sweet spaghetti

Isaac's carnivorous birthday dessert

I helped my mom to make this creation.  

(think Ferrero Rochers, strawberry jam, and icing)...Bon appetit!

Happy December

I have often walked down this street before...

This is an acrylic rendering of my city block.  The building on the right is a Mexican restaurant with a bright banner out front (it has not caught fire).  When I finished, I was a bit distressed at the wonky lines/roughness of it.  A quick dusting of snow to distract the eyes seemed just the trick.  Buildings not straight?  Windows a little out of wack?  But my, that snow is beautiful!

Snowmen fall from heaven...unassembled.  -Anonymous

Happy Thanksgiving

Equipped with a linoleum block and a cutter with a metal tip of my choosing, I begin with the vision of a print of tree roots.  I choose a medium-smallish blade and set out with a general idea of how far the roots should extend.  This is the art of it: with some overarching image in mind (and a quick pencil sketch), I am allowed the liberty of delving into the heart of it and getting lost in the moment.  I bow to instinct to guide the small motions, while drawing back every now and again to see the broader picture.

After I am finished carving, I stamp the picture.  A few minutes later, the freshly stamped image catches my eye.  There, a product of the block lifting off the paper amid a plentiful spread of ink, have formed hundreds of miniature, natural rivulets.  Here I, with human and tangible instruments, have labored to create what I intend to be a naturalistic image.  Now, spontaneously, hundreds of branches are reaching their tendrils into this deeper soil.  

The tendrils whisper in their little voices:  What you labored to create over a period of time we form spontaneously.  We are deeper than you could go, and we spread more thickly and intimately than you could imagine.  In all their small humility, they say, this is our substance and our medium which you dabble in.  Your image mirrors what we are: intricate and broad, a pattern and union of beauty, extending from depths beneath you, whose origins you cannot see.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Parting gift to the Tuckahoe Orthopaedics Physical Therapy department.  Many thanks to my fun coworkers and patients for all you taught me!  It was a good run!  The scene is the Richmond Monument Avenue 10K run and everyone's in perfect shape!

Wedding present for my college friend Mary and her husband, Scott.  Inspiration was a facebook album of photos from a St. Thomas honeymoon!

Marry Like a Champion Today

I was honored to participate in wedding preparations for Heather and Josh's wedding this summer, painting post-card sized watercolor scenes to mark the tables in the reception hall.  Heather, a friend from college, married Josh in true ND style in a mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  Their reception was complete with shamrocks on each table, the alma mater and a tunnel exit to a honeymoon in Ireland including the ND vs. Navy Dublin Classic!  Many blessings to the wonderful couple!

scenes ranged from the library to the grotto to Mendoza College of Business --
each place pertinent to Heather and Josh

a neat tradition...guests were invited to sign wine bottles, one to be opened each of the first 5 anniversaries
(not to worry, more wine to be purchased after 5 years!)

painting based off of beautiful engagement photography by Anya Albonetti
(View wedding photos at
http://anyaalbonetti.com/notre-dame-wedding-photography-basilica-of-the-sacred-heart/)

I was seated at the Pasquerilla East table, the dorm Heather and I lived in!
Go Pyros!

A signed portrait of ND's 2 Presidents emeritus and current President, Fathers Hesburgh, Malloy, and Jenkins,
with individualized blessings to Josh and Heather.  Wow!

How Much More Beautiful Are We

What They Left Behind That Day (or, How Much More Beautiful Are We)

dedicated to my friends at Cathedral YAM/Bookclubbers!

30x40 acrylic, $100

I have had this image (or something like it) in my mind for a few months now.  It first struck me during a reading of the Gospel of Mark at mass: “As [Jesus] passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen.  Jesus said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’  Then they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1:16-18).  I imagined Simon and Andrew having in their nets that day the most bountiful, beautiful, nourishing, and delicious catch they had ever had.  However, they do not make a practical decision to draw in their catch one last time, share it with friends and family, or sell it at the market.  Rather, they leave their nets behind and their bounty is lost forever to the sea. 

Preparing to move to a different city and start a new adventure, I have pondered how pursuing one life track necessarily excludes other options.  Decision leads to decision leads to decision, and we cannot know what our life would have looked like if we had chosen otherwise.  Yet, I think we can find comfort in knowing that, like Simon and Andrew, even abandoning a glorious catch in one life, if we leave with the trust that we are following God, we can count on finding beauty where He calls us.  After all, if Simon and Andrew abandoned what could have been their most bountiful yield, how much more precious must be the harvest that they now sought?

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs

Is those things arms,

or is they legs?

I marvel at thee, Octopus,

If I were thou, I'd call me Us.

-"The Octopus" by Ogden Nash

acrylic, 18"x24'' donation to the St. Mary's Catholic School "Diamonds, Denim, & Dice" benefit

A New Year

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. - Wendell Barry, "The Peace of Wild Things"

Featured here are the works of talented plein air photographer Kevin Buckley! The first photograph features County Wicklow, Ireland, and the other two shots were taken at Holy Cross Abbey in Clarke County, Virginia. Such scenes are "thin places" in the classic sense of the phrase. "Caol ait," the Gaelic term for thin places, are areas where the spirit is recognized, and the presence of life beyond is more easily ascertained. They are places of interconnectedness that come upon us suddenly. Like a smell that evokes a particular childhood scene, these spots provide a sudden jolt into a holier vision, a vision that though it may not yet be fully discernable, is deeply felt. At least one of the abbey shots was taken upside down, as the photographer tried to fiddle with his iphone. Thanks, Dad, for sharing your work, and here's to more candid shots of beautiful landscapes in the future!