Seeing the Possible in Impossible

BJ Miller of the Zen Hospice Project

BJ Miller offers a wealth of knowledge regarding how we may live, how the prospect of death may change our perspective on the moments available to us.  This is one of the best talks I have ever listened to.

What Makes A Good Life?

What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone – but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction. In this talk, he shares three important lessons learned from the study as well as some practical, old-as-the-hills wisdom on how to build a fulfilling, long life.

The Very Impressive Sam Berns.......!!

Creating Sounds People Want to Hear

What Physicians Can Learn From Vets

Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide?

SOAR!

3-D Printing: Clothing/Fashion

Making the World Better......

The Social Progress Index

Stormscapes 3

Stormscapes 3 from Nicolaus Wegner on Vimeo.

Emotional Hygiene !!

Music Is All Around Us!

Looking/Living Beyond......

Who Are You?

Gate A-4 (copied from "Live and Learn" a blog by David Kanigan)

Gate A-4

NOVEMBER 16, 2014 BY DAVID KANIGAN 993 COMMENTS

Gate A-4 By Naomi Shihab Nye:

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.” Well— one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her . What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly. “Shu-dow-a, shu-bid-uck, habibti? Stani schway, min fadlick, shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies— little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts— from her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single traveler declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo— we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

Then the airline broke out free apple juice and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they were covered with powdered sugar too. And I noticed my new best friend— by now we were holding hands— had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate— once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

---

Notes:

• Image Source: imeu.org. Photographer: This photo of Nye was taken by WT Pfefferle at Nye’s home in San Antonio.
• Story Source: Paul Loeb, “The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.” (Basic Books, 2007). Naomi Shihab Nye short story from Honeybee (Greenwillow Books, 2008)

An Elephant Love Story

Two Separations

A baby elephant named Mebai was taken away from her biological mother and sold to a tourism camp that specialized in treks through the Thai jungle. While in camp, Mebai befriended an older female elephant named Mae Boon Sri. The older animal looked after the younger one as if Mebai was her own daughter, according to LittleThings.com.

Mebai was released to an elephant sanctuary where she eventually reunited with her biological mother. However, Mae Boon Sri no longer had a daughter, and — for the second time in her life — Mebai was separated from a mother figure.

Reunion

Years after Mebai was taken from her, the older elephant was rescued and taken to the elephant sanctuary on foot with no restraints. The elephant retired from the tourist company because her back was unable to carry the weight of humans anymore. The trek took days, but in the end the journey was well worth it. A film crew documented the journey as humans walked alongside Mae Boon Sri to her new home.

Read more at http://blog.theanimalrescuesite.com/cs-adopted-elephant/#BqItDieo34J9ue5Z.99

Ewoks!!

Ewok Karaoke from Rob Tyler • vcr100 on Vimeo.

"Last Days of Ivory" Film

Please check out this film!


http://www.lastdaysofivory.com/#the-film

Very Interesting Talk......

Invulnerability - Courage/Shame/Authenticity

Like A Shadow.....or a Friend........

Lions Bred in Captivity for "Sport" Canned Hunting

Mindblowingly Creative.....Wayne McGregor, Choreographer

"Salt of the Earth" -- Photographer Sebastiao Salgado

This is a trailer for the documentary, "Salt of the Earth," about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and his work.

Wayne Thiebaud Lecture

I took an art appreciation class from Wayne Thiebaud many years ago at UC Davis. Above everything, I learned from him that the viewer's perception of a work of art is always valid, that art is meant for everyone to share and enjoy.

Max Richter - Recomposed: Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Thomas Schaller: "Paint How You Feel...."

Who is Marlene McNew?

     I am a 59 year old woman, happily married with no children and one very much loved golden retriever. I have Parkinson's Disease, a fact that I, at times, allow to define me more than I would wish. I am a wannabe artist, an avid gardener, a terminally intermediate skier and, among other things, a genuinely good human being. Although I know my intentions, my moment by moment actions are, at times, disappointing ...mainly, I think, based on just how conscious I am at any given moment. I am becoming more aware of my desire to be a force for inclusion, acceptance, love and I seek a path down that road that sidesteps judgment and attempts to simply remain open.....this is not particularly easy.

