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by Floyd Egner
Publisher, Tropical Breeze
Tropical Breeze Photos by Sue Suby
Ramona Lampell is the daughter of a West
Virginia coal miner, a former New York fashion model, the widow of
a famed folk musician and writer, a former gallery owner and
perhaps the country's pre-eminent collector of the art of the
Appalachian mountains.
She says she has lived a "schizophrenic
life," literally going from freezing 15 quarts of beans
fresh-picked from her West Virginia garden to flying to London to
be met by a limousine that same evening. She casually mentions
sailing in the Caribbean with her good friend Dr. Spock -- yes,
that Dr. Spock -- and could name-drop dozens of Hollywood friends,
but her real love clearly is for the people of the mountains where
she was born.
When she returned to her home in the hills
of West Virginia from one of the many globetrotting trips, her
neighbors didn't ask about the bright lights and big cities, they
talked about the weather and the crops.
"It's a matter of being in the here and
now ...appreciating life," Lampell said. "It's not desiring to
live in any other way."
That sense of the here and now is
reflected in the art she has collected, produced by untrained,
talented artists whose work reflects their work, their spirituality
and their lives. It is filled with humor. "The art is almost
narrative, it tells the story of their lives."
Seeing the art, "you can't be able to not
smile," she said. Having a house filled with such art, "You get up
in the morning, look around and it makes you smile. It fills you
with joy. It touches you in a joyous way."
A conversation with Ramona soon turns to
mention of her late husband, Millard. He was one of the founders in
the 1940s of the Almanac Singers, a folk music group whose other
members were Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays and Pete Seeger. He also was
an Emmy-winning writer for television, screen and stage who was
blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Among his better known
teleplays was the 1970s miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man."
He also shared Ramona's passion for the
art of the Appalachians. Born in New Jersey, he attended college at
West Virginia University on a football scholarship.
"When we met, the sharing of our love for
West Virginia is what brought us together," she said. "When I took
him to my beloved mountains and home place, he wanted to live
there."
He not only encouraged her as she
collected art, but as she shared it with the world by opening
galleries in New York and Los Angeles. Their collaboration resulted
in a critically acclaimed coffee table book published in 1989.
Titled "O, Appalachia," it tells the stories of 20 Appalachian
artists and shows their art, from the whimsical to the practical.
It illustrates the ways in which craft and art can overlap in
objects such as handwoven baskets and utilitarian, handmade
knives.
Many of the pieces included in the book
are featured in the exhibit of the same name that currently is on
display at the Leepa Rattner Museum of Art on the Tarpon Springs
campus of St. Petersburg College. The exhibition has traveled to 14
museums around the country, beginning, naturally, at the Huntington
Museum of Art in Huntington, WV. It has been featured on television
programs, including the Today Show with Jane Pauley and CBS Sunday
Morning with Charles Kuralt.
"I believe people ought not hoard their
collections," Lampell said. She has been true to her word. Although
her favorite pieces from the book are in the exhibit, she has given
265 pieces from her very large collection to a museum in Kentucky.
And she still assembles collections for private clients, such as a
former mayor of Los Angeles and the head of one of Hollywood's
largest movie studios.
Lampell continues to discover Appalachian
artists and add to her personal collection. "It's the hottest art
today, the most salable," she said. She attributes her success to
one simple secret, "Artists trusted me because I was one of
them."
Leepa Rattner Museum of Art, St.
Petersburg College Tarpon Springs Campus, 600 Klosterman Rd.,
Tarpon Springs. Call 727-712-LRMA (5762).
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TROPICAL BREEZE PHOTO BY SUE SUBY
“Devil gits sat on,” 1985, painted wood, 101⁄4"x22" by James Harold Jennings (1931-1999). From the exhibit “O, Appalachia” at the Leepa Rattner Museum of Art. |
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