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VANGUARDGALLERY
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FINDING HUMOR - DO TAKE A LOOK HERE AND SMILE!
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WARNING:
First of all ... I just MUR-DEEER the written word... but SOLID in unique and artistic way. Keep in mind, even if I know what it means, Dyslexia is just another word I can't spell! ;)
So with that said - enjoy!
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I am Artist and Gallery Director of the Vanguard Gallery. After almost 15 years, the Vanguard became a Carmel institution of anything retro, girlie WWII, Jazz and naughty, which is very easy to do in provincial, and square Carmel. But mind you it wasn't always this way! The Vanguard is Newly located in the Clint Eastwood Building, Next to the Hog's Breath and the Jazz & Blues Co. & KRML Jazz (Eastwood's, Play Misty For Me) in Carmel California. Vanguard also hosts special Jazz parties one or twice a month with the Jazz & Blues Co. scheduled performances.
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DANIEL VANCAS aka DANNY V :
I have been painting since I was a child. However, I stopped painting for several years when my darling mother became ill and then passed away at a young age from a rare cancer. At the time I was a 25 year old General Building Contractor. My mother was a ship inspector during World War II. Both my parents died only 7 months apart when I was 25. She was my inspiration in many ways and because she was such a survivor of many of life hardships, yet still kind, forgiving and not bitter. As an young adult, she taught me what is precious about life. She was a personal hero and mentor to me.
As a woman she was very feminine, bright, look for the best in people and situations and secure in who she was a a person.
(Because this is about pinup and glamour art the bias will naturally be more about my Mom than my Pop, though Pop loved those pinup girls!)
I Love Art Deco to Atomic 1950's, to me it's an American renaissance period for all arts from fashion, music, visual, movies, architecture, aviation, auto and industrial design. It was a period punctuated by excess of the 20's, darkness and loss of the 30's and the horrors of the 1940's and paranoid fears of the 50's. Yet through all this the artist and designers portrayed a sense of hope, wonderment and exploration.For the last 16 years, I have been a Professional artist, a career shift brought on while recovering from a bad construction accident in 1991 and the loss of my home, construction business while bedridden many months. Later I lost my marriage, due to my reduction of earnings, stresses brought on from my now compromised health and pending IP legal challenges, by some rather nasty and mean spirited adversaries against my new art career. By the way, I survived these legal challenges, won and preserved my rights and TM, though it cost me most of little I had made. So I am starting all over again.
I started playing with my crayons in the 1950's and a small child. Listening to my families War time stories and my Uncles adventures in a B-17 over Europe, I loved drawing WWII images, later Rat Fink and hot rods. But it was when I made a pretty good portrait of my mother, and later lingerie girls like Bettie Page, from my older brother's girlie magazines.... then she started sending me to after school art lessons. I was always fascinated with women. Their differences, the perfume, make up, lingerie, glamour... and pinup !My own Mother was a fan of the pinup genre, so when growing up, the nude in art, was not an issue. Though I was painfully shy, my first crush was when at 5, by 6 I fell in love with a huge calendar pinup (Called Sitting Pretty aka Lola) painted by Elvgren about 1953. I really thought this pinup was a real girl, just waiting for me to grow up so I could marry her! OK... so I was ONLY 6!
I am a romantic by nature. My Mother, a sweet and feminine glamour type girl from the 30's and 40's was obviously my first inspiration. I have unusual photographic memories, images, sights and smells of the 1950's and 1960's. Though many happy... and nostalgic - not all are so rosy... duck and cover from A-bombs and personal bomb shelters, was not a joke, and I could smell the grown-ups fears. Neither was Polio and flu epidemics... also I remember the ugliness of color separation and segregation. The bad boy teen gangs the older boys got caught up in. Then there was the Bay of Pigs, Marilyn's, Robert Kennedy, King's sudden and violent death brought a new world into focus of the 1960's and the Vietnam ear brought a needed cause to the rebel.
Over the years I grew more fond of my parents music and art, and realized their great generation had survived world wars, a great depression, racial hate, to bring us great art in all forms. Much of this art had hope. From Deco to Modern, Visual art, theater, film, music, fashion, architectural and industrial design - this was a renaissance of the 20th century. I also feel that there hasn't been such an unique and far reaching artistic awakening in my generation.
After this unfortunate accident and unfortunate events that changed my life forever, I started this gallery and art studio to celebrate this time and era.. a time of hope and survival against great odds and disparity. A lesson that I am taking to heart.
Classic Pin-up to me often displays romantic hope and aspirations. It can represents both the joy of life and romantic ideals so important to my parents generation. Today one art form that is sadly missing in the relationships between men and women is the lost art of flirtation and various levels and degrees. (As a father of grown daughters... I have told them that the art of flirtations is NOT to be confused with sexual come-ons...) Again the difference between classic pinup in it's best form and today's modern variations is the difference in myopic points of views of mostly male consumers and changes in society. The lost words "Adoration", "Adoring", Precious" come to mind. Even to me, at 6 I could figure out that a make believe pin-up girl could have romantic aspirations, hopes and even the fantasy happy ever after... While the naughty girls in many of the new mens magazines, though fun to look at for curious teenage boys, lacked flirtatious fantasy and romantic notions!
The only difference may be the point of view, discretion, a bit of clothing and a little bit of flirtation... but what a difference it makes to a delightful fantasy girl!
Alberto Vargas, when frequently asked why don't you paint something other than pretty women, would simply answer.... " Show me something more beautiful than a beautiful woman and I'll paint it!"
I can't say it better than that!
Thank you for taking the time in reading this little do-da about me!
Danny V at the Vanguard, Carmel, California
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ELVGREN ART IP & TM NOTICE: Vanguard/ Vancas owns the Elvgren art trademarks, (1997, Re-issued 2005) as supported by Federal Court Order, and B&B authorized signature; Vanguard own other I.P. and copyright on an authorized separate and select 130 Elvgren image archive. These are separate ownership rights. Vancas / Vanguard has invested 15 years of effort and investment in the creation of this intellectual property and Trademarks. All supported by Federal Court order and re-registration (2005) by the Trademark office. Please ignore the unfair slanderous comments, legal goo displayed on the internet by mean spirited art dealers and book publishers who have ignored our Federal Court Ordered Rights, disrupted our first registration in direct violation of Fed. Court Order 2001, then harassed and slandered Daniel Vancas and his first proprietary Elvgren rights that he earned. Daniel Vancas was first licensed with B&B, and paid over $264,000 in that separate contract, which was ended in favor of a arbitrated settlement and preservation of the Vancas/Vadguard I.P. & TM rights, made Fed. Court order. Much of Daniel Elvgren work and effort proceeded the later books and products that his promotions created the feasibility and demand for. This required the need to preserve Daniel Vancas' IP rights, investment and first effort, including the Elvgren tm.*********************************************************
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