A Night To Remember

Over the course of my career as an artist, I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with some incredible people. One of those people is Rosie O’Donnell, the comedian, actress, and host of The View on ABC.

Rosie O’Donnell runs a charity called Rosie’s Theater Kids, giving thousands of underserved New York City public school kids the opportunity to receive an outstanding performing arts training, along with academic tutoring, mentoring, and social services. Students in this program have an extremely high success rate – 100%of them have graduated high school and gone on to college. Each year, Rosie’s Theater Kids hosts a gala event in New York City with an auction to benefit the charity.

This year’s gala would honor Cyndi Lauper for her contribution to theater with the writing of the hit musical Kinky Boots. Also honored would be Jordan Roth, owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, presenters of Kinky Boots.

Hearing Rosie talk about the plans for the gala gave me an idea. I asked if I could do a live painting of Cyndi Lauper and Jordan Roth during cocktail hour at the Rosie’s Theater Kids gala. The painting could then be auctioned, with the proceeds going directly to the charity.

Rosie jumped on the idea, so I set about creating a plan for the painting. This proved a bit challenging in regards to the layout of the portrait. How was I going to include both Cyndi Lauper and Jordan Roth in the composition while also giving a nod to Kinky Boots? Fortunately, another contact and good friend helped me out. I asked Pascal Amblard, whom I consider one of the most gifted artists today, to advise me on the composition of the painting. His suggested rendering was a huge help and directly led to the final painting composition.

The next challenge I faced was the time constraint. I’ve done live paintings at events before, but never something that involved two portraits. The two hours I would be allotted to paint at the event was simply not enough time to finish a painting, allow it to dry, and send it home with the winning bidder. I decided to create two paintings. One would be completely finished before the event as my back up. The other would be partially finished and, ideally, completed during the cocktail hour.

On the day of the gala, I arrived early at the Marriott Marquis to set up my easel and begin painting. It was a little surreal to be wearing my best suit, surrounded by well-dressed people in a fancy cocktail room, and chatting it up with Jordan Roth’s grandmother while painting a thigh-high red leather boot.

The time flew by, and I was so glad I had a finished painting on hand to be auctioned later that evening. The painting I worked on during the cocktail hour wasn’t quite finished when we were all asked to move into the ballroom for dinner and entertainment. After some words by Rosie and a simply astounding performance by the students at Rosie’s Theater Kids, it was nice to relax and enjoy the moment with my wife Alli, my friend Mike, and my assistant Gina. The relaxation didn’t last long, however, as I was soon informed that Rosie wanted me to be on stage during the auction to presentmy painting.

When that moment arrived and I joined Rosie on stage with the finished painting, I was hoping it would be well-received and would earn a respectable amount for Rosie’s Theater Kids. Earlier that night, I’d said to Alli, “I hope the painting goes for at least $1,000. That would be amazing.” After introducing me, Rosie cut straight to the chase for the auction, saying, “I want this painting myself, so I am going to make the first bid. I am bidding $10,000. Does anyone have a higher bid?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly, especially when a hand went up in the audience and a gentleman made a $15,000 bid of his own. Rosie turned to me and said, “I still want this painting too. Can you do a second one? I’ll match the $15,000 bid.” Of course I said yes, knowing that second painting was already nearly complete. In all, my paintings were auctioned for $30,000 to benefit Rosie’s Theater Kids, an amount that far exceeded my expectations. It was certainly a night to remember!

Rosie is an artist as well. She has a wonderful studio in her home. Christmas was creeping up and what do you get for someone like that. I know she loves her children and loves art as well so it only made sense to combine the two.

DECORATIVE ART BY: PAT GANINO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: CREATIVE EVOLUTION

WRITTEN BY: PAT GANINO

If you enjoyed this article, send
it to your friends on Facebook!