The "A True Talent and Great Friend" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a new art exhibit that is appearing at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Features seven artists who are all abstract artists.  One of the artists attempts to explain how one should approach viewing abstract art.  He tells viewers that they should be patient and look at an abstract painting and ask why are these two colors together and why is this form so far from another.  Eventually something will "find you".  For me, I enjoy abstract artwork, but many, including my wife, just can't find it.  

HIgh School teacher Neil Dreibelbis

I can remember when I taught graphic arts at Manheim Township High School and in the classroom next to me was art teacher Neil Dreibelbis who was the master of abstract painting.  Directly inside his classroom door stood an easel which held his latest piece of artwork which was always abstract.  I enjoyed watching his progress and standing back from it and telling Neal what I thought it looked like to me.  That always got to him!  "It doesn't have to look like anything," he would tell me.  "But it looks like a train engine," I remember telling him about one of his paintings.  Next time I walked in the room he had painted over most of the painting attempting to take the train engine out of it.  When Carol and I moved into our "Beach House" in the mid-1990's we purchased one of his prints to hang above our living room sofa.  

Neil's print that now hangs in the second level of our home.

Very interesting original that Neil titled "Panis Angelicus" (6th stanza of the hymn Sacris Solemnis by Thomas Aquinas). Then, when I retired, the school bought one of his paintings from him to give to me as a present.  Today Neil is the owner of the Upstairs Studio Artists Cooperative in Phoenix- ville, PA which features the work of more than 15 artists from the Philadelphia, PA area, many of which are abstract artists.  I checked out his website and as I was viewing the paintings he has for sale, saw the print that hangs in my living room.  

Print that I was given when I retired from teaching.

Under it was printed "SOLD".  Pretty neat to think he valued that print enough to place it on his website even though it no longer is for sale.  Neal studied art at Skidmore College in NY, Western Michigan, University of Alaska and the International Art & Music Workshop in Switzerland.  Also, studied dance at the Louis-Nikolai Dance Theater, NY, theater at HB Studio, NY and art history at Penn State, Kutztown University and Skidmore College.  

Neil at his studio in Phoenixville, PA

His resume includes exhibits throughtout the east coast and fellowships in NY, PA and Colorado.  Talented guy who I loved teaching next door to and enjoying lunch together for over 10 years.  Carol and I have it on our "To-Do" list to make a trip this coming summer to visit him in Phoenixville and catch up on the last couple of years.  I'm sure it will also include an invitation to visit with us so he can have another serving of Carol's famous oyster pie.  The three of us finished off one of her 10" pies the last time he made a visit.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

A few more of Neil's paintings from his website follow:

 

This is a print Neil gave to me titled "Sangre de Christo."