The Photography of John Lewis

Don't know if you all know this, but John Lewis, Dick's son, who I remember growing up was called John John, is an incredible photographer. I asked him permission to post a few of his photos, so you could see how good they are.


This was from a photojournalistic project titled gospel.


John Edwards on the campaign


A great pic of Obama


recognize this guy?

He also has photos of Larry King and Roger Clemens on his site. There are far too many great photos to post here, so you guys have to check out his website, HERE.

(John, tell us about the photo shoot with Obama. And who is the guy with Roger Clemens?)

Finally Moved in

We finally got moved in to the new house.



This is Joy and Chiara the first night.


Here is a photo of one of the former owners, Richard Keasts, taken in 1890.


Here is a photo of the current owner, realizing how short people were in the past. (I'm considering wearing a helmet.)

N

New Haven Magazine article.

New Haven Magazine did a story on my artwork. if you click on the pictures, it will enlarge them enough so you can read the print (hopefully)



(disclaimer: that photo was the photographer's idea, not mine.)

Trip to Madison

I had a good trip to Madison, WI, this past week. I was invited to give a talk at the 50th anniversary of the first meteorological satellite Explorer VII (in October 1959) and one of the key scientists involved in the launch and experiments on the satellite (the late Professor Vern Suomi (1915-1995), professor at UW-Madison). There were about 300 people in attendance at the Monona Conference Center (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright). Quite a festive event. The title of my talk was Suomi: Pragmatic visionary, and I tried to follow the path to his first successful effort to measure the earth's radiation budget from space. There were six speakers including myself. I've never received so many positive responses to any of my talks over the past 40 years (my first presentation was made in December 1969). Better with age I guess. I talked from the heart about Vern and his influence on many of us who worked around him, and also about the Center (Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at UW-Madison) that he created. It is the only organization where I have worked where the sprit of camaraderie was so prevalent. I mentioned this with example as a preliminary to the talk and that was appreciated. Although I left the organization in 1986, I'm always welcomed as if I've been away about two weeks. It's a real lift to visit my colleagues at SSEC and to give tribute to Vern and the organization. The talk was "off the cuff" and I wasn't quite sure how to end it, but I knew the material very well since I've spent the last few years writing a historical paper (with three co-authors) on Vern (will be published in March 2010). Anyway, I ended with a recollection of Vern's about his graduation from Winona Teachers College in 1936. Vern had came from a hardscrabble life on the Iron Range during the Great Depression. He was destined to be a miner following his father and older brother Anard. His father either lost his job or was fired from the mines in 1929. Anard became the breadwinner at the age of 23 for a family of 9 (two parents and seven children). Anard miraculously scraped up the money for Vern to go to Junior College in Eveleth, MN, and then to the teachers college. Anard came to Vern's graduation at Winona (far SE MN where Eveleth was in the far NE) in 1936 and Vern felt great guilt at Anard's sacrifice. The wise Anard said, "When they honor you, they honor us". Little did he know that Vern would receive the National Medal of Science from Jimmy Carter in 1976. Anyway, I ended with this recollection. After the talks were completed, two older women came up to me --- one was Vern's sister and the other was Anard's daughter. Tears were running down their faces and I of course began to tear up also. I had no idea they were in the audience. We had a long wonderful talk with all kinds of details supplied by the women. It was a night to remember.

Uncle John

Home Owners

It's official. Joy and I closed Friday on the house we were hoping to buy. We are officially the owners of the house on Skokorat Road. I had to leave my painting class at the university to sign the papers and then return to finish the class. My fellow professors came in my class and congratulated me, and gave Joy and I a bottle of champagne. Pretty nice (and embarrassing). I took a few photos of the outside of the house.


We also own the section of land to the left of the stone wall pictured here.


This is a shot from the back of the property. There is a circular driveway. The potting shed is on the right. This is the area we are planning on putting my studio. Either extending the garage or tearing the potting shed down and building a separate structure there. Dad gave us a generous gift towards the building of the studio so I'm going to call it the Gene Joseph Wing when we finish it.

There is really nice light that shines towards the front of the house in the afternoon.


This is our cat, Chiara, (italian for light) with her "you're moving me where?" look.

We're really excited about the place and would love for any of you to visit if you're in this neck of the woods.