i get the chance to be a last minute fill in artist at the matchbox coffee shop for the month of july.... which is awesome for me... even though the grumpy's show was a HUGE success... I had an additional 10-15 paintings that they didn't have space for during art a whirl... so here's a chance to showcase those other "northeast" themed pieces... that missed their debut back in May... very excited for the serendipity on this one... stop by and say hi to my paintings :)  

Matchbox is at 1306 2nd St NE   

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matchbox-Coffeeshop/10150129865445346

i am dropping everything off in the morning on my way up north! 

i was out of town for work for a whole week... and it's been a really busy first month of summer... but i've managed to book a couple of shows for the coming fall... two at Moxie Salon and one at PALMERS! love that bar. they're going to have an opening reception... probably on the 7th of September.... I will keep you posted. I also have some commission work to complete for The Birchwood Cafe... and there is a CD coming out in the next few days with my artwork on the cover! I might partner with the artist and do a combo cd release party/art show for that later this fall also... but nothing's been set up. I will post photos when I have them of course...

Last weekend I went out on the boat with my sister and her husband... I forgot how much I love being on the water... I miss my kayak... time to dust it off

i've been waking up before the sunrise a lot this summer... i've discovered that i can bike from my house to lake harriet almost completely by trail... and once i am there they have free yoga at 6:30am... i love feeling like i had a whole day before everyone else wakes up.

it's like stealing time.

i found this feather on my way to the lake the other morning

i am sure my parents will hate this photograph... but i love it... they are so happy... and they still are...

on Monday my mom and dad will celebrate 35 years together... I have been thinking a lot about this lately... for a lot of reasons... but i have realized something about my family... there is a lot of romance in my blood. every generation that i have known personally has had a romantic beginning. and a healthy dose of reality along the way... here are a few stories...

my grandparents met at a roller rink while my grandpa was in the army. she was working at the radio station in town and traveling the country on legendary train trips with her friend... if i were to venture a guess... i would say that he found her beautiful... talented... and smart... she thought he was handsome and kind and funny... he was destined to return home and work on the family farm... and she fell in love with him and the love he had for his family... they raised 3 amazing men... and he still visits her everyday in the nursing home. they are best friends. he still has all of the love letters he wrote to her back then. and I've read them... they're beautiful.,,, here they are in front of my grandpa's house... the one he grew up in.... and the one they moved into when they were first married... the one that my dad lived in.... and played basketball in... in the immense attic.. the one that my grandpa's dad built... the farm land that now houses the highschool i went to across the street... that was once his father's cornfield...

.... and then there are anna and frank heyen.... my grandmother's parents...

the photo above is on the click clack with silvery threads that sits adjacent to a piano... and likely... at the time this photo was taken... smells of pipe smoke and hides a basket of knitting needles anna was working on...

pictured above are anna and frank heyen. these are my grandmother's parents. they were both very charismatic and musical. frank met anna while working as a farmhand for her parents.... she was a pianist. so... for an engagement present he bought her a piano... and today that piano sits in my parent's basement... sadly i have only spotty memories of my great grandparents... but i have a couple i want to impart.... their house was beautiful... he was also a mason... and built their immense... or what felt like immense to me at age 4... house... of brick... there was a giant wooden staircase... and beautiful furniture... and that piano... where i still remember trying my best to plunk out mary had a little lamb... before i even knew what i was doing. that's the same piano my grandmother elsie learned to play on... she went on to play piano for our church ... and organ... she tought pinao lessons for some 50 years and almost all of my friends from back home know her in that capacity... and it was that same piano i learned to play on well into my teens... in my own basement... she lived next door... so it was a convenient arrangement... she would come before my sister and i would go to school and play for us... when i think of that now it doesn't even seem real... but i know it was... my great granfather frank loved his dogs... and his mandolin and his pipe... i can still smell it... the other memory i have that hurts a lot and sticks with me... is going to the nursing home when frank was suffering from alzheimers... anna would bring him bananas... because it was the only thing he would eat... he scared me then.... because i was just a kid... and i could tell everyone else was feeling sad.. but now i think of it and realize that so much love was in that room.

great grandpa frank and his dog... or one of his dogs...

that's me... at anna and franks... and that's the piano i am talking about...

