The Saturday Morning Post: Interpreting the Story is Up to the Viewer

The experts are always urging us to tell a story with our art. I think back to my language arts course my first year of high school, in sending a message there is the sender creating and encoding the message, transmitting the message, and the receiver decoding the message. The same message may have different meanings to different decoders. 

The painting above, to the gentleman's family, is a family portrait, an older man with his grandson (yes - grandson.) In the family home, it is a reminder of loved one's. Moved to the man's office, it sends a message of a devoted and happy family man, the kind of man you could trust. A connection between the generations of a family business. 

To those who know the rest of the story, the grandson was added to the painting four years after the portrait of his grandfather, after the death of the grandfather. These two people would have never been alive at the same time. A connection between generations, created in the mind of the artist. 

And yes, it is a grandson.  Babies and young children wearing diapers, were dressed in androgynous gowns until the early to mid 1900's. My father was born in 1927, and the earliest photos of him, were in gowns. The baby photos of my great uncles were all dressed this way. It was very practical way to dress a baby.  

Funky Friday: Playing with Dolls

 

Part of the work of the arts council is curating exhibits in a glass showcase in the community center. It is a place for 3-D art. We change it out every 6 weeks or so. The current theme is mixed-media and recycled materials. The next show is Dolls as Art. Believe it or not we have a committee to decide on themes and it took 2 or 3 meetings over the course a month to come up with them. 

When I first thought about this, I figured the childhood, now atique Barbie dolls and maybe a Ken doll would show up. I doubt there are any GI Joes left among the residents (and Militaria is the theme later in the year.) 

Then I thought about Richard. I may be the only person who has held onto a Richard Nixon action figure.  A gift from my Sweet Bear. I have had him for years. I pulled him from my cabinet of curiosities, dusted him off, and he was the first item to be loaned for the next showcase. If I took his trousers off, and changed his batteries, he talks. "I Am Not A Crook!" And yes, I have taken his trousers off a couple of times. It is kind of creepy.  

I mentioned this entry for the next showcase at last Saturday's show opening, to a round of laughter. A good response, we want them laughing and thinking creatively. 

So the answer to my April Fools Day conundrum, is I was never able to wrangle an invitation to the White House for a bill signing. My dearly departed colleague Lori was invited when President Obama signed the Elder Justice Act, she declined saying that she didn't want to be bothered, when asked if anyone from our office could attend, she said she "didn't think anyone would be interested." By the time I expressed my interest, it was too late to add names to the guest list. That is the closest I ever came. I could have strangled Lori, but I didn't.  

Thursday Ramble: On the Political Campaign Trail

The fall of 1976 was the first Presidential Election I was eligible to vote in. Gerald Ford was president, taking over from Richard Nixon, when Nixon resigned. Jimmy Carter was the Democratic nominee, and in the end won the election. 

Early in the year, there was competition for the Republican nomination, George Wallace the racist, segregationist former governor of Alabama ran. Racism is nothing new in the Republican party, especially in the south. Ronald Reagan, the former governor of California, and long ago actor who once co-starred with a chimpanzee, also ran for the nomination that year. Ultimately the party nominated Gerald Ford, it is hard to unseat a sitting president who is eligible for reelection. Ultimately, his decision to pardon Richard Nixon to bring political peace to the country, likely cost him the election.  

My family was spending winters in Florida. Both Wallace and Reagan campaigned heavily in the primaries in Florida that spring, including stops in Brevard County, landing at what was then known as TICO airport about 3 miles south of the home my parents had bought to retire and die in. Wallace visited on a weekday, and his comings and goings overlapped with me being in school. Reagan visited on a weekend and went to a fund raiser at Fox Lake Park. 

I was there, standing along the waist high chain link fence when his campaign jet landed and taxied up. He worked the fence like the politician he was, shaking hands and exchanging words with the gathered crowd.  I was there with a my camera and a 135mm short telephoto lens. In the archive is a single print of a photograph of him, standing not five feet away. Deeper in the archive is all of the film I use that day. I remarked, "President Reagan has a nice ring to it" he replied, "I hadn't thought of it, but yes it does."(I am sure he had thought of it, Nancy probably had it embroidered on his underwear.) 

Little did I know that when he was elected four years later, he would try to destroy much of the social safety net in the country, and gut mental health care in ways that have never been restored - evil bastard.  

Thinking about this, motivated me to search in my archive of negatives from the 1970s, I have about 3,000 mostly black and white negatives in a three ring binder, in archival storage pages most from the mid 1970s. I was buying film in 100 foot rolls, and rolling my own (bulk loading as it was known.) I processed all of my black and white film and color positive film for several years. I knew this was late spring of 1976, and most of the pages are dated, I was able to locate the two pages from that day in just a few minutes. I have a film scanner (actually two of them) I scanned what appeared to be the best of the negatives. 

The Thursday Ramble: Along the Waterfront

For my gentle readers (and the rest of you too) who are looking for clues to my April Fools question. Sometimes I am the fool. I thought I had moved this post to next week, I hadn't, the post about one of the two true answers will post at Noon, New York time today. The other clue will post tonight at midnight New York time.  

The western property line of the farm I grew up was the east water line of Gravel Creek. We learned this after my Grandmother sold the front half of the farm to my father, he owned it for a few short years, and the neighboring farmer stopped on day and made him an offer he couldn't refuse to buy the land. He agreed to let my parents use the house, the pond, the farm buildings for as long as they wanted - they were a few years away from retirement. After the ownership had transferred, the farmer had the land re-surveyed and set the property line along the edge of a field, leaving the entire creek on the adjoining property - his property. Why, the creek had moved over the 200 years since the original survey, leaving my father's farm with about 10 acres of what had originally been a part of the adjoining farm. A gain of land by the movement of a water course is accretion, a loss is disacreation. 

