2024-02-01

Essay/Quote: from George Orwell's 1984


 

collage:The Unconventional Queen



 Collage made from objects provided to participants in a poetry writing group.

After we completed our collages, everyone in the group was asked to provide single words for what they saw in one another's finished work.
Once the lists were gathered, a poem was to be composed using all the descriptors provided.
The poem:
The unconventional Queen
Sought colorful, creative adventure
Music, light, sparkle, joy
a ticket to a gem of the inner child
unique, fun, fair and quotidian.
It was a Gem, mystic, circular
Spotted with heart.
Had we but seen
the outcome
There was no surprise

2023-09-13

Pen & ink: Hot Dog Vendor

A Sabrett's umbrella over a street vendor in Bristol CT.
That's the Old New Departure plant in the background

 

acrylic: Reye's Point, Cape Cod, MA

Plein air, acrylic on canvas: looking out toward the Atlantic Ocean. With hand made frame,

 

pen & ink: Writer's Block


 

Watercolor: Laura's Nephew


 

Acrylic on board: Venture Smith's Headstones

 on 9th September a commemoration for Venture Smith (Broteer Furro) was held at Venture's burial site, in East Haddam CT.


Born in Broteer Furro recalled as "Dukandarra" in a region of West Africa. Born ". . . the son of a royal family; kidnapped from his homeland in Africa as a boy and sold into the Maafa (slavery). Venture became a figure of mythical proportions in New England, where he was known for his great size and strength.
His physique and unwillingness to suffer insult made him a problem for his enslavers, and he was sold several times before he was able to purchase his freedom in 1765, at the age of thirty-six.
His history was documented when he recorded a narrative of his life and published it under the title A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself.
Links to sites that have written on Venture Smith (as well as a link to his [transcribed] autobiography, can be found the the first COMMENTS below this entry.
Illustration: Venture & Meg Smith's headstones in the First Church, Congregational Cemetery. (copr. Will Brady)

Photography: Globe