FAA Art Show
By Stan Ciurczak
Technical Center employees were treated to a fine art show in the Technical Center Atrium earlier this year. The artists contributing to the FAA Art Show included Carla M. Brennan, an abstract artist who also works in Automated Information Management; Michael Gross, a videographer who was working in the Advanced Imaging Division at the time of the show; Ken Kepchar, Chief System Engineer; Ernie Pappas, Tech Center photographer; and Laurie Zaleski, President, ArtZ Graphics.
Carla Brennan works in Automated Information Management in the Technical Services Facility. Her favorite style of painting is abstract. “It starts with an emotion and finishes with paint everywhere, like finger-painting in kindergarten," she explained.
Michael Gross and Laurie Zaleski studied ceramics at Cumberland County Clay College (Millville) under their teacher, Terry Plasket, who oversees the ceramics studio at Wheaton Arts Center and Village. The ceramics they created and displayed in the show were fired at temperatures above 2000 degrees.
Ken Kepchar has been an avid amateur photographer for years, especially when capturing the beauty of nature around us. He previously has exhibited in Washington, DC, including a show at DOT Headquarters. The collection of images he exhibited at the Tech Center captured scenes that were shot at his home on the Potomac River in Northern Virginia.
Ernie Pappas is a third-generation professional photographer who is keenly aware of how photography has evolved in the past century. His grandfather got into the business at a time when you had to make your own emulsions and coat your own paper and glass plates. Both his parents were photographers, and his mother owned and managed the family’s photography studio in Dover, NJ. Ernie learned how to walk in that studio and (like any other youngster) swore he would never learn to answer the phone, watch the studio, or shoot pictures. However, his parents made him learn the business, and learn it he did.
Ernie’s first professional images were done while in the White House Presidential Helicopter Squadron of HMX-1, Marine One. “It seems somehow aviation has always been with me,” Ernie said as he explained that an image of General Wallace M. Greene Jr., Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps, sitting in the cockpit of an old Marine Corps biplane, was one of his first professional pictures. Years later their paths crossed again and the Commandant was happy to autograph a copy of that photo for him.
Ernie worked for a while at National Geographic after leaving the Marine Corps, and eventually opened an advertising photography business in North Jersey. Ernie enjoys fine art photography of street and human interest, especially large-format still life that he shoots with 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. He explained that, “Photography is a tough nut to crack. The rewards are of a different kind. I earn a far more profound wage for my labors, especially when coupled with a proper honorable profession.”
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