The Saturday Morning Post: Let Change Feed Your Creativity

There are few things that bring more change to our lives than travel, I use travel, and the changes it brings, to feed my creativity. I try to travel with an open mind, looking for what is different, or new to me, and letting that feed my creativity.

This is most notable on grand adventures, but it applies equally to every time we get out of the house, or out of the place we work. Examine what is around you, look for what is changing, what is new, and what is disappearing. Pause for a few minutes and watch a building being torn down, and you will develop new understanding of how buildings are built. What elements stand the strongest, what elements are the most fragile. 

I am headed to the airport today, off to feed my creativity. 

An update 

35000 feet and headed south this afternoon, check in and security were a breeze. Lots of lakes and rivers down there.

Friday Features: Dinosaurs

This is not written by AI. Any mistakes or misstatements of material fact are my own. I was recently asked to provide a statement of AI usage for a book chapter that I wrote on identity theft and cybercrime (the book should go to print this summer.)  Other than spelling and grammar tools in Google Docs, I used none. The editor seemed surprised by this. Maybe I will learn to use those tools, but I learned to write the old fashioned way. 

I am a dinosaur. I bought my first electronic typewriter when I was working on BA, a Panasonic with spell check and about a 20 page memory. I could edit and retype a chapter with the push of a button- what a huge step forward. I started law school just as online legal research was becoming the norm. I think I was the last class at the University of Louisville that had to master legal research in the print books, before being given access to the online databases. And I am glad I was trained that way, though I will never use Shepard's Citations again - ever! 

Computers have become a part of our daily lives in little more than 30 years, smartphones in less than 20 years.  There is more computing power in my phone, than NASA had to land men on the moon when I was growing up. It is not that the dinosaurs couldn't get the job done, but it took longer.  We can do so much more, so much faster today. I still believe that understanding the underlying process of research and writing, of capturing an image, makes a difference in how I use the tools to do it faster. In a way, I am the last of the bridge generation, between digital dinosaurs and digital natives. 

I struggled with this post. The Muses seem to have left on the grand adventure a few weeks ahead of me.  Inspiration has been hard to find. I had this post written, and left it to fester for a couple of days, and it hit me that the best part of it, was what was buried in the middle. I can hear a long ago editor shouting across the room, "don't bury the lead, put it first." I am so glad I learned from writers who knew how to write, even if it took 50 years for me to apply some of the lessons.  (Dave Snoffer, you made a difference in your far to few years.) 

The Thursday Ramble: Tourist Season

 There was a really tasteless joke in Miami 30 years ago that went something like this, "They say it is tourist season, yet they get so upset when one gets shot, not at all like deer season in New Jersey." 

I lived in Florida for almost 20 years, tourist season was a very real part of life. With Disney and the world of Worlds, there were actually several tourist seasons, Thanksgiving through New Years, snowbirds from November through March, spring breakers for a month around easter, and Brits broiling in the sun in summer (only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the Florida heat and humidity in July and August.) 

Washington DC has a couple of defininate tourist seasons.  Summer, starting in late May, though the end of August is family season. This crowd is filled with disheveled parents, bored children, most with sore feet in shoes that were stylish and not made for walking. You look at the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building and think that is a nice 15 minute walk, not knowing it is over two-miles of hellscape. They think they can "see the Smithsonian" on Thursday before lunch, not realizing that the Smithsonian is eight museums in well over one-million square feet of space, and that does not include the National Gallery of Art - with two additional buildings or the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center out at Dulles with nearly 300,000 sq ft of aircraft and spacecraft displays. 

School group seasons, there are two - mid-October through mid-November, and March-April when masses of middle and high school groups from across the eastern half of the country descend on the city. These are marked by large numbers of clearly distracted students, trying to be cool and fit in, led by either overly concerned chaperons or chaperones who are clearly glad they got a free trip to DC and don't really care if the kid wander off never to be seen before the bus leaves to go back to Iowa. They travel in packs of about 35, the number of seats on a tour bus, and all try to squeeze into the same door of a subway car, out of fear that if they go in a different door, they won't go to the same place. 

