Michael Noeth DM2 (SW)

Professor Karen Santry

On September 11th, I was on the phone in my Westbeth art studio when an aircraft roared past so loudly it felt as though it went right through me.

I ran out to the hall and screamed as a large airliner crashed straight into the World Trade Center, "Help, help every one - a plane hit the World Trade Center!"

Westbeth is an artist's housing building occupied by painters, dancers, photographers, musicians, writers and sculptors.

At 8:46 a.m. I knew that most of Westbeth's tenants were just waking up. So I kept on yelling for everyone to hurry and that people have been hurt Out of their apartments the artists came and all screamed in horror at the sight out side the hall window. I ran to the roof, as others called for the police and ambulances.

The roof was one flight up, but I stopped and knocked on the door to the famous Cunningham Dance studio. The dancers joined me on the roof when we all screamed again as we saw the second plane hit the South Tower!

I ran back to my studio to call my mom, sister and my childhood friend, Susan Guerrero, Style Editor of the New York Times.

"Are you sure?" she asked, "This would mean a terrorist act. Are you absolutely sure Frisky?" Frisky was my childhood name- "Yes Sue, this is for real and it is terrible!" Suddenly a loudspeaker over at the Times confirmed the awful truth. "Susan get out! They may target the Times." I hung up and ran back to the roof.

The artists, some covered in paint, rock musicians having been up all night, covered in tattoos, the dancers in leotards, the children of the building,artists‚ dads, all on their knees sobbing with grief at the sight of the smoking Trade Center! We had a perfect view and were screaming to the people to stop from jumping. A stranger rushed up to me and told me that my phone was ringing. It was bypassing my voice mail, which can only mean that it was a government call! "Huh?"

Still crying, I ran to my apartment, it was Michael, and he was calling from the Pentagon.

Michael Noeth, my former student was calling to see if I was all right. He had been in the Navy for nine years now and would call every morning at 5 a.m. with the paint color of the day. Everyday, even if he was half way around the world!

Michael would make up the oil colors such as Cadmium Blue.

"This is serious", he said. "I am changing the paint color of the day to Mars Black!" Michael was the Pentagon's Navy Illustrator, having a large office and all. He explained that these were terrorists. I didn't even know what a terrorist was. While on the phone, I looked it up in my dictionary. The Pentagon was on high alert.

"I love you, and you are my favorite artist," I said. We used to joke about the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, and Michael thought I looked like Patsy (especially being from FIT), and were goofing that we loved everyone as Patsy and Edwina always did on the show. But we were serious with one another. "I love you too the very most Patsy!" Michael said.

Then the line went dead…

Five guys burst into my apartment and yelled, "Where's the television?" I could only point to the second floor platform.

"The Pentagon has been hit!"

I was in shock as I watched the image of smoke coming out of the Pentagon on the television. I was just in a state of disbelief. That could not be my former student that could do the best David Bowie impressions? Not my friend, not the one who calls every day."

"Hey Santry, I'm in Australia and I am holding a Koala bear!"

"Hey Santry, I'm in Venice on a canal! It is so Jansen!"

"Wow, it is so hot, I am in the Bahrain. You could fry an egg on this deck and the smoke is awful!"

That was MY Michael- the wonderful artist that would talk about paintings, art and models, love and life.

Michael Noeth was among the 189 killed when yet another hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. His grandmother, Muriel Kuhn, television actress and his mother, a singer and musician, Merrilly Noeth and I had just seen The Mikado with Michael to celebrate his 30th birthday! We all loved the over the top and the theatrical.

During the intermission, Muriel and Merrilly dragged Michael and me backstage. Being wild and fun loving, they charged into the dressing room and we met all the actors.

There was Michael in his Navy uniform amongst all the actors and actresses in various states of dress and Japanese costume. Personally I had enough makeup on to pass as a Geisha myself, so I was thrilled and felt right at home, but when I was with Michael and his family, I felt even more alive as they were always ready to seize the moment.

We ran back to our seats as the bell rang and I vowed to do a life-size portrait of Pooh-Bah. I mean- how cool and how outrageous! I did not paint Pooh-Bah as I was too shy to ask him, but in June I did do a life-size portrait of Sean John (P. Diddy) -yes he posed!

Michael Noeth graduated from FIT in 1994 as an Illustration major. Ana Ishikawa was also Michael's teacher and a great influence. He joined the Navy to see the world, and to keep on painting and drawing. He began to paint and draw his shipmates, Navy life, and the exotic places he visited.

His superior officers noticed his talent and after a short while, Michael found himself illustrating for the Navy magazine All Hands. He became an official illustrator and draftsman in terms of naval rank and was commissioned to paint portraits of all the past chiefs of naval operations, which were to hang in the Pentagon.

Michael's forte was his attraction to the old Master's way of painting. During his worldly travels he would visit the best art museums from each country and investigate their libraries and chat with curators for secret formulas of glazes and paint mixtures of the Masters. He would call me on the phone and we would eagerly share, discuss, and try out the findings. His work improved in leaps and bounds. Every visit he wore more medals of honor and accomplishment, which I aahed and oohed over.

Michael was represented by a top gallery in Hawaii and had two one-person shows in SoHo's Monteserrat Gallery. The openings were the place to be and all women worried weeks in advance about what to wear. Friends from FIT, the Navy, the Screen Actor's Guild, and the SoHo art scene attended. Well Michael sold a lot of paintings and drawings. No one before had depicted Naval travels in paint and through drawing. I am currently working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to transfer the Michael's Persian Gulf work to their permanent collection. I was moved to tears at Michael's last show because the work was so powerful, mystical and yet, so honest.

September 11th, was a week after our charismatic Michael's last show. I organized a memorial at FIT for Michael, and the Navy came out in the fullest force imaginable sending over 150 sailors. Rear Admiral Kirk Unruh Jr., Naval Reserve Deputy Commander Surface Forces of the Atlantic presented the Purple Heart and the Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal to Michael's mother and grandmother. Michael's surviving fellow office mates spoke and one Officer Brown's young son had been killed, as he was in the plane that hit the Pentagon. Officer Brown thought so highly of Michael he made the long trip to New York from Washington where he had just buried his own.

Admiral after Admiral interspersed with Lieutenants, gorgeous Dr. Brown, President of FIT, spoke. Michael's grandmother read one of his poems, his mother sang a song and I showed slides of Michael's paintings and drawings on the giant 25 foot projector screen on stage.

When Michel was a student at FIT, he hung out at the Crafts Center, rather revolutionizing it, as he appeared to move in. He made numerous boat models and drew women models, organized shows and did cool things like having contests such as "Can you name differences and similarities between the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria?"

Awards were things like tickets to a Pink Floyd concert. He was definitely one of us, very, very full of personality.

Michael left his personal art supplies and art books back at his apartment. His grandmother and mom gave them to me saying that he would have wanted me to have them.

In my studio now named The Michael Noeth Studio, I sometimes just go in, sit and look at his hundreds of art books. Then, I stand up and pick up one of his paintbrushes and say "Michael this stroke is for you. Perhaps it is the paint color of the day. "

Love and Tears,
Karen Santry

Professor Karen Santry
Assistant Chairperson Illustration Department
Fashion Institute of Technology

Through The Ashes

More Comics