Valley Stream artist has work featured on 'CBS Sunday Morning'

Valley Stream artist Mike Stanko had his artwork featured on the Jan. 24 episode of “CBS News Sunday Morning.” For decades, the long running news show has featured a depiction of the sun submitted by artist viewers after each segment.

Stanko said he has had been watching the program for at least 20 years, and had decided to submit his own sun for placement on the show after the urging of friends.

“We’ve been big fans of this show for years,” Stanko said. “It’s a real feel good news show, a ‘60 Minutes-’lite if you will, and we’ve been seeing the suns at the end of the segments sent in by viewers,” he said. “Friends have been telling me forever to send in my artwork.”

Finally, after watching a segment on Jessica Frank, the associate director on the show in charge of curating which artist-submitted suns are featured on “Sunday Morning,” Stanko decided to submit some of his own painted suns.

“She spoke about how many she gets, the various types and how she decided which one fits a particular story,” Stanko said of her process.

Frank replied within a few days, telling him that she would consider Stanko’s suns for a future segment and let him know. Then, in the week before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden, Stanko decided to paint a sun with the red-white-and-blue of the American flag, and sent it to Frank on Jan. 19.

Stanko said he figured he wouldn’t hear back, but at around 10 p.m. on Saturday Frank emailed letting him know his American flag sun would be featured the next day.

“I was thrilled,” he said and let his followers known on social media.