1/30/2013 1:41:06 PM
There is something magical about historic buildings at night. In downtown Birmingham, property where the Goodall-Brown building stands at 2200 1st Avenue North, was originally the site of the Caldwell Hotel, one of Birmingham's first luxury hotels. The hotel hosted many officials who came through the city, including a luncheon for President Harrison when he visited Birmingham in 1891. In the same year a fire completely destroyed the first-class hotel leaving only a few bare walls as remnants. In 1906, the property was purchased by an influential and successful merchant, Robert Goodall who operated a dry goods distributing company within the building.*
The building has now been converted into lofts; The Wine Loft is housed on the main level. I recently met Mike Dunnavant, proprietor, and we talked about night lights and how inviting he has made the storefront. Hopefully you can get that sense from my painting.
*http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Caldwell_Hotel
1/24/2013 8:52:15 AM
In Philadelphia I met a most wonderful lady named Pooh, well, she calls herself Pooh and so I did. She was a sparkle in a dark cloud. I returned from my trip and had in mind to paint a moon at the request of a friend. Cathy and I have been searching for the right moon, one not scary but inviting but not childish.
So I began laying out my paints for Moon and kept thinking all the while about Pooh and her lovely scarf with yellow and blue-grays and it was obvious to me when the painting was complete that it is a happy moon.
It was then necessary for me to research what Pooh might have said about a moon, not my new friend Pooh but Winnie the Pooh. And this is what I found: "Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the forest part of it had; and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now alone in the moon or somewhere, and he would never see Christopher Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he thought, "Well, even if I'm in the moon, I needn't be face downwards all the time," so he got cautiously up and looked about him."
Don't you love it? "I needn't be face downwards all the time!" Neither my friend Pooh nor Cathy ever "face downwards all the time"; they are two of the most resilient women I know and tend to look at the world in such a positive way. Here's to looking up:)
