David Beck 1953 – 2018
It is very rare in our lives to be around genius. I was so fortunate to spend several days with David Beck in his San Francisco studio back in 2005 when Peter Carroll and I worked on a film about David for the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Claire Larkin at SAAM hired Peter to make a short film about David’s piece “MVSEVM”, and I was hired to shoot stills and help set things up.
I remember that David didn’t particularly like to be called a miniaturist even though the scale of his work was often quite small.
I was terribly saddened today when Claire emailed to say that David had died. Here is his obit in the Times.
David was truly a genius. I was completely in awe of his creativity and craftsmanship. His spirit and sense of playfulness were as abundant as his talents.
During the shoot the four of us laughed so much and had an absolute blast together. As we were packing up and getting ready to leave, I lost a bet with him about the name of the actress that played the lead in the Munsters. He nailed it with Yvonne DeCarlo.
Peter’s film is linked above, and “MVSEVM is on permanent display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in D.C. Watch Peter’s film and listen to David’s voice, which sadly will not be heard again.
Albert Bierstadt
I have always liked this painting. Bierstadt was apparently quite the operator. / I’ve been in DC the past few days and had the chance to spend a few hours at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It is the best museum in a city full of great museums. It shares the old patent office building with the National Portrait Gallery which in itself is pretty cool. While there I got the chance to see some of the people that Peter Carroll and I worked with on the Lunder Conservation Center project, and had a really nice visit. / Back to Massachusetts tomorrow and will mail out the next level of rewards for the suitcase backers.
Smithsonian
I was in Washington last week and got a chance to see a friend at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It is such an wonderful building and the art is so accessible. Peter Carroll and I worked on a project several years ago there for the Lunder Conservation Center. It is worth checking out; Peter’s videos and my photos are still looking great after all this time. The work is on display on the 4th floor in the media hallway and when I saw it a flood of nice memories came back. A lot of really great and talented people to have worked with.
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