Saturday, April 13, 2013
Rare Video Footage of Fernando Garcia
A video covering the Miami Generation was put together by the Miami Dade Library documenting a number of artists from that period of time including Fernando Garcia. Here is a rare opportunity to hear the artist in his own words.RARE VIDEO OF FERNANDO GARCIA
Nancy Clark Reviews the 2003 Fernando Garcia Retrospective in Video
In 2003, the Miami Dade Library Downtown Branch hosted a restrospective on Fernando Garcia: On The Line which ran from October 11 through December 22, 2003. Here Nancy put together a video for friends out of town that could not see the exhibit. Its an opportunity to learn more about Fernando Garcia from one of his closest friends, Nancy Clark.Video By Nancy Clark on Fernando Garcia Retrospective 2003
Monday, May 30, 2011
Art In Public Places Meeting Restoration Project : Fernando Garcia's " Making Purple"
Good News. The restoration is in the works Fernando Garcia's " Making Purple" neon public work of art that lit up the entire Hialeah Okechobee Metro Station. The original work of art was completely destroyed by hurricanes, but we have the original plans and intend to do as close to the original restoration of Fernando's work of art as possible. Martin Parker and myself ( Gary Mercer) will be meeting with Brandi Reddick, Communication and Artists Manager for Art in Public places in the first meeting to discuss plans to restore the project. I photographed what is left of this work of art at the station on Saturday along with Martin as we surveyed the station to get a grasp at how large a restoration this project will be. My main concern is that the original project was not hurricane and weather proof and didn't survive over the years. Any project restoration will have to be hurricane proof and also a yearly budget will be needed to maintain the piece in perpetuity. There is no reason to restore the piece an then let it fall into disrepair. There needs to be long term oversight of a work of art of this magnitude in my humble opinion. We will get copies of the plans and consult with numerous experts in just how best to restore the piece to its original spendor. If there is anyone that is familiar with " Making Purple" and how the lighting sequence was executed, please let me know.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Mother of Jazz Babies is Found!
(Reprint from December 15th, 2007)
Mother Of Jazz Babies Found!
Ann Teller- Sargossi contacted the Fernando Garcia Project and told us about the wonderful Fernando Garcia Painting that she owns which Fernando refered to as " The Mother of Jazz Babies". Apparently there is a picture in the photography gallery of this painting half finished in a black and white photograph of Fernando's studio and Ann's daughter discovered the Fernando Garcia Project from a web search. Ann was supprised to see the partially finished painting that she now owns. Fernando gifted the painting to her and I traveled up to here home in Broward county and took a photograph that is now posted on the first page in the photography gallery of Fernandos work. Years ago, Ann hosted " Cafe des Artistes" at the restaurant and there is a picture in the archives of Fernando and Nancy in front of the restaurant's window doing " Portraits" in lawn Chairs. I was astounded at the quality and perfect shape of " Mother of Jazz Babies" and I'm sure you will agree when you see it in the photo gallery archives. Enjoy.
Fernando Garcia Created Sculptures of Miami Land Mark Building
(Reprint from April 2006 blog)
April 2006
April 2006
Fernando Garcia’s created sculptures of the Centrust Building ( Bank of America) in Miami
Attorney Bonnie Lozak-Jimenez of the Law firm Hugo Black Jr owns a very interesting one of a kind Fernando Garcia Sculpture of the former Centrust Building, downtown Miami, now renamed the Bank of America Building. Martin Parker’s mother, Bernice Parker commissioned Fernando in 1988 to create this piece and gave it as a gift to Bonnie as thanks for legal work done of the behalf of the Parker family. The wooden tower is nearly 3 feet tall and each side is painted in Fernando’s unique style. On the bottom of the piece, Fernando signed it with his signature and called the piece, “Martin’s Annex”, a kind of inside joke, as Martin’s family had spent alot of time at Bonnies office, using her services.
This unique one of a kind sculpture is one of the largest sculptures that Fernando created and appears to be one of the last ones that he created of this type before he passed in 1989. If you have a Fernando Garcia sculpture, please contact the project so it may be documented.
This unique one of a kind sculpture is one of the largest sculptures that Fernando created and appears to be one of the last ones that he created of this type before he passed in 1989. If you have a Fernando Garcia sculpture, please contact the project so it may be documented.
Here is the first official word from Miami Dade Art In Public Places that the Fernando Garcia Hialeah Metro Rail Station "Making Purple" Would be restored!
( Reprinted from the Original Blog Archive)
“Making Purple” to be restored by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places!
