Welcome 2011

Tis the season for travel. Airports are not the fun travel places the once were, which is a sad commentary on the state of the world today. What happened to that safe world that I knew as a child living in San Francisco. At five I could walk home for the neighborhood school to an unlock house where my mother and younger sister greeted me.

In high school after evening functions we all went to the San Francisco Airport coffee shop because it was always open and lots of fun to watch people and planes. It was a wonderful place to hang out as a teen and always felt so safe. Now with the TVA it just isn't a place you want to go. Other than trips across the county I travel now by car. I use to fly often but air travel is just not fun anymore and for all the security it make me feel less safe and more a feeling of just plain hassled by the authorities.

My wish for the new year is world peace, for a world that feels safe and a return to fun air travel.

Hot Humid Summer

Well sure has been a hot steamy summer here in the southeast. I thought I would get some relief for the heat on my travels north to Minneapolis, but it was hot and humid there as well. While I was in Minneapolis I enjoyed a walk through the sculpture garden. The spoon with the cherry fountain is an icon of the city. What a humorous piece and fitting of this gentle pleasant city.

On my return drive I traveled through Iowa and had a delightful lunch in the Amana Colonies with a hot walk around the little village where I found a peace pole outside the visitors center. I found another very interesting old peace pole from Russia inside the visitor's center. It was very large and round different from any I have seen before. Most inspiring.

Welcoming Spring

After a very harsh winter spring is so awesome. The stuff of inspiration, poems and paintings.

I welcomed spring the other day by sharing a walk in Atlanta's Botanical Gardens with a visiting friend. The sun was so pleasant on our bare arms and the tulips were just passing their peek. We stopped to watch an artist painting at his easel under an old favorite tree with the majestic sky scrapers of steel and glass rising from the edge of the garden's wrought iron fence beyond the tree line. I thought in passing maybe I should take up painting again. It looked so fun standing at the easel dabing colors on a canvas. Then I remembered when I tried painting outdoors, my problem was getting lost in day-dreams and forgetting to paint and then the light would change or it would be time to go home. I found that I enjoyed photography more. It so quickly captures the moment and can move on or stop and contemplate the scene before you.

Sharing a perfect spring day with a friend walking, photographing, chatting, surrounded by beauty, what more could you ask for, well maybe some chocolate. I hope you too, are enjoying and sharing this spring!

Well the 2010 is here and I didn't make any resolutions. I think the best thing to do is be grateful for each day and enjoy the special moments. We are having such a cold winter I haven't really gotten out much these days. I just finished reading an interesting account of the Canadian Artist Emily Carr 1871-1945. She tracked alone all over the back woods of the islands near Vancouver to document the Totem poles in a time when women didn't travel alone. She created painting of them, working on the spot, making friends with the navies or going to a village when it was known that the navies where away fishing. It was a rather dangerous adventure in the name of art. She also painted woods and landscapes in a powerful abstract way.

When I was in Alaska I had the opportunity to watch a contemporary totem pole carver at work. It was fascinating. A pole can take more than a year to carve. I have a very small little pole, 6 inches high that I bought from the studio. The poles have wonderful stories in them.