Full Circle

A week ago I returned from a trip with Faith to Phoenix to visit my mom. It was a short trip but beautiful weather and a nice break from every day life. 

My mom is 86 and has never slowed down, she's a docent at the Phoenix Art Museum, still works in the library there and is also a member of the Art Museum League. That week there was a league event at the home of artist Louise McCall, she has been a big supporter of the League and my mom invited me along. 

Funny thing is, I was at this house 28 years ago. I was 22 and working at a Design Studio (my first professional job), and we had a project to design a poster for a well known artist by the name of Robert McCall (anyone who has been to Cape Canaveral has seen his paintings - he did a whole series of the shuttle launches), the poster was for an event to raise money for the Phoenix science center and as I recall I met several astronauts at the event - one of them being from Apollo 11, (I think it was Michael Collins but I'm not sure). Anyway I went to his house to show him a mock-up and was really impressed with his studio and how kind and generous he was.

Louise McCall does really striking still life paintings, and her house is a gallery of her work. I had never met her but she was as gracious as her husband and when I told her I had been there to see him before, she took me back to the studio to say hello. The studio looked exactly how I remember it, and he showed me a study of a stained glass window for a church that was just finished, it's actually more like a continuous window that surrounds a rotunda building and even though I was leaving the next day I had to find time to go see it.  I'm including both part of the study which is my favorite piece of his and the only photo I can find of her work which is behind the two of them.

And even though I can't remember which astronaut I met, I did remember how to get to his house after 28 years, ha!