Here is the official word from Miami-Dade Art In Public Places on the restoration of ” Making Purple” public art piece. We need to monitor this process and make sure that the restoration becomes reality. I’ve copied and pasted the emails that I received from public official, Ivan Rodriquez including Bill Iverson’s assessment report.
On Mar 9, 2006, at 2:32 PM, Rodriguez, Ivan (APP) wrote:
Gary, please, check the brief statement below that Bill Iverson from my staff prepared at my request in order to respond to your recent e-mail. We concur with your assessment and enthusiasm over the significance of “Making Purple†and of Mr. Garcia’s contributions prior to his untimely passing. For quite some time we have been working on a plan to restore the piece and as you can see down below, we’re getting close. We can keep you posted as to our progress. Feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions or concerns or desire further information. Thanks for your interest in the work of this important artist.
Gary, please, check the brief statement below that Bill Iverson from my staff prepared at my request in order to respond to your recent e-mail. We concur with your assessment and enthusiasm over the significance of “Making Purple†and of Mr. Garcia’s contributions prior to his untimely passing. For quite some time we have been working on a plan to restore the piece and as you can see down below, we’re getting close. We can keep you posted as to our progress. Feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions or concerns or desire further information. Thanks for your interest in the work of this important artist.
Ivan
—–Original Message—–
From: Iverson, Bill (APP)
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 4:42 PM
To: Rodriguez, Ivan (APP)
Subject: Making Purple
From: Iverson, Bill (APP)
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 4:42 PM
To: Rodriguez, Ivan (APP)
Subject: Making Purple
Ivan:
Assessment Report on “Making Purple†by Fernando Garcia:
The artwork is in complete disrepair. I do not think the damage is storm related, it was not working prior to hurricane season. The neon had not been turned on in years, as early as 1990 it had not been working for a full year. As a test I had it turned on recently so we could get estimates and assess the viability of the electric circuits.
I also believe that some of the art will need to be redesigned; the timer mechanism was faulty and was probably the cause of many of the problems associated with this piece. I have had preliminary discussions regarding this with Nancy Clark who is the closest I’ve found to an executor for the artist’s estate.
We are still working on funds for this project. The money left over after the John Henry piece is relocated may be sufficient. It will be approximately $20,000 to repair, half of that cost being for scaffolding.
I have several nice images of this piece, we can make these available.
Thank you,
Bill
Bill
Bill Iverson
Miami-Dade Art in Public Places
111 NW 1st Street, Suite 610
Miami, FL 33128-1982
(305) 375-5362
Repost of August 30th, 2006 Fernando's Early Life Interview with Rolando Castro, Fernando's First Cousin
August 30th, 2006 Fernando’s Early Life: An Inteview with Rolando Castro, Fernando’s first cousin.
3-20-06 10am interview Rolando Garcia at Corinthian Antiques in Miami.
Interview Notes
(Before the actual interview, Martin starts asking Rolando questions, so I quickly turned on the recorder so as to catch this information)
( Rolando refers to the last months of Fernando's life that although he was going blind, he continued to produce works of art.)
Rolando: Fernando was doing experiments with shadows, and basically he would put a black paper behind you and you would stand in front, he [Fernando]would basically draw what he saw and took an outline of you and then he would have it cut and I have a picture of me that I should maybe bring it out and have it mounted.
Martin Parker: Was he a marine or in the navy?
Rolando: He was in the army.
Martin Parker:What University did he go to?
Rolando: Fernando went to the University of Georgia at Athens where he got his undergraduate degree [Bachelor of Science] in physics and mathmatics [1968]. [He did graduate studies in Mathmatics at Georgia State University 1968-1969.]After he graduated he had a job with Western Electric , was drafted by the U.S army and Western Electric held his job for him until he got back out of the service. He was an engineer for Western Electric. When he got out of the military, he came back, worked this company but it didn't last for long as he wanted to go back to school. That was when he got his degree in fine arts. [Drawing and Painting at Georgia State University].
Martin Parker: I've lived here in Miami all of my life and I found it strange miami cuban to go to Georgia Universities.
Rolando: Wow! .Well yeah, because he wanted to get away.
Gary Mercer: You don't think he liked Miami very much?
Martin Parker: He [Fernando] was actually ambivalent.
Rolando: He was actually later in life and we do that, we kind of like reject what we are and everything and we kind of go back to our roots. That was basically his idea. he wanted to get away from Miami, the [cuban] asylum environment and all that and he was very independant and he just wanted a new experience. And he was very bright. He graduated with honors from Belen high school, a jesuit [preparatory] which was the best school for boys in Havana. (Note: Rolando refers to two schools in Havana that Fernando went to.)
