not an anonymous individual in Vimcouver."
- Jack Jedwab, executive director of Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region, advises Quebec's culture minister ]A>uise Beaudoin who is upset by a Vancouver-bused Internet site titled Quebec: North America's Nco-Fascist Static. Jedwab suggested instead that Beaudoin turn her attentions toward Kaymorui Villeiwuve, a radical Qucbecois separatist who last year warned of retaliation against the Jewish community for supporting federalism.
IVIy religion, Judaism, and the kabbalah, with all the mysttjries that are so awesome and so fun for me to think about."
— Comedian I actress Roseanne, sharing with Oprah Winfrey the things in her life for which s/te is grateful.
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