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	He aims to win 'ArtStar' by playing to the gallery By Marisa Guthrie Daily News Staff Writer Thursday, June 1st, 2006 There are no second acts in American lives? Tell that to 68-year-old Sy Colen, a retired social worker from Brownsville, who in the past year has experienced a rebirth through, of all the things, the magic of reality television. Colen was one of eight budding artists chosen by Jeffrey Deitch, among the foremost gallery owners in New York City, for "ArtStar," premiering tonight at 9 on satellite network Voom. The eight-hour documentary series has them vying for a solo show at Deitch's career-making SoHo gallery. "It was such a wonderful experience," said Colen, who has lived in Cliffside Park, N.J., for seven years. "Art is such a rich part of life. I was sculpting wood in [my] basement not knowing that I'm an artist." Wood sculpture has been Colen's hobby for 30 years. But it never occurred to him to take it further until last winter, when his son Dan Colen, a painter and sculptor who lives on the lower East Side, told him about an open casting call for "ArtStar." "I thought, just that I'm on the line talking to these other artists after being in the basement, isolated from the art world for all these years - that would be enough," he said. "But when they called me at 11:10 that night and said, 'You're in,' it was like being hit by lighting. It was unbelievable." Colen is the oldest contestant on the show. His work is also the most traditional. Zackary Drucker, a 22-year-old photographer from Syracuse, explores gender identity through self-portraits of himself in makeup and in various stages of undress. His mother is also a recurring character in his work. Anney McKilligan, 30, is a puppeteer from Norwich who also crafts souped-up tricycles. And Bec Stupak, 29, a dreadlocked video artist from Princeton, N.J., has a penchant for making herself part of her art. "Jeffrey said to me, 'You know some of [your pieces] are very very good, but you're from the 1950s,'" said Colen "And at Jeffrey's gallery, you're medieval if you're from the 1950s." Colen learned a lot from his young colleagues. "I have never worked with a group of people so interested in seeing their bodies as the material for their art," he said. And he bought one of Drucker's photographs. "It was really interesting for me to get to know him," he said. And since "ArtStar" concluded filming last summer, Colen has expanded his repertoire to include clay sculpture and embarked on the most productive period in his unofficial career as an artist. "Through the filming and working with these other artists," he said, "I leaped forward 50 years. It was like Rip Van Winkle. Suddenly I awoke."
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