[NEohioPAL] Cleveland Artist Returns home from Asian Journey

[Marie Sophie Placeres]

Greetings.  This is my first time listing with NEOhioPal.  Below is a
translation of an article that I believe will be of interest to the people
of Cleveland.



Cleveland Artist Returns home from Asian Journey

The often quote scriptural verse that says: "no one is a prophet in its own
land," can best describe the career of American master-muralist John
Rivera-Resto.  The Cleveland native, hardly known outside the city's
artistic circles, is a minor celebrity in several cities around the world in
part due to the popularity of his award-winning educational website, *
'muralmaster'* (www.muralmaster.org), but mostly because of his own artistic
genius.  Not only is he considered one of the top-ten muralists in the
United States, but is also hailed as a gifted writer and a brilliant
lecturer.

Through* muralmaster* John receives letters from students, professionals,
and art lovers from over thirty countries as well as commissions and
requests for speaking and workshop engagements.    A graduate of Cleveland
State University, The Vermont College of Norwish University, and alumnae of
the prestigious Washington Internship Center, John is an artist, scholar,
and performer.  In a career that span over three decades in the visual arts,
he has travelled through Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and next year
will be visiting the city of Dubai for a commission in the United Arab
Emirates.  But the one place John had never visited was Asia, until now.

In early spring he simultaneously received two invitations.  The first one
was to revisit France, one of his favourite travel destinations, but it was
the second letter that caught his attention.   Miss Jane Chen, founding
director of OnStage, an Indonesian arts organization, invited him to visit
her in Bali to do conceptual designs for one her projects.   Unable to
resist the lure of the exotic Orient –and his own adventurist streak, John
readily accepted the offer.

Armed with a laptop and an Indonesian Cultural Visa, John took off in the
middle of May.  However,  what was supposed to be a three-week trip to Bali
turned into a three-month journey through several Asian destinations in
Japan, Thailand and Indonesia, visiting towns and cities such as Tokyo,
Denpasar, Jakarta, Batam, and Bangkok, several speaking engagements, a very
popular lecture series, and a week-long workshop on mural painting.

John is an individual ideally suited for the fast pace of international
ventures.  He is outgoing, inquisitive, independent, a people-person; a
trained actor, street-smart, resourceful, well educated, and a good
conversationalist with an ear for languages.  His confident demeanor, sharp
wit and rock-star looks make him a welcome addition at many social
gatherings.   No sooner word got around that "the muralmaster" was visiting
Indonesia invitations started coming in.

One of these invitations became several consultation meetings with
Indonesia's powerful Taipan, Mr. Ir Ciputra.   Mr. Ciputra, also known
as "*Indonesia's
Donald Trump*", is currently building his second city in Indonesia, another
one in Viet-Nam (the first international deal of its kind), and has other
projects in development in China, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.
Currently
the Ciputra Group had completed the design stage for an International Art
Museum to be constructed in Jakarta, the Indonesia capital located in the
island of Java, and was glad to have John go over their plans and hear his
suggestions.

Taking advantage of his visit, John was sponsored by OnStage for a lecture
series at the National Art Gallery in Jakarta.   But the event was soon
changed to the modern nearby facilities of BINUS International University,
also co-sponsors of the event.   At BINUS a delighted audience made up of
professionals, journalists, educators, artists, designers, students and
several prominent Indonesians figures were treated to a progression of very
insightful but highly entertaining presentations by a master lecturer.  The
lecture series, titled: 'The Power of Art as an Instrument of Change', was a
visual cocktail that dealt with the significant relationship between the
arts with business, politics, and the economy.   Special focus was given to
the historical use of propaganda art as an effective psychological tool to
influence public opinion.

