Viewing Art, Meeting an Artist

Today was dreary day, cool and overcast, punctuated by drizzle. Needing inspiration, but being far from Philomath, I decided to visit the lovely Union Church of Pocantico Hills before heading off to work. The Union Church is renowned for its stained-glass windows. The church was built in 1921, at the behest of John D. Rockefeller Jr. The rose window of the church was designed by Henri Matisse, to memorialize Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Marc Chagall, who had escaped from Nazi occupied France, was commissioned to design a stained-glass window depicting the Parable of the Good Samaritan to memorialize John D. Rockefeller, Jr. After the large 'Good Samaritan' window was designed, another Chagall design was commissioned to Michael Rockefeller, who had disappeared in the waters off Papua New Guinea. After that, the rest of the windows were replaced with Chagall-designed stained glass windows.

In the middle of my tour, a charming nonagenarian, accompanied by his lovely daughter, entered the church, and I told my wonderful tour guide that I would be perfectly happy for her to restart the tour for the benefit of the new arrivals. In the course of our conversation, the gentleman introduced himself as Bob Jones, an illustrator and commercial artist who worked as an inbetweener for the classic Warner Brothers animation studio, and designed the Esso Tiger (we all got a kick out of the fact that this commission was for a Rockefeller corporation, and we were in the heart of Rockefeller Country). He also did a lot of magazine illustration work (I made a joke about him working for the glossies). Mister Jones was a perfect gentleman, an interesting man with an impressive body of work, who worked with the Titans of Termite Terrace. Altogether, it was a great way to brighten up a dreary afternoon.