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Sunday MAY 7, 2006 *Last modified: Friday, May 5, 2006 10:44 PM PDT

Artist opened new worlds on walls

JOSHUA TREE - According to several clients of a Joshua Tree muralist, the Morongo Basin lost one of its most talented artists when Christopher Simon, 52, died of congestive heart failure April 27.

Simon was a prolific muralist whose colorful work has decorated many businesses and homes in the Hi-Desert over his 30-year career.

Kat Moser, a client of Simon's, said he had painted five projects for her and her husband over the years. She said there were more planned that, sadly, will never be done.

“We'll miss him as a dear friend, and we are bereft at losing his extraordinary talent,” she said.

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Moser said Simon loved to draw from a very early age. When he was 10 years old he applied for a scholarship to the Norman Rockwell Famous Artists School.

“The scholarship contest was only open to people 21 and over, so Chris didn't tell his mom,” she said. “He listed his age as 22, did the drawing required and collected returnable bottles until he had enough money to send it in.”

Soon after, two white men from the school came into his poor black neighborhood to find “Mr. Simon” and let him know he won the contest. The art school let the young artist have the scholarship despite his age, and Simon continued to study art in high school and college.

Another client, Lesley Mahany, said Simon was born in Houston, Texas, and his father died or disappeared when he was very young. The boy was close to his mother, whom he adored. Simon said she encouraged him and worked hard to help him attain his dream of becoming an artist. Mahany said she thought Simon had no other family.

Mahany met Simon for the first time in 2001 when she and her husband were building their home in Yucca Mesa. She quickly grew to like and admire him both as an artist and as a person.

Mahany said Simon was not only a talented artist but a warm, funny, giving and intelligent human being. He became a good friend, she said.

“He was the most incredible artist I've ever seen,” Mahany said. “And as a potter, I've been in the art world all my life.”

The most incredible thing, she said, is the fact that although Simon was blind in one eye, he was still able to paint the most detailed work and also somehow produce images with astounding depth of field.

He used an airbrush on all his jobs and worked in layers to create the illusion of depth.

Since their first meeting, Simon helped Mahany make her home into a work of art. He painted murals in several rooms, including a 17-foot woods and waterfall scene in the bedroom; he painted ivy borders inside and out; he painted faux wallpaper in the bathroom, faux marble on the fireplace and faux brick on the archways.

Most of Simon's work was murals, but he also painted on canvas and sculpted. Among other things, he painted cars, pickups, recreational vehicles, horse trailers and trash bins. Simon transformed Mahany's glaringly white plastic trash container into an elegant faux wood receptacle that blends seamlessly into the kitchen counters.

Businesses that exhibit Simon's work, inside or out, include All Seasons, Grand Central Storage, Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel and the Oasis of Eden Hotel. In addition to his business clients, Simon had several private clients whose homes he painted and helped to decorate.

Simon and Mahany had been working on drawings and plans for another project in her master bath the last time they talked, but she never saw him again, she said.

Mahany said Simon's motto was “You're only limited by your imagination,” but to this he usually added, “If you can't imagine it I'll imagine it for you.”



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Arts
Jess R. Burkle '06
Published On 5/3/2006 8:30:51 PM
By JAKE G. COHEN <writer.aspx?ID=1202259>
Contributing Writer

Friends of Jess R. Burkle ’06 call him a “blind man with vision.” And while the senior thespian may not be able to see exactly where he’s going, he’s definitely going places.

Burkle has been a powerful force within the Harvard theater community, directing and starring in a number of major productions despite being legally blind. His involvement in on-campus arts recently culminated with his thesis project “Knock: or, the Triumph of Medicine,” a play that he translated from the original French and directed on the Loeb Mainstage. He hopes to continue acting, writing, and directing professionally.

Hailing from just outside of Cleveland, Ohio—or, as he jokingly puts it, the “arts epicenter of the world”—Burkle found his passion for creative work at an early age, experimenting with various visual arts. Discovered in fifth grade by a teacher who, intrigued by his acting potential, shifted him into another class so he would eligible for a school play, he was bitten by the stage bug early.

He actively participated in his high school drama program, despite its limited resources. Plays were staged in the gym, where “we had one blue light for when it was dark—or sad.”

During Burkle’s freshman fall at Harvard, he stepped out of the spotlight, choosing not to participate in Common Casting.

“It was a period where I wasn’t producing anything. I wasn’t imagining situations all the time,” he says. Intimidated by his overachieving classmates, Burkle was “looking for excuses not to get involved.”

After what he describes as a “dull” semester, Burkle decided to go through the audition process and ended up with a couple of roles. Gradually, he became a presence in the drama scene, garnering larger parts.

For Burkle, playing Hedwig in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” as a sophomore was an important step in his acting education. “Wearing 8-inch patent leather boots and being a transvestite and being naked at the end of the play was a little bit different than Ohio,” he says.

“That was jumping into the deep end,” he adds. “I wasn’t going to be afraid of anything after that. There wasn’t much missing from that production that could challenge me.”

Nonetheless, Burkle has since worked hard to challenge himself. “When I did ‘Hedda Gabler,’” he says, referring to his 2004 play, “I wanted to prove that I was a serious actor, that there was more to me than the clown.”

His directorial efforts, including 2005’s “Rhinoceros,” gave him more chances to show his serious side. “Thinking about the play is so much fun,” he says. “You get to create a world.”

Still, “the laugh whore in me likes acting,” Burkle quips.

Burkle, who also works as a proctor for the Freshman Arts Program and is a member of the Signet, has an insatiable appetite when it comes to creating. “The starving artist picture is a bit of misnomer. It refers to the need to fill yourself with art,” he opines. “Different parts of you get hungry for different types of art.”

For him, that includes acting, writing poetry—and watching “Alias.” Burkle’s tastes range from the high to the low, and he hopes to one day star alongside Madonna in a pop music production of “The Silence of the Lambs.” That, or start a department of Television Studies at Harvard.

Burkle says he feels that “the whole concept of spotlighting me as an artist is ridiculous because I’ve been supported by so many of the people around me.”

But when it comes to his approach to art, he’s not quite so unselfish. “Getting involved in the arts should always be about you, because if it’s about other people you’ll end up unfulfilled. It should always feel like it’s fun.”


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*My Vision: Sculpture and Paintings by Physically Challenged Artists *

Runs through May 5, Allens Lane Theater and Art Center, Allens Lane and McCallum St., 215-248-0546, www.allenslane.org <http://www.allenslane.org/>

Despite the restrictions that physical disabilities often pose, it seems that nothing—not even blindness—can keep a person's visions pent up. Students from Vision Thru Art, a sculpture class for blind and visually impaired people, are showcasing their 3-D art. Nuvisions for Disabled Artists, whose motto is "Creativity Knows No Limitations," will also display works.

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There were 23 projects completed this school year by Rose-Hulman electrical and computer engineering students. Other products include a proximity audio system developed for art museums that delivers audio content to a user's hand-held personal digital assistant or audio iPod, based on location; a multilane traffic monitoring system that allows highway officials to better monitor traffic flow; and an interactive audio interpretation system developed to enhance the proposed 101 Trees of Indiana project that's part of the Indiana Mile walking trail in Terre Haute.




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