Art for Sale Page 2

Before heading back to the White House on Wednesday, President Obama made a stop at campaign headquarters in Chicago to address his campaign staff after Tuesday night’s big victory.

The president gave an emotional thanks to the staff, tearing up as he expressed his gratitude for their support and dedication to the reelection effort.

“I’m really proud of all of you,” Obama said. “What you guys accomplished will go on in the annals of history.”

The sun streams in through Oprah’s kitchen windows; birds chirp in the garden. Outside, a spring mix of flowers. Inside, Oprah is making lunch for her longtime beau, Stedman Graham, expertly assembling his favorite sandwich from a recipe she created herself. It’s a multilayered affair, rich with fresh tomato and avocado, dripping with melted cheese and sautéed scallions, anchored by savory smoked turkey. This is a lovely moment, one you might even call intimate — except for the 30-person camera crew surrounding them.

Knowing that Oprah delights in cooking — and by all accounts is quite fantastic at it—we asked her to share a few of her secrets, including the Love Sandwich. Don’t worry, you won’t need heart-shaped bread. That was a sweet touch that came from O food stylist Rori Trovato. And we know the sandwich was delectable. On the night before the shoot, Rori followed Oprah’s recipe and made a beautifully grilled, heart-shaped stunner. She placed it on a plate and left it in the kitchen. In the morning, the plate was still there. And the Love Sandwich? Gobbled in the night by persons unknown. All that remained were a few scattered crumbs.

The next morning, Rori made another one, shown here. To learn the true source of the Love Sandwich’s irresistibility, read on.

O: How often do you cook?

Oprah: I’ve had chefs over the years who have come to work for us, and what we’ve learned is it’s much easier for me to just do it myself on the weekends. So when Stedman and I are alone, I basically do all the cooking.

O: How would you describe yourself in the kitchen?

Oprah: I’m absolutely an improvisational cook — a makeshift cook. I don’t like looking at recipes, and even if I do use one, I will adjust it to whatever feels right to me. It’ll be based on what is here, and what is in the garden. So it’s gonna involve some kind of herb — basil is my favorite — and usually some kind of grain or pasta. I tried ginger herb rice the other day because that’s all I had.

O [to Stedman]: Is Oprah a good cook?

Stedman: Chefs don’t have anything on her.

Oprah: Well, chefs do — I mean…

Stedman: But you’re a fantastic cook. You put a lot of love in the work you do, and it crosses over into the food you make. Anything she cooks I really enjoy eating, and I appreciate it very much.

O: Which brings us to the Love Sandwich. How did you create it and why?

Oprah: One day there was some pepper Jack cheese in the refrigerator, and there was some turkey in there, and there were some avocados on the table. It became the Love Sandwich because I first started making it just for Stedman. I’ve only made it for a couple of other people, so if you’ve had me make the Love Sandwich for you, you have to be somebody I really care about. I think anything that you do should be done with the utmost care — it’s like giving a part of yourself. So when I’m sautéing the little scallions and I’m slicing the avocado and making sure — because he likes his tomatoes thin—that the tomatoes are perfectly thin, it’ll all be done with love. That’s why we call it the Love Sandwich.

Get the recipe for Oprah’s Love Sandwich

Stedman: She makes great pancakes, too. She makes great eggs, she makes great steaks — I mean, you could go on and on and on. She’s just an exceptional cook and an exceptional person.

Oprah: Thank you, honey.

Stedman: And all the work she does and the effort she puts into anything she does…

Oprah: Thank you! Big time! Hey, honey, what do you think is the best thing I’ve ever made?

Stedman: The best thing you made was when you marinated the chicken overnight — how’d you do that?

Oprah: With the herbs. I went to the garden and I picked herbs, and then I pulverized the herbs, and then I rubbed the herbs on the chicken, and then let it sit overnight, and then sautéed the chicken in a skillet with the herbs.

Stedman: Fantastic.

Oprah: Remember when I did the rosemary rice?

Stedman: The rosemary rice was a hit.

Oprah: The rosemary rice was a hit! You just get fresh rosemary and clip it and stir it up in the rice. It’s as easy as that.

Stedman: Your homemade blueberry pancakes are fantastic. They’re to die for.

Oprah: Yep. And I also make my own blueberry syrup. To go on the blueberry pancakes. Wasn’t that good that morning?

Stedman: No, she’s good. She’s good.

Oprah: Sometimes we’re sitting here in beautiful California and Stedman’s eating grits and catfish, and I’ll say, “I do believe you’re the only person in California who’s having grits and catfish right now.” Certainly in Montecito.

Stedman: I’m a lucky guy. No question.

Stedman Graham is the author of IDENTITY: Passport to Freedom.

