314-504-3478
Saint Louis, MO
A Light Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Have you ever attended one of those dinners where people are invited without knowing who the other guests will be? The idea is to make new acquaintances and enjoy an evening of pleasant surprises. These dinners are fun. Usually. Sometimes...
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Funny Food
Are You a Food Person? Probably not. I'm not talking about a lover of food, I mean a food person. Like the Coffee Bean Lady pictured above. She's a ripe, pre-roasted coffee bean. She's in the marketing tradition of using anthropomorphic viddles to sell products. Mr....
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Can We Talk?
The Big Day I'm from a large family of four boys and three girls, and I'm number three in the bunch. Or third oldest, as I always seem to say. A large blue collar family dependent upon urban transportation had limited entertainment options. We had a few Big Day events...
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Upside Down Whimsy
Whimsical or Not? My post from last week, entitled Christmas Whimsy, received a comment suggesting that Christmas was not whimsical. Since I like to think of a blog as a dialogue, all respectful comments are welcome and worth pondering. And so I pondered. Since one...
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Christmas Whimsy
I haven't written in a while and I do apologize. All the holiday hubbub, I suppose. Here we are, just a few days from Christmas and I want to get back on a weekly schedule for the new year. When I started Art & Whimsy in May, my purpose was to make a case for...
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Bevo Mill
The Neighborhood The majority of families in my neighborhood had German last names. We first, second, third, or further back generation Germans were called "Southside Dutch". Dutch, is this case, is an Anglo variant of Deutsch, the German word for German. "Southside"...
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Triumphal Arch
Happy Birthday, Gateway Arch! This week marks the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO. It's official name is The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a U. S. National Park, which includes the Old Courthouse (1839), site of the...
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Library Stories
The St. Louis Public Library We have seventeen library branches throughout our city. There are twenty more in the St. Louis County Library system, which is separate from the city, but part of the metro area. Pictured above is the Central Library, a Cass Gilbert Beaux...
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Rejoice
Color "There is no color in this world", wrote pastor/theologian John Calvin, "that is not intended to make us rejoice". I doubt very many have gazed into a sunset, stained glass, or the glittering band of our Milky Way, without a sense of awe. During our visits to...
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Nashville Cats
Country Water This week's edition of Art & Whimsy is a few days late, due to our conference/work/vacation time in Nashville. Judy attended the American Association of Christian Counselors conference at Opryland and I went around town leaving portfolios with some...
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Super Silly or Super Serious?
Strange Visitor "Look, up in the sky!" "It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" "It's . . . " The anxious and confused cries of the earthbound are calmed by an offscreen narrator who explains that a strange visitor from a distant planet, disguised as a mild-mannered reporter,...
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Whim-Wham Music
Anita O'Day The film Jazz on a Summer's Day showcases Anita O'Day singing Sweet Georgia Brown at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. I captured this scene for my Movie Still Sketchbook. The film is in color, but I chose black and white because I didn't want to loose the...
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Woof Whimsy
I'm a dog person. I acknowledge cats as remarkable creatures, but I'm a dog person. I've had three dogs: Barney, the family dog of my youth, Waffle, our Golden Retriever/Cocker mix from early marriage, and Laddie the Schauchshund. A Schauchshund is half Schnauzer,...
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Crowned Jewels
Heads and Hats I'm not a confident hat wearer. I wear baseball caps, and from time to time a brimmed safari hat. I wear a boonie hat while cutting grass. I always feel a bit self-conscious, as if I'm drawing undue attention to my head. I don't suppose my head is...
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Whimsical, Wild, or Weird?
I Can Do That. (Really?) Considering what is art is a challenging endeavor. Some people who proclaim themselves non-artistic have strong opinions about what is art and what is not. It is reasoned that it's not art, if they (the non-artist) can do it. Their logic goes...
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