Wiser With Age

Tag: Barnard College

  • East Hampton artist says, “Always have a project you love to do”

    East Hampton artist says, “Always have a project you love to do”


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Nicole Bigar in New York City on July 16, 2015. (Photo/Kristina Puga)

    “I used to spend hours on the rocks watching the waves splashing, smelling seaweed, collecting shells…,” Nicole Bigar wrote briefly about her strict childhood in her 2011 book, “Koukoumanias,” which is a colorful conglomeration of her then 45-year career as an artist.

    To this day, she loves nothing more than the ocean and creating art. It was painting that consoled her when she was a new arrival to New York.

    Bigar immigrated from Paris to New York City, during World War II. She was 14. In between high school and college, she took time to study anatomy and drawing at The Arts Students League. Later, she studied philosophy and Spanish at Barnard College.

    “Then I had children. When they went to college, that’s when I seriously became a painter,†says the 88-year-old. “I met my husband in New York when I was 17. I got married when I was 19. He just died.â€

    And it is art, which is again helping her heal – this time from losing her husband of 65 years. Her love of art has been a part of her as long as she can remember.

    “I always wanted to sketch, look at beautiful work – I see beautiful things around me – especially nature,†says Bigar who spends her winters living in New York City, and her summers in East Hampton. “I want to do paintings that I have never done before. I travel a great deal. Everytime I go to a country, I like to paint it. I’ve been to Egypt, Norway, India…and I’m still very attracted to the beauty of France.â€

    Presently, she says she’s painting a whole series on Times Square.

    “When I went to the theater, I was fascinated by the lights,†Bigar recalls. “So all winter, I’ve been working on that. I might do a book with it.â€

    In her current show, “Muses: Past and Present,†exhibiting now through the July 26 in East Hampton, Bigar says she used ceramic, sand and paint on canvas in creating her pieces of art.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    A piece in Nicole Bigar’s current exhibit “Muses: Past and Present.”

    “My inspiration was that I love East Hampton,†says Bigar. “I love to give joy. People look at my paintings and it makes them happy. I use a lot of bright colors. Painting is my happiness, and whatever happens, if I’m not feeling well, or I’m aching, it helps my morale.â€

    She adds that one of her muses in her current exhibit was inspired by a continuing education class at Barnard College about French novelist Marcel Proust. She started to paint a lot of characters from his novels.

    “I think the secret to getting old is to be interested in something beyond your day to day life, and then life is not boring,†says Bigar, who also loves to exercise and swim. “You always have a project.â€

    She says when she was younger, she always had a lot of things to do. When she was married, as well. For her, the advantage of her age is that she can now devote all of her time to painting.

    Her one piece of advice to her younger self:

    “Always have a passion. Always have a project that you love to do. Always learn…Also, slow down once in a while and meditate and live in the moment.â€

    And for a long and happy marriage:

    “As my husband became older, I thought I don’t need to take care of him – I want to take care of him. I then did my best to have him have a happy life.”

  • From a career in advertising to shedding light on Israeli inventions

    From a career in advertising to shedding light on Israeli inventions


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Marcella Rosen speaking at the Untold News Awards ceremony at the Harmonie Club in New York City on November 12, 2014. (Photo/ Jacqueline Iannacone)

    When Marcella Rosen is passionate about any issue, she makes sure it is known – not in a pushy or obstinate manner, but in a “Can you believe it?†way.

    After the native New Yorker graduated from Barnard College, she earned a masters in clinical psychology from Columbia University while working at night. It was then she realized she wanted to pursue business. The daughter of an orthodox rabbi, and professor, ended up having a 35-year award-winning career in advertising.

    “I called up the heads of research at three advertising firms,†says Rosen about how she landed her first job in advertising. “I got three interviews, and I ended up getting the most interesting job…Advertising was a crazy world, but it was a very exciting time. I loved going to work.â€

    While at N.W. Ayer, she worked on famous accounts like AT&T’s “Reach Out and Touch Someone†ad in the late 1980’s. However, the campaign closest to her heart throughout her long career, she says, was the one that got 13 percent more women to vote in 1992. Rosen says the historic ad was a photo of a woman without a mouth, with the caption, “Most politicians still feel women should be seen and not heard.â€

    Now retired from advertising, Rosen continues to pursue another cause full-time which she has been working on for more than a decade – raising awareness of the innovative work occurring in Israel. In 2010, she founded the non-profit/news website Untold News (which has a large following on Facebook), and two years later, she wrote the best-selling book, “Tiny Dynamo,â€Â which talks about 21 of the many life-altering technological contributions Israel is making from airport security procedures that use psychology to making ocean water drinkable.

    “There’s a pill which has a tiny camera inside it – you swallow it, and it takes pictures of your intestines and beams them back to your doctor’s computer,†says Rosen, excitedly. “One of my other favorites, which is more personal, is freezing breast tumors…You don’t need surgery. You do it in a doctor’s office and go back to work. [These innovations] help all of us.â€

    She says the country has a “can do†culture, despite its political strife.

    “You think how much better life would be if all these wars stopped,†says Rosen. “Last summer, I was there, and at the same time we were having dinner, there were bomb sirens. You have to get up, and then after 10 minutes you go back and finish your dinner.â€

    However despite it all, she continues, “Israel has helped 52 countries in need from Haiti to sending doctors to the U.S. after Hurricane Sandy…and has made a disproportionate amount of inventions for being the size of New Jersey. It shows what human beings can do when they have to.â€

    As far as what piece of life advice she would give her younger self now?

    “It’s always important to try. I’d rather not succeed than to not have tried,†says Rosen, who is also a pilot on her free time. “We can’t change the world, but in our own spheres we can make a difference. I care about women, and I care about unfairness…and I want to spread that as much as I can.â€