Thursday, November 22, 2007

Mr. and Mrs. Daisy driving home on a cold Thanksgiving Day

Sunrise, c. 1973
Today's image is a film photo I snapped one summer morning when I was in high school. It reminds me of the sunset I saw this evening. At the moment, I hear the rattling of rearranging dishes in the kitchen as MJ fits the remaining containers into the dishwasher while I catch up on my email. As always, and for many years now, he cooked the turkey, the mashers, and pies, while I clean up and organize what little is left to do (and sneakily read a bit of Sontag's On Photography. Earlier, I helped my parents reconnoiter out my neighborhood so they could make their way to I-10 and on east towards home. I turned, after seeing them enter I-10, and saw a brilliant scarlet sun sit on a purple flat mesa. The brilliance sat on the horizon for what seemed 10 minutes, though I know it was for just a couple. Incredible colors.
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my little Nikon L11 with me.

Earlier, after dad got lost trying to find my house, I quickly located them. Too bad they didn't just turn around when he made the first mistake after he got off the freeway. But, no matter; they have a cell phone and called. I found them, a bit ruffled and when I got them to my house they were settled for a visit, and then we ate, talked, and now, they are safe at home again.

As for Curtie and Shannon, they are "segway through the boeuf bourguignonne" or some such at Florent, while the Judge, stayed in her dorm to work time and a half. Tomorrow she'll treat herself to a meal away from campus. This morning she awoke to find it snowed overnight. Here, we got a lot of wind that dropped the temperature.

A strange Thanksgiving, but able to give thanks for each other.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Vacant now lost

Vacant eyes detail


As a student of rhetoric, specifically visual, I always look for examples of interesting and spontaneous street or urban art. Urban is a misnomer here as I've captured examples such as stenciled scissors, footballers, and graffiti in such major metropolitan areas as Santa Fe, New Mexico; East Lansing, Michigan; and Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

But all snottiness aside, I think a town without occasion to vent while creating and disturbing the status quo leads to a pretty boring place. But then again, that's just MHO. And no, I'm not being jealous of another's ability to create, or vent. I do that quite well already.

But I digress. Sometime last weekend, this example was erased (painted over) by either the owner/franchisee of a gluttony palace (cafeteria) or by the city and its minions. In any event, I'm sorry to see it go, as it exhibited the kind of fun and spontaneity that many admire in street art--and, it was not tagged by gangs and it didn't seem to announce a specific venue or date of any "party." It just said Party with Vacant eyed women. It just was.

But now, it's not, and that's how it goes. Because all along it was ephemeral and not sanctioned. If it had been sanctioned then it would have lost its subversive attitude. And we all know we need all the subversives we can get.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

SpAG Opening

 SpAG opening
SpAG Opening
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.


Well, after too long a haitus, I can grab a quick couple of minutes to post an image from our SpAG gallery opening. With the help of wonderful new El Paso Flickr group friends, we were able to survive and mount a show featuring 18 Flckr photographers. We had a wonderful time and Too Tall George had a presale of one of his photographs before the opening.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Current Conditions: Fort Bliss National Cemetery

While I will always try to enter photos for this blog that show the area in a positive, or at least interesting light, there are times when that is not possible.

Over the past few years, the Fort Bliss National Cemetery has been slated for a xeriscape project, which was begun about 18 months ago. However, the project has now literally sunk to new levels. Rains have sunk and damaged at least 400 graves and the entire 66 acres are nothing but a brown sludgy mess. If headstones are not slipping down (along with the entire grave), then they are splattered with a dirty brown coat of mud. Unless corrective action (fire the director and replant the grass) occurs soon, damage will continue until either the grass is returned, or it stops raining.

Officials with the cemetery maintain that the cemetery sits upon ground that, when combined with the rains, turned the ground into a slurry that allowed the graves and headstones to sink. In the meantime, representatives and senators are investigating this mess and I hope we will see a "regime change" soon.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Transmountain after the rains

Franklin Mountains State Park / Transmountain

somehow this picture reminds me of Magritte. it must be the ratio of the rock to the clouds and the background valley landscape.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Charging rhino :: Mesa and Schuster Streets

The Art Galleria on Mesa
A while back, a local sculptor named Julio Sanchez de Alba, created a life-sized charging rhinoceros. Now, I don't know if his target client was the local hockey team whose mascot is a charging rhino, but they purchased it and it is now installed at the El Paso Colosseum, the team's home rink.

