Trudy Vilaska
961 Ventura Avenue
Albany, CA 94707
USA
Phone and Fax:
(510) 524-3090
Email Artist
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"I look forward with eagerness and excitement
to discovering new ways to express my
aesthetic impressions of today's world
of confusion and conflict."
_______________________________________________
According to artist Trudy Vilaska, her parents and the life they created for her and her four siblings "were the greatest influences on my choosing art as a life focus"; although as you'll soon learn, Trudy's artistic abilities didn't fully emerge until her retirement in 1992.
"When I was about eight years old my family bought a large Georgian colonial house near Tanglewood, Massachusetts - the location of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's annual summer festival. We ran the home as a bed-and-breakfast, and during my teen-age years, musicians, conductors and composers such as Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Lucas Foss, practiced on our grand piano, and held Sunday afternoon chamber concerts there with three of us siblings performing along with the professionals. Classical music was the soul of those summers, although I didn't understand what a rarified experience it was until much later in my life."
You might think she would have become part of the music world with this background. Her second brother did in fact become a successful classical musician as he had shown very early ability and inclination and was the main reason for the bed and breakfast move. However, Trudy tells us, "I already had strong interests in art and writing."
She and her two brothers and two sisters were encouraged to follow their own paths: "My older brother chose engineering, my older sister went into nursing, my younger sister eventually became a fashion designer, and I ? Well...
"I was very fortunate to go to an excellent liberal arts college where I majored in fine arts with a minor in English and my most important adult influence was one of my art teachers. Throughout my four years she emphasized design elements and originality. She was a product of the Bauhaus in Germany, and as my faculty advisor, she imbued me with the strong sense of composition that I believe I still have today."
Skidmore was the first college in the country to have a textile design studio and Ms. Vilaska was very proud to be the first student to use it; she was only l8 years old! The event was written up in top textile industry magazines and, after graduation, " ...gung-ho to become a textile designer, I moved to New York and started pounding the pavements!"
According to Trudy, l950 was a bad year for any kind of art job and after six months she accepted a position designing plaids for a textile company, "I lasted six months and the experience cost me reading glasses."
When Ms. Vilaska's perfect job came along - combining writing and art - she accepted a position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art involving publicity and public relations writing: "I spent five happy years there!
"It was exciting, too, mingling with artists and art critics, reviewers and culture ministers. Sort of like my earlier years mingling with the higher echelon of the music world, now that I think of it!"
Meanwhile, Trudy was living with a man - a no-no back then! - in Greenwich Village, New York City, to whom she married three years later (they'll celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year, if we count those partner-years) and they stayed out late every night with artists, lawyers, writers, etc., in coffeehouses and bars - "Having a ball!", she says.
Ms. Vilaska's next job paid better. She landed a position at Lever Brothers, makers of soaps and toothpaste, where "I learned how different publicity and public relations writing was in the commercial world; I never had to sell people on the Metropolitan - I just had to inform them!"
Eventually, according to Trudy, she captured her dream job: "Being in charge of all the publicity and public relations writing for Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola crayons.
"I loved it, and when three years later my husband, who was a free-lance writer in sales promotion and advertising, got a great lead for a writing job in San Francisco, I had to quit. (I remember when I got home I cried like a baby about leaving.) But it was time to move on from those salad days, which we remember fondly, to the next chapter in our lives: I became an elementary schoolteacher."
What an enormous change that was for Trudy! She had, up to that point, spent all her working life associated with adults - now it was mainly with children. And, to cope, she spent lunch hours of her first two years riding around town in her Volks Wagon bug listening to classical music on the radio. She also enjoyed teaching art once a week while, the rest of the time, she taught the other subjects. "All this", she tells us, "for $4,000 a year and my husband's job never materialized."
In time, Ms. Vilaska did adjust and came to love teaching. She soon moved to a better paying position where she stayed for almost 30 years - eventually teaching the children of her former students.
"I gained a reputation for teaching art and music that created parental requests for children to be in my class. I taught art using the principles of design I'd learned in college. I featured a different classical composer each week and played his music lots of the time in my classroom. Each year I took my class to museums and concerts and nourished the children and myself with art and music."
Meanwhile, Trudy and her husband had a daughter, then a son, and raised them despite being smack dab in the middle of the Free Speech and Vietnam crises in Berkeley, California.
