Merry Christmas

...made even more special by the gifts and company of good friends and family. Thank you all, Happy New Year.

4 days 'til Christmas

A visit to see our Canadian Family...

So great to see you all! Thank you to Aunt Nancy, Uncle Peter, Aunt Mary Ellen and Grandma (my mom 🙂).  Also thanks to Jarek and Isabela. We so enjoyed seeing you all, and cousins, too!

Hugo is showing off his muscles to Grandma here. 😀

The Earliest Tree

Not sure we've ever had our tree up before Thanksgiving.  Thankfully had two willing and capae elves to help out. 🎅

Also...check out Dash's flash of electric blue hair!!! 😎👍

Back to the blog?

So Blogger has been a bit of a nightmare.  Posting from mobile has been almost impossible.  So consider this a test...and if it works, I will use this platform more.

Above: good check ups. 👆

👆 From Halloween.

👆 From last week's parent/teacher conferences.

Hugo graduates!

Some images from Hugo's recent graduation ceremony. His art was used on the program cover, he gave a speech for the graduates, and blew kisses to the crowd when he entered for the ceremony...very much in his element.  And, certainly, a long way from where he came from; when he started a this school, he was riddled with anxiety when it came time to being in front of people on a stage. We are very proud of him, and we are all excited about his new and challenging school next year. 

And...congrats to Dash

...Who just wrapped up soccer yesterday.  Very much improved since he started playing at the beginning of the year. The sweat tells you how much this big kid hustled yesterday. Proud of him!

Hugo's team

Hugo likes baseball, he doesn't love it.  He mostly likes to hit. And he likes the uniform, and he likes his friends. Some photos from picture day last week. But I do hope he wants to play next year. 🙂

Action Packed Memorial Day Weekend

Such a great weekend spent with Uncle Mike and Becky...visited Storm King Art Center, Hillrock Distillery (great bourbons!), Fat Apple Farm (great food!), and the FDR Estate (Springwood) National Park...that happened to be having a World War 2 exhibition going on, hence the bazooka and artillery vehicles.

How Sweet It Is

Hugo introduced this year's Spring Show at his school and he was in two performances.  Not bad for a kid who was having anxiety attacks in his first performance at this school :).  Hooray for Hugo...the dancer! The performer!


Hugo is the second from the left in this video.


And, here, Hugo is the "lead singer" in the white t-shirt to the left of the frame.

On April 7, I lost an old friend. John Wicinas hadn't been healthy for a number of years, and last Sunday morning he succumbed to his illnesses, passing away peacefully at his home in Pennsylvania.  Along with dozens of other people, I shared a couple of memories I had about John on his Facebook page.  I have posted them below.

• • •

Many years ago, John and I were working at a summer camp at Penn State. We hadn’t met yet, as it was early on in the eight-week session. And so, one night, in the hour before it was “lights out,” and all counselors were on their floors, I had my window and door open to get the breeze to flow through. I was in art school at the time, and while I was waiting to make the rounds and put the kids to bed, I had taped these really "odd" concept drawings on the wall and just sat down at my desk to work on an idea that came to me for a small print. Maybe five minutes into the piece and straight in walks Johnny, like he owned the room, not a word he looks at the work on the walls and says in a low voice, “Dude. I love these.”

Most folks looked at my work back then and wondered what was wrong with me, or if I had a horrible childhood. But not John. He got it. And while we talked about making art, comics, heroes, The Simpsons, metaphor, mythology, chicks (‘“chicks dig me,” he’d say), and devils...I worked on this drypoint engraving. It’s called “The Gift,” and it was not about good or evil. It was about the competing forces of knowledge and wonder that exist within us. John understood that, immediately. To this day, he was the purest embodiment of both I have ever known, he had both in abundance, and I will always love and admire him for it. My life was immeasurably richer for having known a soul such as his.

• • •

In Fall 2004, I was working as an English teacher at a small boarding school in the middle of Wisconsin. I was teaching a British Lit survey course that moved chronologically, and I remember the class starting with Gawain (I think), then we were to move into The Canterbury Tales. And, that year, I had made up my mind to bring in John.

I remember he and I talking in years past about his juvie/court gig he was working, and I remember thinking to myself that it just wasn't a good fit. I knew if I could get him teaching, he would love it. So, my mind was made up; he was to come in and teach two days to two high school classes, four sessions total, about the Canterbury Tales; a subject I knew he was a wiz at since he wrote his Masters thesis at Brown on the Franklin's Tale. No lie, I was a bit nervous about this decision. After all, John tended to be animated when he was dialed up. He could be intimidating. But he seemed collected and put together.

He wore a grey three-piece suit and a tie, covered by a trench coat over the shoulders like a mafia don. We walked over to my office to get his stuff together before class and, five minutes before class, he proceeds to whip out two Mountain Dew Amps, and he pounds those in two minutes. "Are you sure, Johnny?" my eyes wide.

"Pfft! Yeah, I got this," he says.

No lie! He crushed it. He had music playing from the period, he greeted the kids at the door in Old English, he went into detail about what they were about to experience in the reading, and why it was important, and the kids were eating him up. His energy, his animation, his familiarity with the subject, and his love for it—all of that came shining through. The kids particularly liked how he handled the discussion of sex and violence (he kept it PG), and how he portrayed the characters in a way that correlated to the present day.

At teaching, I thought John was a natural, maybe among the best I have seen. And while I have always marveled at his success as a student, I was delighted at his decision to eventually become a teacher. And that's how I want to remember him; in my mind, John was a teacher.

Inside Outside Exhibition

A couple of months ago an opportunity opened up to submit work to a local gallery for a juried exhibition that focused on mental illness and disability. Some of my most recent work fit this theme, as they are images created based on autism—specifically the dissonance of sound and language, and struggle to communicate. I submitted 5 pieces, these four were accepted.

We had a nice opening, with many other artists from the area submitting work, including several from people who struggle with mental issues (coordinated by institutions that assist them).  The show was called "Inside Outside," and you can read about it here.  <link>

The exhibition is about to come to a close, and I actually sold a piece.  Before the end though, I was asked to participate on a panel discussion on April 4, with a few other artists, talking about our work and how it connects/speaks to the subject of mental illness and disabilities.  I will post more on this topic later when the event passes. 

In the meantime, I am still making digital image edits on my cell phone, and posting them here.  A summer project is to start transferring these images from a blog to an actual website, and also possibly, create a small art book out of some of the best of these images.  

Hugo's Dino Dance

This video from today's dance festival with his class. Hugo is all the way over to the left. 😀. Our thanks to Ms. Barrone for sending this along.

Time spent in Havana

(Updated from the original post)

While I posted this originally from Cuba, I thought it best that I add a few more pics from the trip to update things.

Yep, these old cars were everywhere! If you love old cars, Havana is for you.

Great food and drinks pretty much every place we went (in my opinion).

The "tour" we were on centered around two Blondie concerts. They were amazing.

At 73, Debbie Harry (and everyone in their band) can still bring it! 

When in Cuba, right?! I enjoyed our Rum & Cigars Gathering more than I thought I would :)

Walking the alleys in Old Havana at night. Charming.

And, on our last night in Havana, we met Debbie Harry in the restaurant :)

Walking the Malecón (esplanade along the sea) at night in Havana.

We have to say, music is everywhere in Havana. And we had the pleasure of experiencing more than just Blondie — here we are dancing to the remarkable (and dashing, I was told) Alaín Pérez!

With our friends in the market square.