      As to my background, I was born on Guam, a U.S. territory. When I was about 3 years old, my mother had a nervous breakdown. I can still remember that day. Through the course of my childhood, my mother went in and out of mental hospitals. My father became an alcoholic; I became a high achiever. We lived in Guam, the Philippines and the U.S. When I was in the sixth grade, we made a permanent move back to the U.S. (for my benefit) despite the fact that it meant living at poverty level.   I completed high school and college in Northern California, graduating with honors from UC Davis. I spent a couple of years working for the University before going to USC (full tuition fellowship 2 years) for an MBA. Following the MBA, I returned to Northern CA to work for a "big 8" CPA firm. After 4 years, I left to go to work for Tandem Computers for 10 years. After working as a GL accountant, cost accountant, Consolidations/GL manager, I accepted an assignment in Germany as a sales office Finance manager and then returned for the final three years with Tandem U.S. as a Plant Controller. I worked the next 4 -5 years in two different regional/division controller roles for companies based in Europe and then went to work with a former colleague as the Controller for a public medium sized company for the next 10 years. I left that company as a result of my PD diagnosis.

      Within that time frame, at the age of 48, I married. Though not every single moment has been bliss, I have been and remain, very happily married! When we decided to bring a dog into our family, that was another brilliant change! With each of these changes, the degree of happiness in my life notably escalated.

      I am a wannabe artist. I started writing poetry spontaneously one morning after I woke up from a nightmare on PD (drowning in a sea of whys). I have produced 20+ poem videos that are on Youtube. In addition, I was part of a photography workshop for a while and have dabbled with most forms of painting. No, I'm not naturally talented and, yes, I like both abstract and realist visual art. I think that one should study both types (just as Picasso did). In some ways, I prefer the built-in open mindedness of abstraction. Like poetry, it is subject to the viewer's personal interpretation more than realist art. Art, it seems to me, comes from the soul and, accordingly, it is meant to be felt, rather than rationalized.

      I am also a wannabe athlete. I have done a couple of half marathon walks and two sprint triathlons, all with Team in Training. Exercise is incredibly beneficial for PD but why do a triathlon? I am signed up to do another and have started out being in the worst shape of my life. So, why?? Am I simply a glutton for punishment? NO!! It is because the act of training is an act of hope, of belief in self, the acceptance of help. It is not only an incredible symbol but proof that the spirit can endure.

Artist - Karl Martens: "The bird says hello..........."

Karl Martens from Cricket Fine Art on Vimeo.

The Beauty of Flow

AWAKENING | NEW ZEALAND 4K from Martin Heck | Timestorm Films on Vimeo.

First Half Marathon (Walk) Remembered

Time Storm

CALBUCO from Martin Heck | Timestorm Films on Vimeo.

First Triathlon Remembered

Strange Gift

In Memory of Denali........

Denali from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.

The Secret of Trees

The Secret of Trees | Albert Maysles from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Born From One Bright Dot

One Bright Dot from Clément Morin on Vimeo.

A little light rises from the deep sea.

Pictures : Clément Morin
Music : Etienne Forget - etienneforget.com
Sound Design : Hugo Thouin

Some still frames here:
behance.net/gallery/25195695/One-Bright-Dot

© 2015 - clement-morin.com
facebook.com/clementmorindotcom

# vimeo.com/124400795

Elephant Transfer to Sanctuaries (Past Cases/Documentary)

  Discussions of elephant welfare and how (especially older elephants) can benefit from relocation out of zoos and into sanctuaries have occurred in the past several years re; specific cases in Anchorage, Edmonton and Toronto zoos.  In the cases involving Anchorage and Toronto, four elephants were transferred to the PAWS sanctuary in California.  All have readjusted and are doing very well.  Their current status is available here:   http://www.pawsweb.org/meet_elephants.html

From PETA http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/zoos/get-elephants-zoos/:

Elephants require vast spaces to roam, socialize, and express their natural behavior. They are highly social animals who, in the wild, live in matriarchal herds, forage for fresh vegetation, play, bathe in rivers, travel as far as 30 miles per day, and are active for 18 hours per day. 