Upon Ms. Vilaska's retirement, teachers and community members asked what she'd like as a gift, "I asked for an art store gift certificate and during the first month of retirement, I changed my son's bedroom into my home studio." Since then Trudy has produced hundreds of artworks: pastels, watercolors, charcoals, mixed media, box constructions, collages - big and little - traditional and contemporary - plus a bit of CD jewelry and exhibited in numerous galleries throughout the Bay Area. She's had many solo shows so far and has won a number of prizes and awards as well as commissions.
In answer to our question about why she doesn't seem to focus on one style and/or medium, she responded, "I suppose it's because I've got a lifetime of art ready to come out and my excitement knows no bounds. I'm finally having the self-rewarding experience of creating my own art. But then, perhaps it took a lifetime of many experiences to finally come full circle to focus on art and realize the true thrill of my own creating."
Whatever the reason, we hope you'll share the thrill with us in a fresh look forward to her artistic explorations in many different directions! It's going to be an exciting ride. Hang on!
"When I was about eight years old my family bought a large Georgian colonial house near Tanglewood, Massachusetts - the location of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's annual summer festival. We ran the home as a bed-and-breakfast, and during my teen-age years, musicians, conductors and composers such as Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Lucas Foss, practiced on our grand piano, and held Sunday afternoon chamber concerts there with three of us siblings performing along with the professionals. Classical music was the soul of those summers, although I didn't understand what a rarified experience it was until much later in my life."
You might think she would have become part of the music world with this background. Her second brother did in fact become a successful classical musician as he had shown very early ability and inclination and was the main reason for the bed and breakfast move. However, Trudy tells us, "I already had strong interests in art and writing."
She and her two brothers and two sisters were encouraged to follow their own paths: "My older brother chose engineering, my older sister went into nursing, my younger sister eventually became a fashion designer, and I ? Well...
"I was very fortunate to go to an excellent liberal arts college where I majored in fine arts with a minor in English and my most important adult influence was one of my art teachers. Throughout my four years she emphasized design elements and originality. She was a product of the Bauhaus in Germany, and as my faculty advisor, she imbued me with the strong sense of composition that I believe I still have today."
Skidmore was the first college in the country to have a textile design studio and Ms. Vilaska was very proud to be the first student to use it; she was only l8 years old! The event was written up in top textile industry magazines and, after graduation, " ...gung-ho to become a textile designer, I moved to New York and started pounding the pavements!"
According to Trudy, l950 was a bad year for any kind of art job and after six months she accepted a position designing plaids for a textile company, "I lasted six months and the experience cost me reading glasses."
When Ms. Vilaska's perfect job came along - combining writing and art - she accepted a position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art involving publicity and public relations writing: "I spent five happy years there!
"It was exciting, too, mingling with artists and art critics, reviewers and culture ministers. Sort of like my earlier years mingling with the higher echelon of the music world, now that I think of it!"
Meanwhile, Trudy was living with a man - a no-no back then! - in Greenwich Village, New York City, to whom she married three years later (they'll celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year, if we count those partner-years) and they stayed out late every night with artists, lawyers, writers, etc., in coffeehouses and bars - "Having a ball!", she says.
Ms. Vilaska's next job paid better. She landed a position at Lever Brothers, makers of soaps and toothpaste, where "I learned how different publicity and public relations writing was in the commercial world; I never had to sell people on the Metropolitan - I just had to inform them!"
Eventually, according to Trudy, she captured her dream job: "Being in charge of all the publicity and public relations writing for Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola crayons.
"I loved it, and when three years later my husband, who was a free-lance writer in sales promotion and advertising, got a great lead for a writing job in San Francisco, I had to quit. (I remember when I got home I cried like a baby about leaving.) But it was time to move on from those salad days, which we remember fondly, to the next chapter in our lives: I became an elementary schoolteacher."
What an enormous change that was for Trudy! She had, up to that point, spent all her working life associated with adults - now it was mainly with children. And, to cope, she spent lunch hours of her first two years riding around town in her Volks Wagon bug listening to classical music on the radio. She also enjoyed teaching art once a week while, the rest of the time, she taught the other subjects. "All this", she tells us, "for $4,000 a year and my husband's job never materialized."
