Ireland is a beautiful place.

I have traveled to many place’s outside of the United State’s, but Ireland really left her mark on me.
The land of kind people with good manner’s, rolling hills, hedged-in roads, and the Atlantic Sea.

It is interesting to spend time in Ireland. You learn to drive on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the road. All of the house’s seem to be on the main drag, and they have natural rock privacy fences built too tall to see their homes from the road and protection from the traffic. I love that! Everything seems so well groomed, and the people we met were very genuine and good natured. I was very fond of Ireland’s kind manners and their way of life.

I had my first glass of whiskey in Ireland. I purposely did not choose Jameson. Why? Because, I have access to Jameson whiskey in my town. I wanted to try something that felt far, far away. I was at a piano bar, listening to the tunes, adoring the fine cognac leather furniture and mahogany walls, acting very sophisticated while drinking a glass of “Writer’s Tears” whiskey. It took me a while to get it down, but I wasn’t in any hurry.

Like many of our vacations, most days are spent hiking in the morning and again, before sunset with napping, reading, journaling, and light site-seeing in between. In this case there were no shortage of pubs and churches for “after beer prayers”. I think we lit a candle and said a prayer in every town we visited. The cathedrals were so old, in pristine condition, and absolutely stunning! It felt very holy, sacred, and special to be inside these historical places.

One evening included a special dinner of the most delicious roasted duck salad at the best table for two in the The Tan Yard Restaurant at the Killarney Plaza. By luck, we arrived just before any other patrons and had the whole place and all the views to ourselves. It was so romantic. I can still taste the food, feel the ambiance, and remember how the county of Killarney looked that night. I savor the yellow glow of the streetlamp lights illuminating the wet rainy roads outside. It looked like a painting that I would like to someday paint.

There were so many beautiful moments on this trip. It was one of the rare times that we did not go about it “backpack on a dime” style. This trip was to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my lover left his frugal ways behind. We stayed at some of the most luxurious, yet unpretentious places. I will remember this trip forever!

I also visited many potteries along the way and added some fine mugs to my growing collection. That may have to be a separate blog post all together.

Frank Lloyd Wright

I was in my 40’s when I just finished an entire year of researching the history of Adolf Hitler. I needed to answer my life long question of how people could have followed his way in good conscience. I mean how could they believe that they were better than any other human?

At just about the same time, I applied to study Visual Arts at Olivet College in Olivet, MI. It turns out that my sculpting professor Mr. Wertheimer and his wife, Thia Eller were very familar with jewish history and culture and they were also my teachers of ceramic art and sculpting. We had many conversations and I felt very enlightened by these two people. I adore them both and their work and their teaching’s to this day.

Somehow, needing a breather from my Hitler studies, I landed on my next adventure, Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright. I discovered him during an Art History class and Frank and his work became my passion project for the next few years.
I studied and read everything that I could get my hands on. I traveled to see the places he had been and the spaces that he had built.

I learned of his life, wives, and artistic shenanigan’s, but aside from that I sought out students who under-studied with him, attended Taliesin Schools, and continued to practice his natural way of life. Their were many.

Alden.B.Dow and his wife being among this crowd and also just so happen to live in a town near me, Midland, Michigan. So, of course I spent many hours in the Alden B. Dow homes, gardens, and libraries. Fascinating! I was completely consumed with Frank, his life, and his student’s, and the influence or his utilitarian life, religion, and work and how he continued all of this into his 80’s.

I have stood in Frank’s drawing rooms, his bird walk patio’s, his kitchen’s, his dining quarter’s, his simplistic bedrooms, his grave, and I mostly adored the garden’s that him and Olgivanna groomed and attended to with pleasure. Sometime’s, I see how these experiences have found their way into my own work. I will forever give them credit to the simplicity of my own work. I have learned from the master’s before me and I only hope to accomplish a life that pays them my thanks. I love a simple life. A humble pot. And, a desire to share the experience to create with others.

Frank used to say, “If you want to do a tree, you’ll do your tree, you don’t have to do a pine or an elm. You may do a tree of your own.”
As an artist, I have found myself starting with a story and the work of another artist, sometime’s imitating it with one purpose alone; to find my own work within it. I am thankful to artists like Frank who have planned their life around nature. Adapted as needed, and left a body of work that can tell their story. Thanks, Frank.