04/23/2006 Pittsburgh Post Gazette/Print on NBC's Will & Grace

Local artist's canvas to get screen time - By Rob Owen

Move over, Burton Morris, there's a new Pittsburgh artist who's getting his creations on network TV shows.
The art of Johno Prascak of the South Side Slopes will turn up on the set of the series finale of NBC's "Will & Grace" and may be seen regularly on a new CBS comedy.
Prascak, who has five Steeler themed paintings on display at the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, mananged to get his work the "Hollyhocks" inspired by his father's garden in Dormont, on "Will & Grace" because one of the shows's executive producers is a fan of is art.

Pittsburgh native Tim Kaiser, son a former WQED president Lloyd Kaiser, has been the nonwriting executive producer of "Will & Grace" for the duration of its prime-time run. Prior to that, he spent nine years producing "Seinfeld."
"I'm a huge Pittsburgh fanatic," Kaiser said by phone from his Studio City, Calif., office this week."Everyone's a Steeler fan these days, and I always was one."
Kaiser, a 1981 graduate of Riverview High and a 1985 graduate of Westminster College, had seen Prascak's artwork on visits back to Pittsburgh, and then a friend, Gary Gigliotti, general manager of Mario's on the South Side, gave him one of Prascak's paintings of Heinz Field that now hangs in his "Will & Grace" office. Prascak tends bar at Mario's part time.

The producer and artist eventually met, corresponded and Kaiser invited Pracak to send him something to use on the set. A print of the "Hollyhocks" enamel and sand on canvas, will hang in a hospital room scene in the one-hour May 18th series finale (perhaps as Grace gives birth?).
"Believe it or not, it's hard to find artwork to fill sets," Kaiser said. "It's laden with with red tape:Who made it? Who owns it? People say they have the rights, they don't and someone is suing you for $50,000. I knew exactly wher this came from, and I'm proud of my Pittsburgh heritage."

"Hollyhocks" also works because it's more abstract than say, Prascak's portraits of Terry Bradshaw or Art Rooney Sr. (see them on is Web site at www.JohnosArt.com).

Everything on a set needs to look uniform and not out of place,"Kaiser said. "Just like it belongs. Ideally, on a set you don't notice any real distinguishing pieces other than actors and what they're saying. Nothing can scream attention."
Kaiser also is working on the CBS pilot "The Class" a series from David Crane, one of the creators of "Friends," that will feature Prascak's sports-themed art ("Heinz Field," "The Chief," and "Terry Bradshaw") on a standing set that could be used for many years if the series is picked up and successful. CBS will announce its fall schedule next month.
"Johno might have opened a door to a career out here," Kaiser said. "The designers I've spoken to like his work, and when word gets out around that it's totally cleared and with a cooperating artist, they'll like that, too."

Prascak won't be paid for placement of his paintings, but it could expose his work to a new audience of Hollywood art patrons with money to burn.

"I'm just happy they love my work," Prascak said. "I'm honored and tickled it will be forever on that last episode."

He chuckles at the idea that an artist most known for sports art will have his work showcased on TV's most popular gay comedy."How ironic is it that the Steelers artist's work will be on "Will & Grace?" Prascak said. "I just love the diversity, and that's what the arts are all about."