Meeting Recap for Monday, April 14, 2014
For a guy who claims to not have been much of an art student, homegrown artist Gregory Kondos has cut a broad swath across the art world in his 91 years.
Although Kondos is known and acclaimed worldwide for hundreds of pieces, perhaps his best body of work is the portfolio of river paintings from the area surrounding his hometown.
Introduced by Chair of the Day Barbara Arnold, Kondos was Rotary Club of Sacramento’s special guest speaker Monday at the Red Lion Hotel—the third in our Centennial Speaker Series.
Despite being hobbled a bit by a recent injury, the (temporarily) wheelchair-bound Kondos and Arnold “marched” through a series of slides showing scenes from the American and Sacramento Rivers, such as “River Cruise” (top). All of the works shown were of scenes from Sacramento County, most within 15 miles of the capitol.
Kondos, who taught art for 27 years at Sacramento City College and for a number of years before that at Elk Grove High School, offered some interesting insights into his works.
For one, he thinks of the composition in terms of a “sandwich”—with trees, buildings and other objects sandwiched between the contrasting blues of the sky and the water.
For another, he always tries to include at least one pink tree in his landscapes, just for the fun of it. He hopes they will be eye-catching elements that attract kids.
“My goal is to create works that children will enjoy—little kids,” said Kondos. “I want them to see that you don’t have to be a great student to make art. I got a ‘C’ in coloring!”
A colleague and contemporary of another famed local artist, Wayne Thiebaud, Kondos said people who want to be artists should find “mentors” and imitate what they do.
(Past-President Rob Scherer toasted Kondos with $100 each for Eddie Mulligan and Paul Harris gifts for Kondos’ similar advice to the budding artist in the Scherer family, wife Sharon Gerber.)
To imitate Kondos would be to use sweeping strokes across large canvases—some of his works are 6 feet tall and 12 feet wide.
“If you hold the brush like a pen and make little movements, you’ll get a painting full of ‘scratchy’ little strokes. You need to grab the brush and move your whole body.”
Never exactly one to be shy about expressing his opinion, Kondos had no kind words to say about the Governor’s proposal to build tunnels under the delta.
“I’m appalled at what’s going on in politics today,” he thundered. “Leave my river alone! Tell them to get their own water!”
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Sacramento County Supervisor and Rotarian Roberta MacGlashan presented President Thom Gilbert with a framed resolution from the Board of Supervisors in recognition of the Club’s 100th anniversary. MacGlashan is a member of the Historic Folsom Club.
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Past-President Jon Snyder, aka Huell Howser, appeared (sans his usual white lab coat). He still managed to get everyone’s attention to remind attendees about the May 17th Anniversary Gala by asking a series of questions, as only Huell can do, of Pres. Thom.
President Thom, in order to save time for the Kondos presentation, quickly went through a list of club activities: Dance lessons, provided by the talented Richard Kowaleski, (for the Gala) on April 19 and May 10, Rotarians at Work at River Bend Park and Theater Night, both on April 26 and Loaves & Fishes April 29.
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Music was provided by Bill Shubb (playing his ukulele), along with Paul and Jeff Stone. Rick Jennings of St. Paul’s Baptist Church provided the invocation, Kevin Smith-Fagan led the club in singing “California Here I Come” and Jim Craig offered another poetic closing thought. New members Ed Kay and Clarence Lee were the greeters.
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