Michael Graves Entertains Neocon Audience

Michael Graves led a large Neocon audience on "A Grand Tour" of his life early Tuesday morning. The second day of Neocon began with witty remarks and great stories of his remarkable life. Some of his impressive credentials include studying at the University of Cincinatti, Harvard, and the American Academy of Rome and teaching at Princeton. He has been awarded twelve honorary doctorates and information on his two business practices can be found at www.michaelgraves.com. Graves talked about his love for drawing and showed us many examples of his incredible artistry skills. He talked passionately about inspirational artists and their work like Walter Gropius and his Bauhaus school, Andrea Palladio, Francesco Borromini, Gianlorenzo Bernini, and the Josef Hoffmann pot. While in Rome, he sold his drawings to fund travel but, fortunately, we were able to see pictures of these drawings. He also talked fondly of the home he bought in Princeton, NJ and he shared many pictures of the transformation of his home and his many precious collections. It was fun to view pictures of these collections and learn about where the inspiration of his many wonderful designs came from. He is well known for the consumer products sold at Target stores and for other useful objects like the Alessi stainless steel kettle with the iconic triangular shape, blue handle and red rooster. Of late, Graves has been working on improving design in health-related facilities after spending time in eight different hospitals over the last seven years. It was truly a pleasure to listen to Graves talk about his life. I never knew what a truly funny and entertaining man he was.