How Cartoons Taught Me About the Wild World Beyond My Fenced-in Backyard

In our old house with all of its charming characteristics, unseen openings allow entrance for mice. The first time I noticed pieces of oatmeal in a little trail leading to the door of the attic, I thought “How precious.” I imagined the animated mice Jaq and Gus in Cinderella with their cheek pouches bulging and…

A Richly Textured Life

Must the rough always be made smooth? Or so it appears in life, or at least with our public facades and selfies. In art texture with all of its diversities is noted as one of the seven basic elements of art, valued for its smooth and rough, its many values (more about that later). In truth,…

When Bad and Ugly Turn Good, No, Brilliant!

“She’s allergic to what?” I stared down at my two-year-old daughter. The swelling red bumps in corn rows spotted down her tiny back. “So what can she eat?” Dr. Gordon was a staunch and strict allergist, who in her mid-seventies presided with totalitarian rule. However, she was the best, and I needed the best for…

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!

Think late 15th century Renaissance Italy. Milan, to be exact; the years 1495-1498 to be exactor. A man well known for his great wealth and family name–Sforza–hired an artist well known for his wealth of talents and name now synonymous to The Renaissance Man–da Vinci. The Last Supper was painted on a wall that would…