John Winkler
John Winkler (1890-1979) created numerous scenes of San Francisco, often etching them en pleine air. When I first moved to the Bay Area and was looking at galleries to represent me, many people asked if I was related to John Winkler. Little did I know that a couple years later I would meet him and print for him. Representing Kala Institute, Yuzo Nakano and I met John and his wife, Elizabeth, who were looking for someone to print many of his plates for his upcoming retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. We had at least one wonderful lunch at their house. He had had a stroke and could barely speak, but could tell dirty jokes and followed the conversations, telling us some of his etching techniques. Nakano was in charge of this large printing job at Kala and there was a small crew of 2-4 printers. All the prints I own are from this job. John passed away shortly before the retrospective opened.
Later, Elizabeth and her son hired me sometimes to do printing demonstrations at the studio in their house in El Cerrito when they had Open Houses.