Local artist's work a hit among thieves

GUTHRIE One local artist's work is so popular it rarely stays in one place very long, thanks to thieves.

Posters designed by Cape Coral's Echo Chernik for the Connecticut Opera's production of "Tosca" have been stolen wherever they're displayed, opera officials said.

Whether in libraries, restaurants or bookstores, art or opera lovers have stolen them for their own use.

This isn't the first time Chernik's posters have been ripped off.

"We've had the same problem with the posters she's done for our tours," said Arlo Guthrie, the famous singer-songwriter and son of American music legend Woody Guthrie. "No one knows we're coming to town because all the posters advertising the gig have disappeared."

Calling Chernik's style the definition of "classic," Guthrie remains her client. He has other posters, a guitar and a graphic novel he wants her to design and illustrate.

The posters for the opera by Giacomo Puccini are part of a three poster deal for Chernik. The other posters illustrate the rest of the opera company's season - "La Cenerentala" and "The Abduction of Seraglio."

PHOTO CREDIT Cape Coral artist Echo Chernik uses a Wacom tablet and a computer to design posters for the Connecticut Opera and stars such as Arlo Guthrie, below. Her work is so popular that her posters are often stolen before the event they advertise occur. Jason Kovolski plans to hang each poster in his West Hartford, Conn., 59er Café as they come out. He will put them where he can keep an eye on them, because he had two "Tosca" posters stolen.

"I put one up on the back wall and I turned around and it was gone," Kovolski said. "I put another one up, gone."

The third poster hangs near the resister where Kovolski can watch it.

About 60 posters were stolen causing the opera company to order a second printing that brought the total to 750 posters. Normally, 150 are ordered.

"We'll be selling them at the opera for $20," said Christen Eure, opera company spokeswoman. "They are so beautiful, everybody wants them. I just wish I could sell out opera tickets before people take all the posters."

To get a feel for the operas before doing the posters, Chernik, 34, a graduate of New York City's Pratt Institute, watched videotapes of all the shows.

She knows the story of "Tosca" by heart.

It is the story of a self-absorbed woman, a diva, who turns into an assassin for love. The poster, done in the art nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha's Sarah Bernhardt posters, hints at the intrigue the opera contains.

Starting with a hand drawing that was scanned into the computer to be colored and finished, Chernik wove symbols from the opera into her work. There are dead men lurking in the poster, evil smoky haze and other symbols.

The poster's antique look came from the artist taking tea bags and staining watercolor paper to scan in the computer as a background.

"People think that because it is on a computer that it is easy, that the computer program does it," Chernik said. "It is a mixed media that is hand crafted."

Chernik works long and hard on her art, said her husband Lazarus, 35. No artistic slouch himself, he supervises a $145-million account at Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale.

Chernik takes obvious pride in his wife's work. They have come a long way from the hot dogs for dinner when they lived in Brooklyn.

"She gets commissions for $30,000," Lazarus Chernik said. "She still takes smaller ones, but that advertising is her bread and butter."

A few of Chernik's clients are Coors Brewing Co., Trek bicycles, Harcort Trade Publishers, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and many others including Consumer Reports magazine.

Facing more local demand, Echo Chernik plans to find a gallery to exhibit her work.

"I'm not a fine artist," Chernik said. "I'm a graphic artist. But so many people have asked me how and where they can get my work, I would like to exhibit."

This poster advertising the opera Tosca by Cape Coral artist Echo Chernik keeps getting lifted.