OMG Stephen Hawking died today...

© 23 February 2018 Yves Messer

Stephen Hawking :

"Remember to look up at the stars

and not down at your feet.

Try to make sense of what you see

and wonder about what makes the universe..."

OMG Stephen Hawking died today...

I would not believe it although we all knew this could have  happened at any time. He was living on borrowed time.

I have been working against time. I intended to complete his portrait for his birthday this January. I got delayed and finished/signed it only this February 23d. I was very pleased with the result and was looking forward to resuming contact with him again (like ten years ago).

Fate decided otherwise.

The terrible news came this March 14th. I was in shock and disbelief.

The night before I unusually woke up early morning. I sleep in my art studio (a few miles away from Cambridge, UK) and was staring as usual at his  portrait. But it was way and unusually too early for me (about 3am) so I went back to sleep. When I woke up I read the news and thought it was a bad joke. Not his style!

Stephen Hawking was really no more... It sounds creepy but he passed away at about the same time I woke up that morning. Stephen Hawking was gone yet his portrait is still staring at me. 

His eyes were saying goodbye.

I will never forget he allowed me to visit him at his UK office in Cambridge to paint his portrait some ten years ago.
I will never forget we physically shook hands at his request.
Forget I will not.

This portrait is his last while still alive...

RIP

All my condolences to Stephen's family and friends and especially his daughter Lucy. His family are true unsung heroes.

© 2012 Yves Messer: Happy 70th, Professor Stephen Hawking and Thank You! "Wink to Life"... ;-)

Ironically Stephen Hawking died on Pi DAY and Albert Einstein's birthday.

His last wink to our world?

© 2018 Yves Messer

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