Baumwoll Archives

Here is my new film on the wonderful Random Harvest, I hope you enjoy.

I fell in love with Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman when I was young boy. My mother and I would watch all the old movies together in the mid 1950s. I still find their work to be wonderful. There is only one Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman. Little did I know that as a young boy that years later I would be invited to the house he lived in when he made this movie. The story is I got to experience a piece of old Hollywood in 1988 when I went to Ronald Coleman’s Hollywood Hills home. The home in the spanish revival had an internal courtyard with a fountain and the original tennis court that many Hollywood stars played on. The story is my husband was the architect for the owner who purchased the home in 1988 and he did work in the home. We were invited to his wedding that was held at the home. Their were valets at the bottom of the hill who took our car and then drove us up to the house. I remember walking in the courtyard and in the library and on the tennis court and thinking about all the Hollywood stars that he and his wife entertained there. I hope you enjoy my tribute to these great stars and this wonderful movie.

Songs, love is a many splendored thing Performed By Matt Monro Song, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Performed By Claramae Turner , From Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.

Click here to see my gallery of images from the film.

From Wikipedia,

Random Harvest is a 1942 American romantic drama film based on the 1941 James Hilton novel of the same title, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Claudine West, George Froeschel, and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen, and received an Academy Award nomination. The film stars Ronald Colman as a shellshocked, amnesiac World War I veteran, and Greer Garson as his love interest. They fall in love and marry, renting a small cottage “Smithy,” as Paula calls him, discovers he has some literary talent. Paula remains home with their newborn son while Smithy goes to Liverpool for a job interview with a newspaper. He is struck by a taxi. When he regains consciousness, his past memory is restored, but his life with Paula is now forgotten. He is Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy businessman. None of his meager possessions, including a key, provide any clue about where he has been. Charles One day, she sees Charles’ picture and story in a magazine. Paula becomes his executive assistant under her real name, Margaret Hanson, hoping that her presence will jog his memory. Dr. Jonathan Benet, who works at the Melbridge asylum, is her confidant and admirer. He warns her that revealing her identity would only cause Charles to resent her. Margaret joins Charles in Liverpool, where he is trying one last time to piece together his lost years. They recover his old suitcase from a hotel’s lost and found, but he recognizes nothing. Charles is approached to stand for Parliament. After his election, in which Margaret provides invaluable assistance, he feels the need for a wife in his new role. He proposes to her, more as a business proposition than a romantic one, and she accepts. They become an ideal couple, at least to all outward appearances, with Margaret a perfect society hostess. They discuss his lost past, and she tells him of her own lost love, without revealing that it is him. He hopes their life together can fill the void they both feel. After three years of marriage, she decides to take an extended solo vacation abroad. Before her liner sails, she revisits the village where she and Smithy lived. Charles is summoned to mediate a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works. After the successful negotiation, he walks through the town, and the surroundings and celebrations begin to unlock his memories, leading him to the nearby village and the cottage he and Paula shared. Hesitantly, he tries the old key he kept; it unlocks the door. Margaret, about to leave for her boat, makes a casual remark to the innkeeper about her predecessor, Mrs. Deventer. The innkeeper tells her that a gentleman just that morning had inquired about Mrs. Deventer, and had mentioned that he used to rent a cottage near a church. Margaret hurries to the cottage and finds Charles at the front door. She tentatively calls out “Smithy?” Charles turns and recognises her. He rushes to embrace her, calling her Paula.

Cast Ronald Colman as Charles Rainier/”Smithy” Greer Garson as “Paula Ridgeway”/Margaret Hanson Philip Dorn as Dr. Jonathan Benet Susan Peters as Kitty Chilcet Henry Travers as Dr. Sims Reginald Owen as Biffer Bramwell Fletcher as Harrison Rhys Williams as Sam Una O’Connor as Tobacco Shopkeeper Aubrey Mather as Sheldon Margaret Wycherly as Mrs. Deventer Arthur Margetson as Chetwynd Rainier Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Screenplay by Arthur Wimperis George Froeschel Claudine West

Based on Random Harvest 1941 novel by James Hilton

Produced by Sidney Franklin

Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg

Edited by Harold F. Kress

Music by Herbert Stothart

Click here to see my gallery of images from the film.

I’m proud that my husband Andrew Reach is in this exhibition of abstract and geometric art with a group of nine terrific artists (including Andrew) in NE Ohio; Gianna Commito, David Louis Cintron, Mark Howard, Mark Keffer, Catherine Lentini, Natalie Lanese, Ed Raffel, and Susan Squires

From the Artists Archives website:

Tangents: Abstract and geometric Art in Northeast Ohio continues on in this tradition by gathering together a collection of diverse and prolific NEO artists who are choosing to work in a nonrepresentational way. While their various works include forays into: Color, optical interplay, mathematics, space, surface, texture, process, and the built environment, all explore their individual pursuits in geometry and abstraction.

Curator Jennifer Omaitz writes,” The idea for this exhibition grew out of a call to action. In the wake of the COVID 19 Pandemic most regional artworks appeared to explore literal pictorial space in painting and sculpture. Questions circulated about who in the area is making design dominant, non-representational work? Why is making abstract work still important? And how can the process of being an abstract artist lead to greater manifestations of perception? This exhibition aims to excite a deeper interest in geometric art and abstraction in the area and inspire more artists to open up their studio practice… The process of making abstract art occupies a rare space. It combines ways of thinking and making that interact with the temporal; sometimes abstraction is minimal and simplified, sometimes optical, and sometimes part of a collaged or combined language. It slows down or abandons the use of literal shapes and forms, often including ad hoc arrangement and disparate elements to engage the viewer in a space where philosophical questions prevail. The work has the power to share the pictorial space of color and surface with sensuality, metaphor, and resonance.” 

