Purple and yellow flowers

Inside the Church of the Nativity in Tonawanda, I saw this beautiful display of flowers on this old chair.

Tom Lewis

In late 2005 and early in 2006, I spent some time living at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D.C. I enjoyed the city and its museums and I especially enjoyed the ease in which I could get around without an automobile. There were plenty of places for this walking tourist to explore.
I also met some very interesting people, who told me their stories or who taught me something valuable. One of those individuals was Tom Lewis. He was both an activist and an artist and, among the things that I learned from him, was that art and activism are not mutually exclusive. A person can do both... seek truth and beauty as an artist and say yes to human rights and to life and no to torture, assassination, and war as an activist... because artists are part of this world and have a responsibility to make the world a better pace with the gift that they possess.
That is what Tom did. From 1968 until 2007, Tom worked tirelessly as an activist, seeking to end war and to call attention to the violent threat of nuclear weapons against all life on earth. He committed many acts of civil disobedience/resistance in his pursuit of a world free of war and of weapons of mass destruction. He accepted the consequences for his actions, serving approximately four years in prison at various points of his life.
Tom also worked as an artist and as an art teacher. Many people have experienced the joy of visual art, thanks to Tom's patient and affirming instruction. He taught regularly in Massachusetts. He also taught in other places, single lessons for students who might never have had the experience, had Tom not been an activist, traveling to protest war and nuclear weapons.
I was one of those art students. On a dreary late December day, Tom offered a few children and me a watercolor painting class at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House. Tom handed out a few paint sets and we got some photocopy paper from a computer. Tom then set up a still life. One of the boys wanted to paint something else, but Tom asked him to paint the still life, saying, "You can always paint the other subject, but you won't always have me to teach you."
The boy ended up by making a beautiful painting.
After the lesson, Tom told me that I had made a gorgeous painting and that I had talent. He wanted me to keep the paint set.
It was a very special gift.
When I returned to Western New York, I started going to a painting class at Stella Niagara in Lewiston. My friend and art teacher Jinni Kelley teaches several Franciscan sisters there, and she invited me to come to the class, as well. She gave me some paints, which I had been using, in addition to Tom's paint set.
A few weeks ago, Jinni taught a lesson, in which the idea was to paint the entire color wheel in the background. For that lesson, the paints that I used were predominantly Tom's paint set. The colors were vibrant and living. It was a great joy. I had discovered the vibrancy of the colors in the previous lesson, in which we were to draw a picture in ink and then add paint. I painted a "fantasy background" to my picture of a cardinal on a stump. The colors were very dramatic, I realized (see the paintings, above).
I thought about Tom when I made the colorful paintings. I would have liked to have shared the paintings with him.
But, it was not meant to be.
On April 4th, Tom passed away at home. I will miss Tom, even though my time with him was brief. Tom had given me a rainbow. I just wish that I could have shared that with him.
For more about Tom, including a photo album, take a look at http://www.jonahhouse.org/

First flowers

Just a few weeks ago, I was posting pictures of snow, gray scenery, and a seemingly endless winter. So, it is with great joy that I post this picture of the first flowers of the season. As can be seen by the purple/yellow combination that these plants offer, nature apparently likes color theory as much as I do. The complementary color schemes add brightness and vitality to the plants. After a long, dreary winter without color, the first colors of springtime appear especially dazzling.
There's nothing like new plant life and bright colors. Go out and enjoy springtime!!

Rediscovering my strength

It has been two months since I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I am, for the most part, recovered from my illness. I am back to singing and to walking and to doing my freelance journalism job. Every day, I grow stronger. Yesterday, I went out for a walk after I finished writing my articles for this week's Island Dispatch. It was a beautiful, warm day. The water, as you can see above, was a beautiful shade of blue. I was happy to see the water, happy to hear the birds in the trees chirping, happy to hear the geese honking their journey north, happy to be alive.
Speaking about happiness at being alive, one of the articles that I wrote was about a lady named Angeline Scalia (pictured above). On Saturday, March 29, she had her 100th birthday! She is very happy to be alive. She is recovering from a bout of pneumonia with her usual grace and cheerful spirit. I asked her what her secret for long life was, and she told me to always be upbeat. "Don't be a downer," she said. "There are always people who are worse off than you." She also said, "Don't be a lazy bum. Keep moving." She has done both for a century. Her birthday, she said, was a grand occasion for her. Twenty people surprised her with a party. She was given flowers and plants and balloons and the love of her family and friends. She even gave pieces of cake to the staff at the nursing home that she is staying at while she recuperates.
Angeline also told me about some of the stories that she shared with her family and friends at her party. She talked about some of the trips and she and her late husband Leonard took after he retired. One of their trips took them to the town outside of Rome, where Angeline's parents came from. Angeline related that she saw the house that her parents lived in. One of her cousins, named Josephina, still lives in that house, and Angeline had the chance to meet her. Angeline said that Josephina came to visit Angeline and Leonard in Western New York and that she was "surprised by everything."
Wow.
As Auntie Mame (in the play of the same name by Patrick Dennis) would say, "Life is a banquet, and most poor fools are starving to death."
For sure, Angeline is not starving at life's banquet.

