OBSERVATIONS #19 – 12.31.24

Call – Color Feel, Theme of the Month Response – En Plein Air By – Mimi Peterson EN PLEIN AIRThe humid wind, sandy beaches, blinding light, hidden niches,Safeguards the children,Suspended between parched earth, blue sky, clear water, As if etched in steel, not real, tell time. Trace your way along the path, Through scrub, lost…

OBSERVATIONS #18 – 12.24.24

Call – Color Feel Response – I Must Do To Be By – Mimi Peterson I Must Do To Be I must do to be, Things move, change waits, Words interrupt, hands interpret, Bodies heal, thoughts roam. Before you, after me, Sands drift to form dunes and valleys, Swirling shapes shift with times motion, And…

OBSERVATIONS #16 – 11.23.24

Call – Color Feel, Theme of the MonthResponse – My SpaceBy – Mimi Peterson My Space The sunlight is loud, It’s noise breaks the silence, Like a comforting blanket, Surrounds me, you, us, With both narrow and broad streams of brilliant sounds, Soon turn into murmurous shadows, At once dark and transparent, Casting familiar silhouettes,…

OBSERVATIONS #10 – 10.19.24

Call – Don’t Dis Me, Theme of the Month Response – Musings on Nobody’s Perfect, Anecdotes by – Mimi Peterson About the Arts and Humanities Happy National Arts and Humanities month! The White House issued its yearly proclaim that states: “The arts and humanities bring people together and show us that we have more in…

What I Wanted to Say …

by John Bloner, Jr. This is my final article as Racine Writer-In-Residence as I will hand off its baton to the next honoree on July 1st. Thank you to ArtRoot, the Osborne & Scekic Family Foundation, Nick Ramsey, and the Racine Literacy Council for their support and encouragement. Over the past six months, the Krazines,…

My Kind of Town: Kenosha

don’t get around much anymore. That’s not just a song title or a result of the pandemic, it’s a fact of my life. Long-distance travel doesn’t suit me. I’ve tried to stuff my 6’3 frame into an airline’s economy class seat and found Houdini couldn’t escape from a space that tight. When my family would travel to Yellowstone or other spots when I was young, I was left behind in the care of my aunt. They did not want to be on a car ride with me then, and you don’t want me as a passenger with you today. It’s a good thing I’ve learned to bloom where I was planted: Kenosha, Wisconsin, the fourth largest city in our state, nestled on the shore of the second largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan.

Stop Fretting and Start Drawing

Author and pigeon-fancier Julia Cameron nearly ruined my life. Almost 30 years ago, I delved into Cameron’s self-help book, The Artist’s Way, following her instructions of writing several pages every morning until I had filled enough notebooks to make my home a fire hazard