I just finished the second set of thirty-six (three dozen) robes! They are 12″ x 12″ hardboard mounted on cradled hardboard. I am so delighted with them. I feel like making more but I will, instead, clean up the art studio, put away all the unused ribbon and store the paintings in acetate sleeves until I find the perfect place to exhibit them all together.
On Friday, Penny & I road-tripped to Rochester, New York. Our first stop was Clifton Springs, NY to view the Layered Processes show at Main Street Arts. Next we visited Penny’s Naturally Human art exhibition and sale at Axom Home. Then my thing at ROCO and finally, we found a quaint spot to have fish dinner. Yelp led us to The Old Toad.
Presentation: We were directed to a booth by the bar. We didn’t look at menus – we asked for fish. The waiter said they had small and large servings so we both wanted the small. We also both settled on the mushy peas as the side along with fries. We didn’t ask for the price or anything so it was kind of a blind faith situation.
Look at this amazing presentation! The food arrived on small plates. Look at these half length fries! So adorable. It was all just right. Ketchup was available on the table. The fish was served with a lemon and tartar sauce. There was no broiled option for the fish.
Taste: The haddock was incredibly juicy, tender. Mouth watering. Perfectly cooked. Mushy peas seemed a bit dry, although well seasoned. I guess because they are supposed to be mushy, which sounds like a wet adjective, lol, I was expecting a different taste. Still great. And the fries were not at all greasy. They had a baked flavor – the absolute perfect size for a light evening supper.
I happily ate everything. I would place this high on my list of all time favorite fish fry dinners.
Restaurant Experience: The Old Toad looks like it has been here for a hundred years, but their literature states the place was established in 1990. It just seemed like we’d been transported in time, like the mahogany bar, the dingy booth cushions, the pay phone tucked into the restroom hallway (although that is a more in-my-lifetime oldie thingy).
The waiter/host/bartender was so friendly and attentive. He came over several times to ask if we needed anything. He also knew how to suggest things (mushy peas vs. standard peas). I loved his vibe!
As we were leaving we noticed a couple dining. The man had ordered the larger portion fish dinner. I don’t know what the price difference is as we never looked at the menu – it was actually that thing where you use the code and see the menu on your cell phone and I don’t like that, which is just my problem with the 21st century. But his meal was a lot bigger. in comparison to his companion’s who had what we had. I think the fries/chips were still that shorter kind.
The smaller fish dinner is simply genius. More restaurants should follow suit. Our bill came to only $30.00 for both of us. It had been discounted for paying cash.
Once we walked out, I almost thought we’d turn around and see an empty facade, as though we’d just experienced some sort of magic. It’s like I couldn’t believe our blind luck. It’s definitely a real place – see for yourselves and let me know your thoughts.
Location: 277 Alexander Street, Rochester, New York 14607
***from the web-site:
Parking: We found street parking around the corner from the restaurant. There is no parking lot, although there are parking lots adjacent – they just have signs that indicate that they are reserved for authorized vehicles only with tow-away threats.
Today is the last day to see Layered Processes at Main Street Arts (20 West Main Street, Clifton Springs, New York 14432). Heather Olson and her team did an outstanding job curating this gem.
Over fifty artists are represented here with 2-D and 3-D work. The art is located in the main gallery and upstairs in the library.
Hours of Operation:
Tuesday: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Friday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Saturday : 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
***From the web-site
Artists Included:
I am so in love with the way my new exhibition (The Lotus Series) looks on the walls and tables in the Lawson Room at the Canastota Public Library. So grateful for having been welcomed back – and this time for two months (and one week!).
Thank you, Bill!
The library director purchased this amazing hardware that made my new installation at the Canastota Public Library so much better than my previous show.
Six dozen paintings (minus one that I left on a table easel in my living room) are now on display in the Lawson Room. These are encaustic, mixed media & collage paintings of flowers. They started off as lotus flowers but then I sort of branched out via the titles (Lily, Thistle, etc.). I created all the paintings this year. All are 8″ x 10″ on cradled hardboard and framed.
All paintings are available for sale. Contact information is listed in the literature.
The artwork will be featured at the library through October 2026. The Lawson Room is located in the basement of this Andrew Carnegie built library and can be accessed during library hours. There are many clubs and activities scheduled for this room in the coming months. They sound like a lot of fun – exercise classes, a writer’s group, bridge, a knitting and crochet club and lots more.
Monday: 9am – 8pm
Tuesday: 9am – 8pm
Wednesday: 9am – 8pm
Thursday: 9am – 8pm
Friday: 9am – 5pm
Saturday: 9am – 12pm
Sunday: Closed
Canastota Public Library
102 W. Center St.
Canastota, NY 13032
Phone: (315) 697-7030
Fax: (315) 697-8653
Email: canastota@midyork.org
Bill Loveland, Director
The difference between the two recent “alien” films “Disclosure Day” and “Project Hail Mary” is that Steven Spielberg is doing interviews where he is pulling a War of the Worlds – pretending that his scripted movie is a take on reality to initiate conversations about actual aliens, which I think, is so bizarre. “Project Hail Mary” doesn’t do that. It is pure fiction, albeit with some scientific mumbo-jumbo that sort of sounds like it could almost be legit the way in Star Trek, you just accept the premise of warp speed space travel and whatnot.
