I had little ones playing in my back yard today.
It made me pause to remember when my own sons were small. Time didn’t always pass by very quickly then but as I look back I realize that in the blink of an eye they went from small boys to men.
Time can be fleeting.
So are some summer days and the moments they contain.
All of us have favorite places that make us feel happy and complete. This is one of mine.
And it’s all because of this philosophy….
The artists who create in this studio never expected to be working artists. At one time they were simply people who received services from an organization called the Black Hills Works, which encompasses an amazing network of services for adults with challenges in the Rapid City, South Dakota area. The original art center was established in December 2001 in memory of Suzie Cappa, who received services from Black Hills Works. It was an office, a storage closet and one room. The newest center has just opened in an entirely renovated storefront in downtown Rapid, to fulfill a vision of providing a publicly accessible forum for artists of all abilities to come together to create and promote the arts.
Meet Colleen. She recently moved to Rapid City and has been a wonderful addition to the Art Center. She is very independent and loves stripes and bright colors. One of her favorite subjects is whimsical trees. From personal experience I found that although she initially hated the flash on my camera, she eventually came to trust me and ended up being one of my favorite artists to photograph, especially once I turned off that annoying flash!
This is her corner of the studio.
And here is Colleen proudly showing two of her finished pieces.
Better yet, Colleen herself is a work of art….from the inside out and the outside in!
These are the two people who make it all happen, Brad and Carla. I can’t say enough wonderful things about them. The are heroes in the true sense of the word. And they get it, they just absolutely get it.
And because pictures tell a thousand words, I’m going to stop writing and leave you with images taken at the Center over the course of one week in April. Have I said yet just how much I love this place?!?
To learn more please “like” Suzie Cappa on Facebook or visit this link.
My husband and I spent the Memorial Day Weekend in the Hill Country of Texas, visiting with some friends we’ve known since Pilot Training Days back in 1980. When Jim, Gil and Ed first met they were young Air Force Officers, about to embark on the pathway to their dreams. Thirty plus years later, the bond that formed in those early days of all night studying, sweating out check rides, and long Saturdays unwinding on Lake Amistad, is still there, as strong as ever. This weekend talk often turned to “who we were” but more often than not it also became a discussion of the men they are now….pilots with a wealth of experience in both the military and private sectors, fathers who have nurtured children through the years who are now older than these guys were when they trained together in those Del Rio days, and men who are planning for retirement days, knowing the next phase of life has been well-earned.
I used to hate it when “old” people told me time would pass by quickly. I try not to tell that to young parents or to young officers who are just starting out, but now that Jim and I are about to witness yet another peer retiring tomorrow morning, I know just how true it is. Where DID those years disappear to?
I love this portrait of Jim and Ed, quietly talking in the dark of the night, outside of Gil’s hangar door. In their hearts, they are still Lieutenants and all their dreams still exist behind those doors.
Everything is blooming most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.
~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
And so begins spring’s escape!
Pattern in repetition. A single image becomes more than the sum of its parts.
I find communities of people to be the same way. We can exist alone but together we are so much more.
No wonder little ones are afraid when they get to the top of the slide….
….I was afraid and I’m not even little!
There’s something magical about being four years old.
You find wonder in so many places.
My grandson recently commented to his dad, when he was flushing the toilet, about the bubbles that were created as the water was swirled away. He called them life joys.
This weekend he was totally lost in the joy of movement when we passed a fountain. There was another gentleman there breakdancing and the two of them engaged in a sort of exuberant ballet. There was so much joy in those few moments.
From now on, when I see bubbles I’ll be reminded of life’s joys. And, I will be reminded to look for them in unexpected places!
