A few weeks ago, Charlie Lopresti came to Spindleworks to talk about the weather. Charlie is the weatherman for Channel 13, and he drove the station car to Spindleworks. First, he came and ate lunch with the artists and we talked about all kinds of things- he was mostly talking to me about computers and horseback riding. I was so excited that I couldn’t even talk that much…I watch Charlie on the news almost every night! I am interested in the weather so I thought it would be good to invite him to Spindleworks. We all like the weather here. After lunch, Charlie did a presentation for the artists in the weaving room downstairs. He brought all of his own equipment including a weather balloon. A weather balloon is a helium balloon that they blow up like a party balloon and then attach a device to it that tracks the weather. He was kidding around and saying that he should blow up the balloon in Spindleworks! Barbara asked if they ever get the weather balloons back but he said no, that they usually pop. He showed us some video clips of storms and one was from when he used to work on Mt. Washington. He also showed us a chart of how they measure the wind, as well as a funny video of him playing around in very high winds. Charlie also mentioned that he used to work with the weatherman from Channel 6, Joe Cupo. All of the artists thought it was fun and we learned a lot from him. He answered our questions about the weather and other things. To finish his presentation he gave us a “behind the scenes” look of what they do in the studio at Channel 13- it’s actually just a blank green screen behind him and he’s looking at the monitor!
Before Charlie left, I gave him a painting that I did of him. I was a little nervous to present it to him but then he gave me a hug and really liked it. He asked me how long it took to paint and I told him that it took a month. I had to look his picture up on the computer and practice drawing him before I got to paint. I also had to figure out what to put in the background and I decided to paint a green screen with the names of towns and temperatures because that’s what he shows on the news. It was exciting to give him a gift like that. I wrote him a thank you note and mentioned that if the news channel ever wants a new story to report they should come to Riding to the Top- the horseback riding center I go to. Spindleworks really appreciated Charlie’s visit and we hope he will come again if he can!!
- Written by artist Melissa Capuano
