February: Chicago

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If you know me well, you know I go to Chicago several times a year to indulge in opera. That started, according to my Google calendar, in 2011. But I think it was the very next year, 2012, that I contacted an online acquaintance via the now defunct Google+ social media platform that was so much loved and used by photographers around the world. To make a long story short, he agreed to meet me at “The Bean,” a must site for photogs in Chicago, and today I have a whole bunch of Chi-town friends. Getting together with them to…

Well, darn!

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So, I came to Denver for an art show opening reception tonight, but here I am in my hotel room on my computer instead! It’s been snowing off and on ever since I arrived, and the opening reception has been postponed until tomorrow night. Sadly, I’ll be back home by then. Well…, that might take a bit of luck, but… that’s where I’m supposed to be tomorrow night! Nevertheless, it’s been a mostly good trip. Yesterday I enjoyed walking in the snow about three-quarters of a mile to D’art Gallery in the downtown arts district. It’s a co-op gallery and…

Jones Gallery for May

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I have mentioned before that the Jones Gallery in Kansas City, MO, has become a dependable supporter of my work. Their May Group Art Show will again include two by me, both #ArchitecturalAbstracts. Although I usually seek to reduce or eliminate graininess when editing photos, I did the opposite with Checkered Past. It’s the Monroe Building, one of Chicago’s historic treasures that is regularly featured on the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House tour. Light levels were low inside, which tends to make for grainier photos, so I was partly just going where the photo seemed to want to go. But…

My Kind of Town

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Ok, so Frank Sinatra said it first, but…. Chicago really is… I’ve been going several times a year for about the last seven. It started in 2011 with a photography exhibit: Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer at the Chicago Cultural Center. I don’t remember how I first learned of Vivan Maier, but I sure wanted to see this exhibit, which was the first of her work in her hometown. So I talked an opera buff friend into going with me. Lyric Opera was performing Lohengrin at Civic Opera House on Wacker Dr., and that was enough to get him…

Eco-harmony

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So… one more story from Costa Rica. We spent a day on the Sierpe River. I’m sure I mentioned that before. And in addition to many species of birds and dozens of squirrel monkeys swinging through the trees, we saw plants. Of course we saw plants! Costa Rica is an awesomely verdant country. I could go back and spend a week just learning about the plants! But the day we spent on the Sierpe River, I saw one I recognized. Instantly. It was a patch of water hyacinth, and I recognized it instantly because in Louisiana, water hyacinth–however beautiful–is a…