Birthday(s) visit in Los Angeles

In celebration of two January birthdays, Julie and Dan took a little hop to Los Angeles for a visit with Christine and Jamie. The visit was two weeks after Christine's birthday and coincided with Julie's. J&D flew in from New Jersey on Saturday and spent the afternoon and evening with C&J at their West LA apartment, relaxing, playing board games and talking.

One of the conversation topics was how well Jamie is enjoying her new job. After two years at Riot Games, she started about three months ago as a system designer at Skybound Entertainment, working on a new project that has yet to be announced. The company is based in Los Angeles, although Jamie works almost entirely from home.

It was rainy on-and-off all weekend in "Sunny California," so museums were on the agenda. On Sunday, the four visited UCLA's Hammer Museum, which featured an exhibit of intaglio prints (made via engraving and related methods) from the 1500s to the present. They then took a window-shopping walk around downtown Westwood (photo above).

While Jamie worked on Monday, Julie, Dan and Christine visited the Getty Villa, one of two campuses of the J. Paul Getty Museum. It's a recreation of a Roman villa built in Herculaneum, near Pompeii. The original villa was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in the 1st Century and excavated in the 18th Century. It houses the museum's collections of Greek, Roman and Etruscan sculptures and antiquities. Our trio also saw a temporary exbibit on the ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead," consisting of papyrus scrolls and linens bearing heiroglyphic "spells" intended to enable a deceased person to navigate the afterlife.

Jamie rejoined the group for dinner, and the four then went to a night club in Hollywood to see an LA indie-rock band, Night Talks, perform. "I've been playing their music on Birch Street Radio for years," says Dan, "and because of that, we were on 'the list' to attend the show as guests of the band." Jamie and Christine enjoyed the show, and Night Talks now has two more LA fans.

A birthday-celebration weekend in Los Angeles

Dan and Julie visited Christine and Jamie in Los Angeles in early January to celebrate Christine's birthday. Highlights included a visit to the Getty Center museum, where Julie and Christine posed before an appropriate sculpture, "Draped Reclining Mother and Baby" by Henry Moore.

The weekend began with a stroll on and around the Santa Monica Pier, and then to a movie theater to experience the new Avatar movie in 3D.

That evening, the group toasted the birthday girl at Harvelle's Blues Club in Santa Monica, where they were entertained by a New Orleans-style jazz band called Alligator Beach.

The visit to the Getty was the following day. "We could only see a fraction of Getty Center, as it's enormous," says Dan, "and that's just one of the two Getty museums in LA. But we enjoyed both the exhibits - including a collection of drawings and sketches by Dutch artists - and the grounds themselves."

That evening, the group had a fine dinner at an Italian restaurant, La Bruschetta in the Westwood neighborhood, that has become a C&J favorite.

D&J stayed through Monday, and while Jamie worked, they and Christine visited South Dakota the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures - a new attraction in the city, which opened in late 2021. This selfie was taken in front of Mount Rushmore a painted backdrop used in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest."

Outside the museum, heavy rain arrived that afternoon, part of a series of storms that caused flooding and mudslides in various parts of California during January. Some streets in the LA area were flooded that night, but fortunately, there were no such problems in C&J's neighborhood. And the skies cleared for D&J's flight back to New Jersey the next day.

Dolores wins 2 awards in county arts contest

Two pieces of Dolores's artwork took first-place awards in an annual Creative Arts Contest conducted by the Baltimore County Department of Aging.

The prizes were in the watercolor category, for a painting titled "Glengarry," and the fabric arts category, for a collage called "Monday Morning Breezes."

A delegation from the county, with a TV crew in tow, visited Oak Crest Village to present certificates to Dolores and to another resident of the complex, who won a second-place award for woodworking. In the photo here, Dolores is holding the collage and a county representative holds the watercolor.

"With each presentation, I was asked how I came to do each, what were my inspirations, and especially with the collage, describe some of the textures, things that I used in the piece," Dolores said. "The collage is a copy/derivation from a watercolor that I did in high school of some back yards in Corning. I found it a few years ago, and did a larger, better (I hope) version. The collage is loosely based on that. I also have a miniature version, so I’m getting a lot of mileage from it!"

Autumn leaves and family visits

Fall view from Andy & Wren's porch

Dan celebrated his late-October birthday by taking some days off work, and he and Julie hit the road to points north and east. They visited Andy and Wren in upstate New York, then Christine and Jamie in New Hampshire. Along the way they checked out the fall foliage, which was just a bit past peak but still very colorful. 

