Around Here

Around here, my bathroom remodel is starting to near a conclusion. My cousin, who is doing the work, has done an amazing job and I’m getting excited to see the finished product. I’ll show you some pictures when it’s all done but the above picture is a sneak peek. I am especially fond of these vintage style faucets.

Around here, like the faucets, the weather has been hot and cold. I think we’ve had all four seasons this week and certainly in the last month. Daytime highs that swing from the nineties in April to forties in May, scorching sun, and torrential rain make for a bizarre transition into the new season.

The good news is that there’s some variety in the weather around here in spring and literally something for us all.

Around here, I’m looking at other projects that need attention around the house and trying to prioritize what needs done over the next few years versus what might be small enough to tackle now.

Around here, Scout seems to be back to his old rambunctious ways after a scary few days of illness. It’s hard when they can’t tell you what’s wrong or that there’s even a problem. Today he will stay busy overseeing the bathroom work and should sleep well tonight.

That means I’ll sleep well tonight too.

Around here, things are kind of messy. When an entire room is messy and things are piled up elsewhere because of it, it’s easy to let stuff go. It’s the broken window effect. I look forward to getting it all in order and plan to work on that today.

Around here, it’s Memorial Day weekend, a holiday meant to honor those who died in service to our country. That message is often lost as we also use it to remember all our dead and to get good deals at the big box stores. I hope you’ll take a moment to consider those who died in service to our country. Since the Revolutionary War, Americans have been dying for the ideals set forth by our forefathers and continue to serve and die honorably in the name of the United Stares of America today.

They deserve more than we can give them.

And while you’re at it, the American Legion says that more than 80,000 Americans remain missing in action. One of them, a 20 year old World War II soldier, was located and brought home to southern Ohio this weekend for burial.

Think what that must do to a family to live so long without answers.

Around here, we recognize that hot and cold is a force of nature. We know that planning and work are how we accomplish what needs done. We honor the significance of what lost and found means for people we will never meet but who deserve our gratitude.

Friends, wherever you are this holiday weekend, be safe and well.

Go Explore

Friends, we have made it to Friday. Not just any Friday, mind you, but the start of Memorial Day weekend.

Take sometime this weekend to go for a ride, visit a small business that’s new to you, explore a hiking trail or do some other thing that makes your heart feel good.

Life isn’t meant to be survived. It isn’t meant to be spent on a dull treadmill. It’s meant to bring you joy and learning, new horizons and fresh opportunities

This is a good day to start acting like it.

What are you waiting for? The door is open. Go explore now!

Big Bad Wolf

Remember when I told you about the National Museum of the American Coverlet and how it’s in an old school in Bedford? Well, they have done a fantastic job of preserving that old school and some of its unique features.

The front hallway features a folk art mural of the town as well as this mural of the Big Bad Wolf spying on the pigs. Isn’t it fun?

Here’s a bigger picture view of the history mural and the pigs.

These odd and random things we run into out in the world are more or less what I live for. The coverlets in this museum are amazing but I found myself sometimes distracted by features of this old building. How fortunate were to get a peak inside!

Keep Looking

There is always something beautiful to be found in this world. Can’t see it? Keep looking.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

The Florida Highwaymen

Swaying palm trees. Rough seas. Brilliant red Poinciana trees. Cotton candy sunsets that light up the canvas in ways you might not know possible.

That’s what you’ll find among the paintings of the Florida Highwaymen. I had the pleasure of seeing several as part of a special exhibit at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art a few weeks ago.

From the early fifties through the eighties, there were 26 African American painters who were called The Highwaymen. They painted gorgeous rural and beach scenes from the Florida landscape.

They painted in home workshops and garages, creating a prolific catalog of work that they sold door-to-door to businesses and individuals. They could also be seen selling from the trunks of their cars along the highways. Back in the day, these paintings cost about $25 apiece. Today one of these paintings can command $5,000 to $10,000.

Despite the talents of these individuals, racial segregation in Florida prevented them from being sold in professional galleries.

The museum had laminated sheets for each painter with brief biographies and I was fascinated by the origins of these artists. Most were self taught. They knew each other and mentored one another and you can see how they influenced one another.

Their stories are tragic and discouraging, inspiring and thought provoking. Their work is stunning.

This exhibition just closed so I’m sorry to say you can’t go see these paintings in Pennsylvania. That’s a shame too because they did a nice job showing the art while telling the stories of the artists and of the Jim Crow world they lived in. The fact they faced such a grim and racist reality but chose to paint such beauty is incredible.

If you ever get a chance to go see some of these paintings, I hope you will. They are extraordinary.

Want to know more about these painters? Click here to find biographies of the 25 men and one woman who we know as the Highwaymen.

Westmoreland Museum Of American Art

Tucked away in Greensburg, Pennsylvania is an art museum that exists because a woman nearing the end of her life decided her city needed one.

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art opened in 1959 thanks to a gift from Mary Marchand Woods that established the Woods Marchand Foundation ten years before.

We spent a wonderful Saturday afternoon there admiring artwork but also contemplating the thought and ingenuity that went into using space to tell a story.

They have a permanent collection as well as space that rotates. There is a Chihuly installation in a random stairwell and a permanent collection them at celebrated the industrial and working class origins of Pittsburgh.

Some favorites include this piece of gorgeous stained glass from Tiffany Glass around 1905.

Pieces that celebrate the blue color workers who built Pittsburgh are incredibly moving.

Artwork on baseballs was a fun surprise that I liked. I don’t care about baseball at all but thought these pieces of art created by minor league umpire George Sosnak were pretty great.

That’s the thing about museums. if you go with an open mind, you never know what amazing new favorite thing you will find.

Next up I’ll tell you about a special exhibit that, unfortunately, has ended but that I think you might enjoy hearing about!