As this Holga photo is over 2 years old, the sculpture is gone, as is the gallery. But the house remains with a new occupant, a plastic surgeon.

I miss the rhino, though.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Rachel's View

At the Edge :: A View from Transmountain for Rachel

It's funny how so many people are attached to this rock. Rachel and I used to feed squirrels that sat on the big rocks while we ate our lunch. At the time, we worked on Market Center Street, which is just down Transmountain Road from the park.

Squirrels appreciate lettuces and tomato from a Taco Bell taco. They are such beggars. Many times when I go up there now, they run to the picnic tables and beg for food.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Patriot Freeway Guadalupe

Guadalupe Shrine (2 of 2)
A testament to one man's faith and belief in creating a thing of beauty. Along side this shrine is a placque that reads: "...humbly we entreat you to intercede...for the families in el paso and juarez with their daily troubles."
Guadalupe Shrine (1 of 2)

Thursday, August 09, 2007

City Details: ATT Building on Texas Avenue

ATT building facade

Downtown in January: Caples
One of the things interesting about El Paso architecture, especially downtown, is the top details. This is especially so, even if a building was re-tasked or remaindered in its continual and surprising original use. For all the misuse and disarray on the first floor, many remain untouched. That is of course, unless they are destroyed from within by careless and ruthless new owners, as can be seen in the dilapidated Caples Building.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

County Building Part II



While on the subject, here is a photo of the old county building during its demolition. Photo taken from the 9th floor of the then El Paso Natural Gas building.

County Building Lone Star

County Building Stained Glass

Here in El Paso, old skool luddites take great joy to decry our county building. At the same time,
County Building Murals
many others see the beauty and functionality of this, the newest iteration of El Paso County's signature structure. Built on the site of the previous building, the structure sports a blue mirror facade that captures a reflection of the Franklin Mountains. Within the mirrored surface, a semi-circular vault holds a stained glass county seal. Inside this area, El Paso County Buildingis a beautiful mural that depicts the area's multi-cultural heritage. It's too bad those resistant to change cannot see how progress can sometimes be beautiful, too.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Colón Theatre

Colón TheatreOne of the things I like to do is photograph the tops of buildings. While I know a lot of the action goes on in storefronts, I see the tops as the repository of a building's original raison d'être--what was and what remains of its original purpose.

In addition to this top scape of a beautiful deco theatre, is this image, which was submitted by my flickr friend, tejas962002. it shows the original facade in situ, and is not on the run like mine, which was captured while driving downtown one day and stopped at a light. here's the camera used, which is the one on the left.
Last fall, my husband and Bobby Zeiss Ikon bellows camerasByrd were taking a walk in the area. Bobby led MJ into the Colón, which now sells cheap toys and other trinkets. The postive thing about the glimpse for MJ was that he saw Plaza Theatre :: Celebrationthe theatre's elaborate interior is still very much in place, only the theatre seating has been removed. Perhaps it can one day be restored, like the Plaza Theatre. This image was snapped in March 2006 at the reopening celebration of the restored Plaza Theatre.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Cinco Puntos Press

Cinco Puntos Press

Thanks to DentonHarryman for the nice email letting me know the photo blog is on the Daily Photo Map. In other news, I was able to finish a website for MJ's scale model group.

The photo today is the building for Cinco Puntos Press on Texas Avenue. To me, it's about the happiest building in town.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Alas, the days quickly pass through my fingers

Equestrian detail
A day or so ago, I went to check on the Daily City Photo Blog website as I've found their promises and portals to be sluggish. They are not able at this time to keep up with people's posts. In fact, mine have yet to surface and so, I must depend upon a random visit or someone following from my initial post on their message board. But back to their website. Unfortunately, at the time I checked, the site was down and I couldn't see if my recent posts were connected to their site.