In time, Ms. Vilaska did adjust and came to love teaching. She soon moved to a better paying position where she stayed for almost 30 years - eventually teaching the children of her former students.
"I gained a reputation for teaching art and music that created parental requests for children to be in my class. I taught art using the principles of design I'd learned in college. I featured a different classical composer each week and played his music lots of the time in my classroom. Each year I took my class to museums and concerts and nourished the children and myself with art and music."
Meanwhile, Trudy and her husband had a daughter, then a son, and raised them despite being smack dab in the middle of the Free Speech and Vietnam crises in Berkeley, California.
Upon Ms. Vilaska's retirement, teachers and community members asked what she'd like as a gift, "I asked for an art store gift certificate and during the first month of retirement, I changed my son's bedroom into my home studio." Since then Trudy has produced hundreds of artworks: pastels, watercolors, charcoals, mixed media, box constructions, collages - big and little - traditional and contemporary - plus a bit of CD jewelry and exhibited in numerous galleries throughout the Bay Area. She's had many solo shows so far and has won a number of prizes and awards as well as commissions.
In answer to our question about why she doesn't seem to focus on one style and/or medium, she responded, "I suppose it's because I've got a lifetime of art ready to come out and my excitement knows no bounds. I'm finally having the self-rewarding experience of creating my own art. But then, perhaps it took a lifetime of many experiences to finally come full circle to focus on art and realize the true thrill of my own creating."
Whatever the reason, we hope you'll share the thrill with us in a fresh look forward to her artistic explorations in many different directions! It's going to be an exciting ride. Hang on!
CURRENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS:More coming soon
AWARDS:2000 - Merit Award, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA l999 - Merit Award, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA l998 - Merit Award, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA l997 - Merit Award, Frances Young Gallery, Ross, CA l996 - Merit Award, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA l996 - Grumbacher Medallion Award, Frances Young Gallery, Ross, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:2007 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA 2006 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA 2003 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA 2000 - "Celebrations", El Cerrito Community Center, El Cerrito, CA 2000 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA 2000 - Reflections Salon, El Cerrito, CA 2000 - Salon, Berkeley, CA 1999 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA l999 - El Cerrito Main Library, El Cerrito, CA 1998 - "Open Studio", Albany, CA l998 - Foyer Gallery, Albany, CA l997 - Ted Cleveland Gallery, Berkeley, CA l996 - Epworth Church Meeting Room, Berkeley, CA l995 - University Y, Berkeley, CA
SELECTED & JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:2007 - Alliance of Women Artists, Salmagundi Center for American Art
New York, New York 2007 - Alliance of Women Artists exhibition
Galerie Chatelet-Victoria, 19 Avenue Victoria, Paris 75001, France 2006 - "Healing Arts", San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco
CA 2006 - George Lucas' Marin Technology Center, San Rafael, CA 2006 - Frances Young Gallery, Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross, CA 2006 - "Pacific Reflections", Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York, NY 2005 - "Vistas, Views and Visions", Addison Windows Gallery, Berkeley, CA 2005 - "International Women Artists", Galleria Tondinelli, Rome, Italy 2004 - "Political Art", Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 2004 - Societe des Artistes Independants, Paris, France 2004 - "Edibles", The Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 2004 - "International Women Artists", City Hall, Oslo, Norway 2004 - "Patterns of Thought", Sanchez Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 - "International Art Festival", Belvedere, CA 2003 - Windows Gallery, Berkeley, CA 2003 - "Open House", Pro Arts Gallery,Oakland, CA 2003 - 5 group exhibitions, Claire de Villaret Galerie, Paris, France 2003 - "Projections", Gallery Sanchez, San Francisco, CA 2003 - Alliance Francaise of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 2003 - Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 2002 - "Splash of Color", Oakland Museum Restaurant, Oakland, CA 2002 - International group show with the Alliance of Women Artists and