Zoos’ lack of space creates health problems in elephants, such as muscular-skeletal ailments, arthritis, foot and joint diseases, reproductive problems, high infant mortality rates, and psychological distress (as is evidenced by repetitive swaying, head-bobbing, and pacing). Captivity-induced health problems are the leading cause of death of elephants in zoos—they are dying decades short of their expected life span. 

The elephant standards adopted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) are woefully inadequate, and many AZA zoos that display elephants do not meet even these meager requirements. The AZA’s indoor space requirements can be satisfied with a stall that is only 20 feet by 20 feet in area; this means extreme confinement for elephants who are kept indoors overnight and during inclement weather. Outdoor enclosures need measure only 40 feet by 45 feet—about the size of a three-car garage.

A number of zoos have already chosen to close down their elephant exhibits (Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, etc) to enable their elephants to live out their lives under more humane conditions.

Re; the elephants associated with the Anchorage, Edmonton and Toronto zoos, attached is a four part documentary that provides a great deal of information:

Update on Seattle Elephants and Their Need for Space/Sanctuary

Zoo leadership maintains that SPACE IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH ASIAN ELEPHANTS:

Scott Blais, co-founder of The Elephant Sanctuary in TN, speaking about founding the Sanctuary:

“We set out to give elephants their life back…to create a space where they can live with others of their own kind where they can make their own choices of where they go, when they go there...where most of their diet comes from natural forage...to encourage natural behavior and natural social structure. Doing this…it’s a challenge with captive elephants. We are essentially putting a bunch of elephants that are completely unrelated together and saying “okay, here’s your family now” and it’s the same thing that happens in zoos where you put 3 or 4 elephants together -- The difference with a sanctuary is now they have enough space that they can choose where they go, they can choose who they hang out with. When you are in a small space, you’re kind of stuck…forced to be roommates and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t work, it can be catastrophic. In a small environment, there’s nowhere to flee to. In a large space they have the opportunity to walk away, and keep walking away…We started off with 100 acres and realized, that wasn’t enough…We are often asked “how many acres per elephant does it require to sustain them?” To sustain their diet, maybe 10-20 acres per elephant; but when you talk about the social needs and the psychological needs, we don’t have a number on that.”

…Once the group of elephants was allowed onto the 2200 acres corridor…they thrived. They started wandering off and we saw another layer of growth and development with them that was just exponential…The Sanctuary was created to create a life where elephants can just be elephants.

(In the wild) “Intimate family groups tend to be all related individuals. It’s mother, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, young males…if a female is born into a herd, they are there for their entire lives. They form very, very strong, very close bonds. It is in their nature to do so…In captivity, to try to re-create that…it’s challenging.

We kept our minds open to the elephants. We wanted to see what their needs were. We went into it with this concept of 100 acres is enormous…we may let them all free and they are all going to become rogue and wild. We saw exactly the opposite. One: 100 acres isn’t enormous to an elephant and Two: we saw once they had the space, once they had the freedom and autonomy, they became much more placid, they became much more co-operative…that doesn’t mean there aren’t struggles involved…but generally speaking elephants will thrive when you give them that much space. So in opening up our minds to elephants in that way we learned…how much we discredit them and don’t do them justice, not only with their spatial limitations but also the psychological and emotional limitations that…constrain an elephant’s life. …what we do to them in captivity is…contradictory to what we say about them. Giving them more space allows them to become their full selves. I think until you have the opportunity to see that, you don’t fully comprehend what that means.

It is still a managed operation, it is just managed with significantly more freedom and autonomy.

-Scott Blais interviewed by Duncan Strauss on "Talking Animals," October 30, 2013
http://www.talkinganimals.net/…/scott-blais-elephant-exper…/

I am unable to attach the audio link from talking animals.net but, as mentioned above, it is very worthwhile to listen to!

