Great art is so often found behind red velvet ropes, fragile artifacts from another time that are too delicate to handle. For children, said Marguerite Mitchell, that frequent reality is defined by words they begin hearing almost as soon as they are mobile. Look, but don’t touch. Arlene Abe nd brought an entirely different ethic to her lessons at the Redhouse Arts Center, Mitchell said. For years, the great Syracuse sculptor was a dynamic instructor of children’s art classes. Mitchell, the organization’s director of education, said Arlene’s whole emphasis with kids was far more direct and intimate than simply teaching about works as art, as faraway examples. Her lessons involved the knowledge that changed her own life, the transformative power of what those girls and boys could do with their own hands. That message — a statement about her impact on the future, rather than a sad farewell — will be at the heart of a community memorial Wednesday for Arlene, who died last autumn. “She was a ball of energy,” said Mitchell, who joined Redhouse executive director Franklin Fry in recalling how Arlene was a front row regular at every theatrical production held in the place. Her driving motivation with children was to “put a fire under them,” Mitchell said. Arlene was particularly focused on helping them to “dream big,” inviting them to ask the same question every day that had changed her own life: What if? It was a question she brought with particular empathy to young women and girls, Mitchell said. Roughly 60 years ago, Arlene — who stood 5-foot-2 — embraced welding as a means of creating her art at a time when few women were working with a torch and heavy metals. Tema Abend, daughter of great Syracuse-based sculptor, artist and welder Arlene Abend, has organized a public memorial service for her mom, set for Wednesday. Here, Tema is shown next to one of her mother’s sculptures, “Dance Lesson.” Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current It was a male-dominated field. The general reaction to a woman welder was: You do not belong. Arlene pushed through it. The world changed. She emerged as a legend. Arlene died in October, at 94. Her daughter Tema — hoping to fully honor her mother’s one-of-a-kind trajectory — has spent the past few months organizing a celebration of life, open to all visitors, that is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas in Jamesville. Tema, retired from her own career in training and development, will spend the next few days making sure many pieces of her mother’s art are on prominent display at the service. Despite the monumental sense of absence felt by anyone who knew and loved Arlene, the gathering will reinforce the idea that a life of such electric and uplifting purpose can still shape dreams for a long time throughout Central New York. Set on that goal, Tema has used the last three months in Syracuse — far from her California home — to pull together what she calls “Arlene’s legacy.” It equates to a trail of action-driven memorials at five nearby locations of special importance to her mother, a pioneer “who will definitely continue to live on in her art,” as Mitchell said. The Redhouse, the downtown Syracuse arts center, will receive five of Arlene’s resins for a rotating display to visitors. In an effort of particular meaning to Tema, the Redhouse is also initiating an Arlene Abend memorial scholarship. The annual focus, Tema said, will be helping a young woman or girl “ready to explore her creativity, find her voice and imagine where she wants to go in any field, as it relates to theater.” Tema Abend with “The Circus,” a resin work created by her mother, Arlene. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current Sullivan described Arlene as “a beautiful, beautiful person,” a feeling echoed at the Onondaga Historical Association, where executive director Lisa Romano Moore called Arlene “an extraordinary presence” in the community. The OHA, Moore said, sees its role as being the storyteller for the region — and Tema said that organization will receive all of her mother’s photographs and papers as a means of chronicling a feminist triumph in the arts. In a gesture of whimsical meaning, Tema is also giving Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia a smaller model of “Ant Alice,” the 7-foot metal depiction of an ant that Tema sees as emblematic of her mother’s strength, tenacity and humor. While the original will make the long journey to Tema’s home in California, she loves the idea of the model going to Stone Quarry. The place was co-founded by the late Dorothy Riester, an equally relentless artist and welding pioneer whose similar passions turned Riester and Arlene into regional rivals for much of their long careers. By the end, in a beautiful way, that mirrored ferocity had one indisputable effect, according to both Zema and Emily Zaengle, Stone Quarry’s executive director: Arlene and Riester, almost grudgingly, arrived at a deep respect and appreciation for their counterpart’s work, especially a hard-earned understanding of the guts and will necessary to get it done. Stone Quarry intends to make a full replica of “Ant Alice” for its grounds, Zaengle said, allowing visitors wandering the trails to pause and admire the sculpture. The whole point of that terrain is kindling wonder and contemplation, and Zaengle said Riester always wanted it to be a showplace for many artists. That will include the permanent presence of her great rival. As Zaengle puts it, bottom line: “Who doesn’t love a giant bug?” Arlene Abend’s welding helmet and gloves. