Arnold David Clapman  

 Recent Work

This series of "portraits," of the Infernal Hierarchy, was created with soft pastels on 18"X25.5" sheets of Canson paper. Seven were done in 1979 and the final five were completed in the past few years.

The images were initially inspired by Arnold David Clapman's love of horror movies, as a boy, and later, by the Lovecraft short story, "Pickman's Model." It has been said by the noted Boston visionary artist, Paul Laffoley, that these works reflect the influences of both Picasso and Francis Bacon.

 

In 2010, due to deteriorating budget developments in California, funding to many outreach programs were cut and Arnold realized that he could no longer make ends meet there. Furthermore, his marriage of 17 years came to an end. Most of his cronies had passed away and Santa Cruz no longer felt like home.

 

Baltimore beckoned with better support and work opportunities for seniors, as well as closer proximity to family and childhood friends. Arnold moved to Pikesville and became a resident in the Weinberg House, an independent living facility for seniors where he screens movies 4 nights a week for the residents.

 

Arnold has also connected with local jewish musicians in the Hassidic community, namely Avrami Finkelstein and Avraham Rosenblum with whom he formed the 7 piece band "The Brisket Brothers". playing contemporary jewish music.  Arnold has also become a regular in a circle of musicians presided over by noted guitarist Josh Polack at the former Pikesville Guitar Shop Studio.

 

Arnold continues to freelance, providing monthly cartoons for "Senior Moments", his cartoon feature in the Weinberg House monthly newsletter. He has also completed a graphic novel and illustrations for a series of short stories written by his grandfather and namesake, Aaron David Schwartz. He is also teaching private Afro-Cuban conga drum lessons privately to a small select group of people who will eventually become a drum circle.

 

On June 19, 2015, a cover story entitled "The Many Lives of Arnold Clapman" written by local reporter Marc Shapiro, now a managing editor, appeared in the Baltimore Jewish Times, a popular and prestigous Baltimore magazine. The 4 paged article chronicalled Arnold's  journey through a lifetime of making music and art. It was a good story and won a national jewish journalism award for best profile story of the year. 

 

On July 11, 2018 Arnold will be 79 and hopes to find a studio space where he can cover large canvases with a new generation of expressionistic images painted in oils and acrylics.

 

Rather than merely sharing memories, Arnold feels that it is more appropriate for  creative artists  to face forward and allow their imaginations the freedom to create whatever art comes next. Like Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over til it's over." God willing, Arnold's art and music will go on being green and growing.