Steve Richmond, Venice Poet, 1941 – 2009

By Panos Douvos
On October 22, 2009, the West lost a great lyric poet. Steve Richmond’s work spoke raw truths while offering sharp inner awareness. He published ten books and also appeared in Kenyon Review, Wormwood and Partisan magazines.
Steve’s friends considered him a most important poet – an American Rimbaud – and that “He didn’t know [...]

Gale Goldman, Jazz Musician & Street Artist of the Venice Boardwalk, 1980 – 1996; Partner with Sonny Zorro

She just passed on into the ethers –
A lover of life
A life of lovers
A lover of art
An Artist of the Streets of Venice Beach
We remember you Gail & Sonny & David
Your unicorn horses & gypsy images
Thank you for supporting all the
Venice Boardwalk ______ — the
Musician, Peter Demian, Portrait Artist
Susan Sainer, Hungarian Artist, Tibor
Jankay, Suzy Coyle, [...]

Venice Says Good Bye to Sponto

By Eric Yarber
At 11 a.m. on January 11, more than 420 people assembled on the green not far from the Sponto Gallery to collectively remember the man who made everything happen there.  Most knew him simply as Sponto, but there were plenty who went back far enough to never stop thinking of him as Mark. [...]

24 Years of a Venice Institution End with Death of Mark Sponto

Three articles by Suzy Williams, Leland Auslander and Carol Fondiller

Sponto is gone

By Suzy Williams
On December 28, our beloved Mark “Sponto” Kornfeld, died in the gallery that he had created – Sponto’s – at 7 Dudley Avenue. This had been a space in which every Venetian felt at home during the last 24 years. 
Sponto died of an apparent heart attack. He had come in the afternoon, left [...]

Remembering Sponto

By Leland Auslender
Mark Kornfeld, who answered equally to “Sponto,” the name of his art gallery, was always the happy host at his art openings during the many years he operated the place. In the sixties, it had been the Venice West Cafe, where Beats and Hippies gathered to share camaraderie, food and poetry. Sponto’s body, [...]

My Friend Sponto

By Carol Fondiller
Two people who have left their imprint on the Venice “Art Scene” have died. Both within the same week. One got the full funeral treatment of a prominent art personage who traveled in influential money and powerful circles. The other died almost anonymously in his small gallery on 7 Dudley Avenue.
Robert Graham sure [...]

Windward Avenue Resident and Sculptor Robert Graham

By Jim Smith
Sculptor Robert Graham died Dec. 27 from undisclosed causes. He was 70 years old and had been ill for about six months. Graham lived with his wife, Anjelica Huston, on Windward Avenue. He was internationally known and admired by art connoisseurs. 
Among his works are the 25-ton bronze doors on the Cathedral of Our [...]

Terrence Leon Sullivan, RIP

Terrance Sullivan passed on very suddenly in August, in Venice, a town he embraced with enthusiasm and with a critical eye and tongue. He was a husband, father of four, a seeker of life, and a friend.
He enjoyed writing his comic strip, Undercover Bum for the Beachhead in the mid-80s. Terry was a friend of [...]

August 2008 – Melvyn Hayward, Senior: Jan. 16, 1949 – June 29, 2008

Melvyn Hayward was a role model and a powerful force for good in the Oakwood community for more than 30 years.
He worked with the Venice Drug Coalition, Didi Hirsch Mental Health, the NAACP, Oakwood United and was most recently the director of the Vera Davis McClendon Center.
In addition, he was an actor in Hollywood films [...]