Author: The Argonaut

Westchester resident’s memoir honors the life of her late mother By Holly Jenvey Grace Rector lost her mother, Pam, in the middle of her final year of college. However, their bond and memories live on in her recent memoir, “The Rector Girls”. The novel depicts the close-knit mother-daughter relationship they shared since Grace was born. Through exploring the world together, instilling values as well as enduring hardship, Grace published her first book this past April, showcasing the labor of love between them. Pam passed away at the age of 64 in February 2020, a month before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown began. Initially, Grace didn’t have plans to write a novel, but journaled stories to process the loss of her mother. It wasn’t until a professor at Georgetown University, her alma mater, reached out and offered a course teaching young people how to publish their first book. “I thought, ‘I have all these written stories, why not turn it into something that could be passed down to generations?’” Grace said. “And so my inspiration for writing it down into a book format was I thought it would be something so beautiful to hand to my friends and family and say, ‘These are the lessons that I learned from my mom.” Pam worked at Loyola Marymount University for 22 years and also was a counselor at Lennox Middle School. At LMU,...

Photographer invites walls and windows to tell their stories By Bridgette M. Redman A desert isn’t nearly as empty as the image the word often conjures. Los Angeles artist Osceola Refetoff captures the richness of deserts and the spaces that people have abandoned. His series, “It’s a Mess Without You,” which he began in 2013, has garnered much recognition and rewards. Several selections from that series are being displayed in an exhibition called “If These Walls Could Talk” at the Von Lintel Gallery through August 14. It is helping to inaugurate Von Lintel’s new space in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station. “The Von Lintel Gallery is a dream come true,” Refetoff said. “I’ve loved that program for as long as I’ve known it. (Gallery founder and director Tarrah Von Lintel) reached out to me last year and I was just over the moon. She is incredibly supportive of work you need to see in person.” While the work is shared online, Refetoff said the exhibition is designed to be seen live and that Bergamot Station is an amazing location to do just that — one with lots of parking and open air. He loves going there not only to display his own exhibitions but as an art collector who can visit many galleries at the same time. “It is a very different experience to see the work in person in...