Judy Manaffa and Jim Squire Marry Judy Manaffa, daughter of Maxine Brooner of Fallbrook and Jim Squire, son of Betty Squire of Brentwood, were married by Reverend John Todd at Palisades Presbyterian Church on October 12. Following the afternoon ceremony, a dinner reception followed at their home in the Palisades. The bride attended Palisades High School and Loyola Marymount and works in investor relations at Point Center Financial. The bridegroom attended PaliHi and UCSB and is a contractor with Squire Painting. The couple dated in high school and became reacquainted at Palisades Presbyterian Church in 2001. The bride was given away by her sons, Max and Jack Manaffa, who also were ushers along with the bridegroom’s sons, Austin and Paul Squire. The couple enjoyed a wedding trip to Maui and will continue to live in the Palisades. Kristi Sullivan to Marry Kevin Derby Longtime Palisadian Sandy Derby is happy to announce the engagement of her son, Kevin Loyd Derby, to Kristi Anne Sullivan, daughter of Heather Sullivan of San Diego and Reed Sullivan, also of San Diego. Kevin’s father, Loyd Derby, lives in Mexico. The bride-to-be attended schools in San Diego and graduated from San Diego State University. She is a physical therapist working with the elderly in San Diego. The bridegroom attended St. Matthew’s Parish School and Loyola High School and graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in environmental conservation. He is now employed as an environmental biologist with EDAW in San Diego. The couple plan to marry in May 2004 in San Diego with Reverend Peter Kreitler, former associate rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, officiating at the ceremony.

Art Review

To see the current Lee Bontecou exhibition at UCLA’s Hammer Museum is to enter a pleasingly mysterious, almost unknowable world. This artist’s vision-one so original it defies easy classification-is at turns heavy and brooding, lyrical and transcendent. The first galleries showcase the work that made Bontecou famous in the 1960s, when she was the only female among New York’s legendary art dealer Leo Castelli’s stable of artists. Powerful wall reliefs-framed like paintings, yet aggressively projecting into space as sculptures-were constructed by stretching canvas, found fabrics and other industrial materials over welded steel frameworks. The palette of these complex constructions is all sullen browns, greens and grays, with a recurring motif of black circular openings that can be interpreted as representing either a void or infinity. Indeed, the work suggests an otherworldliness, yet speaks to a darkness and melancholy known all too well in this world. Soot drawings from the ’60s, called “worldscapes” by the artist, also are on view and mesmerizingly capture an illusion of depth that is evocative of outer space. These works foreshadow the final gallery, where Bontecou’s art produced during the last 30 years-work completely unknown since the artist dropped out of the New York art scene at the height of her fame in the 70s-is unveiled. Before she retreated to a life of teaching at Brooklyn College and working at her studio in rural Pennsylvania, Bontecou last presented at Castelli Gallery a group of vaccuum-formed plastic works in the form of fish, plants and flowers. These works, strikingly different than her canvas sculptures, occupy the middle portion of the exhibition. Appearing at first to be almost whimsical, upon closer inspection the objects harbor a menacing, sinister quality. The giant, opaque fish, suspended from the ceiling, is depicted in the act of ingesting a smaller fish captured in its jagged teeth. The plants and flowers are colorless and droop with lifelessness, suggesting a natural world gone bad, and likely arising from the artist’s own ecological concerns. If this work is surprising, the art found in the last gallery, produced during Bontecou’s “missing” years, is truly jaw-dropping. The beautiful darkness of her early work has given way to a mystical lightness in the form of intricately-composed wire and porcelain sculptures that hang in space like puzzling new galaxies to be explored. This groundbreaking, wholly original work is best summed up by Bontecou herself, whose greatest preoccupation as an artist, according to curator Elizabeth A.T. Smith’s catalogue essay, is to encompass “as much of life as possible-no barriers-no boundaries-all freedom in every sense.” “Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective,” featuring approximately 70 sculptures and 80 drawings, continues at UCLA Hammer Museum through January 11. The show is curated by Elizabeth A.T. Smith, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in association with Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum. Contact: 443-7000 or www.hammer.ucla.edu.

Palisadian Alon Sugarman, 12, spoke at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles annual awards and dinner gala on November 1 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. The evening raised over $160,000 for the Los Angeles chapter, while also celebrating the chapter’s 20th anniversary. Two-time Emmy Award-winning actor Brad Garrett returned for a second year as master of ceremonies. Sugarman, a seventh grader at Paul Revere, spoke about his “wish trip” with his family to Orlando, Florida, in 2001. Alon was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in his right leg when he was 6 years old. After three years of treatments, which included chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and two stem-cell transplants, he is now in his fourth year of remission. Alon shared how his trip to Orlando helped his recovery, and that he was accompanied by his parents, Barry and Lainie Sugarman, and his sister Lilah, now an 11th grader at Palisades High School. Alon also related how his favorite part of the trip was flying in a World War II fighter plane, gaining him 15 minutes credit towards a pilot’s license. Alon helped Brad Garrett with the evening’s raffle and he beamed when he pulled his own name for a trip to see the horse country in Lexington, Kentucky. His leg was saved with a special prosthetic femoral replacement done in England. Every two to three months, Alon visits the orthopedist who is able to to adjust the titanium bone a few millimeters with a wrench so that it can grow as Alon grows. Alon loves golfing at the Riviera Country Club driving range and will soon earn his brown belt in karate at Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Center. His parents started the Cure our Children Foundation in his honor. The Web site (cureourchildren.org) gets thousands of hits a month from families of children with life-threatening diseases. “We got so much support from the Palisades community during his illness-from Kehillat Israel where we’re members, the restaurants, stores, people offering to give blood,” said Lainie Sugarman. “The managers at Ralphs and Gelson’s allow him to use the motorized cart. A lot of love helped with that healing.” Make-a-Wish helps children with life-threatening diseases by granting the child’s special wish. Make-a-Wish of Greater Los Angeles can be reached at 788-6990. Alon Sugarman reminded everyone at the end of his speech that wishes do come true.