In the spirit of random hits and acts, here is a picture of The Equestrian sculpture by John Houser. Very controversial, and berated by some, it is touted as the world's largest equestrian sculpture. I don't know about that. All I know is that I love horses, and this one is exceptionally detailed and beautiful. It may be an inflated example of public art and artist ego, but no one can deny the effect the horse made upon the history of both natives and colonists alike.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Powerbox art

Rim Road Powerbox

Yesterday, as the Judge and I were driving in the University area, I decided to stop at the corner of Rim and Mesa and catch this glued up guy before someone ripped him off the powerbox. While I understand powerboxes are property of whatever utility owns them, I think original silkscreens and handmade stickers and stencils are far more interesting than a burred silver surface that is a clean and boring powerbox.

This is true after someone, either from neighborhood, city, or utility company rips off powerbox artwork/graffiti that leaves a mess. Oh, yes I know. There is always the argument that all powerbox art is vandalism. But to me, it is no more vandalism than Clearchannel dirtying up free public sky space with vulgar jumbo billboards hawking $99 DNA paternity services. Yes, they do pay for the privilege of cluttering up free air space, but does that make it ethical or no less a distraction when driving the freeway? Beyond the grand commercial privilege, shouldn't there be the privilege of public art/speak? Or, perhaps all should be removed equally and thus quiet all public free space.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Wyoming Street Railroad Underpass

Wyoming Street Railroad Underpass
While the city (or others) try to eradicate all graffiti, whether gang or guerilla artist, other stickers, stencils, et al. remain safe for the moment. Overall, the figurals, animals; stencils and stickers usually make me laugh, especially the inventive and playful (although dangerous) locations they choose to bomb.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Transitional periods: a couple of cemetery images

Concordia
Maybe it's because I finished the final Harry Potter book this morning and now just coming home after seeing the Order of the Phoenix at the nearby metroplex. Could be it's that I found recently I'm not the only person fascinated by cemeteries, which is also proved by so many groups and images on Flickr, including my set of cemeteries in the area. Or, perhaps it's the gaulish and ferocious lightning storm going on at the moment. (Meaning, this is a quick entry.) Whatever the reason, here are a couple of my favorite images from cemeteries in the city.

Ft. Bliss National Cemetery-Spirits Alive Here
First is a shot taken at Concordia, which is in the center of town. When you drive through along I-10 you can see it. In fact, it is very near Loretto and the El Paso mural near Reynolds. The second is a slightly fogged Holga image that was taken at the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery before their xeriscape (aka zeroscape) project began.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Calvaryman


The Calvaryman
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Listed on the city's public artworks roll as:
TITLE: “Calvary Man”
ARTIST: Jose Ruiz de Rivera
MEDIA: Granite
LOCATION: Prospect, Missouri, and Santa Fe
Stalwart and quiet, he stands for all service personnel posted at Ft. Bliss.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Reynolds exit: El Paso mural


El Paso mural
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
While on the subject of subjects revisited, here is another that was originally photographed with one kind of camera, and later re-shot with another. In this case, this image was shot using a little Vivitar point-and-shoot digital.

Again, this is a mainstay of El Paso iconography; a mural most everyone sees everyday and has affection. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the artist. If anyone knows, please let me know and I'll be sure to add that information. Located near the Interstate 10 East, Reynolds exit, the mural can be seen from the freeway. It is also near Lincoln park, which is known for its Chicano-themed murals, painted on concrete support uprights for various exit and entrance bridges to either I-10 or US-54 (Patriot Freeway).

Here is the first image take of this mural. It is possibly one of the first Holga pictures I shot. At the time, I think "the judge" aka "prepgirl, my daughter was driving while I shot the picture from the car. Under the freeway

Five Points Auto Radio

This is one of my favorite little buildings in the city, which is located in the Five Points/Manhattan Heights neighborhood. At one time there were many of these little kiosk-like shops built throughout the country. However, I think this is the only one ever built in El Paso. I don't know if it has always been a repair shop for radios (car and otherwise), but it has been this kind of business for quite a while.

Several years ago I photographed the shop with a Holga-Radio TV Hospital-near Piedras Street Holga, but this picture was taken with a medium format 6x6 Zeiss Nikor.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

In other news...surplus auction

"Robotic arm"? cool...
even if one isn't interested in such stuff, it might make for an interesting photo shoot.