Scott Blais, elephant expert & ambassador | Talking Animals

Scott Blais—CEO and Board President of the newly-formed Global Sanctuary for Elephants—discusses his more than 20 years experience working with

TALKINGANIMALS.NET

Update on Two Elephants in Need of Help (From Change. Org)

PETITION UPDATE

Appeals Court Grants Temporary Stay of Elephant Move

Children Helping Elephants

Apr 7, 2015 — The appeals Court has granted a temporary stay of the elephant move to OKC Zoo and will hold a hearing on Thursday! This is big news as the court seemed to be dismissing the issue.

Yesterday Children Helping Elephants spoke at Seattle City council, you can see what our parent and child representative said in this 2 min video: www.tinyurl.com/kids4elescc. We also delivered a document to council members and the mayor that included the text of our petition, the text of statements made at council and samples of the art kids have created. This effort is gaining attention and making a difference! In just over 24 hours, we already have over 1,000 signatures. We are so proud of the kids. You can see pictures of them at council on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/childrenhelpingelephants

Thanks so much to everyone who has signed this petition, please continue to share and draw attention to this issue!

Help Two Elephants in Need (Copied from Change.Org)

Petitioning The Executive Leadership Team of Woodland Park Zoo and 2 others

Send the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to a sanctuary

This is a petition generated by the kids of the Children Helping Elephants movement in Seattle, WA.

Background:  The Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) in Seattle, WA, has decided to close it's elephant exhibit. This decision was made after years of public pressure. Instead of sending the two elephants to a sanctuary as many experts recommend the public would prefer, WPZ has decided to send them to the Oklahoma City Zoo which has less acreage per elephant than WPZ and a less hospitable climate. The Seattle community is not happy about this decision and the region's children are taking action.

The following petition statement is a compilation of children’s quotes collected by Children Helping Elephants. Contributors range in age from 4-16 and come from all across the Seattle region. Here is what the kids say:

“What happens to elephants matters to us. Elephants are living creatures with minds of their own. They have feelings, just like you and me. They need a lot of space to move their bodies and be healthy. When they never get to explore or see new things, they get bored. Sometimes they get mad. Wouldn’t you be mad if you weren’t allowed to decide what to do with your own body? How would you feel if you were behind a fence with nothing to do and lots of strangers staring at you every day for your entire life?

When we watch elephants in zoos, we aren’t watching them be elephants. We are watching them be sad. We don’t need elephants in zoos so that we can learn about them. There are so many other ways to learn about elephants that are more interesting and that don’t make elephants sad and unhealthy. Watching the elephants on sanctuary cameras, we can see them being their elephant selves. We see them feeling relaxed, being friends, playing. It’s not the same as watching what they do in the wild, but they are so much happier than zoo elephants. The only thing we learn about elephants from zoos is that zoos aren’t right for elephants.

What the zoo is doing to Chai and Bamboo is wrong. It makes us worry that they are doing wrong things for other animals too and that makes us not want to go to the zoo anymore.

We ask all the adults who agree with us to sign this petition. It will also help if you write a letter to the zoo so they will know that we all care about Chai and Bamboo. We ask kids who care to make art for the elephants and share it with us so we can see other kids’ ideas.

Please help us save the elephants.”

--The Kids of the Children Helping Elephants movement, Seattle, WA

More about Children Helping Elephants: 

This effort began with one girl named Stella who wanted to help the elephants. Stella decided the best way to advocate for Chai and Bamboo was through art. Stella and her mom started a website so that other kids could participate and share their creations, as well as a Facebook page. We know that lots of other children care about the elephants and that many voices raised together are a powerful force for change. Children Helping Elephants has collected art and ideas from children all over the region advocating for the sanctuary move. We held an exhibit of the art collected during the first two weeks of the effort. We hope you will join our movement and spread the word to all of the children in your life! Our mission is to help elephants while also empowering children to create positive change in the world. 

LETTER TO

The Executive Leadership Team of Woodland Park Zoo

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray

The Members of the Seattle City Council

Send the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to a sanctuary.

Milton Glaser, Graphic Designer

MILTON GLASER - NEW YORK TIMES from Poppy de Villeneuve on Vimeo.

Animation Treat

Dan Deacon "When I Was Done Dying" (DDWIWDD) for Off The Air on Adult Swim from dave hughes on Vimeo.

