Mellow, Vogt Hailed At 4th SCS Art Auction
BY THOMAS COGAN

Gail Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College was one of the two honorees.

A number of artworks were sold this year at the fourth annual Sunnyside Community Services Benefit Art Auction and two local figures were honored: Gail Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, and John Vogt, current president of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce and the tireless, ultimately victorious, proponent of a Business Improvement District (BID) in Sunnyside.

Last year's article about the Third Annual Benefit Art Auction included the following paragraph about SCS's new headquarters at 43-31 39th St., all of which can safely be repeated this year:

Bureaucratic delay has denied SCS its C-of-O, so it had to be granted a dispensation allowing it one night's use of the ground floor space, located one flight below the old SCS quarters. The C-of- O is expected soon, so in the near future there will probably be an opening day ceremony attended by many who have already become familiar with the new place's broad and deep floor space, its glass brick lobby walls and the porthole windows in its entrance doors.

Bureaucratic delay prevailed, and the Department of Buildings has not thus far in 2007 granted SCS a certificate of occupancy for the new headquarters. As a result, another dispensation had to be granted so the Fourth Annual Benefit Art Auction could be staged at the new address. But for most of the attendees, last year and this, SCS's frustration has mattered little and the auctions have been lively and entertaining.

Forty-six paintings, photographs, and constructions, one of them in six parts, were put up for auction. A dozen of them went unsold, mainly because Ric Cherwin, the auctioneer, did not bring passed-over items back two and three times, the way he did last year; but their day, or night, may at some time come. Last year, Kitty Katz had several photographs passed over repeatedly, but this year Katz had a picture that included a kitty cat ("Chinatown Cat, 1991") that sold for nearly six times the minimum bid and more than twice the fair market value. Other returnees from last year included Tom Brydelsky and Louise Weinberg, whose photographs, enhanced in Brydelsky's case, were sold but did not earn the high prices they realized in 2006. But Roxy Munro's scenes from Manhattan did well again, as did Jacqueline Fogel's. Munro's "Grand Central Station, 2005" (a Christmas scene with snowfall) and Fogel's "The Chrysler Building Revisited, 2002" sold well above the f.m.v. prices. Janett Zamalloa's "Always Playing" was the work in six parts, and one and all of them found a buyer.

Among the Queens towns that shelter this year's artists, Sunnyside could claim at least six, while Jamaica, Flushing, Astoria, Jackson Heights and Long Island City have one or more to call their own.

Joel Weber of Jackson Heights took photographs of the auction all night, but additionally contributed a botanical photograph, a golden flood called "Yellow Gerber, 2006" that graced the catalog cover and was later sold. Astoria's Maria Spector had an oil on canvas called "Study for Long in Line, 2007" that looked tiny when Cherwin held it up with one hand, but for which he nevertheless coaxed a good price. Three of the Sunnyside artists were Robyn Love, Pat Dorfman and Laura Heim. Love's "Do Nothing (from the Antimacassar Sutra Series)" is a two-foot wide filet crochet item that could spell Do Nothing across the headrest of a large old stuffed chair and still be a work of art; it was sold well above its f.m.v. price. Pat Dorfman's "Pinups of Queens Boulevard I, 2007", a digital print, pigment ink on archival rag paper, is a witty collection of images that sold well. Situated above Queens Boulevard is the scene of Laura Heim's "7 Local, 2007," a watercolor that shows the view from the 46th/Bliss Street station of the 40th/Lowery Street station and buildings of Long Island City and Manhattan. A woman from Astoria bought it after some spirited bidding.

Judy Zangwill, executive director of Sunnyside Community Services, and Ronald Cavalier, president of its board of directors, related the work of the two honorees by noting that LaGuardia Community College, of which Mellow is president, contains the home office of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, whose president, John Vogt, is also a member of the La Guardia Community College board. SCS is a Chamber of Commerce member and partners with LaGuardia Community College in programs such as immigrant education and training and English as a Second Language (ESL). Currently SCS and the college's Small Business Development Center are developing a financial education program for seniors. The SBDC was inaugurated during Mellow's tenure as president, which began in 2000. In the cause of education, she has addressed audiences throughout the country and in China and Greece. While Vogt has been praised for his dynamism, his ultimate success in seeing the Sunnyside BID realized probably came through patience and forbearance, since there was a great deal of skepticism, delay and frustration that had to be overcome. Aside from being a chamber of commerce and BID official, Vogt has made a successful living as an executive at White Castle, being in charge of operations of the 48 units that the hamburger and short order system maintains in New York. He worked his way up too, beginning as a counterman at the White Castle in Jackson Heights about 1970.