UTEP SURPLUS AUCTION || SATURDAY JULY 28TH 10 A.M.|| 3105 SUN BOWL DRIVE

2000 Ford Crown Victoria, 1985 Ford F-150 4x4 with Lift Gate, 2-1992 Ford Ranger Pickups,1980, 86, 88 Chevy S-10 Pickups, 1985 Toyota Pickup, 16 Roland practice Pianos, TV's, Projectors, Laptop Cases,Doors, Chalkboards, Camcorders, Projection Screens, Typewriters, Calculators, Lab Equipment, Desks, File Cabinets, Chairs, Bookcases, Brake Machine, 2 Robotic Arms, Tailgates, Step Bumpers, & many more small items.

Gates Open at 9 A.M. for Viewing

Loretto Academy Chapel


Loretto Academy Chapel
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Being new to the world of a photo blog (and photo city blog), I'm not sure if I should post images of how the city looks today, yesterday, or long ago. That being said, and as I have a large cache of images of El Paso at the ready, I thought I would start at a place (that also refers to a particular point in time, aka high school) when photography began to be a part of my life.

This chapel and its attached convent and high school buildings were designed by architect Henry Trost for the Sisters of Loretto. The chapel is the cornerstone of 7 acres that makes up its schools and other buildings. Now in the center of town, it is the school where I attended and graduated from high school.

According to this article produced by El Paso Community College, "the school opened on September 11, 1923, with 143 students and eight teachers. At the time, the site for the school was outside the city. The first all-girls school in El Paso, the academy would teach not only academic subjects but leadership skills and the means to succeed in everyday life."

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Kirby at Mesa: A View from Kinley's Window

Today, we (MJ and the Judge, and I) were all able to meet up and have lunch together at Kinley's Coffee House. After MJ took the judge to work, I stayed to finish up work on my laptop.

Late in June, before our Second Childhood Road trip to Wisconsin, my hard drive took a dive. And although I was able to get a new drive installed before we left, I was unable to grab the last minute documents from the Spring Semester. So, they are history unless I can get copies back from my professors. Although, most of my newer images were not lost, so I'm OK in that respect. But, I now realize I need to back up semester work as I go along and not wait to backup "sometime" after the semester ends.

Sometimes old dogs forget their new lessons supposedly learned.

In terms of this image, it's interesting seeing how the clouds moved in after I took this picture about 2 hours ago. Now it looks like it may rain in about 30 minutes or so.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

El Paso: Crazy Cat


El Paso: Crazy Cat
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
A likely place where cougars might go to commit suicide by cop.

In other news, I just received this from Charlie Wakeem of the Frontera Land Alliance:

"...Frontera Land Alliance successfully won Common Open Space valuation for Resler Canyon from the Appraisal Review Board after battling the Central Appraisal District for the past year and four months. The valuation was originally appraised at over $900,000.00 by the CAD last year. Resler Canyon valuation is now on the tax rolls at $200.00 as Common Open Space. The new valuation will not be official until the CAD puts it in writing an mails it to Frontera, which takes a month or two."

While I don't have a photo of Resler Canyon, I do have this picture taken this afternoon. It is of Crazy Cat, home of terriblly-ugly late 20th century "I have more money than sense" houses.

Cheers to Resler Canyon, Charlie Wakeem, et al., for making the CAD understand what "open space" means.

Major Outage! - Dozens of Popular Sites DOWN

Of course, this happens when I'm ready to post my first entry for Daily City Photo Blog. But then again, I was able to locate the problem with Vox using Google news and checking blog entries."Sites like Livejournal, Craigslist, Technorati, TypePad, and Vox (to name only a few that are affected) are currently down due to a major power outage in San Fransisco. Outages keep repeating, too."

read more | digg story

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Winner/Loser takes all


Spears
Originally uploaded by hoveringdog.
Speaking of Hinduism, I heard last night about the highly-touted return of "La Spears" as Olbermann likes to call her. I'm sure he will have something to say about that tonight.

