In the choices we make in life, it’s often easy to prioritize our necessities over our passions. It’s gratifying, then, to realize that those passions often wait for us to reignite them, when we’re ready to embrace them again. Al Chasan of West Windsor, who rediscovered his love of painting after retirement, is a prime example of this tenet. A student of renowned painter and educator Mel Leipzig, Chasan is one of the “proteges” whose work appears in the group show “The Influence of a Teacher: Mel Leipzig and Proteges,” opening on Sunday, March 6, at the West Windsor Art Council. Chasan’s painting “Survival No. 5” will be on exhibit.
Among the artists in the exhibit are two other West Windsor residents, Marci Gelb and Amy Frankel.
Gelb is an attorney currently working part-time for the law offices of Eileen Shimizu in Hamilton, and she volunteers as a docent at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton. Her husband, Jeffrey, is a physician and does clinical research and development in the pharmaceutical industry. They have two children, Jonathan, 14, and Scott, 11, both at Community Middle School.
Gelb has been taking Leipzig’s Painting II class at Mercer for five and a half years. “I continue to study with Mel because he is a true gem of a professor who is so passionate about what he does and continually inspires and encourages me. Mel’s knowledge about the history of art and his ability to explain how the masters in art applied certain colors and tones to make their paintings come together is unparalleled.”
Frankel is a homemaker. Her husband, Mark, is a tax attorney for a major bank. They have three children, Brett, a Ph.D. candidate in math at UCLA, Ian, a junior at Princeton University, and Sari, a senior at High School South.
After a successful career in advertising, in which he was a partner in the marketing firm Chasan & Yaris, Inc., Chasan, 80, moved from Rockland County, NY, to Village Grande. Today Chasan is exploring a renewed series of experiences as he resumes a lifelong love of painting, set aside at the onset of his professional career several decades ago.
Chasan was born in 1930. His father worked in a hat factory, and his mother was a homemaker. “Both excelled at what they did,” Chasan says. As a teenager, painted on the landing that led to the roof of his family’s Bronx apartment house. He attended City College of New York and considered pursuing art as a career. “I thought of becoming a painter,” Chasan says, “But I sensed that I wasn’t good enough. Getting married and living a middle class life appealed to me more than the life of a starving artist. It was a decision I’ve never regretted.”
Chasan pursued a different professional path instead. His cousin pointed out his facility for written communication and art and suggested advertising. At Chasan’s first job, as a messenger in a commercial art studio, he made $30 a week, “less than I paid at the gas pump the other day,” he says. In 1968 he co-founded Chasan and Yaris, Inc, from which he retired in the mid-’90s. He and his wife, Sylvia, have been married for 58 years and have three children and three grandsons.
Chasan moved to Village Grande in West Windsor in 1999. “We bought a model with an upstairs, where our children can stay when they visit,” says Chasan. “It was a wise decision because it afforded me space for a studio. Its proximity to Princeton and being not too far from the Turnpike made it a logical choice.”
With the move, Chasan resumed his painting, and began studying with Mel Leipzig three years ago. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, he takes Leipzig’s class at Mercer County Community College from 9 to 11:30 a.m., but says he typically arrives at 8 a.m. He says he tries to paint every day.
Leipzig is something of a local legend. He has taught painting at Mercer for 47 years, and holds MFAs from Yale University and Pratt Institute. Among his several awards and honors, Leipzig was also the recipient in 1995 of one of the final individual artist grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chasan credits Leipzig’s positive attitude and encouragement for his own reborn success in painting. “He’s positive, optimistic, truly uplifting, and passionate about painting,” says Chasan. “Take Mel’s class, and you can’t help but become a better painter. He’s an outstanding painter, a very good teacher, and above all, a very decent man with a very good heart.”
Chasan says Leipzig’s affection for a broad range of styles and schools of painting is both unusual and positive. When asked about what he thinks about the particulars of different styles, Chasan repeats Leipzig’s motto: “Good painting is good painting.”
“Mel’s an interesting guy,” says Chasan, “in that he doesn’t care if you paint from the model. He’s absolutely encouraging and positive. I’d love to get him out on the golf course.”
Chasan’s exhibit piece “Survival No. 5” is part of a series of six works that depict Chasan’s grandmother and three children (including Chasan’s mother as a young girl) fleeing the Cossacks’ pogrom against the Russian Jews. His grandmother and her children survived by hiding in the woods and living off the land. “Whenever my mother spoke of her childhood, she shook her head, sighed, and said, ‘I don’t know how we lived through it.’” Chasan says. “Painting my mother’s experiences has absorbed me for several years. It reminds me of how lucky I am that she eventually came to this country, and it’s a way of informing my children and grandchildren of a compelling family story.” Chasan has also painted a companion series of pieces of his father’s early year and plans to continue the “Survival” series in future pieces.
Chasan isn’t caught up in the art theory or concepts. “I don’t intellectualize about my paintings; I’m not out to make a social or political statement. I paint what moves me at a particular time. The main question I ask myself is, ‘Am I becoming a better painter? Have I achieved what I set out to do? Have I been sufficiently critical of the work? Is the painting worthy of framing?’”
Chasan uses painting as a method of exploration across a variety of subjects and styles. He gravitates towards depictions of family stories with a “strong narrative,” he says, but also has an eye for more esoteric pursuits. He recently finished a painting featuring the finer points of a peanut butter and jam sandwich and is currently working on a still-life painting of his and his wife’s “junk” drawer. Chasan’s emotions towards clutter find their way into coloring the work. “Sylvia insists that our actual drawer is more organized.”
As all artists do, Chasan finds consistent challenges in his work — and advice in overcoming them from his teacher and friend, Leipzig. “When I’m unhappy with something, Mel says, ‘Look, you’re not a painter of realism’ — so there’s no need for draftsman-like creation. ‘Don’t draw, don’t sketch’— that’s how I am. I need to get it out on the canvas immediately.”
He finds comfort in knowing that even great artists had their struggles with craft. “I’m reading a book on Van Gogh; he had all sorts of trouble with hands,” he says with a laugh.
Chasan’s work is part of three local exhibits including the West Windsor Arts Council and the Painters’ Circle, where several artists meet monthly and explore art along a single emotional or core theme, such as “heat.” Chasan strongly believes in the necessity of exploring these interests. “Look, we all have time that we waste, every day, and retirement is not something to look forward to if you don’t have something to retire to. My advice is ‘Draw. Paint. Do something.’ Many people don’t have a place in their house (to paint or create). You’ve got to find a place that becomes yours, where you don’t have to worry about making a mess.” Chasan’s own “studio” is set up in his guest room, where there is good window light. As to taking the first step, he says simply, “Just sign up for a course!”
Chasan’s enjoys a freshness and reinvigoration from his painting. “In my painter years, I’m in my late 20s,” he says, citing the 50-year gap between painting periods in his life. His goals and ambitions regarding his art are both highly personal and humble. “I want to live long enough to become an accomplished painter. I have no grand ambitions; I want [my work] to look professional. Mostly, I just want to stay well and continue painting.”
Art Exhibit, West Windsor Arts Council, 952 Alexander Road, West Windsor. Sunday, March 6, 2 to 4 p.m. First day for “The Influence of a Teacher: Mel Leipzig and Proteges,” an exhibit featuring works of Leipzig as well as more than 15 artists who have studied with him. On view to April 29. Opening reception is Saturday, March 19, 4:30 to 7 p.m. Leipzig presents “The Influence of Monet, Cezanne, and Manet” on Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m. 609-919-1982 or www.westwindsorarts.org.
