I was recently invited by my friend Paul to visit his Italian restaurant in Fleetwood called Buona Sera. A little over a week ago, i finally made it over there with my wife and a few friends. WHAT A FABULOUS RESTAURANT…and if you’ve been following my blog and website travel features, you KNOW how much i appreciate a good restaurant.

And now for my critique – If you go, you MUST start out with the mozzarella topped garlic bread…fresh mozzarella and lots of garlic…just the way i like it! Their pastas are homemade and delicious and i highly recommend the homemade poached pear drizzled in chocolate and caramel port wine topped with fresh whipped cream. I’m getting hungry as i type this.

Thanks to Paul and Scott for a wonderful evening and i plan to visit again soon. If you plan to go, visit their website at www.ristorantebuonasera.com.

Mangia!

–Charles

Our friends from Galerie Artima in Paris sent us pictures of the snow there earlier this week. It's rare for the snow to actually stick there. We were amazed by their reaction since we're from New York and having ICE STORMS here now! We thought we'd share the pictures with you….. Julie.

Hello Ann and Julie – We hope you are fine. We had the surprise to discover Paris under the snow yesterday. As this is very unusual, we cannot resist to send you some pictures from the Place des Vosges in his white coat. Have a nice day!

Kind Regards,

Odile

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In my New Year's Blog, i wrote about how having my pop art shown in Finland for the first time in 2008 was the culmination of a lifelong dream for me…and for my mother . Well, yesterday, we had a wonderful visitor in the studio…Tuule Makinen of Galleria Dix in Helsinki….she was in the United States visiting her sister and some friends and she came to the studio with her friend – famous Finnish jazz musician Hannu Vihunen. I had met Tuule in Finland because she is the wonderful gallery owner who took the chance on my work and found it successful. She is planning another exhibition in 2009 and now has a steady Fazzino pop art collection on display in her gallery.

What a firecracker! I gave her a tour of the studio, showed her how my art is created, and brainstormed some new pieces for the Finnish market. She also filled me in a little more about what to expect in Pori when i attend the Pori Jazz Festival as the official artist in July.

Our conversation was interestingly universal. It was very interesting to talk to her about…well..the art of selling art. It really is the same all over the world. Art is a passion. And selling it and marketing it are really nothing more than expressing your own passion for an artist or a piece of art. Tuule talked about how she tries to related to her customers. She knows when something “speaks” to them…when a piece of art elicits an emotional response…that art appreciation is all about finding yourself IN the artwork…it's about your own experience rendered in the artwork. So selling artwork isn't about “selling” at all. It's about matching people with works that are meant for them….works that make them feel something….it's spiritual.

That's the kind of person i want representing my artwork. She understands why i paint….what i'm trying to achieve…that connection…the relationship i want to build between my artwork and the collector….Thank you Tuule!

–Charles

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I'm sure you're like me….can't believe we've completed another year! So, like everyone else who maintains a blog, I feel compelled to comment on the year that's passed and look forward to the year to come. I'm not one who likes to look backward all that much…i'm always looking ahead…professionally and personally….but this past year was certainly monumental…nothing surpassed the Presidential Election. Of course, it remains to be seen what the effect of the election of Barack Obama will actually be, but i'm going to go along with the majority on this one and welcome a breath of fresh air for 2009.

I also am not one to make New Year's resolutions…however, i have pinpointed a few things that i'm looking forward to accomplishing in 2009.

1. I will be launching my daughter Heather's Art Collection at Art Expo, New York in March. She's been working very hard – has a new company called “Crook Couture” and not only an art collection, but a clothing line and furniture too. She has a real “look” to her work and i'm excited about her debut. We'll be sneak previewing some of it on this site soon. – oh…and i'll be showing my own work there too! I hope to see many of you there. I”ll be showing a lot of new, large mixed-media uniques and of course, some great new limited editions.

2. I'm looking forward to perfecting and launching my new line of plexiglass sculptures. I've blogged about them before and the first of their kind have actually been completed and sold in Germany.

3. I'm very interested in the state of arts education in this country right now. I plan to launch a “Fazzino Arts Education Initiative” and quite frankly, i'm not sure exactly what that means yet. I'm hoping you will all help me begin this conversation and together, we can start to have an influence.

4. In July, I'll be headed to Pori, Finland as the official artist for the Pori Jazz Festival. That event will be the culmination of a lifelong dream for me – to have my artwork shown in my mother's native country of Finland.

5. I'm launching a new travelogue on FazzinoCollectors.com. I LOVE to travel. It's been my passion for a long long time. I'd like to share with you some of the things I learn on my roadtrips…i'm a rather seasoned traveller at this point…if i do say so myself So send me your questions about the places i'm going….. Starting with Japan early in January!

6. I want to get back to doing some college campus artwork. I still get requests for the Florida Gators piece i did in the 1990's. i think it's time to go back there….maybe 2009 is the year. I'd also like to have my artwork exhibited on college campuses. There are some incredible museums and art facilites in our educational institutions and i'd love to start exposing some of the younger folks to my work.

7. Speaking of exposure…i'm looking forward to having my work shown in many new places in 2009 – Finland, of course, tops the list. But I'm also exploring the idea of doing a museum retrospective in Kansas City, and i'll be doing the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis. My work has been shown there on a limited scale, but it's not all that common there. To me, one of the most exciting moments is watching someone discover the work for the first time. I watch their eyes. That's how you can really tell what they think.

I'm sure you are all looking forward to what you can accomplish and where you can go and who you can meet in the New Year…but really, the most important thing…and the thing i wish for all of you is a VERY HEALTHY NEW YEAR FULL OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP!

–Charles

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I met Corlette two weeks ago in New York City at a show i was doing. She came to the New York Dental Convention with her mother. She's a high school student and budding artist and i had the pleasure of talking to her about her art aspirations. When i returned to the studio, i had an email waiting for me…from Corlette. She wanted my advise on pursuing her art career and she sent me a few of her drawings. I was very impressed. I've been thinking a lot lately about kids and art…the state of art education in our schools…the importance of encouraging young artists….the future of the art world and what it means to our kids as they grow through their most impressionable years. I so enjoyed speaking with Corlette and i was so glad to receive her drawings. I'm thinking about trying to do more to encourage, promote, and support arts education in this country. I'm sure i'll be blogging a lot more about it, but for now, i'm doing a lot of thinking about it. In the meantime, I thought i would share one of Corlette's pieces with you. I'd love to hear from any other budding art students out there…..where are you headed? What are you thinking about? Art teachers too? What's the state of things out there?

Thank you Corlette for sharing your work with me. I wish you much luck and success.

–Charles

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