Martin: He would be sixty one?
Rolando: I can't imagine Fernando at sixtyone. He was about your age when he was 42. [Refering to Gary Mercer's age at the time of the interview]
Martin: You are younger than he was?
Rolando: Yes. 2 1/2 .uh. it was three years.
Martin: i"ll be 55.
Rolando: Ok i'm fifty seven..
Martin: He [Fernando] was my senior by 7 years..
Rolando Ahh¦he just didn't look it ¦he [Fernando] looked like a kid.
Martin: You know¦the skin¦.
Gary Mercer: Ok. I would like to ask Rolando some questions and some of these are going to seem kind of basic.
Gary: You say Fernando went to one of finest schools in Havana as a child?
Rolando: He went to the Maristas brothers school, which was a very fine Catholic School in Havana¦as a matter of fact, he worked as a teacher for the Maristas brothers school in Atlanta. Which was good that he belonged to them..but when he arrived here in Miami,when he was going through that Pedro Pan thing and my uncle and aunt[Fernando's Parents] arrived from Cuba, they came to live with him¦then of course he went to Belen which was a private and hard for my uncle to pay for,but it was the only Catholic school from Havana that had already incorporated into Miami, so it was the only choice, but they also happened to be the best school in Cuba and the most expensive Catholic school for boys and that is what he joined when he came here. The curiculum of the school in Cuba was extemely full, like here [United States] we study five subject a year, whereas in cuba they studied in Caligraphy,Lithography,Naturally geography,Cuban history, English,math,science.
Gary Mercer: What was his age when he came over with the Pedro Pan children?
Rolando: In 1961 he had to be probably 15 years old.
Gary Mercer: When he came over, did he come by himself?
Rolando: By nature of the Pedro Pan children, came without parents. They were sponsored by the Catholic Archidiocise. The U.S. government gave visas to keep the children from being indoctrinated into communism.
Gary Mercer: Did they escape or where they let out freely? I'm not familiar with this bit of history.
Rolando: As a matter of fact. Castro was so busy doing so many other things in his agenda, the fact that he was going to militerize the age of boys into service which did not exist in Cuba prior to that. So as other parents felt afraid that once this compulsary military service happened that they would have not control over their children and thats the way it happened¦then a few years later¦it was implemented.[Compulsery Military service for youth] Rolando left two years into the Cuban revolution where many people were still very much with the revolution. Castro was busy doing agrarian and monetary reform and he knew that it was a sore subject [ Pedro Pan Children]. Cuban children are by nature very sheltered. So he knew he had to sort of get a grip on power before he decided to tell parents, you are going to lose your children from age 14 to 27 which is what happened. When that began to become a rumour, this sister of an ex president which was a very distinguished lady, along with some other men and had connections so she was able to prepare a project, sort of like a pilot project, to get children out of children in an effort¦nobody thought parents would take to a project the way they did but so afraid, they did. And so the project was known as Pedro Pan. It was very fast the way they prepared it and visas were distributed through the Catholic schools and student quietly notified about the program, in a very hush, hush way that they were going to be granting these visas and any parents that would like their children to study abroad and they could, but everyone knew what the underlying message was and parents got those visas and filled them out. [ to send their children to the U.S.]
Gary Mercer: At age fourteen you had to leave and go to another country by yourself, it had to be a huge factor in someone life.
Rolando: I know because I did it only because he came [Fernando] that my parents allowed me to come. A very young priest here by the name of Brian Walsh, irish and a very good man and he was told by the archdiasis would you mind to go and pick up a few Cuban children. Put them somewhere in the building of the Archdiacese.
Gary Mercer: At age fourteen you had to leave and go to another country by yourself, it had to be a huge factor in someone life.
Rolando: I know because I did it. only because he came [Fernando] that my parents allowed me to come. A very young priest here by the name of Brian Welsh, irish and a very good man and he was told by the archidieasis would you mind to go and pick up a few Cuban children. Put them somewhere in the building of the Archdiacese and then we world at an early age. I wonder where he would be today?
Rolando: He was on his way, he had great reports from Helen Kohen and several of the nice galleries in Miami.
Martin Parker: Remember HBO, is was supposed to do some work with them?
Rolando: Oh Yes! and he worked with Art in Public Places¦incredible interesting thing¦
Martin: I just remembered that HBO was supposed to call him back about designing some pages.
