It's been a while; a lot going on...

Hello again and hope you are all doing well! We've had an eventful and bittersweet spring and summer.

I finished the spring semester at SIUE just about the time my dad became ill in Arkansas. Paul and I made several trips there while Daddy was in the hospitals in Fayetteville and Harrison, trying to help take care of him and his business. We didn't realize how seriously ill he was until late July. Daddy went to be with Mom on the morning of August 4.

We had a memorial service on August 10 at the church where he and Mom had attended for over 60 years, and where Paul and I met when we were very small children. A big crowd of friends and family came to pay tribute to a man who could do so many things, and did them well. In the photo, taken at the church in 1959, Paul is right of center with the dark hair. I'm at the extreme left, behind the girl in front. Cute little brats?

We got back home just in time for me to get geared-up for the fall semester at SIUE and SLCC-Meramec. I'm taking a required course in photography at Meramec and it's a bit of a technical challenge...I have one of Paul's Nikon DSLR cameras, it's complicated!

I enjoy the creative side of it; framing, depth of field, using Photoshop to bring out light and shadow. There are a lot of interesting things a camera can find if you let it. I shot this one near the riverfront in St. Louis.

I'm adding paintings from last spring to the gallery and I hope you enjoy them. Please stay healthy...life is short, let the people around you know you love them.