Perhaps he refers to her in this way because it seems she has no true personality beyond tabloid "news" (video/print/blog) and surveillance cams. In any event, she got up on that stage and did "it again, baby...one more time" for old times sake, I imagine.

And while some may hear some reverberating chisme about this "entertainment event" around watercoolers and such, Tracy Clark-Flory, writing for Salon's Broadsheet, thinks Ms. Spears appearance last night is really not "a good thing" for the former Mouseketeer:
The buzz around her reappearance isn't so much a celebration of her return to a relatively functioning state as it is a salute to the return of Spears, the symbol. It strikes me as sad that her reembrace of the very carefully choreographed seductress role -- one that has all the depth of a blow-up doll and, arguably, led her to very publicly deface her own body -- can be seen as a comeback rather than a relapse. "Stripperific" Britney's back

oh, and thanks to hoveringdog for allowing use of his images for blog posts ...i love green spears.

Ganesha, the amazing XXX Hindu god

Within the past few days, I've begun playing with SharePoint Services at the university for a graduate course. While not the speediest interface, nor the most flexible in terms of page width, it does provide a lot of collaborative tools that are usually needed for departmental web sites and blogs. In addition, I asked and received information about whether or not my family's own domain could utilize the service where our sites reside. Unfortunately, the sites are hosted on a shared server, and cannot utilize the service.

At the same time, I've been investigating various articles that address Foucault and his thoughts on Visual Resistance. I say thoughts because several critics find the philosopher had a bit of resistance himself when it came to fully devising a comprehensive theory about resisting the visual. However, I have found that the initial chapters from his Archeology of Knowledge to put me on the right track for analyzing urban art and visual resistance.

Finally, I have shot a large number of stickers, stencils, and wildstyle graffiti murals, of which this one of Ganesha is part. I located this wonderful Hindu god across the street from a XXX adult bar on Texas Street near the city's downtown. It was strange standing there, trying to shoot pictures of this and the rest of the mural while men continually exited the bar. Talk about visually resisting my presence! Coming out of the back of the bar, the men hurried into their cars and trucks without looking at me, the street, or the wall.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

The day came

when I had to implement signatures and codes for blog commentaries. Now, I don't like having to do it, but if it saves me from having to turn off firewalls and deleting the cache to rid my blog of some troll's random racist and unibomberesque post, then so be it.

And, if there really were to be a temple, anyone who goes to its doors will be welcomed. Sincerely.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Transitions to future tech

The following is a post I wrote for my Computers and Writing course. In the course, we utilize a program called WebCt.

1. Do you think f2f communication important to a healthy society? If we communicate primarily through email, internet and such, how will this effect the growth of the society of tomorrow?

To begin I'll say I believe we as a species are very adaptive and adoptive.

Those who are exposed to tech can and do adapt to electronic processes involving information, communication, and interaction, although my 18 year old does not like reading online, while I do. But she is a wizard when text messaging. At the other end of the spectrum, my 81 year old father is very intrigued by all things tech--he was always an early adopter--cameras, recording equipment, any number of electronic devices. He told me he believes he was born 50 years too early; he would like a computer and a digital camera. At the moment, he is considering various cameras that will create images and prints without the need for a computer. Every once in a while I text message his cell phone just so he can figure out how to read it, and text me back. On the other hand, the most tech my mom uses is the telephone and the television.As far as effecting growth of society, I see this already. I interact and comment (nay even dis) those who give my older daughter a hard time when she posts entries to her blog. Here is a good example, where we pseudonymously post. Later, as a follow-up, I discussed my process with my daughter on our landline.
  • First read blog entry, downloaded mp3 offerings, then read the first and only comment at the time.

  • Thought about the commentator, and smiled wryly while thinking about an appropriate response.

  • Thought how comment effected daughter, then decided to wait until others commented positively to her writing style. 24 hours later, spent too much time to compose an appropriate response.

  • Discussed event five hours later with daughter; recapped one another's reaction and others' responses to the original post and first comment; laughed, and finally, caught up other's events for the week..

