Lillian is a mosaic artist and gifted educator. She jurored a show in which Karen Silton’s mosaic “Miriam’s Well” was exhibited. The show was “The Art of Tesserae” at Second City Gallery in Long Beach.

See the You Tube video below of piano stairs by the FunTheory.com

My father Erwin A. Thompson: “Your short term goal will soon be realized.”

My brother Gary Thompson: “Don’t worry about the stock market, invest in family.”

My sister-in-law Patty Thompson: “Opportunity knocks on your door every day–answer it.”

Myself: “Be prepared to modify your plans.”

These were a completely perfect fit for each of us.

My father? Well, heck, he was about to pick up a gold medal award for his poetry book!

My brother is dedicated to several generations of family, and lets the rest of the world roll by him.

My sister-in-law is all about positive attitude and greeting adversity with grace.

Me: My life is a study in flexibility.

Our time in Branson was pleasant and fulfilling. Pop claimed his Stars and Flag Book award onstage at the Mansion Theater. The rest of the time was spent enjoying the Veterans Homecoming Week. And, I finally got to meet Pat Avery.

Branson is the Las Vegas of the Midwest without the gambling. There are 100 theaters there offering glitzy country-music style entertainment. So, you gotta go to some shows. Our first show was part of the awards ceremony. The second show was on the Branson Belle Showboat. Wow. It’s like a mansion. Pop was one of the four veterans chosen to be honored at the start of the show.

The Branson trip was the kick-off for Pop’s birthday week. From there we went to a company meal on his birthday, November 9th…and an appearance at two creative writing classes at Alton High School.

Pop, the old man of the mountain, wowed them.

Roger Walsh M.D. Ph.D. wrote those thoughts in his essay Hidden Wisdom. The fact that the self changes like a rapidly blinking light is a hard concept to grasp when I use my physically educated senses to try to explain that reality. If I consider my ego to be the center and the norm for all my experiences, then I find that I’m totally unaware of other aspects of my self and consciousness. If I consider my center to be inner consciousness, then the idea of multiple selves begins to make sense. As a whole, within the universal whole, I am several wholes in one physical body.

For example, a letter in a word is a whole within a word which is a whole in a sentence and the sentence is whole within a paragraph and then paragraphs are wholes within a page and a page is a whole within a chapter and so on. Each element is a whole that makes a reality an experience. I use splinters and fragments of my self to experience different realities in order to widen my awareness.

Realities and imagination are synonymous; without one there wouldn’t be the other. I’m taught that imagination is not real, but if I think about it, all my realities originate in my imagination. My plans, desires and my creativity come from imagination. Civilizations spring from imagination and my belief system was created by imagination. I create my world and my unique realities and then I create how to live them. All modern equipment; cars, TVs, iPods, computers, homes, clothes, electricity use and scientific discoveries are rooted in imagination. The sciences deal in facts, which are initiated by curiosity, which is fueled by imagination. Music and musical instruments and all beautiful expressions are the work of imagination. I even imagine and create what I don’t see, which includes my own multi-dimensionality.

Each reality I experience widens my perspective, which is why I choose to manifest physically. Consciousness expands in different forms and in different densities and intensities. Imagination is a tool of expansion and it is used by all qualities of consciousness. I have the ability to focus on whatever aspect of consciousness that excites me and then imagine the reality I experience using several fragments of my own creations. By widening my belief system, I allow other thoughts stimulated by other selves to manifest, which change my experiences. I sense a deep rooted imagination creating realties for me to express and live. This well of creativity continues endlessly as I become aware of the choices and probabilities that can be experienced at any point in linear time. My stable of selves is constantly adding contrast, as well as variety, to each moment, so I become both physically and non-physically aware.

I am much more than what I perceive to be physical. I feel that I’m separate because one aspect of consciousness chooses to be. I’m not separated from my feelings, they’re a part of me, and they are also independent of me. I create all to experience using different intensities of consciousness to feel each moment. I create each day using a self filled with imagination and experience physical being. It doesn’t matter if I believe in multiply selves or the power of imagination, for they continue to manifest from another quality of my consciousness in my unawareness. I can just ride my wave of imagination to the beach of my dreams and then do it all over again using whatever self I choose and just call them me.

As an African American artist raised in Kansas City Missouri, it did not take long to see that he did not have the luxury of being just an artist. On the contrary, he had to be all things related to art and African American art. He had to be an art educator, an art critic, an art agent, a gallery operator, an art booster, a pickup and delivery man and anything else that might pop up. He humbly refers to himself as an art activist.

Lonnie has always sought to keep his art separate from his occupation so that his art was free of financial influences. This separation of art and money allowed him to steer clear of the trends, traps and compromises begrudgingly faced by many of his contemporaries. Although, this course proved to be less lucrative, the art remains true to his heart and shall remain so.

