I went to an FAA safety seminar tonight, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. If anyone is curious, the subject was aircraft operations at non-towered airports. It was a great presentation by a terrific instructor from the Aircraft Owner's and Pilot's Association in Frederick, Maryland. When the presentation was over, I heard someone call my name. It was my friend Phil Dionisio. Phil and I worked at Newsday together for years - he was an artist in the art department, and I was a photographer. In the early years when we both worked evening shifts, if I didn't have an assignment at meal time, Phil and I would go have dinner together, usually at the Sizzler Restaurant. He is a pilot and was great company. It was more fun having dinner with Phil, than with the other photographers! Phil has owned his own plane for years, and now lives on Block Island, and the plane allows him to easily fly back to Long Island. I photographed him in front of two magnificent illustrations that he did for a Newsday book on the history of aviation on Long Island. These reproductions are on display at the museum.
So glad to see that Phil is doing so well. He was one of the best artists ever to work at Newsday. His forte was illustrating massive operations and the detail in his work was phenomenal. He produced some of the best pages in the paper, explaining complicated situations with beautiful art.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your lovely comment. He is an amazing artist, and he showed me some of the new fine art work he is painting. Scenes of nature and the sea. He has changed course slightly, but his work is no less amazing.
ReplyDeleteHis current art in oils includes an interesting piece titled "Lindbergh's Window Into History"-- depicting Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis over Paris, size 36 x 48-- a retrospect of the young aviator's magnificent adventure. Curator Joshua Stoff, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, who wrote more than one book on the famous aviator, shared Phil's enthusiasm for Long Island's contribution to aviation history. Mym Tuma
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