Rolando: Yes¦now that you mentioned¦University in Europe is and of course all the great writers where from there.
Interview Notes
(Before the actual interview, Martin starts asking Rolando questions, so I quickly turned on the recorder so as to catch this information)
( Rolando refers to the last months of Fernando's life that although he was going blind, he continued to produce works of art.)
Rolando: Fernando was doing experiments with shadows, and basically he would put a black paper behind you and you would stand in front, he [Fernando]would basically draw what he saw and took an outline of you and then he would have it cut and I have a picture of me that I should maybe bring it out and have it mounted.
Martin Parker: Was he a marine or in the navy?
Rolando: He was in the army.
Martin Parker:What University did he go to?
Rolando: Fernando went to the University of Georgia at Athens where he got his undergraduate degree [Bachelor of Science] in physics and mathmatics [1968]. [He did graduate studies in Mathmatics at Georgia State University 1968-1969.]After he graduated he had a job with Western Electric , was drafted by the U.S army and Western Electric held his job for him until he got back out of the service. He was an engineer for Western Electric. When he got out of the military, he came back, worked this company but it didn't last for long as he wanted to go back to school. That was when he got his degree in fine arts. [Drawing and Painting at Georgia State University].
Martin Parker: I've lived here in Miami all of my life and I found it strange miami cuban to go to Georgia Universities.
Rolando: Wow! .Well yeah, because he wanted to get away.
Gary Mercer: You don't think he liked Miami very much?
Martin Parker: He [Fernando] was actually ambivalent.
Rolando: He was actually later in life and we do that, we kind of like reject what we are and everything and we kind of go back to our roots. That was basically his idea. he wanted to get away from Miami, the [cuban] asylum environment and all that and he was very independant and he just wanted a new experience. And he was very bright. He graduated with honors from Belen high school, a jesuit [preparatory] which was the best school for boys in Havana. (Note: Rolando refers to two schools in Havana that Fernando went to.)
Martin: He would be sixty one?
Rolando: I can't imagine Fernando at sixtyone. He was about your age when he was 42. [Refering to Gary Mercer's age at the time of the interview]
Martin: You are younger than he was?
Rolando: Yes. 2 1/2 .uh. it was three years.
Martin: i"ll be 55.
Rolando: Ok i'm fifty seven..
Martin: He [Fernando] was my senior by 7 years..
Rolando Ahh¦he just didn't look it ¦he [Fernando] looked like a kid.
Martin: You know¦the skin¦.
Gary Mercer: Ok. I would like to ask Rolando some questions and some of these are going to seem kind of basic.
Gary: You say Fernando went to one of finest schools in Havana as a child?
Rolando: He went to the Maristas brothers school, which was a very fine Catholic School in Havana¦as a matter of fact, he worked as a teacher for the Maristas brothers school in Atlanta. Which was good that he belonged to them..but when he arrived here in Miami,when he was going through that Pedro Pan thing and my uncle and aunt[Fernando's Parents] arrived from Cuba, they came to live with him¦then of course he went to Belen which was a private and hard for my uncle to pay for,but it was the only Catholic school from Havana that had already incorporated into Miami, so it was the only choice, but they also happened to be the best school in Cuba and the most expensive Catholic school for boys and that is what he joined when he came here. The curiculum of the school in Cuba was extemely full, like here [United States] we study five subject a year, whereas in cuba they studied in Caligraphy,Lithography,Naturally geography,Cuban history, English,math,science.
Gary Mercer: What was his age when he came over with the Pedro Pan children?
Rolando: In 1961 he had to be probably 15 years old.
Gary Mercer: When he came over, did he come by himself?
Rolando: By nature of the Pedro Pan children, came without parents. They were sponsored by the Catholic Archidiocise. The U.S. government gave visas to keep the children from being indoctrinated into communism.
Gary Mercer: Did they escape or where they let out freely? I'm not familiar with this bit of history.
