Illustrated Journalism

During my recent visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, I was struck by the emotional display of artifacts, imagery and personal stories about the attacks on World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001. Also on display were sketches by Austrian expat artist Lili Réthi (1894 - 1969). Commissioned by the Port Authority in 1968, during the construction of the World Trade Center Towers, her drawings capture a time of hope and fearlessness.

In 2022, I traveled around Morocco and while in Marrakech visited the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. In one of the exhibition spaces was a show devoted to the work of cartographer and illustrator Théophile-Jean Delaye (1896-1973). What struck me was how in love he was with Morocco, and how he used his creative and scientific skills to depict the rich variety of the country.

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We are in wildfire season. Greece, Quebec, China and many other places around the globe are burning. This the result of global warming and climate change. Here in California, given our hot and dry weather, we wait and remain ever vigilant. I made a series of paintings when I and other Northern Californians experienced the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Sonoma and Napa counties. For me, making art about these fires was important. Processing the dread I felt through art was therapeutic.

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Very little has been written about Maurice-Henri Orange (1868-1916). We know he was born in Grandville, France, studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme and became a well-known historical painter, particularly of French soldiers in uniform of the Napoleonic era. He painted many (heroically posed) soldiers of the Imperial Guard of the French Army, and many (valiantly won) battle scenes from the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

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Recently I had a chance to hike some trails in Lassen Volcanic National Park and experience the devastation to the landscape from the Dixie Fire of 2021. The wildfires swept through the park destroying almost a million acres of forest lands and animal habitats. I was saddened to see it. Blackened trees stood like obelisks. Many trees fell and were cut into logs to clear a path through a deep layer of gray ash that dampened any remaining sounds. I heard no birdsong. It presented an eerie beauty.

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