This Past Week of Spring

This past weekend, I'm sure I was only one of many, many weekend gardeners who were taking advantage of the warm weather and getting some planting done. I have resolved to have a decent garden this year, because for the past couple years, I had been too busy to do a very good job with it, and I really missed it. There's just nothing like eating homegrown vegetables: the wonderful flavor and freshness, not to mention the convenience of only taking a few steps to get one's dinner ingredients!

But I also like to try and grow as many flowers in the garden as I can manage too, simply because they are a great inspiration for my art!

My art these days is in an experimental stage; I often feel the need to dance around many mediums: from pastel to watercolor to cyanotype to colored pencil,... But the one unifying theme is always the reference to nature. The immense variety of colors, shapes, sizes and patterns in our natural world never ceases to inspire and amaze me. Do you ever feel that way too? (I am sorry I have no art pix to post today.)

My past two weeks have been filled with a mixture of emotions, mostly due to the death of my father. I found that it somehow wasn't as saddening as was dealing with my mother's death, a little over two years ago. I think it was because this time, instead of also worrying about my dad missing my mom, now, I was calmed by the thought that they are now together again, both of them out of their pain. They had a terrific life together and were definitely meant to be together. Dealing with death is something we all have to do at some point of our lives, but why does it so often have to involve pain?!

My dad was a calm, quiet, college professor who was full of love for his fellow man ("and women!" my Mom would have added). I'd like to spread some of his wisdom, if you don't mind. (My title, his words:)

How to Live Your Life in Five Easy Steps:

"Take care of the essential self that will survive this life.

Take care of all relationships so that you will enrich others' lives.

Take care of your health.

Manage money thoughtfully.

Be good; avoid evil."

- Joseph Robert Guerin, PhD.


Now go out and do something special!

Spring Update

Wow, this week flew by. Am playing "catch-up" with many duties that were ignored while I attended to my Dad in his last days. Then after the funeral, my mind wasn't very focused, as you can imagine, so I wasn't very productive with anything.



The gardens in my neighborhood are looking mighty colorful these days. Doing some "en plein air" painting would be oh-so great right about now! Today is Saturday though, and I have family commitments. Maybe tomorrow,....

Joe Guerin

The past week has been a tough week. My dad passed away on Tuesday morning; his funeral was on Friday. Thankfully, I come from a big family, and there was tons of love and support which helped us all get through it.

I want to thank everyone for the constant stream of support and prayers which helped my siblings and I to deal with the loss of such a wonderful man.

I guess the Philadelphia Inquirer agrees that he was a man worth talking about. They published a very nice article about my dad's life in today's paper. Here is a link if you'd like to read it.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obituaries/20090420_Joseph_R__Guerin__St__Joe_s_professor.html

It made me happy and proud to read about all the good that Dad [and Mom] did while alive. We only get one chance to do this thing called "life" right!

I will try and get back into art-making soon.

Waiting for now...

For these past several days I have spent much of my time with my siblings. We have been helping my dad to say his farewells to his world.

He is undergoing hospice care, and it is currently a matter of making sure he is comfortable as he waits. I will return to blog posts when I can. Meanwhile, enjoy some rainbow reading, below.

Make that a "Double... Rainbow!"

It's so true that you just never know when a cool photo opp will happen! I mean, I often see some neat-looking clouds in the sky, and run for my camera. But how often does one see a rainbow?!

How about a Double Rainbow!
How 'bout a Double Rainbow in the Rain!?!
I saw one tonight AND I caught it with my camera!




I was dropping off two of my high-schoolers up at school tonight. They're on stage crew and there is a performance tonight.
It was about 6 pm as we were leaving the house, and I caught a glimpse of some awesome-looking clouds. So I decided to grab my camera on the way out,... just in case.



After I let off the kids, I drove around to the front of the school so I could take some pix of the cool clouds in the sky. From this vantage point, I could see a wide sky, with the center city Philadelphia skyline just to the east. (Since last year, they had cleared out a lot of brush and now a wide clear shot of the center city skyline is viewable!)
So I pulled up, and got out of the car to start photographing those awesome clouds. Then, it started to rain. Since cameras and water don't mix too well, I was grateful that the car was so close by.

I sat in the car, maneuvered it around a bit so I could photograph the eastern clouds through my open window, while protecting my camera from the rain. Then, I saw the color! A rainbow, not AFTER the rain, which I have seen before, but DURING the rain! It was oh-so-very-cool!
All I can say is that I was given a really special gift tonight! Nature's wonders never cease to amaze!

This was just what I needed. I had been busy with that left-brained paperwork job which needs to happen every year around tax time.
-I hate it. I ain't no good at it.
-But I hafta do it!
-So I had been ignoring other, more fun activities out of a sense of duty and financial responsibility, but it really has been driving me bonkers!
A rainbow, I have found, is quite a cure-all for those types of woes!

My mom, who was an awesome artist, took every chance she could to remind me to appreciate the wonders of nature. I am so thankful to her for that. She surely would have been smiling broadly tonight!
What was really cool about being there was that the vantage point was such that I could see clear across the sky from one side of the rainbow all the way to the other! It couldn't all fit in one photo. The next two photos show each end. can you make out the 2nd rainbow?

I stayed there, shooting pix until it had gradually faded away.
Then, while driving home, I had another little surprise treat! Look just a bit above the van!