Rolando: As a matter of fact. Castro was so busy doing so many other things in his agenda, the fact that he was going to militerize the age of boys into service which did not exist in Cuba prior to that. So as other parents felt afraid that once this compulsary military service happened that they would have not control over their children and thats the way it happened¦then a few years later¦it was implemented.[Compulsery Military service for youth] Rolando left two years into the Cuban revolution where many people were still very much with the revolution. Castro was busy doing agrarian and monetary reform and he knew that it was a sore subject [ Pedro Pan Children]. Cuban children are by nature very sheltered. So he knew he had to sort of get a grip on power before he decided to tell parents, you are going to lose your children from age 14 to 27 which is what happened. When that began to become a rumour, this sister of an ex president which was a very distinguished lady, along with some other men and had connections so she was able to prepare a project, sort of like a pilot project, to get children out of children in an effort¦nobody thought parents would take to a project the way they did but so afraid, they did. And so the project was known as Pedro Pan. It was very fast the way they prepared it and visas were distributed through the Catholic schools and student quietly notified about the program, in a very hush, hush way that they were going to be granting these visas and any parents that would like their children to study abroad and they could, but everyone knew what the underlying message was and parents got those visas and filled them out. [ to send their children to the U.S.]
Gary Mercer: At age fourteen you had to leave and go to another country by yourself, it had to be a huge factor in someone life.
Rolando: I know because I did it only because he came [Fernando] that my parents allowed me to come. A very young priest here by the name of Brian Walsh, irish and a very good man and he was told by the archdiasis would you mind to go and pick up a few Cuban children. Put them somewhere in the building of the Archdiacese.
Gary Mercer: At age fourteen you had to leave and go to another country by yourself, it had to be a huge factor in someone life.
Rolando: I know because I did it. only because he came [Fernando] that my parents allowed me to come. A very young priest here by the name of Brian Welsh, irish and a very good man and he was told by the archidieasis would you mind to go and pick up a few Cuban children. Put them somewhere in the building of the Archdiacese and then we world at an early age. I wonder where he would be today?
Rolando: He was on his way, he had great reports from Helen Kohen and several of the nice galleries in Miami.
Martin Parker: Remember HBO, is was supposed to do some work with them?
Rolando: Oh Yes! and he worked with Art in Public Places¦incredible interesting thing¦
Martin: I just remembered that HBO was supposed to call him back about designing some pages.
Rolando: Yes¦now that you mentioned¦University in Europe is and of course all the great writers where from there.
Rolando talks about Fernando’s success in the military and his travels in Europe and meeting relatives in Spain.
Gary Mercer: Was he well received by his Spanish relatives?
Rolando: Absolutely, he even wrote back and forth with one of his cousins that he was fond of there and they got along very well. He then went to Greece and of course he was all over Germany and Switzerland, France,Belgium…there was nothing he didn’t see. He didn’t go to Turkey or anywhere behind the iron curtain [laughing].
Gary Mercer: After the service what did Fernando do?
Rolando: He went back to Western Electric as they had held his job for him during his wartime service, but then he became friends with gallery owner, David Heath of Heath Galleries, which was the modern gallery in Atlanta. David really saw Fernando’s potential. He had a wonderful gallery near the museum so it was like the place that any and every collector that left the museum would go to. Being that Fernando was in a social scale in Atlanta that allowed him to have great parties, he did very well in Atlanta. He got connected right away.
This guy [David Heath] encouraged him to pursue a fine arts degree.
Gary Mercer: To legitimize his work in the art world?
Rolando: Exactly, which he did, which was with honors.
Martin Parker: What type of paintings did he do?
Rolando: Remember he was just beginning. I wasn’t with him during at the beginning since I was in Miami, but I remember that I did travel once to Atlanta to prepare an installation at Heath Gallery with Fernando and I remember his art was all about calendars as art and basically it was a diary of what he had done. Different symbols were painted on the calendar depicting if it was a good day, bad day, he had sex etc. There was a code system to that.
[Rolando proceeds to pull out a suitcase full of Fernando memorabilia, calendars, invitations, pictures and we went through the entire suitcase and he gave me stuff to have copied and returned to him, including two of Fernando's earliest art pieces.]
Note: Rolando gave me the names of Sam Blum or Bloom, an attorney and a blonde cuban girl that Nan Clark would know called Maria, that have some of Fernando’s work that I could photograph for the book.
Gary Mercer: I would like for you to think back on your life with Fernando in the next few days, weeks etc to any particular event, funny happening or significant experience you had with Fernando that would be interesting to include in the book. Maybe something he said that was hilarious or something unique that he did? Then let me know for the book. Ok?
Rolando: Absolutely, its a lifetime of memories it would take sometime to think about it.
Gary Mercer: You know, your most memorable experience with Fernando.
Rolando: Fernando had a personal charisma when introduced to somebody, that I don't have.
Gary Mercer: I think you have alot more charisma than you give yourself credit.
Rolando: Its hard to believe that, but people just took to Fernando, one time they saw him and they were friends for a lifetime. He was very honest, outgoing person…as a matter of fact, he always had a smile..he always had nothing but a joke, he was always on the way to a party thats why til the very last momentI knew e was physically dieing,cause I wasn't stupid..but I didn't know to what point his blindness had blinded him. There was a side of him that was extremely personal that he guarded with his life. That part I know as little as anybody else. my brother [Rolando lived with Fernando's Parents when he came to the United States and Fernando treated him as a brother] and we were extremely close and had some of the best times of our lives in Key West. I stayed with him in Atlanta once an entire month when he was working there as an artist.. I went to visit him in Athen, Georgia when I was just in 9th grade. I stayed with him when he lived on Piedmont way, across the park in Atlanta. I went with my aunt and uncle visiting Fernando [Fernando's mom and dad]. In Havana we were extremely close..there were times when he was away that we weren't as close, but we kept in touch. We never had a fight. When I turned 15, I got the most beautiful letter from him, kind of like a passage of age thing like the girls go through in the Spanish Culture, but he still wrote me a letter, I think he was still in Atlanta and he put a little tie clip in it, but the letter was very heart felt and because I was in the United State without my parents, he was very supportive. Everytime I talked to him when he was in Atlanta, he was like, why don't you come over, you could finish high school up here and have FUN! Fernando's life was about fun. We had some good times in Key West. I took him to Key west once and I told him if you go there you are going to want to stay there. It was the place to go in the seventies.
Gary Mercer: Thats where Martin shot that nude picture of Fernando, it was at an clothing option resort. [ We have a very modest nude picture of Fernando in our possesion and he is gorgeous, happy and smiling in the picture sitting alongside the pool soaking up the sun]
Rolando: Fernando actually had an exhibit or some work there for that. who was that famous writer there? He had an arena or a theatre named after him? [ We couldn’t remember the name]
Gary Mercer: I noticed that Fernando sent lots of letters, notes and cards to people keeping in touch. Many of these are hand painted pieces of art!
Rolando: Exactly!! He would have flipped over email if it had been available because the nature of his to keep in touch.
He had his best friend from Georgia come and spend two weeks with him when he was sick. His name was Larry Lambert, his first partner, he is a realtor in Atlanta. They were roomates together and very very close through the years. I even stayed at his house even when Lambert wasn't home he let stay. You'll probably get a more accurate story from Nancy [Clark] um that he basically came to grab what he could. I knew him for a long time and don't want to think that way but..
Gary Mercer: Didn't Fernando give alot of his work away at the end of his life?
Rolando: Well he came to spend two weeks with him and alot of his friends that didn't know that part of Fernando's life [ Atlanta Years] were shocked at the greater intimacy that they had or whatever it was. There was also a Antonio LoSantos involved a portuguese, imigrant, Fernando's closest friend besides Nancy, he tried to follow in Fernando's footsteps in fact I have one of his little invitations to an exhibition. In the end, there was controversy over pieces of work that were being given away.
Gary Mercer: But isn't that the way it is oftentimes at the end of someone's life, everyone wants something of them to remember them. Look at Nancy for example. She has alot of his work but hasn't sold hardly anything and is out there still promoting his legacy!
Rolando: OH my God “she has promoted Fernando like no one else, was a true friend and an incredible, incredible girl. so I don't know what happened at the end something happened between Fernando, Nancy, LoSantos and Lambert. Of course Lo Santos is gone. Fernando and La Santos were both ill at the same time and Lo Santo passed away right after Fernando did.
Gary Mercer: Well, I'll try to contact Larry Lambert, see if he is still alive and interview him by phone and see what work of Fernando's he still is in possesion of so pictures can be taken for the book.
[Note: The book I want to write will deal with Fernando's life his fantastic artwork and his historical contribution to the art world, not his dying.]
Gary Mercer: Was he well received by his Spanish relatives?
Rolando: Absolutely, he even wrote back and forth with one of his cousins that he was fond of there and they got along very well. He then went to Greece and of course he was all over Germany and Switzerland, France,Belgium…there was nothing he didn’t see. He didn’t go to Turkey or anywhere behind the iron curtain [laughing].
Gary Mercer: After the service what did Fernando do?
Rolando: He went back to Western Electric as they had held his job for him during his wartime service, but then he became friends with gallery owner, David Heath of Heath Galleries, which was the modern gallery in Atlanta. David really saw Fernando’s potential. He had a wonderful gallery near the museum so it was like the place that any and every collector that left the museum would go to. Being that Fernando was in a social scale in Atlanta that allowed him to have great parties, he did very well in Atlanta. He got connected right away.
