Telling a story through the Presidents who shaped history

Barack Obama

Recently, while entertaining out of state friends, we happened one evening to visit the nation's only complete collection of presidential portraits outside of the White House at the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The gallery of Presidential Portraits is a timeless exhibition that lies at the heart of the National Portrait Gallery's core mission: telling the American story through the individuals who shaped it.

From George Washington to Barack Obama, presidential portraits have always attracted our interest. Once upon a time – before newspapers, magazines and television – a painted portrait or a sculpted image was the only means that most of us knew of our Presidents. And, as I've learned, throughout much of the 19th century, there was a lively debate over which portrait of George Washington most accurately conveyed his proper image.

Inside the gallery of Presidential Portraits, there are a variety of presidential likenesses, including oil on canvas, marble head busts, engravings – and, there's the Chuck Close portrait of Bill Clinton that is truly amazing and has to be seen. As I took note while walking through the gallery and viewing the presidential portraiture in order of their presidency, from Washington to Obama, I couldn't help but notice that some portraits were more sophisticated and interesting than others. Let's face it – I think Teddy Roosevelt is just a bit more striking a figure than Millard Fillmore. Same goes for JFK compared to Calvin Coolidge. No offense, some presidents are just more interesting than others.

Bill Clinton

As I drew closer to the newest presidential portrait – of Barack Obama – I noticed an orderly queue line and soon I joined it so that I could take a few candid photographs. The portrait of the 44th President by artist Kehinde Wiley was unveiled on February 12 at the National Portrait Gallery and it's become the center of attention – along with the new portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama – inside the entire National Portrait Gallery.

"Historically, portraiture has always been about saying yes to things that we want to celebrate, but I think also the commissioned portrait has often times been about a society saying, 'Who are the people we collectively want to honor?' and particularly with the presidential portrait, this is the highest aspect of that tradition," said Wiley, during a recent interview with Time. "It's been – I can't tell you – an extraordinary honor to be able to participate in that."

The portrait of Obama makes quite a statement. It's anything but drab. The former president is shown wearing a black suit with an open-collared shirt. He's sitting on a wooden chair. And, he's surrounded by flowers and green foliage. The flowers, I learned, include: blue lilies, from his father's home in Kenya; jasmine from Obama's home state of Hawaii; and chrysanthemums, the official flower of Chicago, the former president's hometown.

John F. Kennedy

At the unveiling of his portrait, Obama said, "What I was always struck by whenever I saw (Wiley's) portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege."

Wiley stated, "The ability to be the first African-American painter to paint the first African-American president of the United States is absolutely overwhelming. It doesn't get any better than that."

After seeing the Obama portrait, Brian T. Allen wrote in The National Review, "Obama looks directly at us, as if he reads our minds and challenges our assumptions. It's jarring but effective. He's formal and familiar, both tense and loose. He leans toward the viewer. It's not a position comfortably sustained. It's not repose. It suggests imminent action. For Obama, this probably means he's about to tell us, 'That's not who we are,' instructing us to question some near-universally held sentiment. Wiley builds the figure with straight lines and diagonals. His suit is dark. Aside from his wedding ring, he's unornamented. Obama's open collar softens the effect. It's his trademark look but seems like a uniform. He's a role model, so it works."

Beyond black and white: searching for a new equality

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / A great American thinker.

Growing up in the valley suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1960s, one of my childhood heroes was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Back then, as Lew Alcindor (his birth name before he changed it after converting to Islam), he was the dominating force in men's collegiate basketball in leading UCLA to three consecutive NCAA championships. I've always been fascinated by Kareem, not only as an athlete but as a human being because he's shown himself to be so much more than a basketball player. He's also a great American thinker.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's new book
focuses on many paramount issues
facing our society, including:
racism, war, death, love, hope

My current reading project is Abdul-Jabbar's latest book, Writings On the Wall: Searching For a New Equality Beyond Black and White. Co-authored with Raymond Obstfeld and published this fall, it's an insightful book that's full of wisdom and conviction and a must read as we transition from eight years of steady and thoughtful leadership by Barack Obama to the chaos-induced "post-truth" presidency of Donald Trump. In Writings On the Wall, Abdul-Jabbar explores how today's America "is a fractured society, sharply divided along the lines of race, gender, religion, political party and economic class." The book is filled with plenty of fresh reporting and serious thinking.

