I paint clouds and cloudscapes. It is said that every cloud has a silver lining; a cherished familiar idiom assuring that a bad situation holds the possibility of something good. A silver line around a dark cloud indicates that the sun is behind it. Cloudscapes are a unifying element of my work. I never thought of their dark side in any larger sense than painting a storm scape….until yesterday. Saturday morning The Quiet Waters Park Art Show outside Annapolis, MD began with a chilly gloom that by noon blossomed into a lovely sunny day. It was an elegantly curated show of about 70 artists in the formal gardens of lush parkland surrounded by quiet ponds and waterfalls. Three different musical groups graced the outdoor stage next to my corner booth. There came a brisk friendly crowd and most of us did very well with sales. On Sunday morning, the second day of the show, when I checked in at the front gate the keeper told me that there had been extreme wind through the night […]

I can’t remember when the thought of going to the beach didn’t fill me with joy and anticipation. During his youth my father took a ferry across the Chesapeake Bay. So when the Bay Bridge was built in the early 50’s he was ever ready to head out to the shore in our 1952 Dodge, a black rubber truck inner-tube in the trunk. In my earliest beach memories I’m holding my dad’s hand, venturing into tsunami sized shore break, terrified and thrilled at the same time… Dad would lift me over the roaring surf. Every now and then we’d both go under and swirl together until inevitably we were tossed up to shore…There would be sand in my suit and in my mouth. My face would sting from the salt water…. I would be in tears, yet clamoring for another go. In the 50’s our family stayed at the Addy Sea in Bethany Beach or at the B&B on Olive and First Streets in Rehoboth. In those days all the guests would eat together at […]

I was an unlikely skater. When I started Ice dancing at age 49 I fell in love with it. I began out of boredom while Ross was having lessons. I needed the exercise. It looked easy to me from bleachers behind the glass….a few arabesques, a couple of fouette turns and some dégagés. It seemed like simple ballet on skates. Soon I was teaching ballet to skaters. I had beginners luck on the ice. Ballet translated at first and I was obsessed for about a year before the reality set in that ice skating is infinitely more difficult that ballet and extremely dangerous. And yet there was someone who wanted to skate with me and coaches who wanted to work with me. So I trained with dedication. I felt alive again….like the dancer I always was. I grew to love it more and more. I helped the Russian coaches with the little kids, competed and flew through space with tall, handsome, athletic coaches. It was like ballet on steroids. As the technique grew more and […]

Yesterday I ventured up to the 54th floor roof-top terrace of a friend’s condo at 1 Central Park, NYC. As I stepped out into the bitter sky with 360° degree views of New York, I was greeted by a huge noble bird perched on one of the corners. As I drew steadily closer, snapping pictures with my iPhone, the creature never flinched but stared at me with round yellow circled eyes and arched yellow beak. He was grey of wing with dappled white and grey breast. Clearly a bird of prey, he had long orange claws. He was about 20 inches tall and appeared to be quite plump. Soon we were just a couple of feet apart. Separated by only a shoulder high panel of glass, it was I who started to feel uneasy. Clearly I was out of my realm. Up so high in the air there was complete silence, no city din or drone, just quiet. I stopped snapping and we just stared at each other for several long minutes. Then, in the […]