  • Finally, located exact URL for WebCT entry, noted there are now 9 comments.
Now I know most people to not behave as we do. I didn't even relate how I had to trouble shoot an old .asp file I'd written for my husband's website that was now failing because of server changes implemented by the host. I mean really, how many mother/daughter combinations used to post to AOL, original designs created for a mah jong game? How many wives have played Doom on a WAN with their husband and his business partners on a Friday night? (Man, I used to get vertigo from playing only 20 minutes.) How many mother's have a MySpace and (new today) Facebook page? (When I complain I can't find an appropriate alumnae page for my high school, The Judge (younger daughter) reminds me to remember there aren't very many parent's like me. (!!!!) Although, I am now part of El Paso, El Paso Flood, UTEP, and "You know you are from El Paso because" groups.


Obey Obey
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Overall, I think I am behind with tech, and yet I communicate with people all over the world through Flickr and the two blogs I maintain. In fact, Vox.com blogs are good for this. Their interface is socially orientated, much like LiveJournal. In general, it seems all new business apps strive for social interconnectivity and networking. Librarything.com is designed to interact with others of similar tastes, while Amazon.com has a huge community of reviewers. This is the future of tech and human interaction through them.However, I must talk with friends via phone or F2F. I call my parents everyday, but feel guilt if I do not visit F2F every other week. How will this how will this effect society's growth in the future? To me, the future is the past plus the present. This means that we will continue until hitting a tipping point. At that point wlll all have cell phones that will conduct business/banking transactions, unlock car doors/homes via the internet, and receive images from fathers who are out taking pictures with their new digital cameras.

Friday, February 09, 2007

New entry on Vox and why there are two blogs

I haven't quite figured out how the maintenance of two blogs on two different systems is shaping up as an experiment in rhetorical situations. Aside from comparison of services, I'll just say for now that I'm also trying to maintain two separate personae and voice. Since my Vox blog voice is purposely more sardonic in tone and spirit, I've posted a response to an El Paso Times article about the august Texas House, Tom Craddick, and where El Paso lies on his radar screen.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Where did she go? An answer to the demise of Molly

Since I haven't had much of a chance to blog (and surprisingly, this new semester seems to offer a chance to blog again,) I thought I would check on my blog roll.

And there it was. Molly Saves the Day was gone, gone dark, being used by another for unknown purposed. However, I was able to find this post from December 31 by Plain(s) Feminist: just plain feminism about the situation with Molly and her blog. In addition to finding out possible reasons why Molly went walkabout, she also writes that other feminist blogs have vanished overnight, or have posted strange entries. In short, she believes that these have been hacked and entries are purposefully weird, intended to speak for the absent or retired blogger.

Therefore, I will strike Molly Saves the Day for now, and add this South Dakota blogger who is a leo, feminist, mother, and professor.

Fire: from the personal to the global


Fire
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Usually, I focus on whatever impacts my personal situation--reveries about life in general, my continuing education, and of course, my family. However, this morning I heard a voice that prompted me to write about something that was tested not far from here at the White Sands Missle Range Trinity Site.

What I heard was the computerized voice of Steven Hawking as I listened to CNN on the SatRad. At first, I thought I was hearing some outtake from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Intriged to what I could locate on the intertubes, I googled "doomsday," where I found this article at Nature.com, which stated: "The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of its Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight — the metaphorical marker of the end of humanity."

The Doomsday Clock is a serious attempt to focus the public's attention on the devastating power of nuclear weapons and their proliferation, whether dirty bombs to the U.S., Russia, and other countries acquisition them. And according to the bulletin, we are that much closer to midnight.

From there, I went to You Tube to see what the keyword would produce. I found two, which are appropriate. The first is by 19-year-old Nightmare415, who posted this video last summer.



The other video is by Juan Carlos Marti (aka josecarlosmarti). Marti's provides an excellent "fail safe" metaphor to the clock immediately before it strikes midnight. (embedding disabled at their request).

While we cannot stop the hands of that clock, we can stop and think about where our leaders are taking us now. Whether in their bellicose rhetoric, or their actions, we have the responsibility to voice our opinion through letters to the editor, online petitions, and of course, our vote.

Sometimes you need to get away from it all.

And sometimes, it's time to return and be part of the larger world.  Between the first of 2023 and February 14, I painted many watercolo...