23. Tribune Tower

This painting is to be donated to Inspiration Corporation's "One Inspired Evening" Art Auction. Inspiration Corporation is one of my favorite organizations to support. On their website, they describe their organization as follows: Through its supportive services, employment, and housing programs, Inspiration Corporation assists more than 3,000 individuals and families affected by homelessness and poverty each year - serving as a catalyst for self-reliance.

I have thoroughly enjoyed volunteering each Wednesday morning at Inspiration Cafe. I help provide restaurant style service, taking drink and meal orders at the table and delivering them to the table. I love the simplicity of showing respect by serving a meal in a dignified way. I love the opportunity to gradually come to know the guests in serving them each week. I love the glimpses I get into the lives of those I serve: Each week Roy offers me perhaps the most enthusiastic greetings I have ever received. Steven always has coffee, orange juice with a little ice, extra napkins and a straw. Warren composes and plays songs on the piano. Gayle has two daughters, is often reading spiritual texts and tell jokes he writes himself.

It is with great pleasure that I donate this painting to one of Inspiration Corporation's annual fundraising events. I enjoyed painting this image of the Tribune Tower. Just a few months ago, I painted another image of the Tribune Tower. Comparison of those two paintings makes the dynamic nature of light and its power to transform a composition quite evident.

22. Chicago Christmas Lights

It is said that in early November, the veil between the the living and the dead is the thinnest. It is in that part of the year that summer is passing, the nights are lengthening, and many cold days lay ahead. What then can we expect of these early winter days? We have just passed the darkest day of the year. The winter solstice represents the last day of waning light.

In Chicago, these December days are typically marked by the initial shock of the crisp, cold air. The bare trees and low winter sun can make the world feel stark and clear. Into to those days comes the twinkle of Christmas lights mingling with the glimmer of the Chicago skyline and snowflakes fluttering gracefully to the ground. Fresh snow coats the trees, each branch left glistening white. The snow reflects light and the newness of the season on gray winter days. Unlike the bleakness of the days which come after several months of icey coldness, on these days I feel refreshed in this new season, sentimental about winters past, and hopeful.
 
Merry Christmas!

21. Amate House North

In August, my sister began a year with Amate House, in Chicago. She will work for a year at Mercy Housing Lakefront, organizing tenants in three of their SRO (Single Room Occupancy) buildings and will receive an Americorp award for her year of service. It is a GREAT JOY to have her living in Chicago and an opportunity of which I want to take full advantage as I don't know for how long I will have the delight of my sister living in close proximity. As a consequence of my scheming to spend time with my sister, I have also had the opportunity to spend time with her thirteen housemates. It has been an unexpected pleasure to come to know these people who are doing wonderful work with organizations (primarily social service providers) around the city.

On Friday, I had dinner with the Amate Volunteers and I gave them this painting as an early Christmas present. This image is of their front door. I was intrigued to create this painting of something thoroughly ordinary. Can a simple painting of a typical weathered door be special, when the image is familiar and possibly evocative of nostalgia?

20. Seattle Sunset

A little over three years ago, I moved from Baltimore to rural west Alabama. I spent a week between the two places in Seattle with my sister. The trip evolved from what had initially been planned as a road trip from Alaska to Kansas City in a Volvo coupe circa 1964. When the over-ambition of that trip, in light of time constraints, became apparent, it was scaled back to a delightful week spent in Seattle. This painting was made from a photograph we took on the first evening of our trip. As we explored the area near to where we were staying, in Seattle's Capital Hill neighborhood, I was totally delighted by this image of the sunset with the space needle and the water in the distance. I was interested as I made this painting at the amount of information, which can be conveyed with a simple painting: a wash for the sky and monochrome outlines of objects.

19. Baltimore Street

For two years I lived in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. I feel incredible nostalgia for the neighborhood's beautiful square, elegant homes, pride week high heel race, and one of my very favorite restaurants, Iggies!

Really once I start talking about Mt. Vernon, it's hard for me to stop. It's rare that you find a neighborhood with so many of the city's cultural centers: the Walters Art Museum, the Peabody Conservatory, the main branch of the Baltimore public library system, the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the U.S., and Centerstage. As if that wasn't enough the neighborhood has an incredibly beautiful central square, the center piece of which is Baltimore's Washington Monument. This square hosts a number of great events like the yearly flower mart, the monument lighting at Christmas, and my favorite, the Baltimore Book Festival. In addition to all of that there is a great variety of bars and restaurants in the neighborhood including the Helmand a great Afghani restaurant, Brewer's Art, which offers amazing garlic rosemary fries, and as Baltimore's gay neighborhood a variety of gay bars and clubs including gay bingo at the Hippo.

There is much more I could say about Mt. Vernon, but one of my favorite things about my former home was just walking around. This painting is of a street scene in Mt. Vernon--beautiful architecture, the trees blooming, and the sun shining. I spent many a contented afternoon strolling the streets of my corner of Baltimore and I reveled in those memories as I made this painting.

18. Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower

This painting will be donated to the Zebra Ball and for sale at the event's silent auction on Saturday, February 13, 2010. The Zebra Ball, which takes place in Chicago, benefits the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation. It was launched by Sharon Devereaux, the mother of a childhood friend, whose own mother has been diagnosed with carcinoid cancer. It has been a pleasure to attend the event the last two years and to donate paintings to the silent auction. I marveled as I painted this image at Chicago's extraordinary architecture and the resulting compositions. It is amazing that Chicago is a city where, in a glance, one can see the gleaming white clock tower of the Wrigley Building and the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower.

Searching for Images of Chicago to Love

In writing recently about Baltimore (where I lived for several years) I wrote this:

As a watercolor painter I find the images of Baltimore completely captivating. In contrasting Charm City with it nearest counterpart Washington D.C., I often used the words gritty and industrial. Those words unfairly flatten the depth of the city’s character. The visibility and aesthetic pleasure of Baltimore’s history, in the urban landscape, makes for extraordinary compositions. I have quite contentedly painted the Domino Sugar Factory and the Mr. Boh sign and wondered at the nostalgia I felt for these neon advertisements. They are simultaneously iconic reminders of Baltimore’s historic and contemporary industry, beautiful, wholly associated with the place, and part of Baltimore’s identity in the present, which feels personal.

Basically, I am searching for Chicago's "Mr. Boh sign" and "Domino Sugar Factory." What are the iconic images that represent my present home, images about which Chicagoans feel nostalgic and which are unexpectely beautiful? I am, at present, working on a painting of some beautiful Chicago buildings, but I am always searching for those images that feel "completely Chicago." I would be very amenable to accepting suggestions if anyone out there would like to leave a comment about a Chicago image that has stolen your heart.

I leave you with my favorite words about Chicago and my own words about Baltimore. Nelson Algren, said that loving Chicago, is "Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real." I would say of Baltimore that it is like falling in love unexpectedly, you may well find a more perfect lover. But never have you been so charmed.