At a demonstration at Daniel Smith’s Artist Materials, I watched the watercolorist finish a painting in a 45 min demo.   Some cretin in the audience asked the price of her painting.  She said she would ask her full price, something like $300. “For a painting that took you 45 minutes?” he sneered. She was more  Read the Rest…

I’ve slipped into one of my spy phases so even though I am compromising security, it’s currently the only thing on my mind.   For purposes of this blog, all use of the word “drop” should be considered what Alfred Hitchcock called a MacGuffin: the plot device of using an often ambiguous thing which the characters  Read the Rest…

This week I finished a painting inspired by a photograph of a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, and Eugene, my first little soul-mate cat.  He’s the cat who liked raisins, broccoli and ear wax –I don’t need to get into how that came about—and who played my answering machine when he was bored. I wanted riots  Read the Rest…

A mild Facebook discussion broke out the other day as a result of a post about Nassir Ghaemi’s new book, First Rate Madness, a book that documents many influential historical figures who showed “signs of mental illness” and were better leaders because the “illness” enhanced creative thinking and empathy.  I agree with the conclusion, but  Read the Rest…

“It’s a nice, relaxing thing to do on a Saturday,” said Carol, a neighbor down the street. You’ll never guess what Carol was doing at the time.  Since you’ll never guess, I’ll save you the time trying: she was unpacking boxes for a yard sale.  All of Crown Hill was disgorging its garages for the  Read the Rest…

There was an exquisite moment in church this morning.  The service was laboring toward a moment of silence.  The service leader was intoning, “Something, something, something.  .  .  that holy quiet.  .  .” At the next in-breath, Lu upset her box of crayons all over the floor.  It sounded like a burst of hail beating  Read the Rest…

My friend Jenni, a student who single-handedly improved my sight-reading abilities by 75% by showing up with new music every week, recently accomplished something admirable: She went without words for a week.  Part of an Artist’s Way class, she called it her Reading Deprivation week.  She went without books, television and computer, explaining in part  Read the Rest…

I just finished a book set in Yorkshire.  You don’t need to know its title because it wasn’t very good and I’ll recommend a better book later on.  The point here is that it got me thinking about Richmond, a splendid market town in North Yorkshire which I visited a few years back.   I am  Read the Rest…

Monday: Gwen, my neighbor who knows a little bit about just about everything, calls to say she has finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it’s good and would I like to borrow it? Half a dozen people have already asked me if I have read it.  Half of them have told me it’s too  Read the Rest…

I invite you to read the 99 Girdles page of this web site.  It’s all new stuff! For the past 4 months I have been working with a free-lance editor in town, Tom Orton.  With his excellent suggestions, I have found a *narrative arc,* re-organized the entire book and re-written much of it, including the  Read the Rest…