Mom and Gregory Justis Jr.     1982

There is a favorite photograph in our family...one my brother always carried with him, of Mom holding Gregory, my brother's first child. Both Mom and the baby show a dreamy… Read full post »

After the early walk and feeding time, Buddy likes to wait at the bedroom door for the cats to emerge. Eventually they come out one by one lazily stretching in the light. They take turns touching Buddy's nose, then break into a sprint down the hallway with the… Read full post »

        Portrait # 38g (The Reincarnationist), digital photograph, projected light, dimensions variable

I keep thinking about my friend’s aunt who insisted her deceased brother came back as a cartoon character; some hybridization of Homer… Read full post »

Greg Correll is dissecting a life-chronicle of the debilitating effects of his Parkinson’s Disease. He does it in brilliant fashion. Forming a picture of his active mind, he takes us into… Read full post »

Late July, 2012:  Some of the teasing clouds over the old State Farm Building, Bloomington, Illinois

In this part of Central Illinois there has always been a reliance on abundant rain for the massive corn crop. We are known for… Read full post »

On the rural roads and farm land sections of the middle Midwest, far from the cities and suburbs, a boy could take his favorite shotgun, loaded and on safety, and walk down the dirt highways… headed to nowhere in particular.

The… Read full post »

Nerve Endings 1a, still video capture,  2012

 There is a place I like to sit in the evenings. In my yard it is as still as a whisper, with the fated ash, oak and maple leaves making no movement. One can almost hear the small… Read full post »

Modern Movement, 2009, marker on paper, 24 x 18 inches

Author's Note: These drawngs are true to their actual appearance. They are airy and subtle, and in/… Read full post »

Around # 5 (small), 2011, oil on canvas, 19 x 39”     (larger image)

Shona Macdonald’s landscapes offer the simplicity and affirmation of knowing our imaginary wanderings through, around and beyond her images are not thwarted by any limitations. Our ey… Read full post »

I was thinking about how images sometimes take our minds to a place that transcends the very substance that makes up the content of the picture we are looking at. As an addendum to memory, photographs offer a priceless role in helping us to… Read full post »

Beaver Island, Lake Michigan                                             NASA

 … Read full post »

That’s me talking to the photographer, Steven Gross, over one of the many breakfasts we shared at Chin’s Diner, at Canal and 18^th Street, on the south side of Chicago  

© 1982 Steven E. Gross   Chicago

 I… Read full post »

  

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These gazes are real, as visual fiction goes, and they serve us with plausible anecdotes for placing synthetic figures in an American landscape. Many have been cast out of their original situations, and are most likely victims, each with an… Read full post »

 View of Grove Street from the studio of L.J. Douglas, early Fall, Bloomington, IL, 2011

View of sunrise on Grove Street from the studio of L.J. Douglas, Bloomington, IL, Winter, 2011

As I consider the idea of a timeless image, there is usually… Read full post »

In a small midwestern community of the late 1950’s, there was a pattern in the divination of space and opportunity. There were jobs…good ones.  Characters were welcome, taking up the spaces between success and the commonplace.  We were coming off of the e/… Read full post »

At the age of Ninety-two, Momma knows the uncertainties most people carry as they think about the metaphysical aspects of the human condition, so she joined Netflix and watched the entire series of “Kung-Fu&rdqu… Read full post »

 Blubberstick, 5,1/2 years, 2011

In the present, these are a few of the things I have come to like, despite any pretext to dislike them from experience, imagination, or persuasion….

1.  Making my sweetheart laugh, until the tears roll down her face, is an… Read full post »