Joseph Minsky and Ellaida Neiman

March 5th, 2010

I was out on one my my dawn explorations when I came across this:

Which, honestly, I initially looked at because of the pinkish morning clouds, but when I looked closer I noticed the oddities:

I love the idea of simply defining oneself as ‘ARTIST,’ not to mention the artistic touch with the dates. I’ve never seen death displayed as a fraction before.

So I did some checking and discovered it’s a mother and her predeceased son. I was unable to find very much on him online, except that he may be the grantor of the Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award, given to young attorneys who focus on immigration law. It’s hard to say, except that the award was created just before he died, so the stars seem to align, but there’s not so much as a death notice for him anywhere that I can find.

His mother, however, sounds like she was one hell of a lady. From her obit:

Mrs. Neiman, An Internationally Known Painter, Was Born In The Vinnitsa Region Of Ukraine. She Lived And Worked In Kharkov, Odessa, Chernovtsky And Moscow And Was A Member Of The Union Of Artists Of The Ussr. She Participated In Larger Exhibitions Throughout Much Of Europe, Tokyo, Jerusalem And New York. Mrs. Neiman Moved To New Orleans In 1993. An Exhibit Of Her Work Was Hosted By The New Orleans Museum Of Art In January, 2002 And Most Recently By The Hanson Gallery.

I tried to find examples of her work, but there aren’t any online, though she still has several pieces in a gallery in Berlin- ironic for a Russian Jew.