BioGRAPHICAL NoTES

My name is ARLENE MARGUERITE GRASTON. I was born in Reims, France (the Champagne region) to an American father and French mother, which has given me a dual nationality and an intimacy with that champagne. As a child, I told everyone I was a Citizen of the World (Citoyenne du Monde), so in my heart, a dual nationality, or any nationality at all, doesn't quite explain how I see the thing.

Danny, me, & Evelyn	The first visit to Central Park

I didn't go to art school. How can anyone tell you how to express the mysteries in your Soul? It's the discovery of them for yourself that is fun and exciting, and then figuring out the ways to render them comprehensible in the outer world. Bringing Heaven to Earth, I call it. Our Inner World is the one we've come here to give voice to, one way or another. 

I began my career in the world with the haute couture house of NINA RICCI in Paris, apprenticing as a fashion designer. Learning, by doing. At the time, it seemed an odd choice for me, but I encountered there real workers--the tailors and seamstresses of such enormous talent, industriousness, and modesty, who showed me, by their example, an attitude toward work that left me with a deep respect and proper preparation for every other kind of job I've ever had. To this I keep adding standards and joy of my own. I never cease to be learning something new. I'm glad there's Eternity to play around in. That should give us enough time to do it all!

Then I came to America.  I fell in love with New York, and made it my home.  I'm still here and I'm still in love.  Over the years I continued to work with Nina Ricci, creating an original lingerie line; designing a collection of gold and diamond jewelry; and ads like the one for MADEMOISELLE RICCI PARFUM.

Ironically, I never cared a hoot about -- CLOTHES --  as you see

Through my own graphic design studio I worked with major corporations as well as businesses in the arts, writing copy, designing logos and catalogues, and producing ads and fashion illustrations that appeared in publications including VOGUE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, WWD, and THE NEW YORK TIMES. I also designed the posters for the original Broadway productions of BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR and EUBIE! among others.

My trompe l'oeil murals decorate apartments from Fifth Avenue to Long Island (well, at least they used to, it was a long time ago and may be all painted over by a new decorator by now!).  My corporate clients included American Cyanamid, Pierre Cardin, Union Carbide, Kayser-Roth, Time-Life Books, The National Energy Foundation and The New York Public Library.

When I first came to New York, I had the goofy notion that I'd find Tin Pan Alley. Of course I love classical music, but it is jazz, that beautiful, blood-warming daring of improvisation, that always makes me feel all is right with the world. This uniquely American sound found a perfect marriage with the genius of: Gershwin, Kern, Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, etc., (and, when sung by Ella and played by Louis Armstrong or Art Tatum, well, folks, you can scoop me up with a spoon).  You can see why my favorite account would be Rodgers & Hammerstein where I met my beloved husband and best friend, Charles Mathes, who is at present the director of a New York City art gallery and the author of many mysteries and art books.  

The future
Mr Wonderful

Thank you, Gentleman, for being our Cupid

No one ever told me marriage  could be fun!!!

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In the late '70's I had my first taste of publishing, when a television show I wrote for "Lamp Unto My Feet" was so well received that CBS rebroadcast it in an expanded version as part of their Christmas Eve programming.  It was narrated by Beatrice Straight.  The project became a book for children, SPECIAL FRIENDS, published by Bantam. In 1997 Doubleday brought out my illustrated THUMBELINA.

 

 

 

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There's Manhattan Magic right outside our front door	...and from our windows

                          

  and we so believe in 
                  Magic!

 

 

 

(Now, just because I believe in Magic, don't for a minute think I'm a smiley-face do-gooder out to save the world!  I am, in fact, something of an introvert [a problem in America, though not in New York]. I need a lot of quiet time to keep my mind free to hear its own song. As much as I love people, I'm always relieved when I find a nice unobtrusive spot for myself in a world of people who appear to have lost sight of the inner side of things. Still, there's an awful lot of goodness in the world and, most notably, in my big, friendly city. I do find this human experience fascinating--even on the not so good days, or on the "nothing-much-is-happening" days. Some of us think it is a much more important adventure to scale some tall, unbending mountain [unless, of course, this is how one expresses one's creativity]. But just being here, in human form, is the The Big Adventure, and not a single one of us is not a Great Explorer. What could be more extraordinary than this human movie of time and space pretending at lack and limitation, even when it unfolds a very simple story?  I don't think any life is ever ordinary or insignificant, or big or little, to Life.)

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Our award-winning, IN EVERY MOON THERE IS A FACE,  is the one we created together and waited a LONG, LONG time to publish.  It is deep and subtle, and a very different kind of book. It shows, rather than tells. It requires the attentive participation of the reader to reveal its mysteries. I, humorously, call it a "spiritual activity book." It engages the imagination and reminds us that there is another kind of world that lives within us, as close as our own minds. (Our own--quiet--minds, that is. And when our mind is quiet, we become aware, automatically, of the sweet, peaceful presence in our inner space which is our true and eternal nature. We're never far from home.) 

Despite the "experts," we knew the book shouldn't be changed and it wasn't--it now exists on paper in the same simple way "God made it." We've got to believe the Truth that comes from within ourselves, and stand by it--in the face of the unwise demands of the outside world--and be willing to never be published. The world needs works of purity even if many people don't understand them. There are those who call our book a work of fiction.  We know better.

And this    is, Mimi, who made that mystical journey with me.  But she'll tell you: it's not a book about "Find the Chihuahua."

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Beautiful prints from the book are available from my publisher janekahanfolio

My email address is
amg(at)arlenegraston(dot)com

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Other people.  Other sites.

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