Created this music video as a special episode of Off The Air. Tapping nine unique and talented animators (whose work had all appeared previously on the show) to create a beautiful and seamless journey through the afterlife to the great song "When I Was Done Dying" by Dan Deacon. Seen it a thousand times and it still makes me happy.

Short interviews with Dan and the animators can be found here: offtheairas.tumblr.com/DDWIWDD

And please check out other episodes of Off The Air here:  adultswim.com/videos/off-the-air/
Or stream it here:  adultswim.com/videos/astv/off-the-air/

Animators in order of appearance:
Jake Fried, Chad Vangaalen, Dimitri Stankowicz, Colin White, Taras Hrabowsky, Anthony Schepperd, Masanobu Hiraoka, Caleb Wood, KOKOFreakbean

Charles Bukowski Poem

All The Way - a Charles Bukowski poem from Willem Martinot on Vimeo.

Correcting Misinformation..

Eight superstitions about crows 

Use your key for the next article

Next: Ghost hunters that ignore 'No Trespassing' sign at Ohio TB hospital sent to jail

February 25, 2014 1:28 PM MST 

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Researchers at the University of Cambridge say they've proven crows aren't just the one of the smartest birds in the world, but even smarter than most preschoolers. A video shows a crow solving eight complex puzzles in a row in order to reach food....

on.aol.com

If you're an animal lover and a lover of superstitions, then read on about some superstitions about crows. An animal that has been associated with death to just plain bad luck.

The crow is seen as an animal that is portrayed with the sign of death. Modern tale of the crow, comes from none other than a comic series and a movie, "The Crow."

This article after researching I found eight superstitions about this animal:

• Seeing one crow means bad luck.
• Seeing two crows means good luck.
• If you see six, then that means death!
• If you hear cawing in the distance, that means that death is very near.
• If a crow is in your house, that means that you're going to get bad news.
• Finding a dead crow on the road means good luck (how grotesque!)
• Crows in a churchyard is a sign of bad luck.
• Chinese folklore tells of a three legged crow that symbolizes the sun.

Obviously you can notice that the crow is a sign of bad luck according to superstitions. Just like the black cat, this black bird is a sign of uncertainly. Of course that is all superstition and the crow is actually quite a smart bird.

Thank You Wayne Thiebaud

       


I took an Art Appreciation class from Wayne Thiebaud at UC Davis in the early 1970's.  I was a pre-med student at the time.  He didn't cause me to change my major (though physics and calculus influenced my final choice of history) but did make an indelible impression with his insistence that art was for everyone and whatever each individual happened to see in a work of art was completely valid and to be respected.  Below a biography from the Academy of Achievment.

