|
ARTIST HAS SOLO SHOW AT THE EBELL
| |
Laura Eversz
|
PRODUCTION DESIGNER and artist in his Miracle Mile studio.
On the eve of the opening of his first solo show, to be held at The Wilshire Ebell, artist Ed Rubin reminisces about his first gig as art director on a television show. It was filmed at The Ebell in 1985.
“Interesting synchronicity, don’t you think?” he asks. What’s more, says Rubin, is that “my roots are really in this neighborhood.”
His grandfather had a market at 6th and Berendo from the ‘20’s to the ‘50s. “His store was one of few that sold on credit during the Depression,” he recalls. The store thrived because of the affluence of patrons from Hancock Park. “My father went to John Burroughs, and both of my parents attended Fairfax High. I remember coming to Miracle Mile as a child and to the Farmers Market.”
Rubin went on to earn a degree in architecture from UC Berkeley, and a master’s of fine arts in set design for theatre from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has worked on more than 60 projects as a production designer and art director in film, television and commercials, and has been nominated for four Emmys—winning one for “The Wonderful World of Disney’s Cinderella” starring Brandy and Whitney Houston.
As a fine artist, Rubin studied etching and lithography at Cal State Long Beach, and drawing and painting at the Academie de Port Royal in Paris.
It was while living in San Francisco in the early ‘90s that he developed his mastery of soft pastel on paper, a medium he says he now works exclusively in—and continues to discover new things about—every day.
Now Rubin’s back in the Miracle Mile, where he and his partner of 20 years, poet Sam Ambler, share a home near LACMA.
Fresh from his win in the portrait/figure category at an annual competition sponsored by “Pastel Journal,” Rubin views the Ebell exhibit as “very timely and a great opportunity. His winning entry, “Annunciation,” was painted from a photograph he took of Ambler’s brother as he lay dying of pancreatic cancer. “Something guided me, compelled me to take the picture,” said Rubin. “The painting is about the revelation of the eternal nature of consciousness. You can call it love… God.”
A Religious Science practioner, Rubin has been a lay minister for the past eight years and works part-time as a volunteer chaplain at Cedars Sinai Hospital. “It’s a way of being of service and part of my spiritual journey,” he says. “Unlike doctors and nurses, I’m not there to poke or prod, but simply to listen.”
He’s also a member of Pacific Masters Swimming, which gets him in the pool for 2,500 meters at least four days a week.
“It’s a busy life,” Rubin allows. “But it keeps me interested.”
These days, he’s busy getting ready for the Ebell show that will feature 23 paintings from 1993 to 2009. “It’s sort of a retrospective of pieces I’ve held onto for years. Now I’m ready to let them go.”
Rubin’s solo exhibition opens with a reception at the Ebell of Los Angeles Theatre, 743 S. Lucerne, on Thurs., Jan. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m. Runs through Jan. 31. |
|
Home
Current Issue
