Hello! Early June, I finished up my second online sketchbook class, Making Art a Practice/ In and Out of the Sketchbook, via Carla Sonheim Presents. I’m still amazed at how much we can accomplish together online. We had a fantastic group of artists who participated on the Facebook page and everyone really stretched out. The basic idea was to learn to experiment so we can find what lights us up. Thanks to everyone who joined!

I’ll be working all summer on the art for my upcoming show with Maggie Stern at The Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown just outside Boston where I’m so lucky to teach and have my studio. Maggie is a great friend of mine and we’re calling our show “How To Be Friends“. Because friends are what we all need to be on this planet. The hatred has to end. I’ll be showing drawings, paintings and small sculptural pieces.

Finally, I’m just back from a very brief swing through London on route to a visit with my publisher Thierry Bogliolo in France. (Nice to have a foreign publisher!) One of the things that Roberta Miller, our wonderful new director at The Arsenal Center, is initiating is explorations into creative place-making. Here’s the wiki definition:

“Creative Placemaking is an evolving field of practice that intentionally leverages the power of the arts, culture and creativity to serve a community’s interest while driving a broader agenda for change, growth and transformation in a way that also builds character and quality of place.”

I’m excited to be on this committee to enliven and transform areas of Watertown which is a small and fantastically diverse town with immigrants from all over the world. Until recently, it was a tad neglected but things are changing rapidly and we can be part of making really imaginative changes. I had my phone out in London trying to catch some inspiration. I love the ragtag casual and transitory nature of most of what I found. It has the feeling of life being lived. (And, yes, old London is disappearing fast. Everything is transitory, even cities. Despite the loss of older buildings the city feels really vibrant. We counted 42 cranes and buildings are going up everywhere as you can see in the last shot taken on The Wobbly Bridge in front of Tate Modern. We missed seeing the new addition to the museum, alas, which just opened.)

More soon on all fronts. Thanks for stopping by!