In addition the creek along one side of the farm, there was a five acre spring fed man-made pond, and a couple of acres of wetlands that had enough water in it to have fish in it. Hence I grew up around a lot of water. Minnesota may known as the land of 10,000 lakes, but Michigan is not far behind with thousands of lakes carved out by the glaciers of the last ice age. 

Less than a month after I moved to the DC area area, I stepped outside one morning and realized I could smell the nearby water. Not in a foul way, but in a pleasant there is a lot of water here way. I realized then, that Lexington Kentucky did not have that smell. There are a few shallow creeks that pass through Lexington, but no major rivers and certainly no lakes. Kentucky has some massive reservoirs, dammed up rivers, but no natural lakes.  And we didn't live near any of them. 

I do enjoy getting out along the water here.  We are close enough to smell the water, and the walks along the waterfront never fail to bring calm to me.  The building we live in is also about 150 feet higher than the river level, living on top of a hill I don't worry about flooding. In fact with global warming and rising sea levels, we could end up with waterfront property in 100 years. 
 

My World of Wonders: April 1, 2026

 

Where have I been this week?  Thursday we went over to the outlet mall across the bridge in Maryland and I bought two pairs of shoes and some casual shirts, then we stopped by for early voting on a ballot initiative. Friday I spent four hours hanging the new gallery show. Saturday I was off the farmers market - it was cold - but the pastry shop is back for the summer. The gym, the pool. The community center. Into Washington DC, a walk around the Washington Monument, up past the Old Executive Office building to have lunch with a friend, then across town to Gallery Place to catch the subway home. 

Who have a talked to this week? Rachel, Ruth, Mary, Amy, Michelle, Warren, Marcell, Zack, Joan, Pratibha, Jon, Kevin, Jane-Ann, my sweet bear, Anna, Julia, Mike, Linda, my social contacts runneth over. Erica, Amy. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? A saffron rice and chicken casserole. Sauteed chicken, cheddar mashed potatoes and coleslaw. A beef and white bean chilli. 

What have I been watching on YouTube? In addition to the usuals, The "Volta a Catalunya 2026" a bike race in Spain, NBC sports had a daily highlights show of the race. The last stage started in Barcelona started a couple of blocks from the hotel we stayed in. 

How is the weather? Bipolar, hot for a day or two, cold for a day or two, with intermittent high winds. 

What am I doing for April Fools Day? Two Truths and Lie, you get to guess which is which.

1. I have a Richard Nixon Action figure.
2. I photographed Ronald Reagan when he was running for President.
3. I was once invited to the Oval Office for a bill signing.

Edit late in the day

Watch the next couple of days to find the ultimate answer. This has been fun and sent me deep into my past.  

Travel Tuesday: Arts in Montebello New and First Works

Spring Colors, in the Restaunt - my work

There are 55 works on this one long wall 

Lots of diverse talent 

Fluid and Abstract Works, we have a resident to who teaches fluid art.

I have two paintings and a photograph in the restaurant. 

Spectacular, colorful and large, yours for only $850 plus shipping.

The long wall from one end to the other

The last piece to be added. 

It takes a few minutes to see them all.

The Show Poster

A photo from 1976, shown for the first time in 1977 at the Titusville Art League in Florida. 
One of my all time favorite images. The night I printed this, everything just worked like magic. 

There are three portraits in the Restaurant taken in Belarus in the 1990s by a now retired state department official. 

The third of Dian's portraits

Water color, calligraphy, photographs, painting, collage. 

A cluster of black and white photos, all inkjet prints from scanned negatives. 

Monday Mood: Immortality is Being Remembered

A great loss for the blogging world, Catalyst aka Franklin Bruce Taylor of Oddball Observations died last week.  I must have found his blog through a comment on one of your blogs, he has been on my daily read list for several years, he most often posted on Fridays. He was a retired journalist, who had lived a long and interesting creative life.  His darling wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) died in her sleep a couple of months ago, and Bruce had written of his own failing health - as his posting became less frequent. 

I never met him, yet somehow I feel that I knew him.  We knew him through his writing, his sense of humor, his wonder at the creativity of his wife and his brilliant daughter. He was modest, but occasionally his accomplishments as a journalist showed in his postings over the years. 

I wish I had met him. As bloggers, who regularly read and comment on one another's blogs, we really should meet one another. We have this very superficial connection, friends who have never met - modern day penpals in a public forum.  

Over a decade ago, a dozen or so of us gathered for dinner and conversation. I met several bloggers, a couple of whom I consider friends, a couple of whom sadly have died. Our lives are richer for having met and known one another. 

I will long remember Bruce and his work, immortality is being remembered. 

The Sunday Five: Light at the End of the Tunnel

1: What are you looking forward to this year? 

2: Where would you like to be in 5 years? 

3: Do you think things are going to get better or worse? 

4: What do you look forward to each day? 

5: Is there a tunnel near you that you can walk or ride a bike through? 

My answers: 

1: What are you looking forward to this year? The grand adventure, a month of travel. 

2: Where would you like to be in 5 years? Still moving around under my own power. 

3: Do you think things are going to get better or worse? It is going to be a tough year, then it will get better. 

4: What do you look forward to each day? Reading blogs and trading texts with a few special people. 

5: Is there a tunnel near you that you can walk or ride a bike through? This is the Wilkes Street tunnel in old town Alexandria, it was built for trains when the waterfront was industrial, and converted to a pedestrian passage after the waterfront become million-dollar residential. It is about 1.5 miles from where we live. Wilkes, as in John Wilkes Booth the assassin of President Lincoln, his family lived in the area. 

Please share your answers in the comments.