It was in October 1996 that I had the rare opportunity to interview husband and wife legendary artists Christo and wife Jeanne-Claude Javacheff.

And of all places, they were speaking as part of an event at Valparaiso High School.

The announcement Thursday of Jeanne-Claude's death late Wednesday at age 74 following a brain aneurysm reminded me of my rare opportunity more than a decade ago, with neither of the artists willing to admit if they had a "favorite" artistic creation from the past 25 years.

"If you asked a mother which of her children is her favorite, she's not going to pick one over another," Jeanne-Claude said to me, while talking about what was then already a 36-year partnership with husband Christo.

"Like children, we love each of our works for the special qualities each one possesses. But we do also have an actual 36-year-old son, Cyril, whom we also love very much."

Christo and Jeanne-Claude spoke to more than 300 art teachers in 1996 attending the annual Art Educators Association of Indiana Area One fall conference Thursday in Valparaiso High School's auditorium.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who also were both born on the same day and within the same hour, have become internationally known for their huge outdoor art exhibits that always involve fabrics. In 1972, the couple used silver, billowy, silk fabrics to wrap the Reichstag in Berlin. In 1983, they used pink polypropylene fabric to surround 11 Florida islands in Biscayne Bay. In 1991, they built 1,340 blue, two-story, 435-pound umbrellas to dot Japan's mountainside and 1,760 yellow umbrellas on California's desertscape. After one of the umbrellas blew over and killed a tourist, the display was dismantled.

But Christo's work has always been the subject of headline controversy, usually from conservationists and environmentalists who say the displays wreak havoc with nature.

"We do a tremendous amount of research before any project is started," Christo said.

"For our 'Surrounded Islands' project, the idea was for the 200 feet of pink fabric to extend from the beaches out into the bay. People were worried about how the pink fabric would affect the manatee (sea cows) and whether they would be able to come up for air with the fabric floating on the water surface."

Jeanne-Claude said marine biologists, at the time, even did tests in huge water tanks to see how the fabric affected the manatees.

"The marine biologists covered half the tank with the fabric to see how the manatee would react," she said.

"Not only did they prefer to spend their time under the fabric, but mating patterns doubled."

Christo and Jeanne-Claude said they wanted to be a part of the educators' conferences to share insight with art teachers, whom he says are responsible for guiding the future of the art world.

"Even though we've done projects all over the world, we really don't speak that many languages," Jeanne-Claude said.

"We're lucky to have good interpreters because we don't speak Japanese, German or whatever the language is in Colorado."

She said they can tell the difference in students from around the world by the questions they ask.

"There was one day when we did the same lecture presentation in classrooms in the U.S. and in Japan both on the same day," she said.

"We were talking about the umbrella project and the first question asked by a U.S. student was 'How much did it cost?' The first question asked by a Japanese student was 'What do the colors represent?' That tells you how different the societies are."

For the record, Christo said the yellow umbrellas represented the dry weather in California and the blue umbrellas in Japan represented the wet, lush mountainside.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude said they do not accept grants or donations to fund their projects. They said their projects are funded by selling Christo's sketches of proposed projects.

A sweet opportunity

Reader Meagan Yothment, a student journalist at Loyola University Chicago who is also studying music, sent an e-mail reminding about a great theater event unfolding in Munster this weekend. There's also further details today in Carol Moore's Theater Scene column.

"Cookie: A Half Baked Musical" opened this week and continues at 7 p.m. tonight and Saturday at St. Thomas More School, 8436 Calumet Ave. Call (219) 836-9151 for more details. It's $5 for adults and $2 for students.

 "I've written a short profile about the young composer of a musical premiering in Munster this weekend, which I think will be of interest to your readers," Yothment explained.

 "Stephen Schwartz was 23 when he composed his first musical. Andrew Lloyd Weber was 17. Leonard Bernstein was 26. Munster resident Jonathan Alexander is 20. A student at Ball State majoring in music, for the last seven months, he's been composing 'Cookie: A Half-Baked Musical.' The score will be published after its first performance."

The musical is the creation of Kristyn Estes, a Munster author and co-director of the theater program at St.Thomas More, who worked with Alexander, as he created the music.

Readers might also recognize Estes name, since she also performs at events with Charlie Blum and his Orchestra.

 How does it feel to compose a musical? "

Stressful," Alexander said, according to Yothment, who says she can detect the tension "apparent in his voice."

"I have fun writing the music, but I don't have fun transcribing the melody and fighting with tonality."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or 219.852.4327.

Today's Celebrity Birthdays

Actress-comedian Kaye Ballard is 84. Actress Estelle Parsons is 82. TV personality Richard Dawson is 77. Comedian Dick Smothers is 71. Singer Norman Greenbaum is 67. Actress Veronica Hamel is 66. Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff and actor Samuel E. Wright (Sebastian in "Little Mermaid") are 63. Musician Joe Walsh is 62. Actor Richard Masur ("One Day at a Time") is 61. Actress Bo Derek is 53. Drummer Jim Brown of UB40 is 52. Actress Sean Young is 50. Pianist Jim Brickman is 48. Drummer Todd Nance of Widespread Panic is 47. Actress Ming-Na ("ER") is 46. Rapper Mike D of the Beastie Boys and rapper Sen Dog of Cypress Hill is 44. Actress Marisa Ryan ("New York Undercover") is 35. Country singer Dierks Bentley and actor Joshua Gomez ("Chuck") are 34. Country singer Josh Turner is 32. Actress Nadine Velazquez ("My Name Is Earl") is 31. Bassist Jared Followill of Kings of Leon is 23.