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Gordy
and Madelane's Day 4 9:50am The shuttle to the Navy Yard was there and a few minutes later we were at the O Street Gate and signing in at the Visitor Center. The buildings at this end of the Navy Yard seem to date from the end of the 19th century, lots of corbelled brickwork. There was a little disconnect as we walked by the old buildings past the base McDonald's. The buildings are not the type seen much on the West Coast, particularly in the Seattle area. The oldest buildings in Seattle date from the late 1890s and are in the Pioneer Square area. Most industrial buildings in the Seattle area aren't any older than the 1920s and 1930s. The Washington Navy Yard has a nice collection of industrial architecture from an earlier period — the brick period. Some of the buildings at the Navy Yard go back to the Civil War. Buildings like these are probably pretty common to the East Coast but are new to me and are a real treat. I was an architecture major once and I do like old technology buildings. It was a 4 or 5 block walk to the Navy Art Gallery.
We went through the gallery, which had a wonderful display of wood block prints chronicling the post Perry period of Japan, from the late 1850s to early 1900s. It was to commemorate the 150th anniversary of he first treaty between Japan and the US. We went through the gallery and met Gale, Karen, and Crystal — the staff of the Navy Art Gallery. Gale is the head curator.
I need to write faster. I'm doing more than I can write! We just escaped into the Metro subway elevator as the rain started to go sideways . That after a sunny day in DC. Back to yesterday at the Navy Yard... It was nice to finally meet Gale Munro, the Head Curator of the Navy Art Gallery. Madelane wrote to her ten years ago. Madelane was taking a class in communications and needed to write a paper on a communicator. She thought that painting was communicating and our grandfather was a painter, therefore our grandfather was a communicator and worthy as a subject for her paper. So she wrote a letter to the Navy inquiring about any information the Navy might have on him. In 1941 Griff was a mural and portrait painter in New York City. He loved ships and had done some work at Annapolis and knew a number of the Admirals. He knew a war was coming for America and proposed to Admiral Nimitz, at a cocktail party at his Stonington, Connecticut, house, that a combat naval artist program be started. There was big history coming and a Griff felt that painting offered a unique way to document the war. Griff was the first artist in the program and in September of 1941 he was off to Iceland on the Niblack, a destroyer escorting a convoy to the war in Europe. A war we wouldn't be in for another three months. He was in the Navy until 1947. I cover this on my web site: Griff's Story. It was the Navy Art Gallery that had all his paintings and papers from his time in the Navy.
We finally made it back to Seth's apartment and have laundry going, getting ready to leave for New York City, tomorrow. I didn't mention how I met Seth. I met him on the Internet. He is one of the early listeners to one of the best things on the Internet — Whole Wheat Radio. If you have an Internet connection, go there right now. There is nothing else like it. If you listen, you must check out the WWR chat. That's where the regulars hang out and Sol is one of the regulars. Sol is Seth's handle at WWR. When we were first planning this trip, we needed to find a place in or near to DC to stay. I knew Seth/Sol from the chat and that he lived outside of DC, in Virginia, so I asked for tips as to where to stay. He replied with an offer of a couch. I took this trip to see things and places. What is turning out to be memorable are the people and Seth/Sol was the first we met. He was only able to stay with us the first day. He had a trip come up with his grandfather and he gave us his key so we could continue to stay at his place. It was great talking indie music and WWR with him. I hope I can reciprocate for him some day. The next memorable people were Gale, Karin, and Crystal at the Navy Art Gallery. This is where we move up a couple of digressions and we are back at the Navy Art Gallery on a hot Thursday morning meeting Gale, Karen, and Crystal for the first time. Our first contact with Gale, however, was 10 years ago when she responded to Madelane's request for information on Griff with a box containing all the weekly activity reports between 1941 and 1945, assorted other papers, and a listing of the paintings that they had in their collection, which came to 52. Many of the paintings were new to us. It is the stuff Gale sent that was the reason I started Griff's Story. When we decided to do this trip, I called Gale and she sent me digital scans of the film they had on Griff's paintings and drawings. They didn't have good pictures of all of Griff's paintings but we were planning to take pictures of those they didn't have. OK, now we are really back at the Navy Art Gallery Thursday morning. After introductions and a short tour of the gallery working areas, Karin and Gale figured out which of Griff's paintings that they didn't have good quality images of. We went back into the storage area and started by pulling out the largest piece — The Sinking Sun. It was a thrill to be carrying out the painting, with Gale's help, into the gallery to photograph it.
I couldn't help thinking how Griff captured the paying of respect to the enemy fallen in war and how President Bush can't even pay respect to our own fallen in his current war in Iraq. Shame! Next up was one of the most popular of Griff's paintings — Pacific Convoy. Seeing the original was so different than seeing it in his book
While I was photographing, Gale was scanning film of Griff's paintings. There were six paintings that hadn't been scanned and she was finishing those. Madelane was going through his papers to see if there was anything we were missing.
Karin had mentioned that Griff's Normandy series was blurry. I had noticed this on the digital scans that Gale had sent me. It turned out that the photographer who had taken the pictures of the paintings had vision problems and wouldn't admit that he needed glasses. Everything he shot was slightly out focus. The Normandy series were three paintings of the French luxury liner, turned troop ship, burning at the dock and being salvaged. It had been renamed the USS Lafayette for the war. The quay she sank at was not far from Griff's studio in NYC. I didn't even know about these three paintings until we got the inventory from Gale ten years ago. She had sent small black and white electro-static copies. Seeing the paintings was really amazing. What a treat!
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