+ [ The Arts ]   Business   Public Service   Science & Exploration   Sports   My Role Model   Recommended Books   Academy Careers      Select Career            Actor  Aerospace Engineer     Animator     Architect     Art Curator     Artist  Astronaut  Astronomer  Athlete  Aviator  Ballerina  Baseball Player  Basketball Coach  Basketball Player  Beekeeper  Biographer  Broadcast Journalist  Cartoonist  Chemist  Choreographer  Dancer  Director  Dog Sledder  Entrepreneur  Ethnobotanist  Explorer  Farmer  Figure Skater  Film Producer  Filmmaker  Financier  Geneticist  Historian  Investment Banker  Journalist  Lawyer  Marine Biologist  Medical Researcher  Mountaineer  Molecular Biologist  Military/Soldier  Museum Director  Musician  Novelist  Painter  Pastor  Philanthropist  Physicist  Pilot  Poet  Politician  Record Producer  Scientist  Screenwriter  Singer  Surgeon/Medical Doctor  Teacher  Theatrical Director  Writer    If you like Wayne Thiebaud's's story, you might also like: J. Carter Brown, Dale Chihuly, Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson, Chuck Jones, Maya Lin, James Rosenquist and Fritz Scholder Related Links: California Hall of Fame Paul Thiebaud Gallery Archives of American Art Most Viewed Honorees: Maya Angelou Jeff Bezos Benazir Bhutto Johnny Cash Benjamin Carson Milton Friedman Bill Gates Frank Gehry Jane Goodall Sir Edmund Hillary Quincy Jones  Coretta Scott King George Lucas Willie Mays Frank McCourt Joyce Carol Oates Rosa Parks  Colin Powell Bill Russell Jonas Salk Amy Tan Desmond Tutu John Updike James Watson Elie Wiesel Oprah Winfrey John Wooden Chuck Yeager Add RSS Feeds Share This Page   Select Achiever   Select Achiever  Aaron, Hank  Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem  Albee, Edward  Albright, Tenley  Ambrose, Stephen E.  Andrews, Julie  Angelou, Maya  Ballard, Robert D.  Bannister, Roger  Barak, Ehud  Becker, Gary S.  Berger, Lee  Berners-Lee, Timothy  Berra, Yogi  Bezos, Jeffrey P.  Bhutto, Benazir                                     Black, Keith L.  Blackburn, Elizabeth  Borlaug, Norman E.  Bradlee, Benjamin C.  Brin, Sergey  Brown, J. Carter  Brown, Willie L., Jr.                                      Buck, Linda                                      Burnett, Carol  Bush, George H.W.  Butcher, Susan  Cameron, James  Carson, Benjamin S.  Carter, Jimmy  Case, Stephen M.  Cash, Johnny  Chihuly, Dale  Clancy, Tom  Cole, Johnnetta B.  Collins, Francis S.  Cooley, Denton A.  Coppola, Francis Ford  Crow, Sheryl  Dalio, Ray  DeBakey, Michael E.  de Havilland, Olivia  Dell, Michael S.  Didion, Joan                                Donald, David Herbert  Donaldson, Sam  Dove, Rita  Dyson, Freeman  Earle, Sylvia  Eisner, Michael D.  ElBaradei, Mohamed  Elion, Gertrude B.  Ellison, Lawrence J.  Ephron, Nora  Erving, Julius  Farrell, Suzanne  Farmer, Paul  Field, Sally  Folkman, Judah  Foote, Shelby  Friedman, Milton  Fuentes, Carlos  Fuller, Millard  Gaines, Ernest J.  Gates, Bill  Gearhart, John D.  Gehry, Frank O.  Gell-Mann, Murray  Gill, Vince  Ginsburg, Ruth Bader  Giuliani, Rudolph W.   Glück, Louise  Goldberg, Whoopi  Goldin, Daniel S.  Gonzales, Alberto R.  Goodall, Jane  Goodwin, Doris Kearns  Gorbachev, Mikhail S.  Gordimer, Nadine  Gould, Stephen Jay  Greider, Carol  Grisham, John  Halberstam, David  Hamill, Dorothy  Hamilton, Scott                                   Hennessy, John                                                 Hill, Lauryn  Hillary, Edmund  Ho, David                                            Hockfield, Susan             Hosseini, Khaled  Howard, Ron  Hume, John                                      Inouye, Daniel  Irons, Jeremy  Irving, John  Jackson, Peter  Johanson, Donald C.  Johnson, Frank M.  Johnson, Philip  Jones, Chuck  Jones, James Earl  Jones, Quincy  Judd, Naomi  Karzai, Hamid  Kennedy, Anthony M.  Kim, Jeong H.  Kimsey, James V.  King, B. B.  King, Coretta Scott  King, Larry  Kolff, Willem J.  Kopp, Wendy  Kravis, Henry R.  Kristof, Nicholas D.  Krzyzewski, Mike  Kuralt, Charles  Kurzweil, Ray                                     Lander, Eric S.                                      Langer, Robert S.  Leakey, Meave  Leakey, Richard  Lederman, Leon  Lewis, John R.  Lin, Maya  Lucas, George  Mailer, Norman  MacCready, Paul B.  Manning, Peyton  Marsalis, Wynton  Marshall, Barry                         Mather, John  Mathis, Johnny  Mayr, Ernst  Mays, Willie  McCaw, Craig O.  McCourt, Frank  McCullough, David  McDonald, Audra  Merwin, W.S.  Michener, James A.  Mineta, Norman Y.  Mitchell, George J.  Molina, Mario J.  Momaday, N. Scott  Mortenson, Greg  Musgrave, Story  Nader, Ralph  Nitze, Paul H.  