He never refers to his art as his work. His art is not work, his art is his very self and therefore, cannot be separated from the rest of his life.

ARTIST’S BIO

Lonnie Powell graduated from Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri where he studied with the late James Dallas Parks.

Lonnie’s occupations have ranged from dishwasher at the Villa Capri Restaurant to Xerox Sales Representative, but the vast majority of his career has been as an art teacher in the Kansas City Missouri School District.

Lonnie was a charter board member and past president of The Black Archives of Mid-America and a cofounder of Euphrates Gallery. He is a current member and past president of the Friends of Bruce R. Watkins Culture Heritage Center. Lonnie is also president and founder of, “The Light In The Other Room”, a collaborate of twenty-two, African American Kansas City based artists.

He has shown in and around his beloved city of Kansas City, Missouri in many venues including solo and group exhibits at: The Ethnic Art Gallery, The Central Exchange, The Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and Museum, and The American Jazz Museum’s Changing Gallery to name a few.

Lonnie has exhibited at a number of area universities including: Park University, Parkville, Missouri, Western Missouri University, St. Joseph, Missouri, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri and Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri where he spent a year (1969-1970), as an artist in residence.

He has had art accepted in competitions at: The Portfolio Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, The Atlanta Life Insurance Company’s African American National Art Competition and Exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia, The Black Arts Festival, Dayton, Ohio, The Plaza Art Fair, Kansas City, Missouri, and The St. Louis Art Fair, Clayton, Missouri. He is an award winning, Signature Member of The National Watercolor Society. His art is in numerous private collections as well as the corporate collections of Sprint Corporation, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and The American Jazz Museum.

He has art in The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s traveling exhibition, Shades Of Greatness, which is currently touring galleries and museums across the country. In 2005 his watercolor painting, South Sun, received the coveted, Donor’s Award C, from the 85th National Watercolor Society.

In the December, 2006, Watercolor Magic Magazine, named him as one of the “Ones To Watch.” In June, 2008 he received the “First Place, Patrons Choice award in the First Annual Lakewood Oaks Exhibit in Lee’s Summit, MO.

My first mentor was Grandfather Patterson who read stories to me, wrote letters to editors and typed up all the stories I made up before I learned the art of putting words on paper. He helped me appreciate my first rejection slips telling me they showed I had written something and sent it out which was what professional writers do.

My Grandmother Brown was another mentor. When I was 12 years old, she called me aside and said, “I want you to help me tell my life story for all my children and grandchildren.” Grandmother described her growing years, meeting Grandpa, getting married, having children, going from olden days to modern days. She had a gift of being sensual, making you smell the lilacs, feel the thorns, see the waterfalls, hear the horses, and feel the udders as she milked the cows.

I always loved to read and from William Faulkner I learned to create pictures with my words and to find the exact word to describe an object or thought.

From Ernest Hemingway I learned to share the most important facts with my reader while having a mountain of secrets hidden in my head and heart holding the information I shared in the writing. I saw my work as an iceberg with the essential on top but the majority of the work underneath, hidden but supporting the top.

My next mentor was Mrs. Freshour, my next-door neighbor and English teacher at school. She taught me to love reading good literature and when I was chosen to give the Valedictory speech she helped me learn to do research and use it effectively.

When I met Anais Nin, she told me of friends from all walks of life, and travels around the world. I wished to imitate her love of life, her sensitivity, her commitment to her work. “I always answer every letter I receive,” she said. “I never know how my answer will help someone.” I loved her compassion and passion.

My spiritual mentor was Mother Teresa. I was blessed with spending time with her and Anais Nin. The most important thing she taught me about writing was if you write about her work, you must commit yourself to doing the work, no matter how dirty you get your hands. You cannot write about poverty unless you live with the poor. I became a coworker and she gave me permission to write. “Mother Teresa, Called to Love”and “What Mother Teresa Taught Me” which was published by St. Anthony Messenger Press and in Arabic by an Egyptian publisher.

During November nonfiction writers get a chance to hone their skills and complete a nonfiction project during the annual Write Nonfiction in November challenge. Now in it’s third year, Write Nonfiction in November (WNFiN) isn’t a contest in the traditional sense. It’s a personal challenge to nonfiction writers to simply start and finish a book, article, essay, query letter, e-book, booklet, proposal, or any other work or nonfiction in 30 days. And while they do so, a blog provides nonfiction writing, editing, promotion, marketing, and publishing information to help them sell themselves and their writing.

Blog posts by WNFiN founder Nina Amir, an author, journalist, nonfiction editor/coach/consultant, have expanded to expert guest bloggers to provide additional information. Again this year she provides posts of her own and introductions to posts written by 28 expert guest bloggers.

“Art of Critique” is our keynote post in this cycle of three.