Nauvoo Sculpture Garden

Bathed in a heavenly light

Outside of the Nauvoo Visitor's Center is the sculpture garden which contains 13 life size bronze statues in honor of womanhood. The gardens are beautiful and the statues are inspiring. I snapped this one and later was surprised to see the light effect. I didn't plan it and couldn't reproduce it even if I tried. I think it is really cool and quite appropriate. We had such a good time on the trip. I had wonderful traveling companions and everything went smoothly. But, I'm glad to be home and won't be doing any long car trips for awhile.

A Few More Nauvoo Pix

Me and the girls in front of Lucy Mack Smith's house

Wandering around outside Brigham Young's house

The mighty Mississippi viewed from the eastern shore

Nauvoo Temple

Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum

Nauvoo Temple

The original temple was destroyed a short time after its completion. The church rebuilt and dedicated it in 1994, I think. Anyhow, the only thing remaining from the 1st temple was 2 sun stones. One of them is in the visitors center, the other is at the Smithsonian. The statue represents Joseph and Hyrum looking back at the temple as they rode by for the last time. They never got to see the temple completed. Very sad.

New Friends

Mick and Chad

Nip and Tuck

Me and the church ladies left last Thursday morning, Sept 10, and drove to the church history site at Nauvoo, Illinois. We went on a couple of wagon tours....I posted the pictures here of the noble beasts who hauled our fat, lazy butts around the town. These are Belgians and Percherons, I think....I forget which is which, but each animal weighs about a ton. They are huge. I'll be posting more photos from the trip.

Sketch Crawl

Sam and  his sketch of the Lucky Strike tower

Triangle Sketch Crawl meets monthly at various locations for a couple hours of drawing, then we gather for show and tell. It is a lot of fun. We met this weekend at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham. It is a fantastic place. It used to be a tobacco warehouse and has been converted into shops, restaurants and office space. It has a beautiful layout with lots of water features. It's gorgeous. Anyhow, I did a couple of watercolor sketches. Nothing great, but it does force me to keep producing. You can't force creativity, but sometimes you just need to keep doing SOMETHING until the creative urge returns. I feel uninspired right now, but hopefully I'll get my mojo back. So someone posted this photo of Sam (not his real name) and me at an office studio called "Little" where we gathered to compare notes. It was a big group this month, about 20 people. They are a talented bunch. Am I intimidated? Not really, because I am not competing with anyone. We all do very different things and it's all just for fun.

The crew

Mal, James One, Jon and Lila on UNCG Campus

And now for something completely different

"My 3 Sons" 

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"The 3 Tenors" "Today I feel..." and "Madonna and Child"

Happy Baby

Met the kids in Greensboro for lunch today. It's always a treat to see them and my little grandboy. He is such a mellow, happy little boy. Everyone is doing great. School is going well for Mal and Lila. Jon is not loving his job, but he's hanging in there. Hopefully something more suited to his temperament will turn up. We ate at a grill on campus....it was called Spring Garden Bar and Grill when I was in school...can't remember what it is now. Food is good. Service was slow, though. After we ate we walked across the street to hang out on the lawn and let the little guy run around. When we came back I couldn't find my keys. Malcolm found them still in the car--with the car running. Good grief. He was concerned that maybe it was early Alzheimers. I hope not. But it wouldn't surprise me.

Gas Prices

Filled up at a station in Siler City today. 

Stu-Stu-Studio

A creative mess

The view from the door looking into my "studio". Lots of junk for sure, but this is where the MAGIC happens!! Holiday coming up this weekend. I have 4 days off in a row. Thank You Jesus. I am in desperate need of some down time. I hope to do some organizing of my mess and the Sketch Crawl is Saturday. That is such fun. Next week I am heading off with the church ladies for Nauvoo. Looking forward to it. We had a blast on our last 2 trips. Hope to do some sketching as well.

My Pack

We have been babysitting all week for Bert's dogs while she was busy with the move. They are all good dogs and we love them very much, but as you can see, they really fill up a room. Bert's dogs are Maka and Sammie (husky/yellow lab mix and a something/Pitt mix). Maka has a serious case of ADHD. Her energy level is off the charts. The big brown guy is Early, Bert's old dog that we adopted. The little black dog is Sophie, originally Mal's dog, but another adoption. The cousins went back with their mom today. It was fun, but I'm glad to have my house back again.