Page 4 - Br. Chapman :: Opening the Gift
P. 4
WATER,
BIRCHES,
SAILBOATS,
and
BRIDGES
Wind, Waves and Sails
24 x 24 inches
Art emerging in forced solitude
Christian Brother Artist Kenneth surfaces of the water and the interplay of required subjects in St. Cecilia’s in Harlem
Chapman traces his engagement in art each with an unseen and unpredictable and then Iona Grammar in New Rochelle,
to a year in childhood when scarlet fever wind giving order and movement to each. NY. He was then re-assigned to Cardinal
and its consequences kept him isolated in Farley Military Academy on the Hudson
his home in the Malba section of Queens, Having overcome the illness and returned River in Rhinebeck, NY. Art, ever a sideline
New York City. Occasionally on a good to school his weekends and vacations activity for him, took on new attraction in
day he would be brought to a neighboring were now filled with demonstrations of the beautiful surroundings of the Hudson
park overlooking the intersecting waters the drawing and coloring skills he had Valley and with the encouragement of the
of the Long Island Sound and New learned while confined to his room. The young military cadets.
York Harbor. He recalls from earlier owners of neighborhood movie theaters
days watching the motorcade bringing and supermarkets were delighted to A Chapman canvas often became the
President Franklyn Roosevelt over the find a local talent who could give their take-away gift of visitors who had made
newly constructed Whitestone Bridge mirrors and windows holiday and the journey to Farley. Word spread
linking the Bronx with the 1939 New seasonal transformations. concerning Brother Chapman’s unique
York Fair Grounds in Queens. (History Kenneth, while at Power Memorial skills. With some encouragement he
confirms the date as August 30, 1939.) Academy, decided to dedicate his life to the asked permission to study art at the
master’s level. He was prepared for a
He delighted in the colors and shapes of Christ he had encountered and embraced denial given the Brothers’ emphasis on
the panorama. He took in the movements during his bout with childhood illness. He academics and athletics. The permission
of the waters, the sailboats, and the sought admission and was received into to dedicate his summers to the art
birch trees along the shore. The images the Congregation of Christian Brothers, program of Catholic University was
captured his imagination making lasting the religious group that he had come to received as a significant endorsement of
impressions that appear and reappear know as teachers and mentors at Power. gifts that were emerging.
throughout his years of painting. The Becoming a religious and teaching were
curves of the sails, the parallel lines of the his primary motivations.
trees, the connecting role of bridges, (“… After graduation from Iona College with a
that’s what bridges do, they connect” – Br. degree in English and having completed his
Chapman in an interview.) the dynamic teacher training courses he taught all the