Relaxing at home

Just a few of the chickens

In Middleburg, N.Y., Dan and Julie toasted Andy and Wren's recent engagement and enjoyed their hospitality - including fresh eggs from their flock of chickens.

The four set out for a Sunday hike at a nearby geological feature called Vroman's Nose, but changed their minds when they found the trail crowded with maskless people. They drove around a bit looking at the scenery, then took a stroll in a community park in nearby Schoharie that includes a covered pedestrian bridge over Fox Creek. 

On Monday, Dan and Julie took a drive through the Berkshires and across central Massachusetts, then dipped into northeastern Connecticut. The weather was alternately rainy, foggy and just damp, foiling plans to stop for a walk in the woods near Stockbridge, Mass., but the autumn scenery was colorful even without the sun. They spent the night in Connecticut (due to Covid restrictions) before heading to New Hampshire the next morning. 

The weather dried out for their Tuesday visit with Christine and Jamie - and their kittens, now almost six months old. It was Dan and Julie's first chance to meet Morgana and Lavenza in person. After catching up over lunch, D&J and C&J headed out to explore the Andres Institute of Art sculpture park in nearby Brookline, N.H.

It was a chance to enjoy a fall hike in the woods and observe some art along the way. This work, called "Bones of the Earth," incorporated an existing rock outcropping. It was along the park's "Quarry Trail," which turned out to involve some rugged, rocky climbing.

Along a smoother trail were other installations, such as the very cute "Animals" and a trio of metal figures called "The Debate." There were very few people in the park on that Tuesday afternoon, and the group never encountered anyone else along the trails - making it a very relaxing, socially-distanced outing.

Friendly-looking "Animals"

Christine engages in "The Debate"

Afterward, the four returned to the house Jamie and Christine are sharing with Jamie's dad, Paul. Jamie grilled a rack of ribs with her own spice rub, making for a fine dinner. Dan then invoked birthday privilege to get Julie, Christine, Jamie and Paul to join him in a game of Rail Baron - which Christine was leading when all decided to call it a night.

It was raining again as Dan and Julie started the drive home, but the weather improved as they crossed Connecticut, and they had another chance to enjoy beautiful fall foliage along the Merritt Parkway to conclude their mini-vacation.

Meet-up at the art show

Marie, Brian and Xander made their annual visit to the Art All Night festival in Trenton on June 15-16. That gave Dan a chance to spend some time with his elder daughter, son-in-law and grandson on Father's Day weekend. Xander and Brian again entered pieces in the show. Xander's was an anime-style drawing of a character of his own design, and Brian's was a cubist version of one of his Electric Catnip felines.

Dolores gives talk on historic tapestry

Dolores this week gave a lecture at the Oakland, Md., library about the Bayeux Tapestry, a 900-plus-year-old embroidered record of the Battle of Hastings that's housed in a museum in Normandy, France.

As we've previously reported, Dolores filled a long-standing wish to see and examine the tapestry when she and Hugh visited Europe in 2014. She later wrote an article about it for the publication Needle Arts.

"The lecture was a great success," Hugh reports. "More than 40 people showed up and filled the room to standing-room-only. At the end of her talk, Dolores laid out her 1/4 scale model of the tapestry. It was a great hit."

The week before her talk, the local newspaper in Oakland published a very nice write-up about it, which probably helped draw the crowd. You can read the article on the Garret County Republican newspaper's web site, or click here to see how it was displayed in the printed paper.

Catching up on her other recent activities: In October, Dolores judged the 34th annual miniature show held by the Fells Point Gallery.

"Dolores selected prize winners ​in various media including oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing, mixed media and sculpture from among 220 entries," Hugh writes. "The entries were all limited in size to no more than 48 square inches overall including the matte and frame, and most were much smaller."

On Sunday, Oct. 8, Dolores and Hugh attended the opening reception for the show. (Hugh notes that the gallery is no longer in Fells Point, having moved to the Hamden neighborhood of Baltimore).

Dolores teaches portraiture; Hugh assists

Hugh sends along this photo​ of Dolores conducting a class at the Rehoboth Art League, instructing students on how to draw/paint portraits in Rehoboth. "Note that she has provided a live model," Hugh writes. "She says that the hat and the beard provide a challenge, and he works cheap."

Marie, Brian, Xander visit Trenton for art's sake

Marie, Brian and Xander traveled from Virginia back to Trenton, N.J., last month to visit Brian's parents and attend the city's annual Art All Night festival.

It was at least the fourth time they've attended the event, where any and all artists are welcome to exhibit one item apiece. Xander has exhibited each year, and this year showed this drawing of a cat waiting for food to appear in its bowl.

