Tuesday, December 11, 2012


First, an oversight from my previous entry.

Portland, Oregon, painter Stephen O’Donnell is a very cool guy! Not only are his paintings beautifully executed, they spur a psychologically charged discussion that many people are afraid to broach: How do we identify ourselves? What do gender labels really mean? Do all women have male tendencies? As a male, is it o.k. to admit to certain feminine proclivities without being  homosexual? What exactly is transsexual anyway?

(Did I warn you? You might want to dial up Stephen’s paintings again. They are all self-portraits.)

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For years, I have urged artists everywhere to leave their studios and look around at the world outside. I know you are busy…I don’t want you to waste your talent or energy. But you are a citizen and what happens in our cities (and Country) have huge impact on you as much as me and YOU HAVE SOME SPECIAL TALENTS THAT THE REST OF US NEED.

If there is remaining doubt about the cross-over of urban design, spend some time reading through the discussion of how a high rise multi-million dollar luxury condo is bringing the shadows of despair and death to a neighboring museum garden. Additionally, the reflected light from the tower has rendered a museum light installation unusable! Who would have guessed?

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Our home building project is still stuck in government and engineering limbo-land.  It’s just too boring to describe all the manholes we’ve fallen through.  The site is difficult for many reasons but let me warn everybody about one:  infill building!

You friends in Portland, Oregon, know all about infill building – channeling new construction into a crescent around metropolitan centers that already have the infrastructure, the rail lines, schools, etc. intact to support population growth and maintain virgin lands on the outskirts.  It’s a wonderful practice – hard to put into place politically, equally difficult practically.

Our 2.4 acres parcel is only three miles from the center of Rochester, New York. It has all the attributes attached to infill building plus it backs up to woods and trails that die into a large county park. It also comes with a full retinue of neighbors who really like their undeveloped private dumping ground! 

These people will be my neighbors one day. I can only hope the scars of battle will heal over before then.
Meanwhile, here is a picture of the building site and another of  one of my daughters, helping that day to clean out the barn.