John Ralyea

1732 N. Whipple · Chicago, IL 60647 · (773) 772-7198
e-mail: jralyea@peoplepc.com

biography · education · portrait of JR · hobbies · ambitions

a short biography

John Ralyea was born in Flint, Michigan into the family of a Baptist preacher with a little storefront church in Beecher, a working class part of town.

By the time the church got on its financial feet, moved up into a new building, it was decided that it needed a new minister, too. (Boy, do I know about church politics!) So the family moved to Ann Arbor.

The move to Ann Arbor (the University of Michigan) was motivated by the wish to undo a decision: at the end of WW II, instead of taking advantage of the GI Bill to go to school, the preacher-to-be decided to become a sort of domestic missionary instead, taking the church job in Beecher instead. -- The cultural clash was too great, however, and the family moved once again ('fled' is the word) to central Indiana, a more hospitable climate for conservative Christians.

education

John stayed behind in Ann Arbor, got accepted into the U. of M. -- Money was a problem (no evening school, no good jobs for the unskilled) and he dropped out.

After many years, he decided to try again -- moved to Chicago, got a B.A. in French from the U.I.C.; joined the Peace Corps and taught high school science in Burkina Faso, West Africa; once back in Chicago, got a B.S. in math from Roosevelt University, and is now studying computer science at DePaul U.

hobbies

Aside from academics, John is interested in old books -- particularly those relating to popular French theater of the 17th - 19th centuries. (His friends in the picture - redrawn by 'JR' (J. Ralyea) - are the first great Harlequin (Tristano Martinelli) from about 1600 as well as a zanni playing a hurdy-gurdy (from an anonymous 16th century Veronese painting.)

John also collects (virtual) hurdy-gurdies, i.e., (re)drawings of instruments based on illustrations in old texts, for example, the 'Lambert' hurdy-gurdy:

... which he then incorporates into his artwork:

St-Vincent in a hg box
St. Vincent de Paul in an odd mood

Click here
for another view of this hurdy-gurdy

ambitions

To write a history of the French popular stage with particular emphasis on the presence of Savoyard entertainers and storylines. (Tristano Martinelli was a Savoyard.)

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