Sci-Fi is cool in that what was once imagined is now real (i.e. FaceTime, I-pads and other stuff we saw in TNG in the ’90s), so maybe some sort of new energy will fuel rockets some day – I guess it could happen….
The film stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace and my guess is author Andy Weir had him in mind all along for the role. While reading the novel Project Hail Mary, I imagined Ryan Gosling as Grace the whole time, although, the bits about Grace’s personal life and how he was more of a loner didn’t make much sense in that respect. Maybe the character, who is never really described, should be imagined as a less attractive weird-o?
The movie does tend to follow the book’s narrative. There are some lengthy parts where the science is explained and, basically the whole process of solving the actual problem takes months and months, which can’t really be examined in a two-hour movie.
The story unfolds in flash back style. Ryland Grace awakens from what appears to be a coma. He doesn’t know who he is or what he’s doing there, but he is on a spaceship. Is he even an astronaut? He finds two dead bodies alongside his bed and slowly he regains memories that begin with the fact that he is in fact, a middle school science teacher.
For some reason, he does know how to operate the ship. And as his memories unfold, he remembers that he is on this space trip to find a solution to a devastating crisis on Earth. An alien organism that Grace has coined astrophage, is eating away at the sun. The world must come together to propose a solution. Governments convene and a task force begins plans to build and launch a one-way space mission to a solar system fourteen years away where a star appears resistant to the creatures.
Grace is recruited to help and becomes the leading expert on the little buggers. As a former middle school teacher myself, who is both artist and art teacher, this part, although initially far-fetched, is incredibly satisfying. Because Grace is a doctoral level scientist AND he is a great teacher.
Back to the “present” timeline, Ryland Grace encounters a friendly alien and together they work to solve this dilemma – Grace as scientist and “Rocky” as engineer.
There are so many profound take-aways from this wonderful book. Mine is that even a middle school teacher can rise to the occasion and become the person who saves the universe. On a smaller scale, we all have special gifts that can make a difference, and sometimes we have a greater purpose than the one we think we have.
Did I make a difference to my students? Am I making a difference now? Does it matter? Art is a very solitary experience. Yesterday I realized that I am happiest when I am alone and in creation mode. I loved that Ryland Grace continues to work alone, mainly, to figure out how to save Earth even when he knows he’ll never return and will not actually know if he succeeds. He still tries – not for money, not for accolades but for the hope that his life will have meaning.
You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. I promise you, it will be worth it. Read the book even if you’ve already seen the movie. It’s soooo good.
I got my copy of Project Hail Mary from the public library and, no surprise, I borrowed the one with the large print, which makes reading at night a no-brainer. I read the last chapters at 3:00 AM this morning. There’s something to reading a book that takes place in the vastness of space – in the middle of the night. You really feel like you are right there with Ryland (in my case Ryan) and that is pretty amazing).
P.S. The movie is available on Amazon Prime.
This morning I finished adding the papers to my second batch of robes. There are thirty-six more. For some reason, I’ve been creating collections of six dozen: the crowns, the fans, the lotus flowers and now the robes.
If it continues to rain all weekend, I will pivot from other activities and focus on painting them. I could conceivably finish them by September 1st.
I have them all spread out on the living room and dining room floors and on the dining room table. I also have a color printout of the other three dozen to cross reference – the finished paintings are currently in storage.
I am in love with them. It was a lot harder to choose papers for these because I didn’t want to repeat myself. The other “problem” was that there are a few I like better than others and I wasn’t sure I could select pattern combinations I’d like as well. (I did though and so, I am very pleased with my progress.) <3
Hazard Branch Public Library is the latest location to host my artwork.
The library is located at 1620 W. Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York 13204. They open at 9:00 AM every day except for Sunday. It is the perfect place to showcase large paintings.
I brought these nine 36″ x 36″ target pieces out of the archives. I made a dozen of them – sold one and kept two at home, as they are hanging on walls in my house. I created them all in 1997 during a stint as a Master Teacher for the NYS Summer School of the Arts, which was housed at Cazenovia College that year. These oil & collage paintings are framed in maple ($ 1,600).
In addition, you can find eighteen paintings from my series called Talisman. These are also targets and are oil, chalkboard & collage, 18″ x 24″ – not framed ($ 400).
The show concludes on August 31, 2026.
There’s nothing better than a beautiful summer Friday afternoon road trip. I drove to Rochester, New York to deliver my painting, Mustang Dance. It will be included in a juried group exhibition at Rochester Contemporary Art Center. The show is titled Fire & Form and it celebrates encaustic art.
The opening reception is scheduled for August 28, 2026 from 6:00-9:00 pm with a closing party on September 19, 2026. Hope to see you there!
Janine found us a great restaurant for a fish lunch – Rabbit Hole Tavern – and they only have it as a special on Fridays.
Presentation: I had the broiled fish with butter. Janine had the beer battered version of the haddock. Both were served with golden delicious french fries as well as coleslaw, and both were generous portions.
