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SOCHI CHAPTER |
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SOCHI CHAPTER |
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Frank McGinnis, who is a member of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter and also a retired music professor from Cal State Northridge (CSN), took the photos to the Art professors at CSN and two different professors independently chose Youri Kouznetsov from among the competitors. Frank also learned from the professors that the North Gallery on CSN’s campus would be available during the month of September and he arranged for Youri to show his paintings in the gallery during that month.
Youri and his interpreter, Olga Razmyslovitch, were invited to Los Angeles for the month of September. The Greater Los Angeles Chapter agreed to provide their accommodations, meals, local transportation and miscellaneous small expenses while they were in the U.S. Youri and Olga agreed to cover the cost of their own plane tickets and transporting the paintings. To raise funds to cover Youri’s and Olga’s expenses during their visit, the Greater Los Angeles chapter held a yard sale. The yard sale raised $470 and a portion of this amount was matched by one chapter member’s company. People to People headquarters in Kansas City also provided a matching grant to the chapter to help pay for Youri’s and Olga’s expenses.
The Association of Retired Faculty Members at Cal State Northridge cosponsored the exhibit at the gallery and an article about the exhibit appeared in their newsletter. In addition, one member of the Greater Los Angeles chapter, Marlene Perez-Perez, arranged for a web-site advertising Youri’s exhibit which included information about Youri, samples of several of his paintings and a link to the People to People web-site. Another chapter member, Freddie Lu McGinnis, contacted the local Russian newspaper in Los Angeles and they volunteered to publish an article about the exhibit as well.
The Greater Los Angeles chapter members planned two events that would take place during Youri’s and Olga’s visit: a welcome dinner the night of their arrival and an Open House at the gallery on Sunday, September 13.
The Visit
Youri and Olga arrived from Sochi (via Moscow) on Sunday, August 30,
at about 5:30 pm. The President of the Greater Los Angeles chapter,
Marsha Wallace, was at the airport to greet them. After a brief stop at
her house (where they would spend the first week of their visit), she drove
them to the Marie Callendar’s restaurant in Glendale for the welcome dinner.
Most members of the Greater Los Angeles chapter attended the welcome dinner
and it was a great beginning for a very special visit.
During the first week of Youri’s and Olga’s visit, they spent most
of their daytime hours at the gallery. Youri and Olga arranged the
paintings for the exhibit and the CSN professors helped Youri to set up
a small studio in the reception area of the gallery so that he could paint.
The professors from Cal State Northridge were extremely happy to have an “artist-in-residence” for the month of September and they regularly brought their classes to view the exhibit, critique the paintings and ask the artist questions (see photo). Youri willingly answered their questions with the assistance of Olga Razmyslovitch.
In the evenings, Youri and Olga were given a small taste of life in Los Angeles. They had dinner at local restaurants, visited Universal City Walk (an outdoor mall with many entertaining stores and restaurants) and drove down Sunset Blvd. They bought shoes in nearby shoe stores and on one evening Olga joined Marsha for an aerobics class while Youri sampled beers at a nearby neighborhood pub.
On their first weekend in Los Angeles, Youri’s friend Yan, who lives near San Francisco, drove to Los Angeles to pay a visit. This was a special treat for both of them, since they had not seen each other for several years. That Sunday afternoon, Yan, Youri, Olga and Marsha met chapter member Laura McLaughlin for a very pleasant lunch in Old Town Pasadena, where Yan and Youri toasted their reunion (see photo).
Laura McLaughlin and her husband Tim had agreed to host Youri and Olga at their home during the second week of their stay. So Youri, Olga and Yan went home with Laura that evening and everyone enjoyed a barbecue dinner on the McLaughlin’s patio. The following day was Labor Day and Tim and Laura (a Disney employee) took Youri and Olga to visit Disneyland.
The remainder of the week, Youri and Olga again spent part of their daytime hours at the gallery though they sometimes accompanied Tim to his architectural sculpting job where Youri got to experiment in three-dimensional artwork. On Wednesday evening of that week, a gallery owner who Youri had contacted previously, invited Youri, Olga and the McLaughlins to join him for dinner, so they all got together at a Chinese restaurant.
Sunday of the following weekend was September 13, the day on which the Open House had been scheduled. Marlene Perez-Perez brought an assortment of delicious refreshments for this event and chapter member Ann Lindeen helped her to set these up at the gallery. The Open House was from 2:00 to 5:00pm and many visitors arrived to view the exhibit. During the Open House, Frank McGinnis presented Youri with a letter from Jo Hopkins (Chairman of the Artistic Ambassador Program) making him an official delegate of the program.
After the Open House, Youri and Olga went home with Frank and Freddie Lu McGinnis who had agreed to host them during the third week of their visit. During the week that followed, the McGinnis’s took Youri and Olga to see the Huntington Library and Gardens and the Picasso show at the Los Angeles County Art Museum. They attended a vocal recital at Moorpark College and one night the McGinnis’s took Youri downtown where he met with another gallery owner from Laguna Beach.
The last week of Youri’s and Olga’s visit was again hosted by the president of the Greater Los Angeles chapter. During this week, Youri spent two days in Laguna Beach visiting the gallery owner he had met from that town and took a train to San Francisco to spend some more time with his friend Yan. Olga visited Universal Studios, toured a number of museums (including the new Getty) and spent one day visiting the school of chapter member Ellen Haworth. While at Ellen’s school, Olga answered many questions for curious students (including her favorite question “Can you speak Russian?”) Olga (who is also a teacher) agreed to find Russian pen pals for any of the students who were interested in having one.
During one of the days of that week when Youri was in Los Angeles, chapter members Ann and Gordon Lindeen took Youri and Olga to see the Los Angeles Zoo and that night they all ate dinner at Frank and Freddie Lu’s house along with a number of other guests.
Sunday, September 27, was the last day before Youri and Olga were to return to Russia. Youri wanted to spend the day painting so Marsha set up a place for him on her balcony. While Youri was painting, Marsha and a friend of hers, Jasmine Derian, took Olga to have some lunch on Sunset Blvd. When they returned Youri informed them that the paintings he had been working on were to be gifts for the people that he and Olga had stayed with during their visit. There was one painting for Tim and Laura McLaughlin, one for Frank and Freddie Lu McGinnis and a final painting for the Chapter president which was titled “Three friends” (See photo). This was especially touching to Marsha since she and Youri and Olga had indeed become three friends during their visit.
That night, the McLaughlins joined Youri, Olga, Jasmine and Marsha for a farewell dinner at the Great Greek restaurant. The food was great, the music was wonderful and it was a fitting end to a very special visit.
The following morning, Marsha took Youri and Olga to the airport and put them on a plane back to Russia. Everyone was sad that they were leaving, but the links between Sochi and Los Angeles are now significantly greater than they were when they arrived.
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