Note:  This is an update of a story that I wrote about a year and a half ago about a chair painting project that I did. This was the first piece of furniture that I’ve ever painted. It took me three weeks to paint the chair. After I returned the chair, I wondered what happened […]

Note: Because I am working on  major news article for The Island Dispatch and because today is my deadline, I am reposting a story that first appeared in this blog on October 15th, 2014. This story is an essay about growing up with an undiagnosed learning disability that I had written for an online writing class. Kids

Note: Happy Valentine’s Day! Thank you for visiting my blog and for the comments. Today’s blog post is a Valentine for you, with photographs of flowers that I took last spring and summer and with sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Shakespeare.  Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall standHenceforward in thy shadow.

Today, I am sharing Celeste Angelo’s story. She teaches fifth grade at Huth Road Elementary School in Grand Island, New York. This is the seventh story in my series about teachers, their work, the things that they share with their students, and the things that bring them joy. I understand that teaching was not your

The Grand Island Farmers Co-op held a winter market at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Items that were available for purchase included hot soup, fresh popcorn, meat, honey, eggs, baked goods, and Grand Island souvenirs. It was a social event and many people enjoyed each other’s company over a bowl of hot soup. Here are

The challenge for week six of the 52-week photography project is “candy (artistic).” The goal was to take pictures of candy without showing actual candy in the photographs. That was a bit challenging, and I kind of showed actual candy… or maybe I did. Below are the pictures that I took and the stories that

Today, I went to the White House to interview President Mighty Mouth. He had just finished a press conference with Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan. While Prime Minister Abe conferred with his staff, I spoke with President Mouth. MM: Before you ask me any questions or, even worse, address me as “Mr. Baldwin,”

Today, I took my bear for an adventure. We experienced humans at their creative best and at their angriest worst. Below is a photo essay of the bear exploring the world.  Morning tea. Ahh. At my painting class. I painted a picture of the bears, using a technique called pointillism. It involves making dots with

One of the greatest things about painting is the variety of surfaces available that can be decorated with paint. Some of them are inappropriate. It’s probably not a great idea to decorate the living room wall with crayon drawings. Interpretive signs at parks, road signs, etc., are also probably not the best surfaces for artistic

The challenge for week five of the 52 week photography project is called “ten shots: technical.” Take ten shots of the same subject from different angles, distances, and focal lengths. After taking the ten pictures of the same subject, I am supposed to choose my favorite to share.  I changed it up a bit for