The story behind the poster

In all the years that Christopher had marbled it was his greatest wish to one day travel to see collections and meeting other marblers. He had applied to quite a few grands but was rejected every time. I believe it was 1986 that he met Stephane Ipert at Phoebe Easton and the two were talking about traveling together in the future. We didn't have the money for it but in early 1987 I had the strong feeling that we should take that chance financially, pay later for once and go because the opportunity was perfect for him not traveling alone. Many people had thought Chris had already traveled having discovered so much information on the Indian miniatures but it all happened locally. I won't go into detail where he went in May 1987 because he wrote about it in Ink& Gall Recent Travels Vol.11 No.1, 1988. So here just a little story he told me about a paper he gave away in Istanbul. He showed Yilmaz Uyar his marbled papers and suddenly the Gentlemen took one paper and told Chris that he had to have it and that he would see later why. Then in July, a couple of month after Chris returned home a tube arrived showing his paper design and inside a poster. It was a poster of The Great Love of Suleyman the Magnificent. You can see what Mr. Uyar saw in the colors of Chris's papers being similar to the image. What an honor as an American marbler to have his paper chosen. The signed poster reads: "Thanks to Christopher Weimann who is the worlds greatest marbling artist, for his contribution with his work." Yilmaz Uyar, Curator of the exhibition "Suleyman the Magnificent." 7. 7. 1987 Sometimes you have to trust a decision like this trip he took without having the means, in my gut it felt right and I encouraged him to go.
Within a week of Christopher's return we got a notice that he had been awarded a grand from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation for exactly the amount the trip cost him. Looking back now it is a great joy to remember that at least he was able to travel this one time, see collections and meet other marblers'. For him it was always wanting to learn more about the history and to share what he had learned. Even in his last lecture in October of 1988 the month before he passed he said that he was still learning, still searching yet he was the most confident in his lecture than ever before and looking to the future.
I remember a Teacher commenting afterwards that he was impressed that Chris never said "I did this and I did that" but always "We are still learning."'