This is our last day here, with an early flight tomorrow morning.  We are heading into Catania to walk and shop and see the sights.  Canolli at a special patisserie that Maryl knows is the only planned event on our agenda.

That is much the way we travel together, and it suits all three of us.  We are wanderers and not in much of a hurry.  I especially love to sit in one place so I can sketch or start paintings.  I know for a fact that our travel style would drive many people nuts (as theirs wo...
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A day-trip to Siracusa on Easter Monday was most enjoyable in the company of Maryl's good friend Christi Guard.  A wrong turn on the way there made the trip about twice as long, and we comically kept seeing the autostrada, even passing underneath it but no way to get on.  Alors, we eventually made it and spent a windswept afternoon in Ortygia, the old part of the city.  I most loved the walk along the sea wall with the strong sea smell and waves crashing.




Maryl asking for directions

Me taking ...
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At last sunshine & warmth!  It has been pleasant enough all week, no rain, but cool and hazy, and we've been glad for long sleeves and jackets.  Today we took a laid back long walk around town, sat in the parks, watched the Easter revelers. Last evening booming fireworks about launched us out of bed after 11...Maryl tells us Sicilians like fireworks and use them at every occasion.  Happy Easter:  Boom!
 
I have been sketching often and also making watercolors at every chance.  The best view of ...
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Three days into our Sicily 2011 adventure finds us having a low-key day after 48 hours of touring. All photos by Jeff.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Maryl picking us up from the airport and proceeding with an impressive naval base tour. We spent an evening at home, at Maryl's sweet apartment in Belpasso, a village in the foothills of Mount Etna, and went early to bed, with no trouble sleeping after being awake for 36 hours. This view is from the top of the street in Belpasso looking dow...
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Carly Simon was interviewed on Diane Rehm this week:  did you know she had a speech impediment through her childhood?  Diane played several of her songs, and it felt like hearing from old friends. She was likable and real.

That's what I'm looking for these days:  real.

What Jeff & I are in major anticipation mode for is our upcoming trip to Sicily. We will be staying with Maryl, Jeff's daughter, who is stationed at the naval base Sigonella. We visited in 2010 and so know what to expect, but th...
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My sister Barb & her husband Tim arrived Saturday at noon with a lovely router table Tim had made for Jeff.  Although they were only here for 22 hours or so, the visit felt deliciously full and complete.  A rainy afternoon meant we spent most of it inside, except for a dog-walk. Barb and I always have so much to talk about, and I enjoy her company.  We pushed the huge glass coffee table out of the way in the living room and did some yoga together.

The evening dried out and the light was lumino...
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"Man With Storage" by Emil Robinson
2011 oil on panel
This is one of Emil Robinson's paintings from the Weston Art Gallery group show, Narrative Figuration, that I wrote about yesterday. (See blog entry "Inspired")  His work is intelligently and masterfully painted, as are those of his colleagues. This show is one not to be missed.

I've been fortunate to be in several of Emil's classes at Manifest Drawing Center, and have learned a great deal from him:  he's an excellent teacher.  Too, I learn ...
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Recently I'm trying to get back to a regular yoga practice, whether on my own or in a class.  I always go deeper in class, but I have this (stubborn) idea that I can do it on my own, and also save money since our income has decreased.  There are three yoga studios in my neighborhood, one of which is owned by my first teacher, Sherry Joy.

Joyful Life Yoga (http://www.joyfullifeyoga.com/index.html) is at the corner of Liberty & Main.  Today I woke up determined to get to the noon class.  I was t...
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My father (a sometime writer) used to say that writing was 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. 

What I know to be true for painting and my own work is a bit different. Generally inspiration is thought of as a flash of brilliance, a complete thought-form or idea just ready to be executed.  (Executed being the more friendly definition of THAT word, which is to say created rather than destroyed).

For me, inspiration is more the thing that keeps me working, the motivation to show up and paint. Th...
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You can now leave comments on my blog posts.  Just click on the actual post you want to leave a comment on, then follow the prompts on the bottom.  I hope to hear from you!


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I attempted to post a blog entry last night but couldn't get into the internet for some reason.  Always frustrating, but I've learned that it's much less frustrating to just give up, shut it down, and try again the next time I log on. 

Otherwise I can get into that steam-coming-out-of-my-ears mood, a complete waste of energy.  When that happens, Jeff & Audrey disappear, Mandy goes straight to her bed and feigns sleeping, and Sydney sits at my feet wherever I go, quivering but refusing to leav...
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Two years ago today, Jeff's only son took his own life.  Whitney Holwadel Smith was 6 days shy of turning 25, and had been living in a Segregated Housing Unit (SHU, also known as solitary confinement)  for 15 months.  He was denied phone and visitation privileges.   His only contact with the outside world was in writing and receiving letters.

Five months before he died, Whit started  writing a blog.  He would send Jeff a handwritten entry, which Jeff would promptly transcribe and post.  Whit ...
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This weekend was supposed to a multi-layered family visit with Jeff's sister & mom coming Thursday through Saturday or Sunday, and my sister Barb and her husband Tim visiting Saturday & Sunday.  I cleaned the house in anticipation...and thankfully they didn't cancel before I got through most of it.  But cancel they all did.  So on Friday, we visited Jeff's mom in Delaware, Ohio, and I delivered the painting Carolyn (Jeff's sister) had me make for Steve, her partner.

Having the rest of the wee...
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