this is my mom. pat.... spunky and about 19 i think . in the boundary waters on a trip with my dad and his family. doesn't she look happy? she is.... she's in love... with my dad....

here's a good story... my mom and dad were at a party... i don't think they'd even been properly introduced... and my dad turned to his friend and said... i'm going to marry that girl... guess what... he was right.

dating can be rough these days... everything seems more complicated than it did back then. but i remember distinctly something a boy told me not too many years ago... he said that he just didn't want to get hurt.... and that was the end for me i guess... because my retort was simple and real...

that's what love is.

if you love someone... then the best case scenario is that you will stay together forever... and one of you will dwindle more than the other... and you will watch in agony as the person closest to you fades away... but what is the alternative? to just never get close enough to be hurt that much.... i guess i would prefer to enjoy a lifetime of love... and hope, as someone told me just this week... "everyday when i wake up and look in the mirror i pray to god that i will die before she does" ... what else is there

I am sitting. on my own bed with the windows open... for the first time in over a week... I feel like I am still moving... not just because the drive home started at 2pm today... or because I haven't stopped to catch my breath in forever.... but because there is so much swimming around in my head that I can't even begin to properly explain it tonight... but i do think i figured out what ties it all together.... 

IMAGINATION

the thing is... i was privy to it in many forms... most of them quite developed and or calculated... i have heard and seen more music and showmanship this week than i have in the past year... but this morning i had breakfast with imagination in it's most pure form. his name is phillip... and he is 11 years old... he wore a camera on his hip that he bought with his own money.... he didn't brag or joke or assume... but he proudly shared a stack of 100 photographs he has taken over the last two monthts with me... it didn't take long to notice a few themes in the pictures.... after about 30 i asked him about them.... i wondered if he had a million more that were similar but different... there were many sunsets.... his sister proclaimed ... "mom always says... phillip never misses a sunset" .... i smiled... thinking about how my own mother has said the same of my dad.... and guess what... of me too. 

just to be clear... all of the pictures in this post are phillip's... i thought about cropping them down so you could see them as I did... but I thought that wouldn't really express the way they made me feel... over coffee and eggs with an 11 year old. so here they are ketchup and creamer and all...

so... here's the thing i really want to convey.... i just spent a week with the most talented and worldly trumpet performers on the planet... and the thing that moved me the most was the a series of 5 photos by an 11 year old boy... none of which are in this post... they were of a robin's nest.... the first was just boldly blue and beautiful... 4 perfect eggs in golden hour sunlight... and then... a partially hatched egg... then one with a beak sticking out... one with a baby bird and then the last with just 3 eggs in the nest... i turned to phillip and asked him if he waited for the birds to hatch... and he said "no i just went back every day for a month to check on them".... ok... lets just think about that for a second... ok.... thank you.... he went back every day for a month... oh, and did i mention he told me he had to climb a tree to see them? anyway... if there is one thing i have learned about life.... not just this week... but definitely over the last 34 years... it's that the people that go back every day for a month to check on a birds nest... witness something amazing. and one day this 11 year old boy.... will be 40... or 80... and he will have done the same.... as often as he could... and what a gorgeous thing that is... curiosity.... strung out over a lifetime .... yields greatness... and a vast experience that we all can only hope for.

all the adult musical superstars i have encountered in this last week... have one thing in common... they have all been phillip.

i can't imagine what it would be like to be a parent... but i do know it feels like to be a child. so i guess now is when i mention how phillip reminds me of so many things... but today... maybe he reminds me of my dad... an 11 year old that loves sunsets.... i love the thread that connects us all... what a gift it is to be human.... and to love sunsets.....

I am heading out of town for work next week... I am excited to take the Ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon! And for the chance to spend a few days nerding out over trumpets, music and old friends. I am happy how my work and my passion for music mingle so easily sometimes... this week I attended two shows at The Dakota... .both were headlined by clients of ours... and both were tons of fun. You can see some of what I mean here: http://whyharrelson.weebly.com/jens-blog.html

When I wasn't working, or going to client gigs this week... I sent out query letters for shows... I am working on bookings for now through the new year... 

oh, and I found this video I made last year while searching for some photos for art queries... forgot all about it :)