Thank you everyone…I am so grateful for all of you and wish you a happy and healthy 2023! And I wish for more peace & love throughout the world.

Street Art

I've always had the utmost respect for graffiti and street artists. It might look easy but it isn't--painting on the spot like that involves a lot of planning, the materials can be unforgiving and often the act of painting on walls can be dangerous due to height and hard to reach places, not to mention breathing in all those aerosols, which can't possibly be good for you.

Take a look at this video above, which shows a complilation of some some really cool street art done by artists from different parts of the world.

Short Documentary: Feeling Through

click above to see full 18 minute documentary

I am really excited about sharing the documentary Feeling Through with you. It is an extraordinary film which introduces many of us, for the first time, to the deafblind community. But most of all, it is an authentic film about humanity at its best...

Feeling Through tells the story of a homeless young man who randomly encounters a deafblind person in need of help crossing the street. It is inspired and based on the real life encounter the director, Doug Roland, had with Artemio, a deafblind man he met one evening in the streets of New York City. Feeling Through won sixteen awards and was short-listed for an Oscar for best live action short film in 2019. In addition to the film itself, here are two documentaries that show a behind the scenes to the film-making process Connecting the Dots, and another entitled The Road to the Oscars: Feeling Through, where you share in the excitement of all those involved, especially for the deafblind actor, who had no idea that he would ever act, let alone be nominated for an Oscar.

Poet Diana Goetsch

Love is love is love...it's what makes the world go round. And for those lucky enough to have felt it once or twice or twenty times in their life, there ain't nothing like the feeling...Here is a love poem that moved me when I came across it recently...

SWIMMING TO NEW ZEALAND
by Diana Goetsch

Once or twice in life you find a woman
you’d swim the ocean for. What are you doing?
friends will ask, as you perfect your stroke,
meantime pitying everyone outside of love.
Your only obstacle, the blue Pacific—
where your sun sinks, she’s dressing in the morning,
and when the dawn comes reaching back around,
turning up the volume in your city,
she’s drawing blinds, removing her make-up.
If you were Gatsby you would build a mansion
in some cove off the Tasmanian sea
and throw parties to lure her in. You’re not
of course—though nothing’s impossible,
except life without her, and so you swim.

The poet, Diana Goetsch, has had an interesting life. To read more about her transition from male to female, her background as a writer and school teacher, her eight other poetry publications, her new memoir, etc. click here.

Painting of the Week

Mitten Series, mixed media on paper, 22” x 30”

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.