America in all its Glory

Mabry Mill, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

What a gorgeous shot of Mabry Mill in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Virginia). Such a peaceful, serene setting.

Sitting on the edge of the water. Taking a worm and baiting it on the hook of a line that is attached to a long, thin tree branch. Gently "cast" the line into the water. Now to sit quietly, watching the dragonflies skip across the surface of the calm water. Listening to the frogs calling to one another. All the thoughts of your daily life are no longer with you - all you are thinking about at this moment is the beauty of the trees, where they simply meld into the banks of the water.

Who cares if you ever get a nibble on your line. Just to enjoy this moment that you will never live again. That is life!

Every crime committed by an illegal immigrant should never have happened!!!


Read my posting under Illegal Immigrants.

A quote from President Theodore Roosevelt addressed on immigration in 1907:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American ... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Favorite Artist - Charles Wysocki



Let me introduce you to my favorite artist - Charles Wysocki.

His inspiration for his work were from his visits to places such as Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Boston, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

He started out in commercial art. At night and on the weekends, he worked on his Americana/primitive paintings. After he had a one-man show at which he sold every painting in this style, he decided to leave commercial art for good and just focus on his Americana art. For most of the 1960’s he made a good living off of the original paintings he sold.

In 1972 he started his relationship with AMCAL. Together they published the first Americana Calendar. It has been in production ever since. AMCAL has been licensing his images on various products for close to 30 years.

Then in 1979, Charles published his first limited edition print “Fox Run” with The Greenwich Workshop. His published numerous prints with them during this time from 1979-1993.

He moved to Lake Arrowhead, a mountain resort in the Southern California area. Sadly, he passed away in 2002.

In 1998, on a grand vacation circling the United States, one of our stops was on Bennington, Vermont, where Grandma Moses is from. I visited the Grandma Moses museum. Lo and behold, right there in the lobby was a massive Charles Wysocki original painting. I think it was the size of the painting that was overwhelming.

To see more of his work, visit Charles Wysocki website.

I love working jigsaw puzzles and I think I have every one of the jigsaw puzzles of his work.

I will post photos of his work occasionally here in my blog.

No comments: