Oceanfront Hotels In Carolina|"Stamford Artist Inherits Hotel"

Source             :    stamfordadvocate.com
Category        :    Oceanfront Hotels In Carolina
By                  :    Eve Sullivan
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Oceanfront Hotels In Carolina

At his home in North Stamford, artist James Knowles is busy working on an aluminum sculpture for the marquee of his family's hotel in New York City. Knowles already created the base of the structure -- a set of aluminum pipes melded together in a unique shape -- and is now attaching separate pieces of aluminum. After placing the first couple pieces, Knowles said he hadn't planned where to put them or what the final outcome will look like. But, he said, it looked "rigid," and that's good. "They don't have a specific location in advance," he said. "But it comes up and it comes alive." Hustling back and forth from the pile of aluminum to the structure, Knowles continued placing aluminum pieces that he constructed earlier onto the base. They came in all different shapes and sizes, with some looking like an accordion.

Upon completion, Knowles stepped back for a moment to look at his masterpiece. "Come on, that's beautiful," he said. "Look at the complexity of it." The 69-year-old has been creating art for most of his career, while also running the Hotel Roger Smith on 47th Street at Lexington Avenue in New York City. He has joined his two interests together, turning the historic hotel into a showplace and meeting place for artists. "It's known in the city," he said. "It's a funky little hotel." On a recent day, Knowles was cutting elm trees in the backyard of his High Ridge Road home, which sits on nine acres of land. The wood from the trunks will not go to waste, as he uses a chainsaw to carve them into artwork. Knowles left the woods to discuss his family's history in Stamford and the chain of hotels they once owned. Heading toward an old barn which he uses as a workshop, Knowles said he and his wife purchased their home in the 1970s and raised a family there.

His father-in-law once owned a huge piece of property next door, stretching back to Trinity Pass, and also owned a hotel chain. He started with the Hotel Roger Smith in Stamford in 1929, then gradually bought out hotels in New York, until eventually acquiring 17 of them. Knowles graduated from Yale University and received a master's degree in fine art from the University of Pennsylvania, with the intention of being an artist. For many years, he focused on his sculptures, creating some for local churches, schools and businessmen. In 1987, his father-in-law died and Knowles took over the last remaining Hotel Roger Smith in Manhattan. The place was once called the Hotel Winthrop before being purchased by the Roger Smith Corp. in 1938, with plans to fill it with tourists for the 1939 World's Fair. These days, Knowles said the hotel -- which has about 130 rooms -- is booked every night and plays a part in the city's arts scene. He said he travels to the hotel almost every day and also works on his own artwork at home. Looking at a giant bronze bust sitting in the yard, he said the subject was a Jewish philanthropist who gave his money to Harvard Medical School. He said he made a statue for the man and one for himself, adding, "I don't think he particularly liked it."

Knowles showed several other pieces on the lawn before heading into his self-proclaimed "messy" workspace. Inside, chainsaws, hammers and other tools are strewn everywhere and various pieces of artwork can be found lying around. Picking up some of his work, Knowles said, "This stuff here is so lightweight that it intrigues me. They're aluminum tubes that we shape together." Sitting on a chair in the corner, he grabbed some small clay sculptures that he molded. Although the faces seem a little distorted, he said they really look like the subjects. Some small bronze sculptures were located overhead and on shelving around the barn. Knowles said he gets random visits to the workshop, sometimes by people who are driving by and notice his artwork on the lawn. He said he had one the day before.

Heading back outside, Knowles pointed out three replicas of pieces that are on display in public places. One is a giant bronze cross that's at Christ Church in Greenwich. The others are plaster pieces at the New Canaan Country Day School and New Canaan Presbyterian Church. Then, like a mad scientist, Knowles began working on the piece that will go over the marquee. He compared it to a piece of music, possibly by Mozart. Aside from the piece going on the marquee, Knowles said he usually doesn't show his own work at the hotel. "My stuff is around, but I'm not showing it much," he said. "I'm showing other people's stuff."

Source:stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/The-Dart-Stamford-artist-inherits-hotel-creates-4816796.php