Once Again......

I've been writing my little blog for years and can't remember how many times I've shared a few thoughts about another mass shooting in America. I don't have much to go on except my gut feelings....as a mother and grandmother....especially when a school is involved. I keep thinking "Again?!" When will our leaders DO something to change this American trajectory? When will these "leaders" do anything more than send theirs "thoughts and prayers"? 

As of the shooting in Nashville the other day we can count 129 mass shootings in the United States in 2023......86 days and 129 mass shootings so far this year. Guns are now the number one cause of death for our children. Number one. Never mind all of the adults who are lost to this epidemic and the holes left in all of their families.

This most recent tragedy really puzzles me. The young woman who walked into the Christian school with two AR assault weapons and a handgun was getting counseling, her parents knew she had problems and didn't think she should own a gun. They didn't know she owned seven firearms.....and some that should only be used in battle (if then). And she bought her guns legally?

That's what I don't comprehend. If background checks are used and we concerned citizens hope this documentation will serve as a deterrent at all, shouldn't something "pop" up on the computer screen saying "This person has purchased MORE than ONE assault weapon"!? And then shouldn't the gun shop owner say "I'm sorry but I can't sell this to you." Shouldn't there be some kind of limits to gun ownership??? Shouldn't law enforcement be notified that this individual is purchasing so many guns?

Oh I can hear the tired argument now...."Our Constitution says...." You can't tell me that the authors of this founding document, written in 1787, had any concept of what modern guns could do.....and if they did have a crystal ball do you honestly think they would have written the same content?

Well here they come....."thoughts and prayers" winging toward Nashville. 

Trying Something New....

When we lived in New Castle, Delaware I took a drawing class at the Delaware Art Museum. I really had fun using just pencils and trying to learn to shade and highlight whatever I was trying to draw. But this little "hobby" took back seat to moving aboard the sailboat and coming back to dry land to really get into quilting.

Last month I found a drawing class at the North Shore School for Seniors just up the road. The class was only one month long so I decided to enroll and dust off my pencils (actually I had to buy new ones). The first class was interesting with the instructors demonstrating different kinds of shading and having us all attempt to duplicate their efforts on our own papers. We had to draw a basket using our non-dominant hand  (not easy) and tried some line drawings where we never let our pencil leave the paper. Exercises to get us to loosen up.

I came home that week and decided to try to do something on my own. I took my 75 year old teddy bear, Randolph Geremiah, off the bedroom cupboard and set him up on the dining room table. And every morning for the next week I'd sit down and try to add to my attempt. 

It was fun and frarnkly, I was happy with the results. I won't be giving up my quilting, but this fun and easily portable hobby will now be something else I can do in the weeks/year ahead. Randolph is back on the cupboard and I am not working on a drawing of our big kitchen piggy bank!

Confusion.....

This is Wisconsin....and our "spring" is usually pretty short with a lot of ups and downs in March and April. A few warmer days and then back to cold and then back to warmer. Fenway is sick of putting on his sweater....and when I grabbed his snowsuit this morning he plastered  his ears down to his head and looked away. I can almost hear him thinking "Again?"

The view from our little deck shows that Mother Nature is giving us a reminder than we shouldn't look for too many certain signs of spring just yet.

Isn't there some kind of phrase that people repeat...."March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb"? Well March has six days to get this story straight.....the lion is roaring today.

The Oldest Fans.....

Thursday evening Dave and I went to a concert. I'd seen advertisements for these Candlelight Concerts for months and decided to explore on line. 

There were a number listed for Milwaukee and one especially caught my eye. The string quartet would be doing a concert featuring Taylor Swift's music. I distinctly remember seeing Taylor Swift on stage at the Country Music Awards ceremony when she was in her mid-teens and thought to myself "She is really good....we will be hearing from her!" Now she's tied with Frank Sinatra for the most Grammy Awards and has released album after album of music....to my ear very good music.

I bought the tickets and we drove into the city to St. James Abbey and walked into a beautiful candlelit sanctuary.

As we entered through the front doors we shared space with a young mother and about four pre-teens/teenage girls. Frankly they gave us a surprised look and one asked "Are you Taylor Swift fans?" When I responded "Yes, I am!" her wide open mouth reply of "Really!?" made me realize that Dave and I were just slightly out of place. The young woman even asked me which was my favorite album and I had to cover my lack of Taylor Swift trivia by saying I just played her songs on "shuffle" on my phone! These fans were really excited and as we found our seats I wondered just what they expected to hear.

