PRESS NEWS

September 3 – October 28, 2005

Paintings by

ASH BEHESHTI

LENORE CELLINI-BRIENZA

Reception Saturday, September 3 7pm – 10pm

LENORE CELLINI-BRIENZA

Lenore Cellini was born in Southern California. A desire to draw and express various feelings surfaced early and became the dominant influence in her life. All the arts were of great interest to her, particularly music and painting. At the age of seventeen it became clear that painting was the form of art she would pursue. The privacy and singular control appealed.

She attained a scholarship at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and at eighteen moved to that city. The school and its teachers and students further inspired her to immerse herself in the world of art. Most of the actual learning, however, has been through diligent work, constant observation and experimentation in her studio.

“Painting has been my most constant friend. It has eased me through turmoil, supported me, elated me, frustrated, obsessed and angered me. It has excited me and soothed me, brought me out of depressions and thrown me into them. Now and then it has made me feel very near complete. I am most fascinated by human beings and the mysteries of the mind. Sometimes I feel as I have created an individual who has lived their particular life and has been brought forth-presented, as it were, within the confines of the canvas-a sort of friend no matter how aberrant their behavior or perverse their personality.”

Ms. Cellini – NE Mrs. Brienza – also enjoys doing murals, paintings and screens for Interior Design Firms, and Architectural Firms as well as private clients. Many of the screens and panels have been executed on antiqued mirror. Her work is exhibited in various Galleries and Museums in the United States and showcased in up-scale Hotels Worldwide

ASH BEHESHTI

A recurring theme in the figurative paintings of Ash Beheshti is the art of music and its written language. The inspiration comes not only from the appreciation of the sound of music but also the beauty of its unique composition on paper. Using vintage Classical notes as visual building blocks and collage elements, the sheet music combined with traditional painting techniques create a floating mosaic by which the inspired image takes its final form. The end result is often an almost surreal rendering of the creation of music. Having no musical training himself, Ash expresses his passion for music and respect for all musicians not by playing or emulating them, but by painting them.

A self-taught artist with an education in biochemistry and physical therapy, Ash Beheshti began his artistic journey as a way of escapism from his rigid science curriculum while attending San Francisco State University in the late 1980s. Despite a few art classes in college, he never received a formal education in the fine arts. Ironically, unbeknownst to him at the time, the classes that helped him most in developing his life drawing skills were the required anatomy and physiology classes where he observed, dissected, and studied the human body and form.

While working as a physical therapist in Northern California, Ash Beheshti continued to paint and evolve as an artist, never considering his art as a hobby but a serious and passionate way of life. During the early 1990s, he exhibited his work in solo and group shows at various San Francisco Bay Area galleries, art fairs, and competitions.

Upon reaching the age of thirty in 1997, Ash Beheshti retired as a physical therapist, sold his practice and moved to Los Angeles to further explore and build on his creative abilities, working as a commissioned artist for local art collectors.

Ash Beheshti currently lives and paints full time at his art studio in Hollywood, California.