Then there is Cherry Blossom season, also known as the season of disappointment. The Cherry Blossom festival is scheduled, the dates published, tours are booked, hotel prices are doubled about a year in advance, and the trees pay absolutely no attention to the schedule. Half the time the trees bloom two weeks before the festival and the trees are nice and green when the tourists arrive, about half the time, the trees bloom two weeks after the festival, leaving the tourists straining to see the pink buds and wondering what all of the hype is about. If the weather suddenly turns hot for three or four days, the trees may bloom, go into leaf and drop all of the blossoms - falling and drifting like snow, in three days. Maybe one in ten years, the peak bloom, matches the dates of the festival, the other nine out of ten years tourists wonder why they didn't book the Mardi Gras package instead, the parades always occur on the scheduled day (but seldom on time.) 

My World of Wonders: April 15, 2026

What have I been up to in the kitchen? I asked Sweet Bear what he wanted for dinner, and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "take out Chinese?" That was all I needed to hear. I had ramen noodles, chicken, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, and a couple of Asian sauces, I made chicken veggie stir-fry over noodles. A few minutes of careful knife work, and a few minutes of cooking. Cheddar and Onion spread, my favorite Tesco Express sandwich when I am in the UK is Cheddar and Onion, sadly no one here makes this, so I make my own. It is simply grated onion, cheddar, mayo and maybe a little salt. Roast Pork Tenderloin, cheddar mashed potatoes, and mix veggies.  Sloppy Joe's and potato salad. 

Where have I been this week? The pool, the gym, the gallery to update a wall tag, the community center for an Arts group meeting. Into DC to have dinner with an old friend of Sweet Bear's.  The farmers market. King Street in Old town Alexandria for a Sunday morning walk. The pharmacy and a walk along the river. 

What have I been reading? Big Bad Wool, a novel about very wise sheep. I have four books loaded on my Kindle for travel reading. Amazon informed me this week, my Kindle is so old, that they are discontinuing technical support for it this spring. I have used this one for over ten years. A few years ago, I was worried that it was failing and I bought a replacement, but decided to keep using the old one as long as it worked. It still works, but sometime later this spring I won't be able to download new books to it. And I am okay with that. I have far and away gotten my money's worth out of it.  When I am home, I read mostly print books, I use the Kindle when I travel, I can carry a months worth of books in less space and weight than one book. I find the screen on my phone too small to read much on. My IPad is an antique - but it does what I need. I expect that Apple will drop it from support in the next year or so. 

Who have a talked to this week? My Sweet Bear, Erica, Eric, Warren, Paul, Marcel, Susan. 

What is special about this post? For a couple of months, I have been writing posts, scheduling them ahead of time, to assure coverage while we are away on a Grand Adventure, and to allow myself a digital detox. While I may do a little editing and updating over the next 5 weeks, this is the last post that I need to write between now in May 21. 

Travel Tuesday: Spring Time At Mount Vernon

 

Monday Mood: Random Beauty and Sadness

A week ago I went into DC to wander the National Gallery of Art for a couple of hours. It was a great day for a walk, bright, clear, cool but not cold. A beautiful day. At each end of the main floor at the National Gallery there are salons, areas a couple of steps down, with a high ceiling, plants and at various times in history fountains. A photographer and a couple of assistants were directing this young lady as I entered the space.  I captured half a dozen or so images. Looking at them, this is far and away my favorite. Her looking down, just works. 

The encounter was entirely random, unplanned, and so so beauty filled. 

Slow down and observe, 

Look up and look around, 

Sometimes the greatest beauty appears randomly. 

Sadness: A dear neighbor died Friday morning.  I met Larry a year or so ago, he was the partner of the sweet bear that leads the Saturday morning water aerobics classes.  He was a local native, born and raised in Maryland, he had served in the military (Navy as a recall) then had a long career as an accountant for the department of defense. He has adult children in the area and was looking forward to the birth of a grandchild later this spring.  He was kind of quiet, with a strong sense of humor. He and Giuseppe were so happy together.  They had been regulars at our monthly LGBT community gatherings, hosting at their condo a coupe of times. (Movie night featuring "The Bird Cage" one evening.) I knew he had been unwell, bouncing from test to test, and specialist to specialist over the last few months.  The last I had heard he was in the hospital, trying to make arrangements to come home. His death was not a surprise, when I saw the email, I had that sinking feeling. And yet it brings great sadness.  It takes a while to move from the sadness of loss, to fondness at having known him.  

