He graduated from high school in Staunton in 1961 and received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia in 1966. For the next two years he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast, teaching auto mechanics in French in a small rural technical school in Yamoussoukro, a town of perhaps 4,000 people at the time. In 1981, Kamerman began taking sculpture classes from Michael Boles at Pensacola Junior College. "It began as a lark," Kamerman says, "and quickly progressed to a serious hobby, and then became a passion. I was working a day job and making art most evenings until midnight and most of my weekends. Unable to keep up this pace much past the age of 50 -- I fell asleep at work twice -- I made that most foolish of all possible decisions and quit my day job in August 1995." Kamerman says the highlights of his artistic career include winning the first Cinco Banderas purchase award from the Arts Council of Northwest Florida. In 1995 he received his first commission and designed and built the three- dimensional Star of David at 9th and Mallory streets.
Ivory Coast RPCV Sid Kamerman has exhibition of sculpture
Mobile's Blue Velvet Studio to exhibit painting, sculpture during Friday's Artwalk
Posted by Press-Register Staff
September 08, 2009 3:24 PM
MOBILE, Ala. -- Blue Velvet Studio will present two dramatically different artists during Friday's LoDa Artwalk in downtown Mobile.
BVS owner Karen Cassidy will display artwork by Pensacola sculptor Sid Kamerman and painter Susan Peele.
"Kamerman is a very experienced professional sculptor and we're pleased to exhibit his work," says Cassidy. "Peele is a passionate painter and uses bright colors and romantic themes. Although she has made and sold several pieces, this will be her debut public exhibition."
Blue Velvet Studio will be open 6-9 p.m. Sept. 11 at 709 Dauphin St., Unit 2.
Kamerman was born in 1943 in New York City.
"At the tender age of 11 my family moved to a sleepy town in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia," he writes. "Staunton is a town that looks like its postcards."
He graduated from high school in Staunton in 1961 and received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia in 1966. For the next two years he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast, teaching auto mechanics in French in a small rural technical school in Yamoussoukro, a town of perhaps 4,000 people at the time.
In summer 1968 he trained new Peace Corps volunteers in Aniere, outside Geneva, Switzerland.
Kamerman and his wife Jeannie met at orientation for new school teachers in Buffalo, N.Y., and were married in March 1969. They taught high school in Buffalo for two years, then moved to Bloomington, Ind., where he worked on a doctorate in American fiction and poetry and Jeannie received a master's degree in library science. The couple lived in Bloomington until 1979, when they relocated to Pensacola.
In 1981, Kamerman began taking sculpture classes from Michael Boles at Pensacola Junior College.
(Courtesy Karen Cassidy/Blue Velvet Studio)Sculpture by Sid Kamerman.
"It began as a lark," Kamerman says, "and quickly progressed to a serious hobby, and then became a passion. I was working a day job and making art most evenings until midnight and most of my weekends. Unable to keep up this pace much past the age of 50 -- I fell asleep at work twice -- I made that most foolish of all possible decisions and quit my day job in August 1995."
Kamerman says the highlights of his artistic career include winning the first Cinco Banderas purchase award from the Arts Council of Northwest Florida. In 1995 he received his first commission and designed and built the three- dimensional Star of David at 9th and Mallory streets.
"More recently, in 2006 I completed a 13½-foot sculpture in front of the fine arts building at Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Niceville," he writes. "In March 2008 I completed and installed a fairly large indoor sculpture in the atrium of the College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock."
During the past 25 years he has been a frequent participant in the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Cinco Banderas, and many exhibits and outdoor festivals throughout the South including the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Show and Coconut Grove Art Festival. His artwork can be found in private collections from California to Michigan, Virginia to Key West.
(Courtesy Karen Cassidy/Blue Velvet Studio)Painting by Susan Peele.
Peele is the daughter of a military father and has lived in many places around the world.
"From this I have been exposed to different cultures and many ways of thinking," she writes in her artist's statement. "I am grateful to have a perspective of many lifestyles and attitudes that I wouldn't (have) otherwise.
"Three years ago, while going through a difficult divorce, I discovered emotions inside me that were very powerful yet I didn't know what to do with them. Although I had no formal art training, I found painting to be an easy outlet and I started to paint based purely on emotion.
"I recall sitting on the floor in the middle of the night, tears streaming down my face, with a paintbrush working feverishly on the canvas. That first piece, 'Freedom,' represents a new life of unfiltered expression, free to be myself without hesitation or fear of oppression. Since then I have continued to paint emotions including love, passion, and desire."
Peele says many of her paintings reveal her passion "for people and for life."
"I try to depict a person's soul on canvas. I love it when someone tells me they connect with my painting," she writes, "especially when they turn around and tell a story of their own struggle, joy or passion. I believe we are all linked by our struggles and desires, and I hope to show this through my art."