Most happy fella

Look at the smile on this guy's face! There must be some awfully cute birds seeking out snacks in that birdhouse.

It's spring!

I was thrilled to spot these little guys peeking out from beneath the ground. Winter has seemed almost endless. But now, with these little ones peeking out, it won't be long before color comes back into my world!

never ending snow, part two

The old cliche that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb is certainly proving to be true. Here it is, the 28th of the month, and I woke up to snow covering the ground and the mailboxes and the trees... looking very wooly, white, and lamblike. When I pointed this out to my mom, she said that the cliche wasn't actually referring to white, wooly snow!
I knew that. I was just being silly...
But spring is coming, even if the thermometer says 34 degrees F (1.11 degrees C). Yesterday, I saw a robin hopping on the porch, and I heard a bunch of birds chirping from the blue spruce tree. The early plants are peeking through the earth... and soon, there will be color to replace all of the grays of winter.
It will be good. I love color. I have been taking a watercolor painting class, and I have learned to paint with all of the colors of the rainbow. I have learned that a painting does not have to look exactly like real life. Colors can be enhanced or altered to make the painting look more vibrant. In art, the search is for truth and beauty... the truth that goes beyond the facts and the beauty of color that lies under the blandness of gray...
I'll post some of those paintings next time...

Comfort food for cold weather

There's nothing like something hot and yummy and comforting to eat on a cold day, especially after the day that the calendar announced that spring had sprung! My mom's lasagna is certainly that, with all of that ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese!

Tour of River Lea

When I walked through Beaver Island State park on November 7, I took pictures of the exterior of River Lea, which was President Grover Cleveland summer home. The building was closed so I did not get a chance to go inside.
On March 9, I got my opportunity. I went with members of the Friends of Allegany State Park on a tour of the house. Curt Nestark, president of the Grand Island Historical Society, gave the group a synopsis of the house’s history.
The history of the house actually started well before the house was built. In 1825, Mordechai Noah, who was a politician, diplomat, writer, editor, and playwright (he was a very busy guy), got the idea that he would buy Grand Island to be a homeland for the world's Jewish population. He bought a small portion of the island (he didn't have enough money to buy the whole thing), and he named it "Ararat." He then had a ceremony at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Buffalo. He had wanted to have a flag raising ceremony in Grand Island. Unfortunately, there was no way to transport all of the people who were attend to Grand Island. So... the ceremony was in Buffalo. It was followed by a giant parade, featuring the Buffalo Civic Band and the Masonic Band.
After the big event, Mordechai Noah left Buffalo, never to return.
Mordechai Noah had big dreams but realizing the dreams turned out to be too difficult.
After it became clear that Mordechai Noah’s dream of a Jewish homeland on Grand Island was not going to be fulfilled, Lewis Allen, who was elected to the New York State Legislature in 1838, purchased a large percentage of Grand Island’s southern tip. In 1873, he built River Lea as a summer home for his son, W. Cleveland Allen, who was noted for being Grand Island’s first postmaster. River Lea also became famous for being the summer home of President Grover Cleveland. He was the first president to be married while serving as president and the first president whose wife, Frances Folsom Cleveland, gave birth to a child, their daughter Esther, in the White House. Cleveland was the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, serving as president from 1885 to 1889 and as the 24^th president from 1893 to 1987.
The picture above is a typical desk in a schoolhouse at that time. It was donated as a display in River Lea.

Grand Island painter

Curt Nestark, president of the Grand Island Historical Society, displays a painting by James Montanari, who was an artist in residence when Zora and Edward Hussey owned River Lea. The couple acquired the house in 1908, and they provided a home for two artists, Montanari and Eugene M. Dyczkowski, to give them the opportunity to pursue their artistic careers. During the time that the Husseys owned the house, however, there was a fire. As a result, the house's porches had to be removed, but the house survived. Other houses in Grand Island were not as fortunate, and a number of them did burn down.

mirror world

This picture was taken in the bathroom at River Lea.

the bathroom

Folks in the 19th century had to go to the bathroom, just like us! This is what their bathroom might have looked like. It must have involved a good deal of work to lug all of that water upstairs to fill up the bathtub!!!

W. Cleveland Allen's post office

This is a replica of the earliest post office in Grand Island. W. Cleveland Allen, son of Lewis Allen, was Grand Island's first postmaster.