Hold your friends close, 

Give them a big hug while you can, 

Life is short, embrace and enjoy everyday you can. 

 

Sunday Five: Flowers and Bees

1: What is the first flower to bloom in spring where you live? 

2: Is there a flower that reminds you of funerals?

3: What is your favorite flower? 

4: When was the last time you had fresh flowers in your home? 

5:  What is blooming where you are today? 

My Answers: 

1: What is the first flower to bloom in spring where you live?  Crocuses, I missed bulb flowers when I lived in Florida, there is not enough of a cold season for them to bloom a second year. 

2: Is there a flower that reminds you of funerals? Red Roses, what my grandmother ordered for my grandfather's funeral. 

3: What is your favorite flower? Dandelion, my father kept bees, and the Dandelion bloom was the first honey flow of spring for the bees. 

4: When was the last time you had fresh flowers in your home? Today, we almost always do. 

5:  What is blooming where you are today? Trees, bulb flowers, 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Magic Moments in Creating

 I remember vividly the first time I got into the zone, the creative flow, the magic moment when the creative process just simply works.  

As a teenager I spent hundreds of hours printing thousands of black and white photographs - the old fashioned way on light sensitive silver gelatin papers. Photographic printing is an art form. From selecting the negative, cleaning it, putting it in the enlarger (a special projector device), setting up the chemistry, selecting the paper, focusing, setting aperture and exposure time. Variations in all of these and changes in temperature or humidity, all impact the work. Sometimes no matter what I did, nothing turned out well. Most of the time, the work was acceptable, but a struggle. Then there was the first time everything worked, every print was good, and if I made adjustments and made a second print it was even better.  I pulled out negatives that I had struggled with in the past and nailed a perfect print on the first try. It was a magic feeling, I didn't want it to end. I worked late into the evening, until my father came knocking on the door telling me it was past time I washed things up and went to bed. 

Maybe half a dozen times, in as many years, I hit that zone, the flow, the magic moment in printing photographs. 

I have hit the same zone a handful to times when painting with acrylics, when everything just flowed. A couple of my best paintings were done in a single session. 

It also happens sometimes when I am writing. I write half a dozen short articles a year for the American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division Voice of Experience Journal. Some of them are written in a flurry, a single setting when the thoughts and words seem to just magically flow. 

Those are wonderful moments in creativity. I have not found a formula for creating the conditions that cause them to happen, the moments just happen. But they only happen when I am creating, often sitting down to just grind it out. Not expecting anything special, and then the magic happens. And it feels absolutely wonderful. 

Seek your magic moments. 

Funky Friday: Wearing Our Feelings

 So how do I really feel about HeWhoShallNotBeNamed. 

The Thursday Ramble: Small Town Craftsmen I Once Knew

My grandfather's grew up farming with horses and mules. My mother's father farmed that way into the 1940's, and only reluctantly started using mechanical tractors. Horses as transportation disappeared from rural America in the 1920's into the 1930's. 100 years ago. 

When I was growing up in Michigan in the 1960's there were still remnants of horse drawn transportation around the area. Most barns or garages had remnants of collars and harnesses. The town livery stable, where horses visiting town would have been boarded and cared for was still there, a large barn painted a light green. Horses were bought and sold there probably into World War II. By my time the horses were but a memory, but the building stood for another few decades.

The part of the business that remained was the blacksmith shop. While the primary business was no longer shoeing horses, if you trailered them into town the craftsmen who worked where glad to do so, it was primarily as a place to have iron tools made or repaired. Ancient plows that cracked, would be repaired by experienced and expert hands. The coal fired forge was kept hot and working for decades beyond the horse days. They could make just about anything out of metal, replacements for one of a kind barn door hinges, or rollers for sliding barn doors were something they made every week. I remember going there a few times with my father or grandfather, with something from around the farm that needed repair. A garden tool, a mower blade that had hit a rock and was in need to straightening and sharpening. If you needed it now, they would stop what they were doing and attend to it, if not it would be ready sometime later tomorrow, and the cost would be next to nothing.  Even then you wondered how they made a living. And it is possible that, they didn't, that they did it because it was what they did. 