Writings On the Wall focuses on many paramount issues facing our society: racism, abuse of women, why politicians attack the media, war, growing old, death, love, hope. He approaches these issues with both insight and passion and draws upon his life experiences not only as superstar athlete but also as a scholar, celebrity, parent, education advocate, journalist, charity organizer, African-American and a Muslim.

U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, himself a former NBA basketball player, Rhodes Scholar and author, wrote that Abdul-Jabbar "brings his unusual and unique life story to bear on the issues of our day and adds insight for all of us in the process."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar used his trademark
"sky hook" shot to help win six NBA
championships during his 20-year
Hall of Fame career. 

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. In retirement, he has been an activist and an in-demand speaker, a basketball coach and the author of nine books for adults and three for children, including What Color Is My World?, which garnered the author the NAACP Image Award for Best Children's Book.

As an essayist for such publications as the Washington Post and TIME magazine, Abdul-Jabbar has written on a wide range of subjects, including race, politics, aging and popular culture.

In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador. Last month, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony.

"My real passion for history is in using it as a critical guide to our future, both personal and cultural," writes Abdul-Jabbar.

"History illuminates the safest path in front of us by revealing the pitfalls of the past. It is a secular bible of cautionary and inspiring stories that distills the wisdom of thousands of years of human endeavor into practical lessons about humanity's morals, politics and personal relationships. It is the ultimate self-help book. And right now, given the political and social turmoil in America, we need all the help we can get."

Abdul-Jabbar integrates a lot of popular-culture references in illustrating his ideas. He's a fan of the many artistic ways that our society chooses to communicate both its darkest fears and its brightest hopes. "Pop culture visualizes the public discourse in myriad ways: through music, movies, TV shows, poetry, comic books, literary novels, plays, YouTube, graffiti and new forms of expression that come along every day," he writes. "It provides the embraceable melody of our cultural song – it doesn't matter how profound the words of the song are if no one wants to listen. Whether Tarantino or Truffaut, all points of view and creative presentations have a place. Popular culture is a language that bridges generations, economic statuses and ethnic backgrounds. It provides a common heritage-in-the-making that brings our diverse community closer."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke during the 2016
Democratic National Convention.

Why did he write this book? "For me, there would be no point in writing a book like this unless I had some hope that it might help improve life for Americans," writes Abdul-Jabbar. "I don't imagine anything grand, just that some contentious issues might be clarified, that some people might hear a reasonable voice that isn't from the same background as others they listen to.

"Maybe they will become a little more understanding. Mostly, I hope to expand the discussion about what America is and what it means to be an American. Not with waving flags and sentimental speeches but with a return to exploring the document that defines who we are and what we stand for: the U.S. Constitution."

With his book, Writings on the Wall, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
hopes "to shine a flashlight on the path back to the
Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

What does he hope to gain? "Many Americans, as evidenced by the 2016 presidential campaign, abandoned these founding principles of reason to voice their fear, anger, frustration and rage. They openly and proudly expressed their racial bigotry, religious intolerance and misogyny as if the past 100 years of history of incremental social progress had never happened.

"Without even knowing it, they have dragged the American flag through the mud by rejecting all the principles it represents. As cartoonist Walt Kelly said in Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and he is us.' With this book, I hope to shine a flashlight on the path back to the Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

Will it work? Abdul-Jabbar is hopeful. "Each generation has to confront these challenging ideas and find ways to incorporate them into their personal belief systems as they go about their daily lives. ... I hope people choose to answer the call and together we ring about the miracle and wonder."

That, I believe, is an American dream worth dreaming.

In our garden with Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1883), American poet and essayist, and champion of individualism

* * *

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about  a variety of subjects, and he wrote very well. The 19th century American poet and essayist spent considerable time and effort focusing on and developing certain tenets about individuality and freedom, and about the relationship between the soul and surrounding world.

While Emerson's view about nature was more philosophical than naturalistic, I find much comfort in using his words to illustrate my photographs of our garden.

Below are a few of Emerson's word pictures that I've found joy in discovering and sharing. The themes of friendship, giving thanks and integrity are universal and go beyond borders.

Cheers, love and peace my dear readers.

* * *

"The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him."

* * *

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

* * *

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

Photograph of Pristine rose by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012. All rights reserved.