By Rennie Chamberlain The Nature of Wildworks is a nonprofit wildlife care and education center in Topanga dedicated to the lifelong quality care of its non-releasable wild animals. Under the direction of Mollie Hogan,Wildworks also conducts outreach programs about the wonders of wildlife and the importance of protecting the steadily dwindling habitat that wildlife, as well as humans, depend upon for healthy lives. This task is accomplished with the help of animal ambassadors. “Caring for wildlife is a wonderful privilege, as well as an awesome experience,” Hogan says. “At Wildworks care center, we strive to make the lives of the animals here as interesting and natural as possible.” They raise orphaned babies, watching them grow and develop, and help ease the aches and pains of those who are older. They also get their share of injured wildlife with broken wings and limbs, head trauma, even blindness. But in all her years of experience, Hogan never had an animal come into her care in such atrocious condition as a young cougar she calls Pirate. At eight months, a male mountain lion should weigh about 80 pounds. Malnourished when rescued from a breeding farm in Montana, Pirate weighed just 20 pounds. His spine and hipbones were protruding through rough fur, and the pads of all four feet were raw and bleeding from pacing the concrete floor of the small cage in which he had been forced to live. The tip of his tail was raw as if he had chewed it in frustration, and his right ear was notched, probably from a fight. The worst of his problems were his eyes. The right eye, ten times its normal size, was bulging from its socket and the left eye had been injured. When Pirate arrived at Wildworks, pain and blurred vision made him suspicious and frightened, causing him to lash out in self-defense when unsure of his surroundings. Hogan consulted with an animal ophthalmologist who diagnosed Pirate with severe glaucoma in his right eye, a condition normally found in older animals and causing pain much like a migraine headache. Pirate’s eye was removed that same day. When the young animal awoke from the anesthetic, he was immediately feeling better, purring and meowing like a normal kitten. Hogan kept a careful watch over Pirate, and after a week in her house with around-the-clock care, his paws began to heal, and he started gaining weight. He even became playful, attacking his toys as if they were prey. When Hogan took him back for a recheck, a detached retina and mild glaucoma were discovered in Pirate’s left eye. Hogan is able to treat the eye with drops to keep the pressure at bay, but unfortunately his vision will never be restored. Pirate is completely blind. “Because all cats rely so heavily on their vision, at first I was concerned about his quality of life,” Hogan says. “But after working with him and observing his behavior for two months now, I think he’ll be just fine. Not unlike a blind person, his other senses have taken over. I’m amazed at how well he gets along. He no longer paces and is calmer and more relaxed.” Pirate now lives outdoors in a large enclosure and has learned the boundaries of his cage, the location of food and water, toys and humans. His feet step lightly, and he points his nose upward when he walks to smell what’s ahead. “He calls to us and the other mountain lions when he hears our voices,” says Hogan. And the toy that seems to work best for him is a roll of paper towels that he can easily bat and grab again with his claws. More importantly, Pirate is proving himself to be one of Wildworks’ most impressive goodwill ambassadors. He is not stimulated by movement-what triggers mountain lions to attack-and thus is very safe to use in public. Although Pirate is bonding more closely with people, especially Hogan, his seeing-eye human, he still is all mountain lion, with all his wild instincts intact. Even though cougars exist in the wild in southern California, most people have never seen one. Here in the Santa Monica Mountains, a lack of wildlife corridors is severely limiting cougar populations. The National Park Service has been studying cougars in this area for several years and only three have been located and radio-collared. Wildworks’ captive mountain lions have been helpful to this tracking project as they are used to test scent preferences for lions in the wild. With grizzlies and wolves having disappeared long ago, cougars are the top predators in the local mountains. As such, it is extremely important that they survive here. Hogan sees Pirate’s ambassadorship as one way to inspire the public to help protect these magnificent animals. Despite his disabilities, Pirate works hard and purrs constantly, setting an example to both children and adults that disabilities don’t have to be limiting. Animals don’t laugh at each other and point fingers as we humans often do. Pirate, of course, can never live in the wild. And since mountain lion cubs stay with their mothers for two years in the wild, Pirate, now 11 months, still needs almost constant attention. Cougars can live up to 20 years in captivity, and even as an adult, Pirate will always require a little more attention than the other animals at Wildworks. However, Wildworks sees the relationship as a wonderful win-win situation. Pirate gets a safe, loving home filled with purpose and companionship, and the Nature of Wildworks gets a new way to open people’s eyes to wildlife causes. Tax-deductible donations to The Nature of Wildworks can be sent to: The Nature of Wildworks, P.O. Box 109, Topanga, CA 90290.