This guy [David Heath] encouraged him to pursue a fine arts degree.
Gary Mercer: To legitimize his work in the art world?
Rolando: Exactly, which he did, which was with honors.
Martin Parker: What type of paintings did he do?
Rolando: Remember he was just beginning. I wasn’t with him during at the beginning since I was in Miami, but I remember that I did travel once to Atlanta to prepare an installation at Heath Gallery with Fernando and I remember his art was all about calendars as art and basically it was a diary of what he had done. Different symbols were painted on the calendar depicting if it was a good day, bad day, he had sex etc. There was a code system to that.
[Rolando proceeds to pull out a suitcase full of Fernando memorabilia, calendars, invitations, pictures and we went through the entire suitcase and he gave me stuff to have copied and returned to him, including two of Fernando's earliest art pieces.]
Note: Rolando gave me the names of Sam Blum or Bloom, an attorney and a blonde cuban girl that Nan Clark would know called Maria, that have some of Fernando’s work that I could photograph for the book.
Gary Mercer: I would like for you to think back on your life with Fernando in the next few days, weeks etc to any particular event, funny happening or significant experience you had with Fernando that would be interesting to include in the book. Maybe something he said that was hilarious or something unique that he did? Then let me know for the book. Ok?
Rolando: Absolutely, its a lifetime of memories it would take sometime to think about it.
Gary Mercer: You know, your most memorable experience with Fernando.
Rolando: Fernando had a personal charisma when introduced to somebody, that I don't have.
Gary Mercer: I think you have alot more charisma than you give yourself credit.
Rolando: Its hard to believe that, but people just took to Fernando, one time they saw him and they were friends for a lifetime. He was very honest, outgoing person…as a matter of fact, he always had a smile..he always had nothing but a joke, he was always on the way to a party thats why til the very last momentI knew e was physically dieing,cause I wasn't stupid..but I didn't know to what point his blindness had blinded him. There was a side of him that was extremely personal that he guarded with his life. That part I know as little as anybody else. my brother [Rolando lived with Fernando's Parents when he came to the United States and Fernando treated him as a brother] and we were extremely close and had some of the best times of our lives in Key West. I stayed with him in Atlanta once an entire month when he was working there as an artist.. I went to visit him in Athen, Georgia when I was just in 9th grade. I stayed with him when he lived on Piedmont way, across the park in Atlanta. I went with my aunt and uncle visiting Fernando [Fernando's mom and dad]. In Havana we were extremely close..there were times when he was away that we weren't as close, but we kept in touch. We never had a fight. When I turned 15, I got the most beautiful letter from him, kind of like a passage of age thing like the girls go through in the Spanish Culture, but he still wrote me a letter, I think he was still in Atlanta and he put a little tie clip in it, but the letter was very heart felt and because I was in the United State without my parents, he was very supportive. Everytime I talked to him when he was in Atlanta, he was like, why don't you come over, you could finish high school up here and have FUN! Fernando's life was about fun. We had some good times in Key West. I took him to Key west once and I told him if you go there you are going to want to stay there. It was the place to go in the seventies.
Gary Mercer: Thats where Martin shot that nude picture of Fernando, it was at an clothing option resort. [ We have a very modest nude picture of Fernando in our possesion and he is gorgeous, happy and smiling in the picture sitting alongside the pool soaking up the sun]
Rolando: Fernando actually had an exhibit or some work there for that. who was that famous writer there? He had an arena or a theatre named after him? [ We couldn’t remember the name]
Gary Mercer: I noticed that Fernando sent lots of letters, notes and cards to people keeping in touch. Many of these are hand painted pieces of art!
Rolando: Exactly!! He would have flipped over email if it had been available because the nature of his to keep in touch.
He had his best friend from Georgia come and spend two weeks with him when he was sick. His name was Larry Lambert, his first partner, he is a realtor in Atlanta. They were roomates together and very very close through the years. I even stayed at his house even when Lambert wasn't home he let stay. You'll probably get a more accurate story from Nancy [Clark] um that he basically came to grab what he could. I knew him for a long time and don't want to think that way but..
Gary Mercer: Didn't Fernando give alot of his work away at the end of his life?
Rolando: Well he came to spend two weeks with him and alot of his friends that didn't know that part of Fernando's life [ Atlanta Years] were shocked at the greater intimacy that they had or whatever it was. There was also a Antonio LoSantos involved a portuguese, imigrant, Fernando's closest friend besides Nancy, he tried to follow in Fernando's footsteps in fact I have one of his little invitations to an exhibition. In the end, there was controversy over pieces of work that were being given away.