Norman, Jessye  Novello, Antonia  Nunn, Trevor  Oates, Joyce Carol  Omidyar, Pierre  Page, Larry  Parks, Rosa  Parks, Suzan-Lori  Pauling, Linus  Peres, Shimon  Poitier, Sidney  Powell, Colin L.  Prince, Harold  Rather, Dan  Rathmann, George  Richards, Lloyd  Ride, Sally  Rollins, Sonny                                                  Romero, Anthony                                                  Rosenquist, James  Rozelle, Pete  Russell, Bill  Sachs, Albie  Salk, Jonas  Scheck, Barry  Scholder, Fritz  Schuller, Robert H.  Schultes, Richard E.  Schwarzkopf, H. Norman  Schwarzman, Stephen A.  Seaborg, Glenn T.  Sexton, John  Shepard, Alan  Sheehan, Neil  Shields, Carol  Shirley, Donna                                  Simpson, Alan                                     Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson  Slim, Carlos  Smith, Frederick W.  Sondheim, Stephen  Soyinka, Wole                                Starzl, Thomas E.    Stewart, Martha  Stockdale, James B.  Strauss, Robert S.                                     Sulston, John  Swank, Hilary  Tan, Amy  Taymor, Julie  Te Kanawa, Kiri  Teller, Edward  Tharp, Twyla    Thiebaud, Wayne                            Thomson, James A.  Thornton, Michael E.  Tombaugh, Clyde  Townes, Charles H.  Trimble, David  Turner, Ted  Tutu, Desmond  Updike, John  Vidal, Gore  Villaraigosa, Antonio  Vogelstein, Bert  Walesa, Lech  Walker, Herschel  Wallace, Mike  Washington, Dennis R.  Watson, James D.                                   Weeks, Kent  Weil, Andrew  Weill, Sanford  White, Tim D.  Wiesel, Elie  Wilkens, Lenny  Wilmut, Ian  Wilson, Edward O.  Winfrey, Oprah  Wolfe, Tom  Wooden, John  Woodward, Bob  Yamanaka, Shinya  Yeager, Gen. Chuck  Young, Andrew  Zemeckis, Robert                                   Wayne Thiebaud Biography Painter and Teacher Wayne Thiebaud Date of birth: November 15, 1920  Print Biography    Wayne Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, but his parents moved to Long Beach, California when he was only six years old. He would spend most of his youth in Southern California, but his large Mormon family had deep roots in the desert Southwest, and the young Wayne Thiebaud also spent a number of years living on an uncle's ranch in Utah. His early enthusiasm for comic strips and illustration led to an interest in serious art. Although he showed a precocious talent for drawing, fine art training -- or even a college education -- seemed like remote possibilities in the depressed economy of the 1930s. One summer between terms in high school, a teenage Thiebaud found work at Walt Disney Studios as an "in-betweener," laboriously drawing the thousands of individual frames that gave the illusion of movement to animated characters. The following summer, he enrolled in the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles with the intention of learning sign painting. Experienced commercial artists in the school encouraged him to study illustration, and he set himself to learning the skills of a commercial artist. His budding career as a cartoonist and graphic designer was interrupted by World War II. From 1942 to 1945, Thiebaud served in the U.S. Army Air Force, where his skills as an artist kept him out of combat. During the war, he met and married Patricia Patterson. Their first child, Twinka, was born in 1945. A second daughter, Mallary Ann, was born in 1951. After the war, Wayne Thiebaud resumed his career as a commercial artist, working for the Rexall drugstore chain, among others. At Rexall he met a fellow commercial artist, Robert Mallary, who was also an aspiring fine artist. Mallary encouraged Thiebaud to study fine art, and to broaden his education generally. Nearing 30 years of age, Thiebaud enrolled in the California State University system, first at San Jose and then at Sacramento, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. Thiebaud had set himself a new goal, to support his family by teaching while pursuing a career as a fine artist. He found work at Sacramento City College, where he worked throughout the 1950s. Thiebaud spent a sabbatical year in New York City, where he made the acquaintance of the leading American painters of the day. Among these were the abstract expressionists Willem De Kooning and Franz Kline, as well as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, two painters whose work would later be identified as cornerstones of the pop art movement. At this time, Thiebaud found a way to apply the formidable technical skills he had acquired during his years as a commercial artist to a new and unique subject matter. He began to paint small canvasses depicting brightly colored food products -- pies, cakes, candy and ice cream cones -- displayed as in shop windows, meticulously