Springtime at home

This is the time of year when I don’t have to leave the back yard to appreciate the beauty of springtime.

Every year for 25 years or more our neighbor Pete has been in the Racine Memorial Day parade, riding the float that shows the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima. He is a Marine through and through.

No Whine Before Its Time

Like everyone else we are looking to save every penny we can and towards that effort I have for the first time decided to start a vineyard. I've started with a Box Elder Grape and so far the results look promising.

One Way Cafe & Gallery - One More Week

My showing of photographs ends Saturday, May 23 at One way Cafe & Gallery in downtown Wauwatosa, WI. It has been a wonderful experience, we started the show on February 11 and have been extended several times - Thank You Sandy Haeger. If you can, please stop by for the food (world's best chicken salad) and stay to enjoy the art. On May 24 a new photography show will begin with photographs by the Underwood Society, a group of talented photographers.

Where is everybody going?

To the Chicago Botanic Garden . . .

And you should too!

Any time of year 'tis beauty to behold. For more go to: http://www.chicago-botanic.org/

For those of you who remember Tim Conway and his wonderful secretary Mrs. Wiggins, this is her typewriter.

A great day for the Milwaukee Art Museum where the building itself is art!

Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas

Of wheat, rye, barley, fetches, oats, and pease;

Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,

And flat meads thatched with stover, them to keep;

Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,

Which spongy April at thy hest betrims

To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,

Being lasslorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard;

And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard,

Where thou thyself dost air--the queen o' th' sky,

Whose wat-ry arch and messenger am I,

Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace,

Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,

To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain.

Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.

~William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Iris at IV, i)~

Sunrise over Paris

A beautiful morning in Paris and a beautiful morning in Racine. I follow the weather in both places and 90% of the time the temperatures are within 1 or 2 degrees of each other with exception of winter when is does get colder and snowier in Cheeseland.

Not the artist Victor Skrebneski, but an admirer of his work shows size
Gruen Galleries played host

My favorite Weidner work


Another Weidner

And another

Gary Weidner, center with admirers of his work

Gruen Gallery
Painting and Photography Exhibition

We went to the opening of the exhibition last evening and it was a WOW! There were photographs by Victor Skrebneski, one of the icons of photography in this country and around the world. He took more photographs of famous people than anyone in the world – and this was before People Magazine. Victor was ill and could not attend but it was cool to see what he is now doing – see the pictures above. This series of photographs is called Twombly Montage and prices are $15,000 to $16,000.

The other treat was paintings by Gary Weidner. Gary is a young (to me) genius and his work is simply outstanding. The paintings are from Gary’s Love & Squalor series and in squalor is where I’d be if I purchased the one I wanted for only $25,000.

And in the "isn't it a small world department?", one of Gary's early mentors, Doug DeVinny (a great artist himself) is my neighbor.

Get yourself to Chicago, 226 W. Superior St. (312) 337-6262 and enjoy!

Having a camera makes you no more a photographer than having a hammer and some nails makes you a carpenter. - Claude Adams

Tobin's Chair

Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it.- Walter Sickert

The Rooftops of Paris

I am a member of Racine Artists Gallery, 401 Main Street in Racine (yes, they let almost anyone in) and starting this Thursday, April 30 all the artists bring in new work that will show for ninety days. Above is one of the pieces I'm taking to show. Please stop by.

Today's Quote: Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it.- Walter Sickert

The Artwalk in Wauwatosa was rained out today. I suspected that might happen when animals started walking through the rain, by the gallery, in pairs. But a spring rain is better than a spring snow. And the good news is Sandy Haeger, owner of One Way Café & Gallery has asked that my work stay until Saturday, May 24. Maybe we’ll sell something yet.

And today's quote:

There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch. [Fr., L'on ne saurait mieux faire voir que le magnifique et le ridicule sont si voisins qu'ils se touchent.]~Bernard de Bovier de Fontenelle, Oeuvres--Dialogues des Morts (IV, 32), (ed. 1825)~

First day of the Wauwatosa Art Walk. Great crowds, great weather. 82 degrees, almost hot but the forecast for tomorrow is 47 degrees - summer doesn't last long in Wisconsin. Sales of about $1,000,000, give or take $1,000,000 but a good time was had by all and we met some very nice people. Tune in tomorrow for the adventures of day 2.

The Wauwatosa ArtWalk is today (5-9pm) and tomorrow (10am-4pm), come by if you can. Temperature in the high 70's and no snow predicted!

50 degrees and no snow today, can spring be far behind? Soon it will be July (Spring in Wisconsin) and the Tulips will be in full blooom.

American Daffodil Society's annual national show will be held this year at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Chicago, April 24 - 27. Don’t miss this spectacular show of daffodils! A good friend, George Dorner from Long Grove, IL is president of the American Daffodil Society so I know everything will be first rate.

Wauwatosa Westside Artwalk

Come to the Artwalk on Friday, April 24th from 5pm to 9pm and Saturday, April 25th from 10am to 4pm in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Be sure and stop by One Way Cafe & Gallery, 1427 N. Underwood and see Journeying: The Art of Robert Schnack