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 2002 in Scotts Valley California.

 

The images were inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft short story, "Pickman's Model," the cautionary tale of a 19th century Boston painter who bought an old colonial  house in the North End and then made a name for himself by painting portraits from life of the demons living in his basement.

Further inspiration and references came from "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage" by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Carl Jung's "Mysterium Coniunctionis" and "Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" as well as various arcane books on witchcraft, black magic, demonology and Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism writings. the series was also inspired by the book and movie "The Exorcist".  

 

Arnold's friend, the late noted Boston visionary artist Paul Laffoley, observed that these works reflect the influences of both Pablo 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 screened movies 2 nights a week for the residents until the 2020 Pandemic put an end to all activities.

 

Arnold has also connected with local jewish musicians in the Hassidic community, namely Avrami Finkelstein and Avraham Rosenblum with whom he formed the now disbanded 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 create, doing pastel pet portraits and 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. 

 

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.. .

 

Rather than clinging to old 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.