Michael Cottman
Senior Writer, Blackamericaweb.com

Six days before Election Day, with President Barack Obama returning to the campaign trail after taking a break to oversee relief efforts from Hurricane Sandy, two new polls show that African Americans, young adults, and first-time Latino voters will be critical to Obama’s re-election to the White House.

This week, in the final stretch of a deadlocked race, Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign’s national field director, said the campaign is turning its attention to the African American vote.

“The African American community is solidly and overwhelmingly behind President Obama, because they know he is fighting for all of us, not just some of us,” Bird told reporters this week.

“Our campaign has been committed to organizing in the African American community for years, with our Barbershop and Beauty Salon program, congregation captains, and HBCU summits (Historically Black Colleges and Universities),” he added.

Bird said that over the last four years, the Obama campaign has recruited and trained members of the community to own and run the campaign in their neighborhoods.

“Now that voting has begun, we’re seeing it at polling places across the country,” Bird said. “The pictures and the numbers tell the same story: African Americans are committed to doing everything they can to re-elect the president.”

Obama returns to the campaign trail on Thursday with stops in Wisconsin, Colorado and Las Vegas. And this weekend, Obama will crisscross the country asking for votes from coast to coast. On Saturday, Obama will deliver remarks at grassroots events in Mentor, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Dubuque, Iowa and Bristow, Virginia. On Sunday, the president will campaign in Concord, New Hampshire; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Cincinnati, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado.

Meanwhile, Obama’s 52-point lead in the new Latino Decisions tracking poll, matches the president’s widest advantage of the year over Republican Mitt Romney:

The president has the support of 73% of all Latino registered voters, compared to 21% who favor Romney. The 52-point gap matches the largest gap among Latinos this year, also found in the Oct. 1 tracking poll.

“Those are remarkable numbers on the economy, given that Romney’s strategy to win back Latinos has been to campaign on jobs and hope that trumps immigration,” according the survey.

The poll says Latinos believe the economy is the most important issue in the presidential campaign that Romney and the Republican Party has been unable to convince Latino voters that the GOP can improve the economy and put people back to work.

In a separate survey conducted by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), the poll concluded that if the election were held today, Obama would win the youth vote by 52% to 35%.

Support for Obama rose more than 7 points among likely voters: up from 44.4% in July while support for Romney is down slightly from 36.9% to 35.1% among likely, registered voters, according to the poll.

“The racial and ethnic group breakout shows that there is a rise in intent to vote among the three groups whom we polled in large numbers, with an impressive three quarters of Black youth intending to vote,” said CIRCLE Director Peter Levine.

The poll asked young people to pick their top issue. The percentage of youth who chose “Jobs and the Economy” rose and it remained the number-one issue, at 37.9%.

Here are some key findings:

●       The proportion saying they are extremely likely to vote has risen 9.9 points, from 44.7% to 54.6%. Two-thirds (67.3%) of young adults are “very” or “extremely” likely to vote, up 7.1 percentage points since June/July.
●       The proportion who are paying attention to the election has also risen, from 56.1% to 71%.
●       If the election were held today, Obama would win the youth vote by 52% to 35% among those registered voters who are “extremely likely to vote.”

Alexandra Acker-Lyons, director of the Youth Engagement Fund, said young Americans are a critical voting bloc to both campaigns.

“Young voters have been targeted in the last few weeks,” Acker-Lyons said. “But with young voters comprising one quarter of the electorate, the campaigns — having spent one billion dollars each — and the media remain focused on seniors and other sectors of the electorate. Politicians underestimate the youth vote at their own peril. Young voters have the power to decide this election.”

In the wake of New York City’s most devastating natural disaster to date, many of the city’s landmark institutions are stepping up to provide relief for members of their communities. The art world is no different, as the Museum of Modern Art is demonstrating this weekend.

The major art house announced that they will hold a free public presentation on conserving damaged art and cultural materials this Sunday, featuring speakers from the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team as well as MoMA itself. They will make their expertise available to the numerous galleries and artists who have had their livelihoods interrupted by the flooding of Hurricane Sandy, presenting information on the safe handling of paintings, drawings, books, sculptures and other archival works. MoMA has also issued “Immediate Response for Collections“, a set of step-by-step measures art owners can take to preserve their work, including a list of suppliers and emergency services that are on the ready.

A number of New York’s well-known art organizations have suffered greatly in the aftermath of the city’s unprecedented storm. Printed Matter, a non-profit art publishing group located in Chelsea, lost thousands of pieces in its inventory, as shown in the image above. “We lost a shocking amount of materials,” stated AA Bronson, artist and former director of Printed Matter, in an email to The Huffington Post. “And of course even the damp that will remain will continue to damage the books over the next months.” Watch the video posted here by Now This News for more information on the damage Hurricane Sandy wrought on New York’s art world.