It's a Scranton week! Thursday from 9-12 there is a great event happening at the Lackawanna Trolley Museum.... " A presentation will be made by ArtsQuest, a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the arts and culture in and around greater Lehigh Valley, PA. ArtsQuest operates the Banana Factory Arts Center, and presents Musikfest, and is planning for an even brighter future with the SteelStacks community project. For more information on ArtsQuest please visit www.artsquest.org. There will also be an exhibit by many of our talented local artists" (this is where I come in : )) After that some talented students come to my studio for private lessons and then to a dinner and opening at the Everhart museum to see Day of the Dead with Ken Marquis and Trish - yahoo!
This weekend I hung out with my 14 year old niece and we baked a real bonafide apple pie - the crust and all ... plus some healthy oat bread for good measure ( no pun intended... ) ---- here she is before we consumed........
Saturday night was a great experience viewing 50 rooftop murals from 45th to 63 streets along the Market Street corridor in Philadephia via the "L" subway line. The murals collectively express a love letter from a guy to a girl, from an artist to his hometown, and from local residents to their West Philadelphia neighborhood. Once again the arts bring a city together on so many levels - a dreary, monotonous train ride turned into a glimpse of glimmers : )
Detailed view of above paintingJen from Balance Yoga commissioned me to do a wedding anniversary present for her husband Ed to celebrate Year Two!She gave me some specifics in terms of the kids names - important dates - but really left the rest up to me! So here it is -
Lots going on these days - preparing for teaching my first college course at Keystone College in LaPlume, Pa which will be 2D meeting twice a week. I'm very excited to be part of this awesome art program. Currently I'm working on studies for pool liners - Above are some samples -
I recently returned from a week at the beach plus some time in Philly. Reading "Loving Frank" (about Frank Lloyd Wright) a book by Joseph Campbell - walking the beach, seeing art and architecture rejuvenated me psyching me up for my next body of work. Tomorrow I go to Philly again to tour the murals with Jane Golden - executive director of the Mural Arts Program and Bill Harral. My garden delighted me to this unbelievable display of mixed greens, swiss chard, bok choy and some cucumbers. Haven't had to water but once this summer!!
The past week has been awesome teaching high school kids from various Scranton schools at Arts Alive. This is an incredible program of various art disciplines (photography, mixed media, and performing arts) which meet five hours a day five days a week at different venues in Scranton. We all have the same theme which is CINEMA this year. On July 31 at 7pm there will be a performance at the Scranton Culural Center (which is the venue where I teach painting with professional artist Earl Lehman) and will also showcase the paintings of the 16 great kids - there will also be a huge screen showing their images.
It's a wonderful opportunity and experience for all involved.