Gary Mercer: But isn't that the way it is oftentimes at the end of someone's life, everyone wants something of them to remember them. Look at Nancy for example. She has alot of his work but hasn't sold hardly anything and is out there still promoting his legacy!
Rolando: OH my God “she has promoted Fernando like no one else, was a true friend and an incredible, incredible girl. so I don't know what happened at the end something happened between Fernando, Nancy, LoSantos and Lambert. Of course Lo Santos is gone. Fernando and La Santos were both ill at the same time and Lo Santo passed away right after Fernando did.
Gary Mercer: Well, I'll try to contact Larry Lambert, see if he is still alive and interview him by phone and see what work of Fernando's he still is in possesion of so pictures can be taken for the book.
[Note: The book I want to write will deal with Fernando's life his fantastic artwork and his historical contribution to the art world, not his dying.]
Nancy Clark: Insights into some of Fernando’s significant Exhibitions
(Repost from 2006) Nancy Clark: Insights into some of Fernando’s significant Exhibitions
Editor’s Note: Here is an excerpt of Nan Clark’s posting in the Photo Gallery
This performance was part of the Nada Group’s show at the Biltmore Restaurant at the Biltmore Hotel. As part
of the performance, participants were asked to pay $1.00 for their bad portrait. The person would be asked to recline in a chaise lawn chair and Nan would place a shower curtain over their clothes leaving only the face exposed. She would hold the canvas tightly over the face and very quickly Fernando would apply paint and finish with what he called “the fixer” which was sparkles thrown on to the wet paint. The end result was always a surprise. Some appeared almost as if they were African masks while others looked quite a lot like the “sitter”.
ON THE LINE: This piece was multi-dimensional. The ” On the Line” Exhibition was done simultaneously in Key West at the Tennessee Williams Center and at the Gables library. There were drawings tracing the line US1 made between Miami and Key West. One of the larger pieces was a huge piece of paper with a wide line of paint. This was created by Garcia as he rode a motorcycle down the dividing line on US1 and held out a paint brush as he passed the piece. Ask part of the performance element of the exhibition, we had Barbara Young speaking on the telephone from the Gables to Key West thereby making another connection involving the line between the two places. At the Gables library site he drew a white line on the floor and placed very large mirrors facing each other at both ends of the line. When you stepped on the line and looked you would see yourself standing on the line in multiple images that seemed to go on into infinity. Another piece was a video he made shot from the waist up as he was naked. His intent was to put himself on the line in a very exposed way both physically and emotionally.
However, once they viewed the art they never bothered the spheres again.
Babara Young's Talks about Fernando Garcia's "On the Line" Exhibition
(Reposted from April 9th, 2006)
Please talk with Wayne. He will remember the exhibiiton, and the tape he made. And he will recall going out with FG. Outings with him were always great. He knew the most amazing places to go. There was a funny little, really little, bar on 27th avenue, I think that he called it a biker bar, but it would have had to have been for tiny bikers. There was a a juke box and beer and dancing which he loved. Probably no air conditioning or maybe it was just that we danced so much, that sweaty seems like a part of it. They also had beer cans with pebbles in them to shake as you dance. There was another old bar on 8th street that had been there for years that was great, I think that the owner and her daughter sang, a very neighborhood sort of place. There was a great little market/restuarant, also on 8th street, that you could feed a family of 12 for $5.00 that he discovered. And on South Beach, before all the development…I think that the old dog track was still there, this was in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a place called the Coldest Beer that was one of his finds just a little open window with icy, icy beers.
He knew so many people, lots of really wonderful characters. And definitely some of the rich and famous. At one time, Leo Castilli in New York had given him money to have a broken or sprained arm fixed..he worked at the gallery one when he was in the City, I think. One time he borrowed a man’s shirt that I had that an artist in California had painted to go on a date or to a party with Bette Midler when she was performing here. He was almost impossible to say no to. You always felt, no matter how complicated his projects might sound, that this will be so much fun and so exciting to do.
Definitely he had times that things were not going so well, times that he was really down. Once he gave me a little paper with some words that may have been attributed to Gorky. Roughly it said something about when you’r mad, draw; when you’r depressed, draw; when you’r happy , draw.
I don’t think I saw any visuals in your sides for the project that he did at the Center for Fine Arts, now Miami Art Museum, with Don Cherry, the Jazz musician. Mary Luft was involed with that, too.
Please do credit Wayne on photo and talk with him to if you can.
hope that this helps some.
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