France-Ameriques Association, Paris, France 2001 - The George Lucas' Marin Technology Center, San Rafael, CA 2001 - "The Urban Landscape", Art Works Gallery, San Rafael, CA 2001 - International Artists Group Exhibition, La Galerie Internationale,
Palo Alto, CA 2000 - Included in 10 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 2000 - El Cerrito Fourth of July Fair, El Cerrito, CA l999 - Included in 8 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1999 - Included in 7 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA 1999 - Manor House Gallery, Belmont, CA 1999 - Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA 1999 - Included in 2 Blackhawk Gallery Exhibitions, Danville, CA 1999 - El Cerrito Annual Art Exhibition, El Cerrito, CA 1999 - El Cerrito Fourth of July Fair, El Cerrito, CA 1998 - Included in 10 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1998 - Included in 8 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA 1998 - SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1998 - Included in 3 Pacific Art League Gallery Exhibitions, Palo Alto, CA 1998 - Holiday Art Show, Oakland, CA 1998 - Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 1998 - Pacific Grove Art Center, National Art Competition Exhibition,
Pacific Grove, CA 1998 - Creativity Exhibition, Berkeley, CA 1998 - Blackhawk Fall Festival, Danville, CA 1998 - Kaiser Center Gallery, Oakland, CA 1998 - Alta Bates Exhibit Hall, Oakland, CA 1998 - Heather Farms Center, Walnut Creek, CA 1998 - El Cerrito Annual Art Exhibition, El Cerrito, CA 1998 - El Cerrito Fourth of July Exhibition, El Cerrito, CA 1998 - Richard's Annex Exhibition, Alamo, CA 1998 - Summerfest Exhibition, Danville, CA 1998 - Fine Art Festival, Lafayette, CA 1998 - Lindsay Dirkx Brown Gallery, San Ramon, CA 1997 - Included in 7 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1997 - Included in 7 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA 1997 - Included in 4 Pacific Art League Gallery Exhibitions, Palo Alto, CA 1997 - Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 1997 - Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA 1997 - La Casa Villa Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA 1997 - Included in 4 Blackhawk Gallery Exhibitions, Danville, CA 1997 - John Muir Center, Walnut Creek, CA 1997 - Masonic Hall Exhibition, Orinda, CA 1997 - Alta Bates Exhibition Hall, Oakland, CA 1997 - El Cerrito Community Fair, El Cerrito, CA 1997 - Danville Fine Arts Gallery, Danville, CA 1996 - Included in 10 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1996 - Included in 6 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA 1996 - Bayfront Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1996 - Included in 4 Pacific Art League Gallery Exhibitions, Palo Alto, CA 1996 - El Cerrito Annual Exhibition, El Cerrito, CA 1995 - Included in 6 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1995 - Included in 4 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA 1995 - Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA 1995 - Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY 1994 - Included in 5 San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery Exhibitions,
San Francisco, CA 1994 - Included in 2 Frances Young Gallery Exhibitions, Ross, CA
COLLECTORS:Dexter Fidler, San Francisco Anne-Cathrine Andersen, Oslo, Norway Mary Wallman, Albany, CA Booker and Joyce Jackson, Albany, CA Jack Wolf, Albany, CA T. G. Nadia, San Francisco, CA Seela Lewis, San Francisco, CA Mike Ryan, Ross, CA Bob Prentiss, Ross, CA Brenna Turman, Berkeley, CA Bettina Johnson, Kensington, CA David Scronce, San Francisco, CA Rachel Porter, Phoenix, AZ Dr. Lisa Snow, Berkeley, CA David Gruss, Kingwood, TX Dr. Nat & Sylvia Cohen, Berkeley, CA Helen Segall, Berkeley, CA Cathy Tecson, Daly City, CA Stephen P. Daniel, San Francisco, CA Pam Wehrs, Arlington Heights, IL Frances Burnett, Berkeley, CA Owen and Ann Hatch, Albany, CA Elizabeth Carr, El Cerrito, CA Jim and Kathy Johnston, Albany, CA Dale Green, Albany, CA Richard and Janet Setzer, Albany, CA Gwen Sibert, Walnut Creek, CA Lois Breault, Albany, CA Enrico and Millicent Reguzzoni, Oakland, CA Sally Davis, Fremont, CA
COMMISSIONS:Brita Jonsson, Alameda, CA Maxine Cassaretto, Piedmont, CA Christopher and Neda Cheung, Albany, CA
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AWARDS:
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
SELECTED & JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
New York, New York
Galerie Chatelet-Victoria, 19 Avenue Victoria, Paris 75001, France
CA
San Francisco, CA
France-Ameriques Association, Paris, France
Palo Alto, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
Pacific Grove, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
COLLECTORS:
COMMISSIONS:
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