David W. Dempsey

Group of Bronze Skeletons by David W. Dempsey

1980's

Bronze heron by American sculptor Wayne Williams. Signed and dated 1993. Edition 2/2. Mounted on a walnut base. From Finger Lakes Magazine 2001: Art is everywhere in the Finger Lakes. Inspired by the region’s diverse scenery and lifestyles, artists pursue their creativity outdoors, in studios and in workshops. In the many well-established museums and galleries or at the newer fledgling arts organizations, a wide array of artistic styles and talents are represented. Often the artists, like Wayne Williams, share their artistic skill and passion through teaching at local colleges. Williams, who is retired after a 35-year career at Finger Lakes Community College, found his calling there. “I didn’t want to teach in public schools,” explains Williams of his career choice. “I wanted to be at the college level. CCFL (the Community College of the Finger Lakes, as it was then known) was literally creating a college, right from scratch.” The year was 1968 and Williams was charged with coordinating the new college’s art program. Rand Darrow, a CCFL student in that first year, remembers attending Williams’ art classes in a commercial building on Main Street just south of the railroad tracks in Canandaigua. Darrow appreciated his instructor’s relaxed manner. “He was a great teacher,” recalls Darrow, “cracking jokes all the time.” Darrow graduated with a major in Liberal Arts and continued on to SUNY Oswego where he earned a BA in fine arts. He taught art to elementary and middle school students for 30 years. These days Williams and Darrow typically cross paths at the Wayne County Arts Council in Newark where Williams and his wife, Marleen, are heavily involved. Williams offers classes in figure drawing and sculpture and hangs the gallery’s shows, including his former student’s “Slavic Tales of Novgorod” this past August. “I’d like to take a sculpture class from him,” says Darrow. In 2003 when Williams retired, the college honored him and another retiring art professor, Tom Insalaco, by renaming its art gallery the Williams-Insalaco Art Gallery. It was known formerly as Gallery 34 to recognize its origins at 34 North Main Street in Canandaigua. Williams held professor’s rank from 1976 and served as director of the art gallery beginning with its opening in 1983. Williams, who was born and raised in Newark, New York, says he began doing art at about age 8. By the time he was in junior high school his career direction seemed clear. He received local and national awards for his art and a scholarship to Syracuse University, from which he graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture. He continued with graduate work at Syracuse, receiving an MFA in sculpture in 1962. He worked full time as a sculptor until he began teaching. At one point Williams admits he wanted to be a painter, but didn’t want to adopt the abstract expressionist style in vogue in the 1950s, preferring to pursue the realist tradition. He advises any would-be artist to “do what you do because you love it.” After graduation he traveled abroad, spending time in Belgium, the land of his ancestors. “My family’s name was originally Willems,” explains the 73-year old who still relishes the time spent in the Flemish countryside. Williams speaks excitedly about art, referencing the lives of great artists. He acknowledges that American artists do not have the same stature as those in Europe, where Old Masters like Brueghel and Rembrandt are national heroes. These days the energetic Williams, known primarily as a sculptor, is active at the Phelps Arts Center where he is on the board of directors. In mid-September when a group of visitors on a motor coach tour explored artworks displayed in the beautiful church-turned- gallery, they were treated to a large number of Williams’ bronze and metal sculptures, along with his charcoal drawings. “I’ve always loved his work because he deals with things, people, and animals you understand,” says the center’s Director Emeritus Marion Donnelly, who has known him for many years. Outside the Phelps Community Historical Society, Williams’ life-size figure of a farmer raises his pitchfork above a colorful flower garden on the front lawn. Inspired by the peasants working the fields in Europe, the metal figure is shown with wooden shoes. This is Williams’ largest copper piece, loaned to the Phelps museum in connection with Artistry in Sculpture, a community exhibition in 2009. Williams added a new base using a metal wagon...

A striking metal sculpture of a fish. Iron with gold gilt decoration. Probably Asian.

A large and early sand cast aluminum modernist sculpture of a giraffe by Cuban American artist Manuel Carbonell. Pedestal included. Measures: Height is 73” with base. Carbonell’s early sculptures where sand cast and unique. This is an edition of 1/1. Included is the original sketch of the work. Signed, circa 1967. Provenance: Ted Materna. Materna discovered Carbonell in the early 1960s. He produced Carbonell's gallery catalogs and helped promote him through his public relations firm in NYC. Manuel Carbonell (1918-2011) was regarded as the last of the Cuban Master...

Antique bronze sculpture of male nude reading a letter or proclamation. Marble base, 19th century. Unsigned.

Max Kalish (American, 1891-1945) Harmony, c. 1930 Bronze with green marble base Incised signature on right upper side of base 14 x 9 x 5 inches, excluding base 17 x 10 x 8 inches, including base Born in Poland March 1, 1891, figurative sculptor Max Kalish came to the United States in 1894, his family settling in Ohio. A talented youth, Kalish enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Art as a fifteen-year-old, receiving a first-place award for modeling the figure during studies with Herman Matzen. Kalish went to New York City following graduation, studying with Isidore Konti...

Dudley Vaill Talcott, American (1899-1986), Child's Restaurant Waitress, circa 1929. Number 1 of 12, cast 2011. Stamped with the artists' initials; DVT and dated on base. Other ve...

This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed with the artist initials and dated. It is unique. Seena Donneson (1924 - 2020) was an artist, sculptor and printmaker She studied at the Pratt Institute, NYC Pratt Graphic Art Center, NYC, with Michael Ponce de Leon and the Art Students League with Morris Kantor. Collections Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum of Modern Art, New York Brooklyn Museum Portland Art Museum Amon Carter Museum of American Art Select Individual Exhibitions Danville Museum of Art, Virginia; Galerie #836, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Greenville Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1987; Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. Group Exhibitions NY Upper East Side Outdoor Sculpture exhibition, 78; Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Florida; CAPS Travelling Exhibition; Ben Shahn Gallery, New Jersey; "The Collograph", NY State Council on the Arts/Pratt Institute. She was included in Group Shows Conceived and Curated by Dorothy Gillespie at the Women's Interart Center, New York, NY 1974. Artists included: Betty Parsons, Elsie Asher, Alice Baber, Minna Citron, Nancy Spero, Seena Donneson, Alice Neel, Natalie Edgar, Dorothy Gillespie, and Anita Steckel...

This is an abstract Flora based hand made, cast sculpture done by Seena Donneson an acclaimed woman artist. A textured abstract bronze with deep, rich patina; The sculpture is signed...