#book presentation

I’m so happy she signed my copy of Written on the body, a book I absolutely loved!!!

Happy (not yet the day but still) Bday to me :)

The presentation itself was great, albeit a bit shorter than I expected. What I found kinda underwhelming was the fact that there was no live Q&A with the fans - those were infamously witty and hilarious back when people would either worship him or hate his guts, or ask him things like "what if you're wrong [and God does exist]?". This time the questions to him had been sent in advance, and carefully chosen by his team. No room for surprises there, no laughing, no cheering, no booing.

But, as expected, I did find the man adorable as he entered the stage and moved towards his seat, his elegant blue-gray suit doing little to hide the frail form of this eighty-three-year-old sage. I held my breath, awestruck, hardly believing that I was finally in the same room as "the high priest of non-believers", the atheist scientist who had so ironically inspired my version of Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of Notre Dame, almost two decades ago; when I had just finished art school, suddenly stripped of purpose, and faced with one of my biggest fears - unemployment.

The host made jokes about Dawkins' recent podcast with Jordan Peterson and his obsession with dragons, but what I found most touching was when the Professor was asked what personal/professional achievements he was most proud of. He joked that there was not much in his private life to be proud of. Aww..

Later, as we waited in line to give him things to sign and take a picture with him, I looked at the books I was carrying and his two portraits I had drawn eighteen years ago, a coloured one with him and Charles Darwin that was never used as it was intended to, and an unfinished pencil sketch showing him in a triumphant Magneto-like pose and a smug grin on his face, his curled fingers manipulating gravity, his feet hovering mid-air. I wondered if it would be too much to ask him to sign all four items- what if I had to choose?

He would soon rid me of that dilemma with a gesture that was magnificent in its simplicity.

When I asked if he could sign all the things I had placed in front of him, he picked up his acrylics portrait with Charles Darwin, his hazel eyes momentarily widening behind frameless glasses. He said in that soft, most polite British tone, "This is beautiful, can I keep it?"

I was so shocked by his unexpected request that I told him things even I don't remember. I knew he appreciated art, back in the day he had thanked me in his forum for the portrait I had painted of him with his then wife - but I surely didn't expect that. Seeing how confused I was he asked, "I'm so sorry, maybe you didn't mean to give it to me?" Like someone long prepared I magnanimously replied, "Sure, you can keep it - under one condition," I smiled, "that you'll put it in a frame." "Oh... Of course!" was his quick reply. "Of course I'll put it in a frame."

So there you have it.

I don't have the Darwin/Dawkins portrait anymore. It's not in the folder with my other works - it's just not there. It now belongs to someone I never expected it to belong to.

If anyone ever visits his house, do let me know if the good Professor, this great scientist (as well as my muse during difficult times) keeps his promises.

Thank you and good night.

E.

Garrett M. Graff: UFO - The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here and Out There (with David Ignatius, December 2023)

I'm so happy to present you the book "The B&W Book – A Selection of Contemporary Photography", curated by João Coelho, also co-author. 30 authors featuring different styles and techniques in a unique tribute to black and white photography and I'm so happy that also a selection of my images is a part of it. I thank João for the invitation. I hope you will be pleased by this book full of beautiful and inspiring works.

Somebody read the book

Sharon did a book presentation at the public library in Three Rivers, Michigan Tuesday night. The refreshments included sunflower cookies - a nod, no doubt, to the place sunflowers occupy in our family’s lore - and in our hearts.

It was a single sunflower that sprung so improbably from the sand and rocks on the Lake Huron beach where our daughter, Jessica, drowned in 2002. Our next-door neighbors on the lake, full-time residents who were there long before we arrived, had never seen such a thing. And it hasn’t happened again. 

We took it as a sign that Jess - wherever she was - was OK. That thought brought a little beam of light to those darkest of days.

Book the date: 2nd of April at Monpelier.

Teaser for "Kilroy's Necropolis: Logic of the Sands"