I loved the presentation! The white platters with separate containers for the slaw. So nice. We chose to eat on the back deck overlooking the Genesee River. We sat at this pretty turquoise table with enough shade for comfort. It was just so beautiful. And I was hungry!
We ordered drinks plus we each had a glass of water delivered to our table. There was a condiment box complete with ketchup and mustard, salt and pepper, napkins and even wet naps! They thought of everything.
Taste: Everything was great. I mean – I ate everything so I can’t really criticize. The fish was a bit dry but not bad – it was probably healthier that way. You could order the broiled haddock with toppings such as lemon pepper and Cajun flavoring but I chose just butter, although, as I am looking at the pictures, I don’t see any butter. Oh, well. The fries were so thin – I imagined them as diet fries. Coleslaw cabbage was cut in thick chunks and had a lot of crunch, which was nice.
Restaurant Experience: We were there around 2:00 pm, which is kind of like after lunch, so it was not crowded. There were only two other tables occupied by guests out on the deck. More people were inside. I loved everything about this calm and serene place. The wait staff were exceptionally nice – shout out to Reg (I think that was his name). The view – lovely, as I mentioned. The only thing I didn’t love was the price. It was twice as much as any of the restaurants I’ve been to since I started this ISO Fish Fry series.
Location: Rabbit Hole Tavern is located at 284 Exchange Blvd., Rochester, New York 14608
Parking: There is a parking lot out front. This is a riverside experience so there are other restaurants sharing the lot. There were plenty of spots available when we got there but I’m not sure what it looks like in the evenings for the happy hour and dinner crowd.
I just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. I’m digesting it now. I read a couple of articles on the Internet where people are expressing their thoughts about the book, reminiscing about having had it assigned as literature in high school English classes. I did read it when I was a teenager and at that time I thought I understood Holden Caulfield until that guy killed John Lennon in 1980 and that other guy tried to kill Reagan in 1981, both of whom carried copies of the book with them, having cited that they aligned with the character’s alienation. I was like, what the hell??? There is nothing in that book that suggests murder.
But suicidal thoughts, yes.
The opinions of all of these other people made me question whether we had all read the same book. But then I realized that we all stamp our own thoughts and perspectives on novels, don’t we? We read with our human existence slant – and yet, a great novel takes that into consideration and allows for interpretation, doesn’t it?
That is what makes The Catcher in the Rye sooo good.
Reading it again – wow – there are things in there that make you understand Holden and, after watching a documentary on Jerry Salinger, there are things about him that make the writing of this novel catharsis for both he and his protagonist.
Holden is a person who cannot seem to process/verbalize his emotions due to these circumstances. He is angry. He swings and misses every time he tries to connect with people. Then he reflects on the experiences and wishes he could have a redo. He doesn’t hate these people because, it is implied that, he sort of hates himself.
Being the catcher in the rye is a daydream he has – that he wishes he could prevent children from physical pain, to rescue them if they get too close to a cliff. He couldn’t save his brother. He couldn’t prevent a tragic consequence of bullying involving another student that has happened at one of the many prep schools of his revolving door high school experience.
He knows he’s disappointed his upper crust father. His mother has frequent headaches and relies on a housekeeper to rear her youngest (a daughter). His older brother has left home for a successful writing career on the west coast. The part where Holden complains about Hollywood-types parallels Jerry’s disdain for them – he never wanted to sell the film rights to his books.
Holden is on the precipice of destroying himself and it is his sister who lures him back with unconditional love. He realizes that he wants to protect her.
Jerry Salinger was in the Battle of the Bulge on D-Day. Surviver’s guilt is definitely a theme in The Catcher in the Rye. It’s so much more than a story about teen angst.
Holden is from a wealthy family. He has his own money, he’s attractive, he is well-read and well-bred. On the surface he has the type of success that constitutes the American dream. That is why I find this story so compelling. The first person narrative offers the reader an insider’s view of this boy’s thoughts and views. He makes decisions that are far too dangerous for a child his age. I mean, was Manhattan as dangerous back in the late ’40s/early ’50s as say, the ’70s? Or now? He is tall, white, with a crew cut and a suit and tie, with money in his pocket – I don’t know. I can’t imagine any sixteen-year-old in 2026 doing the things he does. The cost of living back then, of course, was quite a bit less expensive than it is today. It is a type of urban fairy-tale in a way: Alice in Wonderland but with smoking, drinking and a whore/pimp thingy. Holden knows where he is and yet, he is still profoundly lost.
The book starts and ends in this slice-of-life thing – we don’t really know what has happened prior to his brother’s death and we don’t really know if he is going to be okay. If Holden was a real person, he’d be ninety-one today. Salinger died in 2010. He lived to be ninety-one. I like to imagine that he, like Salinger, pushes through the PTSD, the emotional turbulence filled with bouts of anger and grief, and becomes a non-sell-out writer too.
I borrowed my copy of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger from the public library. You can get a copy here.
I found a nickel in the parking lot of my favorite place. Now up to $1.15 in found money for 2026.
