A truck. A canal. Lowell.

Yesterday at First Saturday at Western Ave., word came down the hallways. Scuba divers in the canal! The canal is a straight 5 stories down from my studio windows. Several of us gathered at a window to watch.


Then - they found something! A car! How did the car get there? Was it pushed? Dumped? Punked?


No. This is what I heard. It was a pickup truck that was brought in to the garage for repair. It popped out of park and rolled slowly down the embankment and into the canal.

A tow-truck - slash - crane was carefully braced, and the divers attached the underwater truck to the crane, which then pulled that truck out of the water.


Oooh! Aaah! That was good entertainment. I wonder if there were artists hanging out of most of the canal-side windows to watch!

Bugs, Harmless Bugs!

After the fierce downpour last night, the air this morning is clear and a little bit golden. Here's a drowned-looking bumble bee - still alive! And a daddy long-legs - kinda creepy but completely harmless. And an itty-bitty spider clinging to a ripe blueberry. I picked the rest of the ripe ones and left that one for her.


And here's the kid looking out the window, wondering what mom's up to in the wet, wet garden.


I'll be at Western Ave. today for First Saturday Open Studios, 12-5. And then the Loading Dock Gallery member meeting. And then to Rex's art opening at the Ayer Lofts Gallery, 6-9. Brian will be home spending time with C. and working on his comic book story. I'm excited about today!

Sidebar Slideshow

The slideshow on the sidebar (which will hopefully still be there as you're reading this) is a feed from one of the galleries on my megpix.smugmug.com site. The gallery is full of viewer-chosen photos.

How do the photos get in the gallery? When you're looking at any photo in any gallery at megpix.smugmug.com, you can give the photo a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. The thumbs-up photos go to the viewers' choice gallery. The more thumbs-up a photo receives, the higher it rises in the rankings.

The block of photos you see when you visit the megpix.smugmug.com page is the set of 30 top-ranked photos. When you click on any of the photos in that block, you can see the rest of the favorites.

Thank you to all who have marked their favorite photos! It's very gratifying!

Lowell Sun slideshow

A thank-you to Kathleen Pierce at the Lowell Sun, who has engineered production of a slide show of Gov. Patrick's visits around Lowell today.

Here's the link to the online article, plus the slide show at the bottom.
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_12889818

Ashlee at the Loading Dock

While we were waiting for the Governor to arrive, Ashlee was also waiting for her students to arrive for the free summer arts program. One of the loading dock doors was open, and on a cloudy day the sky acts like a giant softbox, casting soft shadows.

I also liked the bright yellow on the door and the old-school metal-cage fan behind her, all identifying the type of place she was in, if not the actual location. Did you recognize it before I gave the location away?

Gov Deval Patrick at Western Ave Studios Lowell

The studios at Western Ave. have seen their share of local political dignitaries, and even Niki Tsongas held a party here pre-election. Today, Governor Deval Patrick visited, along with his dog Toby, who is 9 weeks old and is already a media darling.

Oh, my connection with the event is that I photographed it. More pix here: http://megpix.smugmug.com/Commercial%20&%20Editorial/838724

Joggy Doggy

Bentley at the water. Elana and Dan were tossing a ball back and forth for him. He's a beautiful, calm golden retriever. He waited easily until pack leader Elana told him it was okay to go in the water. Amazing.



A bouncy dog, wet fur flying.


And back legs churning! Must - get - the ball!

But wait -- a lemur? Slow shutter speed is fun.

Sweet twins

Thank you, Elizabeth and John, for bringing your sweet, sweet 5-month-old twins in for photos! And for paying me a beautiful compliment: "You really did it - you captured so many different aspects of their personalities, it is amazing." I loved it - let's do it again soon!

5/9 Mother's Day photo shoots comin' up

Just a quick shout about the Mother's Day fundraiser photo shoots coming up soon.

On Saturday 5/9, I'm charging $150 per shoot (wicked discounted) at the Lowell studio as a fundraiser for the Friends of Western Avenue Studios, who are raising money to buy the Western Avenue Studios building so that artists can always do their artwork there at way-below-market rents.

Was that a run-on sentence?

Anyway, there are some spots left to fill. The session go for a half-hour for up to 5 people (or pets!), and in that time we do a really fun, intensive photo shoot, then you get to look at the photos and choose which ones you want to take home.

Here's the postcard, for which I thank Suzi and Dashiell - they were extra-cute that day:


Email me for an appointment and I'll get you set up. Ask me about clothing choices too if you wanna.

Stories from the Shelter

Stories from the Shelter is a benefit event for the Lowell Humane Society that's coming up at the studios. It's on Friday evening May 15th from 6-9pm. I'll be showing a bunch of images of 9 of the shelter cats, plus a rabbit named Sadie. Here's a sneak peek:

From the postcard:
"The artists at Western Avenue Studios have partnered with the Lowell Humane Society to create an exhibit inspired by the animals, volunteers and staff at the Shelter. We invite you to join us at a benefit for the Lowell Humane Society as we unveil the results of this collaboration."

Tickets are $20 and 100% of ticket sales go directly to the shelter. You can call the Society at 978-452-7781 for tickets. I think they'll be available at the door too.

The benefit will be held at Western Avenue Studios, 2nd Floor of the A-Mill, 122 Western Ave., Lowell MA 01851. Directions are at www.westernavenuestudios.com

Here's the front of the postcard, with images by Adrien Bisson (the people and the ferret) and me (the 2 sets of cat eyes and the puffy tail).