Around the corner from there, was Mr. Baldwin's leather repair shop. He was a master saddler, for the first half of his adult life he made and repaired harness and saddles. For the second half of his life, well on into his 8th decade, he repaired shoes. He stocked and sold work boots, but repairing shoes was the day to day way he kept himself busy. As an elementary school student I would walk to his shop during lunch, and he would do a minor repair and charge less than a dollar.  Even then I would say, are you sure that is all?  He was sure. It wasn't about making money, it was about being of service and practicing the craft that he learned as a teenager. He worked until the day his shop fell down. A delivery driver backed into the side of it, and literally the building collapsed around him. Luckily no one was hurt, but the building was shattered. His family convinced him to retire. A sad end to a long chapter in the life of a small town. He was the grandfather of one my high school friends.  

My World of Wonders: April 8th edition 2026

 

Where have I been this week? Mt Vernon for a nice spring walk, the updated museum exhibit is partially open.  The grocery store and Trader Joe's. The gym, the pool, the community center. The farmers market on King Street. Into DC for a nice walk, I walked to the subway station, took the train into the city, wandered through the National Gallery of Art, across the Mall to the subway, and home. A long walk with a stop at the Post Office to buy stamps before the price goes up this summer to 97-cents. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Pork chops cooked in cheesy scalloped potatoes. Pizza  - a couple of varieties. Meatloaf, broccoli and cornbread.  Roast beef and potato salad - a strange combination but it is what I felt like making. Roast chicken and veggies.

Who have a talked with? Oh my, Tom, Cathy, Jeffery, Warren, Mrs. Warren, Paul, Michelle, Jon, Ruth, Anna, Susan, Rafael, Mathew, Marcell, Victoria, Renne, Mike, Pastry Boy, David, Giuseppe. 

What have I been thinking about? Life is short, live it while you can. 

What is on the easel? A portrait of George Washington. The theme for our June-July show is Americana. I have challenged myself to create something new and different.  

Travel Tuesday: Spin the wheel, where do we land this week? Glasgow.

 So many wonderful memories of places we have been. Looking back the photos takes me back to the place and time. 

Moody Monday: Be Kind

I strive to be kind. 

My English Grandmother instilled in me, that if I didn't have anything nice to say, to not say anything. 

My favorite You Tubers are increasingly being bothered by unpleasant comments. Foxes afloat last week said "please don't post any comments that start with "you must" or "you have to" or "you should have." Glen of Glen and Friends Cooking tries to head off nasty comments, I love his cooking style, I can't imagine why anyone would be critical or nasty. 

I enjoy reading and responding to most comments.  I leave comments on many of the blogs that I read, some I leave comments on almost everyday. Occasionally I read a post, and I just can't think of anything nice to say. Sometimes my first thought for a comment is critical or unkind. I stop myself. I sometimes delete what I have started to type as a comment. I try - sometimes really hard - to come up with something positive or reinforcing to say. At times, and it may be because of my mood at the moment, I just can't think of anything. If I can't be kind, I skip commenting that day.  I wish I could say something nice, but if I can't think of anything nice to say, I remain silent. 

I also realize that despite the fact that my posts and comments are nearly all in English, humor often gets lost in cultural translation. Attempts at humor risk being rude in other English speaking countries.  In my mode of being kind, I often avoid attempts at humor across cultures in the same language. 

Be kind. 

Be careful. 

Follow grandma's advice. 

The Sunday Five:

1: When you travel, where do you prefer to stay? 

2: Do you have a "go-to" hotel brand or group? 

3: What is the nicest hotel you have ever stayed? 

4: Have you ever traveled in a recreational vehicle? 

5: Would you spend the night in one of these tents? 

My answers: 

1: When you travel, where do you prefer to stay?  Hotels, even when I visit family I almost always stay in a nearby hotel. 

2: Do you have a "go-to" hotel brand or group? Hilton and their other brands. A second choice is Holiday Inn. 

3: What is the nicest hotel you have ever stayed? The Langham Hotel in Chicago, the conference arranged and paid the bill. 

4: Have you ever traveled in a recreational vehicle?  Only once, my parents owned a motor home for a few years - I went to Key West with them on long weekend. 

5: Would you spend the night in one of these tents? No, I don't sleep outside on the ground. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

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.