May 27, 2002 – The artwork of three St. Thomas artists — Aphrodite, Lynn Paccassi-Berry and Frances M. Rutnik — and samplings from the Forest Glen Winery in Sonoma, California, will be featured at the May Da Da Wine Down on Friday evening.
The participating artists will be on hand to discuss their work at the event, hosted by Cafe Amici in Riise's Alley from 5 to 8 p.m. Admission is free. There's a $10 charge for the optional wine tasting and seminar, to be conducted throughout the evening by a representative of West Indies Corp. There will be complimentary hors d'oeuvres; door prizes of dining certificates, wine and art; and a cash bar.
Aphrodite and Rutnik will be showing their paintings; Paccassi-Berry will exhibit her works in clay.
Aphrodite, a native New Englander, studied with master artists in Boston and New York. She made her mark in sports art; her portraits of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Drew Bledsoe, Mo Vaughn and Ray Bourque are in the permanent collection of the New England Sports Museum in Boston. Traveling to the Caribbean took her art into a new direction. She works in oil, specializing in representational imagery of the islands and portraits; she has a studio in Tillett Gardens. She won first prize in the oils category of the 14th annual Caribbean Colour fine art exhibition.
Lynn Paccassi-Berry, a native of Detroit, lived on several other Caribbean islands before settling on St. Thomas. She has been working in clay since 1973. "I'm a third-generation potter, and clay is part of my family tradition," she says. Her awards include First Place for Hand Built Claywork at The Pot Show in 1992 in Sacramento, California; Honorable Mention for Sculpture at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts in 1998 in Lake Oswego, Oregon; and awards in the 2000 and 2001 Caribbean Colour exhibitions for three-dimensional art. She is known for her abstract hanging ceramic artwork.
Frances M. Rutnik, born in Albany, New York, has lived in the Virgin Islands for more than 25 years; she teaches art at the high school level and has a small studio in her North Side home. She has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows locally and in Upstate New York. In 1998, two of her paintings were selected for the first International Mini-Art Biennial in Stockholm, Sweden. Recently, she has been focusing on the serene tranquility of Caribbean scenes. "I want to simplify these landscapes to a point of mere expression," she says. "I want to evoke an emotional response through the simplicity of colors, space and atmosphere."
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