The Painter

I'd been taking pictures with my cell phone simply because I was lazy. I like to travel light and often forget, or don't feel like carrying, my camera. But it was on this day that I really took notice of the way my phone was seeing things. It was as though she had an angel inside. Then she whispered...

"I have a job to do, it's true. I take calls, I make calls. I calculate and hold dates and let you know if you're early or late. I'm the free phone that came with the service, so you never took me seriously. I'm reliable, I do the job I'm expected to do, but in my heart, I am a painter. Thank you for giving me this chance to show you how I see things. Thank you for giving me the chance to show the world."

Architecture River Cruise

I fell in love with Chicago. The art, the people, the food, and especially the architecture. On the last day of my class I sat crunching on an apple during break, thinking to myself that I ought to stay another day, sketch at the Art Institute, and try to find an architecture tour.

At that very moment a class member sitting across from me, eating a banana, struck up a conversation about my being from out of town, and told me I really must go on an architecture tour. "The one on the boat that goes down the Chicago River. Google it", she said.

So I stayed an extra day and took the Chicago Architecture Foundation's River Cruise. It was fabulous!! I highly recommend this tour to anyone who finds themselves in Chicago. I learned how each building's design was influenced by the mindset about business at the time. The corners of the Montgomery Ward building housed its wiring and heating/cooling systems. The emphasis in business was on teamwork in that era, and that way no one person would have a corner office. One building, built in the 1980's, had 4 staggered corners on each of its sides, in order to create 16 corner offices.

Chicago

I came to Chicago to take a craniosacral class. I hadn't expected to fall in love with the city the way I did. Over lunch, I told two women from the class about my summer plans, to attend to some things in this time in between things.

One of the women told me it was like I was living my bucket list. Funny, I thought, because when I asked about responsibilities and hours and benefits at my new job, I was told that time off was like a bucket. You get a bucket of time in the beginning of the year, and each day off you use is pulled from the bucket.

I thought the woman in my class was right, I'm living my bucket before I live from a bucket.

Memorial Day Parade

Everyone loves a parade! I had the great fortune to visit my brother's family in Indianapolis for Memorial Day weekend, the weekend of the Indy 500. In the last picture Helio Castronoves, my nephew David's favorite race car driver, is passing by.

Mid-America

Anyone know where I can find a cup of green tea?

On the Road

For most of my life, when I would despair at not having the time or means to make art, my mother would tell me, "Anne, your life is a work of art."

"My LIFE?! UGH!!! At 23 or 28 or 32 it was frustrating to hear. I wanted the object, the masterpiece, the medium, the particular style. The thing true to my heart that also sold well. It was going to look and feel a particular way, I just had no idea what it was or how to make it.

It was frustrating to hear then, and is even still. But I'm beginning to see that there's something to it. I may not have the time to draw and paint and write like I wish I did, but I can't help but live life.

I'm on a summer journey, a graduation gift, a bless and release, a curiosity, a preparation. A window between worlds. Illustrated through writing and photography, and sometimes drawing and painting too. I'll send you a postcard from there.

Go

A graduation. A window. Go.