As a special treat, John also presented, for the first time since its
creation in 2001, his own acknowledge masterpiece: *The Writing On The Wall:
A Memorial and a Warning.  * This magnificent and awe-inspiring design of
public art is a memorial dealing with the subject of genocide in the 20th
century and beyond.  This was a brave and timely move by John that left a
few audience members holding back tears considering Indonesia's own history
and its part in genocide during the late 1960's, a period recreated in the
Mel Gibson- Sigourney Weaver movie *The Year of Living Dangerously*,
directed by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir.  *The Writing on the Wall* is
indeed a provocative and inspiring work that deserves a worldwide audience.


Following the lecture series, John conducted a mural painting workshop to
introduce Indonesian painters to his own techniques and business methodology
as a muralist.  The result was the creation of a major painting, 'the
Anguish of Rama', John's retelling of the love story from the epic poem *The
Ramayama*.   Working with a selected team of college students and two of
Jakarta's most gifted artists, Aditya Tobing and Guntur Wibowo, they were
able to complete the work in six days to the enjoyment of local onlookers.
 Hosting an artistic event of this high caliber and its subsequent workshop
was a proud first for BINUS University –and another peacock feather added to
OnStage's hat, and also for Indonesia, where the art of organized
traditional mural painting is in its infancy.

John Rivera-Resto's brilliance as a presenter and his remarkable ability as
a visual artist are in no small measure a result of his multicultural
background and upbringing.  He grew up in the Island of Puerto Rico, an
American colonial territory; immerse in a Spanish-Caribbean culture until
the age of twenty, before migrating to Cleveland, his birth town in the
United States.   Years of study and *"going native" *during his travels gave
him a worldly perspective that can only be obtained through contact
experience.   This infused in him visual language and appealing qualities
that the people of Indonesia, a nation made up of hundreds of cultures and
former European colonies, welcomed and found refreshing.

Returning to his hometown of Cleveland, in the United States, after his
extended and busy stay in Asia, John expresses mixed feelings during several
interviews with the Jakarta Post, Visual Arts Magazine, and Laras Magazine.
He clearly enjoys life in Cleveland (Paris and Old San Juan are his other
favourites cities), but laments returning to the city's creative lethargy
and current public apathy for traditional arts which he sees as a direct
result of its decades-long economic and social ills.  These ills he
characterized as lack of strong and creative leadership, the lack of "*
new-money*" that invests in fresh ideas, a State tax that keeps industries
away (-"*and should be abolished*"), and the "*departure*" of the
entrepreneurial spirit in both business and government levels that he
experienced in several rapidly evolving cities during his Asian journey.

John also confided that, as he gets older he paints less while slowly moving
his career into filmmaking, but that he greatly enjoys teaching and
lecturing (and it shows).  After all, John is not only a top professional in
his field, but has to be one of the few professors that have actually
experienced the places, the people, and the situations he talks about.  In
fact, one of his goals has always been to join the art faculty of an area
college.  However, while he has demonstrated an extraordinary gift for
filling auditoriums in many international venues, there seems to be no
interest in what he has to offer in his own back yard.  For this reason he
is considering a few offers from other American cities and abroad though he
feels reluctant to make the move due to personal reasons.  But in the
meantime, this will not deter him from accepting invitations from around the
world from admirers who would be more than happy to have him.  As for Asia
one thing is certain, he will return.

--------



BINUS University

JL. K.H. Syahdan No. 9, Palmerah, Jakarta 11480, Indonesia

Handy Koesnadie, Collaboration Center Staff

Telp: (62-21) 534-5830 ext 2171 (Fax: (62-21) 530-0244

Website" www.binus.edu E-mail: hkoesnadie at binus.edu



OnStage Performing Arts, Cultural & Spiritual Perspective

JL. Danuau Batur Gg. Mangga II No. 8

Br. Kulibul Kawan, Tibubenaeng Kuta Utura – Bali

Jane Chen

Tel. 0361-437067, HP. 0811387989

E-mail: janechen at dps.centrin .net.id



John Rivera-Resto

3772 West 39th Street, Cleveland, OH 44109

Tel. 216-749-1257

www.muralmaster.org

john-rr at muralmaster.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20080907/c34c10b7/attachment-0003.htm>