Have a Little Faith in Me - Kurt Browning

Mmmmh-Mmmmh-Mmmhh! This was my introduction to John Hiatt, before I knew who John Hiatt was.

I love that this video is recorded in an empty practice rink. It goes to show how much practice time and effort "real" skaters put in. Kurt Browning makes it look so easy. That footwork sequence is really difficult. And those beautiful deep edges don't happen without a lot of practice, and some magic skates!

Enjoy!

Kurt Browning's Crash Into Me

Kurt Browning is one of my all-time favorite skaters. He's like Gene Kelly on ice! Makes me want to get up in the early morning dark to go and skate tomorrow morning.

And what a great song! This one always makes me smile. ;-)

Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrated Saturday-After-Thanksgiving at our house in Oshkosh with family and friends--lots of food, my "new" $5 rummage sale China (Thank you, La Voisine), and these glorious cranberries.

Wanna know what we DO with these cranberries? Try this recipe.


Unca "Rainbow" Ray, My Mom and Dad, Seth, Rosita, The Family Jage, and Rieko the exchange student from Japan. We had a houseful with a cheery fire and a full table. CL even got up early to put the turkey in the oven by 7 am. My Mom and Dad experienced round-abouts for the first time. I guess we should have warned them about the changes to the area roadways ... Oops!


Unca "Rainbow" Ray


My Dad with a Beer and a Broccoli (What a goofball!).

Thanks to Doug Johnson, Art Professor at UW-River Falls

Professor Emeritus, Doug Johnson. Photo from here in 2008.

Prompted by the Story Corps National Day of Listening where you Thank a Teacher, I am honoring Doug Johnson, Professor Emeritus in Art from UW-River Falls.

I have to give this guy credit. I took two classes with him while I was in my early college years at UW-River Falls around 1990. His Art 100 was not just the usual art appreciation class where you look at lots of slides of great art and discuss. He actually had us all purchase Craypas and good paper so we could MAKE some art of our own in all the styles we were studying. Each week, we had to show our stuff, too, for a critique. I had no idea how liberating that would be! In high school, I had creative and talented friends who were in all the Art classes, but I was on the college prep track, so no time for art classes. Sigh! Thank goodness Art 100 was REQUIRED in college. And thank goodness, I took Doug Johnson's class that pushed us beyond merely appreciating art.


Dog in the style of Nabi (circa 1990). This is the only piece I kept from those days. One of our dogs laying on a hunting jacket.

Doug Johnson encouraged us to really press the color into our paper. None of that wishy-washy pastel stuff. We had to be "committed" to the piece. He didn't want to see any of the white paper showing through. ;-)

My last spring semester in River Falls, I took a sculpture class (I had learned the year before that it was impossible to take heavy and serious classes in spring--Try writing a paper on nuclear war while the apple trees are blooming, and you're in love! The two are not compatible!) Anyway, the creative classes took an investment of time, but not memorization--it was a different kind of learning where we really got INSIDE of the lessons-- for which I am grateful. I still have the sketchbook from that class, though none of the sculptures.

I don't know that he ever made it big with his art. He was the kind of guy who--if he dropped a pottery sculpture on the way in to the gallery, and if he liked the way it broke apart on the floor, he'd fence it off and make it a display. Now that's rolling with the punches! I think for him, it was more about creative expression than making a lot of money.

Doug Johnson made me promise I would take more art classes, even if it wasn't my major. He saw some potential in me. Now, it's 20 years later. I doubt he'd even remember me. I would like to say "Thank you for the encouragement in those early years." I have taken more classes and made more art since then. "Making stuff" has become an important part of my life. Some of it is tracked and recorded on my Sweet Leaf Notebook Blog.

You made a difference in my creative life, Professor Johnson. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!