rendered with multi-hued outlines and the hyper-realistic shadows characteristic of commercial art. While conventional still lifes are painted with the artist observing real objects as he paints, Thiebaud drew his pictures of food entirely from memory and imagination, a practice that contributed to the dreamlike intensity of his vision. There were no galleries to speak of in Sacramento in the 1950s, so Thiebaud exhibited wherever he could, in shops and restaurants, even in the concession booth of a drive-in theater. Impressed with the artists' cooperatives he had observed in New York, he founded a cooperative gallery in Sacramento, now known as Artists Contemporary Gallery, and an artists' retreat known as the Pond Farm. In 1958, Thiebaud and his wife Patricia divorced. Their daughter Twinka became a celebrated artist's model, author and painter in her own right. Wayne Thiebaud later married filmmaker Betty Jean Carr, and adopted her son Matthew, who also became an artist. The couple had a second son, Paul, who became a noted art dealer and gallerist. Thiebaud's work was making an impression on his colleagues but had not yet found a general audience. This began to change in 1961, when he met the New York art dealer Allan Stone. Stone was initially indifferent to the slides he saw of Thiebaud's food paintings, but when the artist contacted him again a year later, Stone remembered them vividly and agreed to represent him. Stone became his exclusive dealer and a close personal friend. His first showings at Allan Stone Gallery resulted in major sales. In addition to showings at Stone's gallery, Thiebaud's work was featured in two historic group shows in 1962. The Pasadena Art Museum's "New Painting of Common Objects" is regarded as the first exhibition of pop art in America. Thiebaud's paintings were included alongside the work of Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine and Andy Warhol -- an artist with whom Thiebaud felt little affinity -- but the exhibition attracted national attention and made Wayne Thiebaud a major name in the art world. Later that same year, the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York presented an "International Exhibition of the New Realists," which again grouped Thiebaud with Warhol and Lichtenstein, as well as James Rosenquist. Coming on the heels of the Pasadena exhibit, the show at Sidney Janis made pop art the dominant visual style of the '60s. Thiebaud never embraced the concept of pop art, often characterized as a parody or critique of commercialism and consumer society. Thiebaud preferred to describe himself as a traditional painter of illusionistic form, and regarded the craftsmanship of advertising, cartoons and commercial illustration with respect and affection. He also distinguished himself among his contemporaries through his exacting craftsmanship and his uncompromising dedication to his own vision, without regard for changing fashions or trends in the art world. As other artists adopted the now accepted pop art motifs, Thiebaud turned increasingly to the representation of the human figure, rendered in meticulous detail, but with a dispassionate sense of weight and solidity that freed the painted figure from any implication of sentimentality or superficial appeal. In the mid-'60s, Thiebaud also took up printmaking, a practice he has pursued alongside his painting ever since. In the 1970s he carried on with his examination of everyday objects, including shoes and cosmetics, while painting his first major landscapes, dizzying street scenes inspired by the vertiginous topography of San Francisco. He continued his landscape series for the next 20 years, finding haunting beauty in apparently commonplace scenes, rendered with hyper-realistic detail. He has received numerous honors for his work, most notably the National Medal of Arts, presented to him by President William J. Clinton in a 1994 ceremony at the White House. A 2001 retrospective of his work at the Whitney Museum in New York won enthusiastic acclaim. After the death of Allan Stone in 2006, Thiebaud was represented by his son, art dealer Paul Thiebaud, until Paul's death in 2009. Although Wayne Thiebaud is now retired from teaching, his decades of mentoring younger artists has had a major influence on American art. Many of his students have enjoyed distinguished artistic careers, not the least of whom was the late Fritz Scholder (1937-2005). In his 90th year, Wayne Thiebaud was still painting. His vast body of work continues to inspire and delight viewers with its unique vision of the charm and beauty of everyday things.  (See a video montage of the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud.)