ReConscience

ReConscience is an idea I had in 2003 to examine the relationship between a person and a photograph or painting. Each person was asked to choose a memento that evoked a particular memory or story.

Sarah Yuster in her studio, December 2003

John Manna

A model-maker recounts his first new car, a purple 1965 Chevy Impala SS quickly lost in an accident, but soon replaced early the next year with the same exact model. He reminisces over the photo taken by his late wife in the hot summer of ‘66, less than a year before the birth of their first son. In the fall of 1964, John and his buddy each bought the same exact Chevy. On March 27, 1965, John  wrapped his car around a pole and totaled it. Soon-after, he bought his friend's car while a body shop bought the wreck. The car shown in photo is the second Chevy from his friend which John kept until spring 1967 when he bought a Cadillac.

Sanchie Bobrow

When the portrait of Margaret Graves playing violin was taken in September of 1974, thirteen-year-old Sanchie Bobrow couldn’t have realized that this woman would one day become an important inspiration in her life. The violinist/composer practices daily with the image (taken by Frank Johns) of her late friend perched nearby atop her piano. "Margaret was my violin teacher and, although I didn't know it at the time, she was my mentor. The photo reminds me that Margaret never brushed her hair.  It was taken by a tree in her garden, which grew around her house as wildly as her hair grew around her head."

Bob Mosci

In his recording studio at Snug Harbor, a musician ponders an image of his father taken during a dinner meeting with renowned cellist Pablo Casals. In 1967, clarinetist Milton Moskowitz was invited to play with the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His son Bob studies the photo, reflecting on his father’s passing. Milton played with the New York City Ballet and also founded a company which designed mouthpieces for brass instruments. He died in 1987 from a brain hemorrhage. Bob, a pianist and songwriter, keeps this photo in the living room of his Staten Island house. 

Sarah Yuster

In “Ian 2000,” painter Sarah Yuster captures her son’s passion for skateboarding at a time when ten-year-old Ian was completely immersed in the sport. Yuster explains that the portrait of her son was meant to embrace the breaking away that every kid needs to experience, but she also remembers a boy with his delicacy and childlike features intact. "Ian was absolutely consumed by skateboarding at the time. He was attracted to the technical aspects, the danger and the alternative-ness, the rebellious youth image...thus the blonde spike in his hair. My aim was to present a contemporary, almost pre-James Dean image while bowing to academic classical portraiture, filtered though a mother's love."