Al Zagofsky | November 18, 2008 | Times News
Ladies, gentleman and children of all ages are invited to the opening reception for a gallery exhibition of the youngest artists in Pennsylvania.
The opening reception is Saturday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. at the Stabin Morykin Building—268 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe. The reception will celebrate the opening of the Arielle and Skyler Stabin Dynasty Room in the Victor Stabin Gallery.
Arielle, 4, and Skyler, 6, are the daughters of artist Victor Stabin and his wife, Joan Morykin. The couple owns the Stabin Morykin Building.
The work, chiefly of Stabin, is exhibited with Morykin managing the operations.
The project was precipitation a few years ago when Stabin picked up his oldest daughter, Skyler from day care. The teachers had been asking the children about their fathers.
“They asked Skyler what her daddy did,” said Stabin. “She said, ‘My daddy puts batteries in things.”
He was taken by the fact that his daughter didn’t have any idea what he did in his art studio.
As he and his wife developed the rooms within the building, Stabin thought, “it would be good to have a little gallery where my kids could show their work and sell their work as limited edition prints.”
Realizing that his artwork was very abstract to his children, Stabin thought if they could have their own mini art gallery, they might gain an appreciation of their dad’s work.
Then again, he was hoping that if they really like art, he might be able to found a family of artists like the Wyeths. Often, Arielle and Skyler played in Stabin’s studio as he works.
When Skyler was 18 months old, Stabin bought her a small easel from Ikea.
At the age of 2-1/2, Arielle came to Stabin and said, “I want to paint. I want to paint.”
He dressed Arielle and Skyler in his old shirts as smocks, set up the easel and gave them paint and brushes, and they began to paint like daddy.
“They both enjoy the process of painting and drawing,” said Morykin.
Both girls are left handed, as is Stabin.
Morykin says that “only 4 percent of girls are left handed,” so she wonders if they inherited her husband’s talent for art.
Stabin has selected from the works of his daughters and has made prints that will be numbered in a limited edition of 100. All the prints are reproduced on a digital printer on a double weight radiant white mat paper and are framed. Even as prints, the girls are reluctant to have their word sold.
“It’s a ubiquitous problem of artists,” said Stabin, “They get attached to what they work on.”
He also sees it as a chance to teach his children about money.
“We will be selling framed prints of their work a nominal prices in the gallery,” Stabin said. “It will probably not pay for itself, directly, but it will give them an education that is unique at that age.”
Stabin and Morykin hope to interest kids to attend the reception or the exhibition. They distributed 500 invitations at L.B. Morris Elementary School in Jim Thorpe and are talking with the art teacher about future exhibitions of the work of local child artists.
At the gallery opening, Joan Elizabeth Goodman, author of Ballet Bunnies will hold a book signing and present a children’s Ballet Bunnies exercise class beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The Arielle and Skyler exhibition is slated to continue until after the New Year.
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