Andrew writes about his work in the exhibition “I have two artworks in the exhibition; QUADRABAR I and PYRALUX IV. These pieces represent a new direction in my work, connecting my roots as an architect with my digital media practice by utilizing 3d modeling to create geometric abstraction. I call this process 3D Derivatives. The idea of an artist being derivative often has a negative connotation, as being imitative of another artist. But I’m using this word in a different context; that of something that is derived from a source, in this case the source being a 3d model. A 3d model can be viewed in many ways, orthographically and in perspective, from the top, bottom and sides, from different angles, rotated… etc. and a 3D model can be rendered with realistic shadows. These characteristics draw me into this process enabling me to expand on my geometric abstraction in ways not possible in 2D. Using the program Blender, I first create a 3d model, add color and study different camera views and lighting to cast shadows that emphasize the forms. I then export renderings to be printed on rigid substrates and cut them out on a router allowing the geometry to reveal its edges.”

QUADRABAR I, 2023
uv inkjet on acrylic/composite aluminum cut out on cnc router
dimensions variable – 47.5″h x 45.5″w overall, edition of 3

Andrew writes, “QUADRABAR I is a visualization in perspective looking directly overhead of a structure of a grid of cubes intersected by bars. They shift up in down, undulating in a wave like formation assembling an implied geographic terrain. Infused with 14 colors plus black and white, it comes alive as an optical tapestry in a symphony of color.”

PYRALUX IV, 2023
uv inkjet on acrylic/composite aluminum cut out on cnc router
dimensions variable – 47.5″ x 47.5″ overall, edition of 3

Andrew writes, “PYRALUX IV is a visualization in perspective looking directly overhead of a structure of 2 back to back square pyramids of stepped blocks color coded with primary colors plus white forming the platonic solid, the Octahedron. The stepped blocks along the edges of the octahedron are recessed, splitting the octahedron into 8 parts of which only 4 parts are visible in this view. The Octahedron’s vertices are color coded in black. A series of smaller blocks nest on the larger blocks increasing in size as they cascade down from the pinnacles.”

Andrew Reach was awarded the Ohio Arts Council’s Artists With Disabilities Access Program (ADAP) Grant for fiscal year 2024.

My husband, Andrew Reach and his wonderful playful artwork HEX LAND II, has been purchased by Colliers International for their new Cleveland office.

Colliers (NASDAQ, TSX: CIGI) is a leading diversified professional services and investment management company. With operations in 66 countries, our 18,000 enterprising professionals work collaboratively to provide expert real estate and investment advice to
clients.

The firm provides services to commercial real estate users, owners, investors and developers; they include consulting, corporate facilities, investment services, landlord and tenant representation, project management, urban planning, property and asset management, and valuation and advisory services.

Click on images to enlarge (except mobile devices)

Wikipedia

Gypsy is a 1962 American musical film produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass is based on the book of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable by Arthur Laurents, which was adapted from the 1957 autobiography Gypsy: A Memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee. Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for songs composed by Jule Styne. Determined to make her beautiful, gifted daughter June a vaudeville headliner, willful, resourceful and domineering stage mother Rose Hovick will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister Louise around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the help of agent Herbie Sommers, finally manages to secure a booking on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit. Years pass, and the girls no longer are young enough to pull off the childlike personae their mother insists they continue projecting. June rebels, and elopes with Gerry, one of the dancers who backs their act. When the other dancers discover this, they also leave, presuming the act is finished. Devastated by what she sees as betrayal, Rose pours all her energy into making a success of Louise, despite her obvious lack of skill as a performer. Not helping matters is the increasing popularity of sound films, which leads to a decline in the demand for stage entertainment. Herbie sticks with mother and daughter through their struggles, vainly hoping that Rose will one day quit show-business and settle down with him. With bookings scarce, they find themselves in Wichita, Kansas, where a third-rate burlesque house books their act in hopes of keeping the vice squad at bay. Rose appears to mature while at the burlesque house, deciding that this will be their last booking and suggesting that she and Herbie finally marry. However, when one of the strippers is arrested for shoplifting, Rose is unable to resist offering Louise as her replacement. Louise reluctantly agrees to go through with it, though it’s clear she’s only doing it to please her mother. This becomes the final straw for Herbie, as he is disgusted at the lengths Rose will go as a stage mother and realizes that she will never marry him. He offers her one chance to give him a reason to stay, and when she fails, he leaves her for good. At first, Louise’s voice is shaky and her moves tentative, but she gains confidence as audiences respond to her, eventually blossoming as an entertainer billed as Gypsy Rose Lee. Exasperated by her mother’s constant interference in both her life and wildly successful career, Louise finally confronts Rose and demands she leave her alone. Understanding that she has spent her life enslaved by a desperate need to be noticed and has driven everyone away, an angry, bitter, and bewildered Rose stumbles onstage at the deserted theatre and experiences an emotional breakdown. Realizing Louise witnessed this, Rose admits she tried to live vicariously through her and June, allowing her to reconcile with her daughter Cast Rosalind Russell as Rose Hovick Natalie Wood as Louise Hovick/Gypsy Rose Lee Karl Malden as Herbie Sommers Paul Wallace as Tulsa Morgan Brittany (billed as Suzanne Cupito) as Baby June Ann Jillian as Dainty June/June Havoc Diane Pace as Baby Louise