The impact of well-executed design has always been a fascination for me, whether created by nature or man. In harmony, being a student of how people experience, react to and engage with design is fundamental to all of the successes throughout my career.
It's in my DNA, in some cases quite literally. My first cousin (three times removed) Violet Oakley was a fabulous muralist who lived and worked in Philadelphia, PA. She painted an amazing series of murals centered on the theme "The Holy Experiment", focusing on the early Quaker settlers in Pennsylvania and what they sought in the New World. She was independent, thoughtful, romantic and I love her work. "In choosing Violet Oakley to paint the works that would be installed in the 'Palace of Art,' as Pennsylvania's Capitol building was called, the architect took a risk for his times. At the beginning of the last century, women artists were still denied many exhibition opportunities, along with their consequent honors and awards." Erika Jaeger-Smith, Associate Curator of Exhibitions James A. Michener Art Museum (source). Violet passed away on the same year that I was born, so from an early age, I was "dragged" by my parents to the Violet Oakley Foundation meetings that were held in the barn that she had converted into her studio. The beams and rafters had been turned into the largest easels I had ever seen. Partly completed works still hung there. A paint palette sat with its pigments and a brush dried on its surface. Edith Emerson, Violet's friend and former apprentice ran the meetings. Later as a late teen, I spoke representing my family at Edith's funeral. As I prepared my thoughts, I suddenly understood how special and important those meetings had been to my early art appreciation.
My great grandfather, Dr. George de Tarnowsky first brought our family to Lake Beulah in 1908, buying land and building a house on the property that is still in the family today. Dr. George was a medical doctor and Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Loyola University Medical School and decorated veteran of both World Wars and he wrote a whitepaper in 1918 regarding handling tramatic wounds at the "front" through mobile triage camps that is the basis for the M.A.S.H. system.
His brother Michel de Tarnowsky (1870-1946) was a locally famous sculptor in Nice, France and World War I veteran who created a wide range of pieces honoring those who fought in the war as well as other pieces of beauty located all over France. I'm honored to have been given a copy of one of the sculptures that I love the most, Les Deux Amis (1901), given to me by his daughter, Francoise de Tarnowsky. Francoise lives to this day in Nice and is a fascinating and wonderful lady. Francoise is in the first photo below sharing her father's works with my family at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice. We have helped Francoise to catalog her father's pieces and get them placed at various museums throughout France to protect and showcase them.
During my career, the intersection of design and human communications has been an ongoing, major focus. Here are a few examples of my related passions. This area will continue to change as new things fascinate me. Visit again soon.
Photography That Captures a Moment
I took all of the photos in this section. I'm always on a quest to find images that evoke a feeling or mood. I don't use filters. The colors that you see are what nature provided. I use a Nikon D200 digital SLR camera and will continue learning to use all of its powerful capabilities for as long as I own it. I currently have over 160GB of photos in my archive. As I find time, I will pull more photos to post here. I post small images because I am not offering them for reuse and retain the copyright on my work. If you love a photo deeply, then we can discuss options. Contact me.
Protecting Wisconsin's Lakes - My Cause
As you may have read above, I have deep roots at the lake that I call home. When our local Village chose to site a high capacity well approximately 1,000 feet from the main source of the clean, cool water feeding the lake, I was amazed at our WDNR and at our local community leadership for thinking that developers mattered more than protecting a main jewel of the area, Lake Beulah. Lake Beulah is one of the cleanest lakes in southeastern Wisconsin and is an excellent spot to fish for Walleye, Bass, Northern Pike and panfish or enjoy the day floating, sailing, swimming or water skiing. I choose sailing, myself. One of the reasons that the lake is so clear and the larger fish are so happy is that the lake is largely fed by clear, cool water entering the lake through springs at the bottom of the lake. This temperature difference aids the natural cycle of turnover of the water in the lake and the large fish prefer the deeper cool water. The issue, I learned, was that even though Wisconsin's Public Trust Doctrine dictates that the WDNR must protect the lakes for the citizens of Wisconsin, the laws that our state government has passed separate groundwater from surface water despite whatever interactions may occur between them out of site below ground. In the course of the debates and lawsuits that followed, "experts" were found documenting both sides of the story.
- There is no clear proof of a substantial impact being likely with the planned pumping capacities of this Well #7.
- There is no proof that there will not be substantial and irrecoverable damage to the lake over time due to reduced water inflows, increased water temperatures and altered water chemistry and clarity.
In the end, government agents won the day when the WDNR would not take the more cautious approach of moving the well further away from the lake and out of Lake Beulah's aquifer and the Village of East Troy with their land developer allies managed to scare the local residents of impending water shortages if the well was not put into service immediately. The well is running today.
With my promotional background, I was very active organizing, educating and promoting our cause with press interviews, editorials, conversations with legislators, signs and a website. We created a town hall forum and were honored to have Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager as our guest speaker. These actions went a long way toward raising awareness, but in the end the legal system was the only voice that mattered. The laws to this day do not protect our lakes from municipalities draining underground aquifers and as populations grow and developers do what they do, our natural resources will suffer.
We are activiely monitoring the lake to watch for signs of damage, but what will be possible once damage becomes evident? Would the Village stop pumping water to serve the new homes? Probably not. I am part of a team that measures water depths routinely as part of our watchdog program. Hopefully, this will help.
More information: WI State Journal JSOnline
Happy Things
Competition In Partnership With Nature
I have been sailing throughout the Midwest since I was 7 years old. I started with X Boats and sail MC and C Scows today. Sailing is a fantastic sport since it combines athleticism, a "feel" for the performance of the boat and strategic thinking regarding both competitors and the evolving wind dynamics anticipated throughout a race.
Design Appreciation
I often see designs that show true insightfulness on the part of the designer. This is where I will put my finds.
Art That Communicates To Multiple Senses
When I traveled with Semester at Sea in 1983 and 1984, I was already in love with guitars. I had a Martin 12 string and a classical guitar and was inspired by the way that they look, feel and sound. As I left for the trip, I was determined to find and acquire as many local instruments as I could afford and carry while I traveled the world. This is my collection so far. It is not an expensive collection of the finest instruments ever made, but their beauty to me is a combination of the designs, the wide range of sounds that they produce and the stories about how I found them. For example, I was at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India and I asked a local where I could buy a sitar. A friend and I were driven by scooter a long distance away to a small village where we negotiated for hours. Eventually, my firend grew tired of it and left me alone. Now, today I know that this was risky and perhaps stupid, but I was a college student and "invincible" at the time. After a deal was struck that included my belt and a Timex watch, I bought the sitar. At that moment, they sent a young boy off to get a blind instructor to come and teach me to play. We spent another hour in a lesson. We took the photo that is shown to the right and they returned me to my group. It was dark by then. Others were amazed by my story and the sitar and I was a star. That lasted until my friends located a store near our ship that sold them for far less with higher quality construction. ...but I have my story.
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Countries Represented:Spain |