We heard what we'd hoped for....an amazing string quartet (viola, two violins and a cello) playing beautiful music in a beautiful setting. As the foursome took turns introducing the songs one member said to the audience, "You can't imagine how much fun this is for us! We usually play Bach, Chopin or Beethoven!"

It was a beautiful noise even if I didn't recognize every song without Taylor singing the lyrics. A one hour concert, a very attentive audience, candlelit setting.....an evening well spent.

You may prefer classical music....and if so you should still google Candlelight Concerts and check these out in a city near you. Groups play all over the world and we intend to watch the schedule for another candlelit evening.

The oldest "Swiftie" in the room....OK with me.

And Sometimes A Ribbon....

I belong to the North Shore Quilters Guild and Dave is a member of the Urban Ecology Center Photo Club. We each have our monthly meetings and enjoy our separate "passions". He especially likes to bring his camera and lenses along in our RV and we do have some wonderful travel memories saved thanks to his efforts and talents. Also he's experienced more than one moment of frustration as he often seems to have the wrong lens on his camera when the perfect shot appears.

But sometimes things line up and work out in his favor. There is usually a photography challenge at each month's meeting and this month it was "mood". It's up to the photographer to bring in a picture that best frames that challenge. Framing a "mood" can be interesting....but going through his stash saved on line he came up with a few things he thought were "moody" and asked my opinion. They were good photos but didn't elicit any kind of moody feeling for me. I suggested he find one of the ones he'd taken over the years of a solitary old house, or barn and try printing it out in black and white to see what might happen. So he came up with this.

And after the meeting he came home with this....

:-)

Me, Myself and I....and Memories....

Yesterday's trip to MAM also gave me the chance to walk along the hallway display featuring talented student artists' work. This is an annual exhibit and I, happily, usually end up seeing it sometime during March. The work extends along one main hallway and shows paintings, drawings, photographs, ceramic pieces....so much talent. As I walk slowly along I go back in my memory to all of the middle school, high school and college shows where we specifically went to see our Megan's contributions. Some of the ones from MAM's exhibit really hit home. The one section showed a drawing of kitchen ware sitting on a counter. My photo has too many reflections to do it justice, but I well remember the assignment Meg had in high school....she arranged lots of our pots and pans on the stove to satisfy her artist's eye.

  

   

She worked on this piece for several evenings after school. In the meantime I was not allowed to re-arrange the pieces in any way or use the stove top. (Dinner was pizza in the oven.)

I dug through the bottom drawer of our living room armoire and found the black and white effort along with two self-portraits. 

Art students must still be tackling the same kinds of assignments......still life with pots and pans, self-portraits. Every time I see one of these student exhibits I wonder just how many of these talented young people will stay on their art journey....and where it might take them.

Megan's journey has taken her to gallery representation in several states, art shows and private commissions. So I think to myself, "You go guys!" 

Me, Myself and I.....

Everyone I contacted was busy (after all I had issued a last minute invitation) so I took myself off to the Milwaukee Art Museum this morning. I specifically wanted to see a new exhibit entitled Native America: In Translation. The museum's underground parking facility was almost empty when I arrived at 10:30 so I had no problem finding a space and going right into the building. I showed the ticket agent my membership card and was directed to one of the downstairs galleries. I quickly walked through some of the first floor space just sort of "absorbing" colors and shapes as I went along.

Entering the exhibit gallery I stopped to read the introduction signage. In part it stated: "In the Apsaalooke language, the word Aakiwilaxpaake (People of the Earth) describes Indigenous people living in North America, pointing to a time before colonial borders were established. In this exhibition, curated by the Apsaalooke artist Wendy Red Star, artists of various Native nations and affiliations from throughout what is now called North America offer their diverse visions, building on histories of image making."

I wandered past images captured in photographs, mixed media paintings, three dimensional pieces and one inkjet print photograph that made me stop and stare.

Entitled "mother" by Rebecca  Belmore (Anishinaabe, Lac Seul First Nation) I must have stood in place for almost five minutes just looking at different aspects of the image. A woman almost trapped behind glass or ice or thick clear plastic, (?) one hand up in what seemed to me an almost helpless pose. Plain grey sweatshirt....pair of jeans....blue blanket on the ground/floor behind her. The entire background and floor beneath her created with a large, wrinkled piece of hanging fabric/plastic? Her eyes were looking up and to my right....into the distance. What would she have seen?

Why did this piece grab me and almost shake me...."Stand and look at me it said." So I did.