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current The fourth spot on the trail is the Willow Bay Yacht Club in Cazenovia, where Tema said her mother — “a huge fan” of Sunfish sailing — was again a woman’s pioneer. The club will receive the model for “Toward the Wind,” a piece that in its full life-size rendition depicts a formation of sails. Someday, Tema said, she hopes to help establish an Arlene Abend scholarship at Willow Bay for young women who dream of sailing, but face economic or social barriers. Finally, Tema said: There is the Everson Museum of Art. Geographically and emotionally, the Everson is at the heart of the Central New York arts community. To describe its importance to Arlene demands understanding her larger story, the one Tema hopes will be a vivid and memorable centerpiece Wednesday at the community celebration: How her mother was raised in a tightknit Jewish community in Brighton Beach. How, as a girl, Arlene saw herself as homely and somehow diminished — a youthful self-image that still leaves Tema incredulous — particularly when compared to her sister. How she married a rising business executive and became a wife in a traditional 1950s marriage that soon felt constraining to the larger artistic dreams that seemed clearer by the day to Arlene, a graduate of the Arts and Cooper Union… Arlene Abend mentors children as part of the community arts education program at the Redhouse. Credit: Courtesy of Marguerite Sullivan, the Redhouse And how in the early 1960s, after Arlene’s husband accepted a job at Smith-Corona in Syracuse and the couple and their two children, Tema and Les, moved to Central New York, she began the art courses at Syracuse University that would nurture the sweeping vision and embrace of welding that transformed everything. In essence, she broke out. One astounding truth, Tema said, is how her mother “had a fear of fire” — even though a welding torch became her central tool. Sixty years and more later, Tema said it is hard to fully grasp the initial resistance faced by Arlene — the prevailing notion that welding was a man’s domain and it was somehow inappropriate, if not preposterous, for a woman to pursue it as a form of art. At Central Tech, where Tema said administrators were loath to see a woman in community welding classes, she found a mentor and lifetime friend in an industrial welder, the late Joe Losito. That persistence soon made Arlene iconic in Central New York, where her work has lasting prominence — including an enduring statement at a Sept. 11 memorial in DeWitt. The invitation sent out by Tema Abend to her mother’s public celebration of life, on Wednesday. Credit: Courtesy of Tema Abend Her steel sculpture there resembles flame — or, to some, tears or even wings — emerging from a steel beam crushed toward the Earth when the World Trade Center collapsed. Tema said her mother, when she met someone, “had a true interest in your story” — a deep curiosity about the place in time and life of any new acquaintance. Yet for most of Arlene’s life, when Tema would ask similar questions of her mom — such as the inspiration for a particular piece of art — Arlene would typically defer. She preferred for her work to convey whatever message people found in it. It was only in recent years, Tema said, when Arlene knew “things were winding down,” that she began to speak more openly of her motivations and her fears. In heartbreaking fashion, Tema realized that Arlene quietly worried about the scope of her own impact. By never settling in New York City, by never trying to find way her in a global center of the art world, “she wasn’t sure she made a mark,” Tema said — which left Arlene wondering how much all her work and effort mattered, on a larger scale. Tema, her voice cracking, said her entire mission for the past few months has been finding a way to reinforce what everyone who knew Arlene already understands: She mattered, in a magnificent and lasting way. Toward that goal, the Everson — designed by I.M. Pei, one of the great architects in world history — becomes particularly significant. Steffi Chappell, the Everson’s director of curatorial affairs, recalled how she first met Arlene when the museum did a 2022 exhibition of her work called, “Resolute.” “It was a meaningful experience for all of us who worked on that show with her,” Chappell said. To feature Arlene in that exhibition — which included a showing of “Stretching Boundaries,” a documentary about her life — “felt like something that was supposed to happen,” Chappell said. “The Circus,” a resin piece by Arlene Abend, is a favorite of f her daughter, Tema. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current Arlene’s power as an artist, Chappell said, involved the same qualities that made her culturally important as a feminist groundbreaker: Her “tenacity and dedication and drive,” her absolute commitment to “large pieces that were not always physically easy,” the way she was “always going to figure it out.” Tema will be giving the Everson two pieces of Arlene’s art. But the qualities Chappell described become an equally resounding legacy as indomitable example, and they are at the heart of a new Arlene Abend Artistic Fund at the Everson that will “support and inspire women in the arts.” Tema is asking this week for any donations in Arlene’s memory to go toward that fund, whose purpose is written in this way: “Guided by (a) curious, motivated, and fearless spirit, the fund offers women artists opportunities to explore creative paths they may not have previously considered — to experiment with new fields, ideas, and mediums; to try something different or unexpected; and to step beyond familiar circles and comfort zones.” Arlene Abend reshaped seemingly unyielding materials into a lasting vision, similar to what she did with any obstacles in life. Tema’s hope — at not only the Everson but in all these places of such meaning to her mom — is that visitors, especially young women and girls, will feel the living message Arlene conveyed every day with her own hands: “Take it to the next level,” Tema said, “and make it happen.” The post Sean Kirst: For Arlene Abend, legendary Syracuse artist, a daughter’s quest to create a living memorial appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less