Meanwhile, Brian exhibited a large-scale painting of one of his psychedelic cat images, which have become very popular on internet sites (see previous article).

Brian's mother, Barbara, showed "Patriot's Dream," a vision-through-a-window quilt, with a schoolhouse in the center -- appropriately for the retired teacher and current literacy volunteer.

Brian's father, Steve, presented this painting of "Fiddleheads in the Moonlight."

The event fell on Father's Day Weekend, and provided a chance for a get-together between Marie and her dad, Dan, along with Julie, Christine, Andy and Shannon. Everyone enjoyed strolling through the exhibit hall - a former Roebling steel factory - and watching artists at work on the surrounding grounds.

Brian's psychedelic cats become Internet stars

For a little over a year, Brian has been taking photographs of cats - mostly Hans and Matilda, the family pets of Marie, Brian and Xander - and turning them into multimedia art pieces.

Brian uses photo effects and animation software to create psychedelic videos and records music to accompany them, then posts them on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Electric Catnip.



Several months ago, Marie says, Brian's creations suddenly began to "go viral" and draw a large following. As of today, over 188,000 Facebook users have "liked" the Electric Catnip page. The most popular video, "Catnip Rising," has been viewed more than a million times! Hundreds of others follow Electric Catnip's Instagram and YouTube accounts.

Brian has now released an album of Electric Catnip music (available on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Amazon etc.) and opened an online shop on Redbubble offering various items imprinted with his "cat dreams."

Birthday weekend with family & art

Julie celebrated her birthday with a visit by her parents and a full weekend of activities.

Hugh and Dolores arrived Friday, and that evening joined Julie, Dan, Christie and her boyfriend, James, and Andy and his girlfriend, Shannon, for dinner at a local cafe and a little more visiting at home. It was great to be able to have the group together before Christine and James headed back to Rochester the next day.

On Saturday, Julie, Dan, Hugh and Dolores spent the afternoon at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J. This was actually a birthday gift for Dolores: after Julie, Dan, Christine and Andy visited this extraordinary park last June, Julie gave her mom a gift certificate for a private tour.

The 42-acre park is filled with works by its patron, J. Seward Johnson, and various other artists. Johnson's specialties are lifelike figures in everyday poses and three-dimensional recreations of famous paintings. Besides bringing the paintings to life, the displays allow visitors to put themselves in the pictures.

That evening, it was dinner at home and a movie in the living room: "Singing in the Rain," a favorite of Julie and her parents.

On Sunday, Liz was able to join her grandparents, Aunt Julie and Uncle Dan for brunch in Brooklyn. Liz, currently living in Brooklyn while studying for her masters at NYU and working at WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff's New York office, met the group at a small restaurant in Prospect Heights. They spent a good couple of hours catching up. Then Liz headed home to study while the rest paid a visit to the Brooklyn Museum.

None of the four had been to this museum before (even though Dan and Julie lived in Brooklyn for several years way back when), and all were impressed by the extent and quality of its collection. They spent a few hours checking out several exhibits, with special attention to anything involving needlework.

The foursome was rejoined by Andy and Shannon that evening for dinner and then more chatting, and present-opening, at home (with Christine joining in by phone).

The gifts included a special request from Julie: framed copies for herself and her mom of two photos each showing four generations of women in the family. The first was of infant Julie with her mother, grandmother Evelyn and great-grandmother Sadie; the other of infant Christine with Julie, Dolores and Evelyn.

Dolores at Oakland gallery opening

Earlier this month, Dolores and Hugh attended the reception and ribbon-cutting marking the opening of the Garrett County Arts Council's new gallery in Oakland, Md.

Hugh writes: "The new gallery is on Second Street in the heart of the Oakland business district. It replaces the gallery around the corner on Alder Street that the Council was forced to leave 18 months ago after a burst pipe flooded the building. The new gallery is a wonderful space that will display the fine art and craft works of the artisans of Garrett County."

Five paintings by Dolores in pastel and watercolor are currently exhibited in the gallery. This photo shows her standing by her pastel, “February Snow.”

Among the crowd at the opening were the mayor of Oakland and members of the Board of Commissioners of Garret County along with the Arts Council's executive director and members of its board of directors.

Dolores takes award in plein air event

Dolores took a "best in show" award in a plein air art event last month.

Hugh writes: On Saturday, September 24 Dolores took part in a plein air event at Spruce Forest Artisan’s Village in Grantsville, Md. Beginning at about 10 a.m. and finishing about 1 p.m., she produced this pastel painting, which Dolores calls “September Shadows.”

The painting shows a wooded area across the Castleman River. The river was at a lower water level at the time. The piece was awarded a prize as best in show.