Weekend Journal

Here are the last of my autumn photos and the photos I took at Lake View Cemetery this past Monday.  We enjoyed a spectacular day - one that was perfect for roaming the country side and enjoying Mother Nature's artwork.

 We also enjoyed the artwork of Louis Comfort Tiffany's Wade Chapel at Lake View.  I was so excited to see the window again - this time on a sunny day.  The glass looked self illuminated, and it was gorgeous.

This is the pond near the chapel.  Lake View Cemetery started out as an arboretum and has many different tree specimens on it's 200+ acres.  We walked 3 hours worth.

This is one of the many beautifully detailed mausoleums we looked at.  The cemetery's statuary is really wonderful.

This is John D Rockefeller's final resting place.  His monument is the largest piece of marble cut from a quarry in Vermont and rises 65 feet into the air.

This is one of the reliefs that surround the top of James A Garfield's monument and final resting place.

This is the west side of Garfield's memorial.  Below is the north side and front entrance.

Here's the Cleveland skyline and Lake Erie from the balcony area, outside at the base of the dome.  The dome is not open to the public.  Beneath that is the view looking down into the cemetery's west side.

After our cemetery walk, we headed back towards home and stopped at one of our favorite Lake Metroparks, North Chagrin Reservation.  Here are some of the photos I took there.

RT 615, Kirtland, OH

 It would have been irresponsible to skip ice cream on one of the last warm, autumn days!  This delicious hot fudge brownie sundae was compliments of Malley's Chocolates in Mentor, OH.

Yes - I'm a happy camper!  It's autumn and all is right in my world.  It looks like I've been doing nothing but goofing off and enjoying autumn, but there has been LOTS of art created in between.  I'll get to that tomorrow, but first....

Photo by:  Keith Thompson

The Hazmat Team has some serious Halloween business to attend to!  There are airborne pathogens to search for. 

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Weekend Journal

A Busy Week


At long last, this reclusive artist enjoyed a week of more celebrating than creating!  It began with a great Halloween party last Saturday night at Ro's, followed by a trip to Lakeview Cemetery with lunch in Little Italy, an artist reception for "The Skull & Skeleton in Art: Fold Art to Pop Culture" at the Gallery at Lakeland, and a final Halloween party at the historic Rider's Inn in Painesville last night.  Add a couple art journaling classes and costume shopping to the mix, and I had quite a busy week!

Halloween Costumes


It seems most of my creativity presented itself in photo taking and face painting this week.  The first costume I wore was easy - pajamas over street clothes, fluffy slippers and a shower cap.  I can say with certainty that I was the most comfortably dressed party goer that night!

What else could I have done for the Skull & Skeleton show at Lakeland?

It was time for a little zombie fun last night!  I found a great tutorial on using white glue and toilet paper for zombie makeup, so I give it a try with Mod Podge.  It worked great and was appropriately disgusting.  I won 2nd place in the Rider's Inn costume contest for this gory look.

I was actually more pleased with the makeup job I did on Keith.  I think we made a great looking couple!

Congrats to the 1st place winners, the gladiator  couple!

The Skull & Skeleton Show

We had a great turnout for the reception, and there were lots of fabulous artworks on display.  There was everything from ceramics, to soft sculpture, to jewelry and dioramas and everything in between.  Here are a few of the pics from the reception.  As always, clicking on the image will give you an enlarged view.

The Dia de Los Muertos ofrenda created by students at Lakeland

Ceramic work by one of my favorite local artists, Mark Yasenchack

"Hell's Kitchen" acrylic painting by another local favorite, George Kocar

3 of my 5 contributions for the show. Acrylic paintings and mixed media

Art quilt by Jacquelyn Moravcik

Soft sculpture skelly by Mary Oesterman

I didn't get the artist's name on this large, fabulous painting

Medusa and Satan

Paloma Pilar Grasso, owner of Galeria Quetzal .  He delivered a wonderful presentation on Dia de los Muertos

Mary Urbas, Lakeland Gallery Curator

I neglected to get this artist's name, but you had to see this amazing  art book!

So that was a snippet from my week.  I'll be posting about our trip to Lakeview Cemetery later in the next few days.  I hope you're all having some Halloween fun, and I hope you're finding some time to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"