One of the first paintings I ever did was the little one of Miss Lydia’s house. I gave it to her for Christmas in 1979. She and the kids got a kick out of the clothes hanging on the line out back. They recognized Craig’s pants. I can still hear Miss Lydia’s high, squeaky laugh that is so characteristic of her. That was long before I knew Eleanor or Rob or even before Rob’s kids were born. Continue reading
“Do what you love.” Yeah, right.When? In between taking the kids to school and throwing out the garbage? Zen philosophy says love your chores and find true peace and joy — easy to say. Actually, it’s probably not the chores that drain us, it’s just so many chores.
The luxury of free time, time to daydream . . . it’s very creative. Funny, while we drag our kids to every creative workshop and cultural experience, we rail at them for not being productive, for daydreaming. Continue reading
And so it begins. The lights go up, the red and green pop out on every shelf and the season begins. Long before Thanksgiving. Why, on writing this it’s not even Halloween. Is the marketing blitz about Christ? A gentle man whose philosophy has touched mankind for almost 2000 years so far? Is it about the timeless power of love? Of course not. We all know that. It’s about money. And so many of us dread it. It seems to be a time of year that can point up all our failures. Those of us who struggle to earn a living struggle more. Those of us who are lonely become lonelier. It seems that a season which should embrace us all too often points the finger at us. “YOU HAVEN’T ENOUGH!” The voice of the Lord? Please! None but the voice of the ego. Continue reading
Before I taught art I taught art and music. I hesitate to say I really miss teaching music because they might make me do it again. One can only take on so much. We’ve talked about THAT before.
I will say, however, that the one thing I miss is that good old fashioned group effort. Visual art t ends to be a more solitary “sport”. On the other hand, singing and dancing takes on it’s ultimate power when done together. Yes, I know you closet stars like to sing and dance most when you’re alone in the house with the stereo jacked up but, c’mon, be brave. Take the next step with me. Continue reading
When you get away from your life, even for a short time, it seems like a long time. When I got back from Costa Rica I had many memories of profound things and fine people. It’s nice to share that with others because you don’t have to tell them about it. They were there.
I met two little boys in Santa Rosa. We were taking an afternoon break from working on the church. School was already out. Santa Rosa was really a pueblo. It was no big town. Even surrounded by mountains and sugar cane and cattle grazing, even with mountains as far as the eye could see, those school kids walking up the dirt road in there dark blue pants and white shirts and bookbags was somehow universal. Continue reading