1) Send-off Dinner. Before I left, Doreen Hulsey and her fascinating family (including longtime piano teacher) invited me for a going away supper to send me off. I know Doreen through the St. Louis Writers Guild and the Ethical Society.

2) Homecoming Dinner. Upon my return, Liz Sommers and her husband Kevin E. invited me to a welcome home dinner. They both worked for the anti-apartheid movement and asked such intelligent questions, listened so intently, and threw in such great stories of union organizing that it made for a rapt evening in Madison, Illinois.

3) Root Canal. Am I crazy? Maybe. But, I'm so grateful that tooth #20 waited a week to send me signals of excrutiating pain. I hadn't been to the dentist since my move from Northern California a year ago June. Finally, I got dental insurance through Authors Guild on the basis of my literary journal publications. It's gonna save me a bundle now! Plaza Dental got me right in and fixed me right up. I like the folks over there. Nice feeling and ambiance. They even let me wear the lead apron for my security blanket. I like the weight.

4) New Review of Sightlines. Gregory Robson, at Resident Media Pundit, posted a review of "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"

5) Blogging Award? Yvonne Perry's Writers in the Sky honored me with the Brillante Weblog Premio Blogging Award saying,

Janet Riehl's blog http://www.riehlife.com/ has a wide variety of topics as she takes us all over the world with her poetic writing and daily insights. Her literary journey is dotted with photos, clip art, and useful links to other people's work. She has a great list of resources, too! Her blog is interactive and invites a lot of comments.

I investigated a little further and found that the award was more in the way of a game bloggers play...a blogging meme...rather than a full-fledged award. You can read about this in two excellent posts here: Museum of Hoaxes and Heart and Hands.

When I shared this information with Yvonne, she thought maybe I would be offended or she ought to take it off her blog. I said, "No, the award, coming from you, is a real award." It reveals something interesting about the blogging and internet culture...about memes and the awards game in general.

6) Art patronage on the move. Joseph La Marque came over to install the finished mounts for Lloyd Kleine Harvey's delicate and elegant twig sculptures. We are experimenting with ways to make Lloyd's work more stable and attractive to collector's. I think we have some winners here. Joseph La Marque is an artist in his own right, and when he does work in support of other artists, his minimalist aesthetic and knack for the simple solution comes into play wonderfully. We're viewing these mounts as prototypes for Lloyd to use when he exhibits his work with the Regional Arts Commission...and are thinking he might even use the mounts as he's making the work. We'll see what Lloyd thinks soon.

7) Audiobook nearing final stages. "Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music" is now in in the homestretch of applying for mechanical licenses for the music used on the four discs that are still in public domain, copyrighting my father's songs, and making decisions about packaging and quantities. Hoping for a release in early October. We'll see. Scott Kidd was the audio engineer on the album and now is my point person/project manager who's been a godsend. Scott has a compatible way of thinking and working that's pure pleasure.

Family Poetry Book. My father's been busy while I've been gone. Soon he'll be giving me the files for our next book project: "Worth Remembering: The Poetry" which is an anthology of his poetry, family and friends poetry. Poetry books are a bear to do as the must be spaced properly. Oh, for the novels!

And you, dear readers? What are your be-gratitudes?

You can go to the category ART MATTERS on the sidebar of the web home page to view posts for visual artists...and MEET ME IN ST.LOUIS. There are twleve posts total for these seven African-American artists and cultural leaders based in, or with ties to, St. Louis. Sample posts include (but not inclusive) and by reverse order of appearance are:

Missouri History Museum evening “Journey of African-American Cultural Institutions: Where do we go from here?” generates thirst for continued Kgotla gatherings to pull together and package African-American Cultural Institutions to attract Heritage Tourism Dollars to St. Louis

Rene Dimanche Jr.---Longing for Home Key to Finding Powerful Visual Voice

RochleighZ. Wholfe, Visionary Artist Viewing the Future

Robert Powell: Community leader, founder and executive director of Portfolio Gallery and Education Center, St. Louis---"Maybe Easy Isn't What's Important."

Edna J. Patterson Petty's Sewing Up a Creative Storm

Freida L. Wheaton's Salon 53 opens in St. Louis: "Home is where the art is."

Freida L. Wheaton's Winter Solstice Salon 53 gathering.

Ron Himes, director and founder of St. Louis Black Rep Company (story below).

Meeting these people (along with my friend, the artist Lloyd Kleine Harvey) and getting to know them as we worked on these profiles has been a big highlight of my first six months in St. Louis. I want to thank each of them, personally, for sharing their company and comfort, as well as themselves and their work on Riehlife with our community here of around 400 faithful daily readers.

I first met Joe La Marque at the Urban League's Black Fine Art Exhibit. I was so taken with this African mask that I later bought it. That is totally unusual for me, because I have so much of my own art and the art of friends to find a place for in my home that I rarely puchase art. But this mask struck me as being so cheerful...and such a contempory take on an ancient ritual form that I loved it. As I studied the mask in my home I discovered it was made---extremely well-made---of humble materials like plywood, wire, twine, and such. It's all in the crafting and once again we see "There is no art without craft."

"African Mask" by Joseph La Marque (plywood, twine, wire)

Riehlife: Joe, you grew up in a house full of women. Your art training began as you learned to embroider and paint watercolors as a child at home. How old were you when you began making things?

JLM: I was eight or nine years old.

"Lady in the Woods" watercolor (18" X 24") by Joseph La Marque

Riehlife: Would you tell us more about this early home training and your family?

JLM: My oldest sister and her husband raised me. She had two daughters also. As a youngster, we used to take road trips to the Ozarks. Along the way I fell in love with the trees in their change of colors, also the old farm buildings bleached from time and the sun. I tried to put the scenes on paper, using my tin of watercolor paints and my one or two brushes. Later in life as my interest continued I experimented with oils. I’ve been experimenting with various mediums ever since.

As Joe and I came to know more about one another, we discovered more correspondences between our family experiences and I wanted him to meet my father, which he did, the one time I was able to lure my father over to my place in the Central West End of St. Louis, away from his home territory.

My father and Joseph LaMarque Meet

Riehlife: How have you managed to sustain your art production over 50 years?

JLM: I view art as a part of everyday living. Creation through the medium at hand is a basic part of my being.

In 1976 we formed the Creative Company with Solomon Thurman and Ken Calvert in association with other artists such as Vernon Smith and Dexter Silvers. My association with these other artists empowered me to work harder and continuously. I've been in two other artist collectives as well: Creative Coalition and Zuka Arts Guild.

"Intermission," watercolor (18" X 14") by Joseph La Marque

Riehlife: Say more about working in a variety of media. How does one feed the other? How do you know when to swing from one media to another?

JLM: Working in three dimensions gives me a better insight when I’m painting on a flat surface. Wood has always been my main love. Most wood I use is determined by its shape, color, grain and so on. I follow the shape and grain. This tells me what to expect. I don’t really make plans every time I set out to make something. Sometimes things just happen.

Riehlife: Did you receive formal art training or did you mainly teach yourself through observation and practice?

JLM: I have studied with many individual artists. I started by reading and practicing. I have taken art courses at Forest Park Senior College and Florissant Valley at Forest Park in St. Louis. I studied photography, figure drawing, and perspective drawing at Florissant Valley. Watercolor, acrylic, and clay modeling. I have also taken classes in upholstering, bartending, real estate, and sewing.

"The Butterfly," watercolor by Joseph La Marque

Riehlife: How do you share with other artists through community involvement?

JLM: I’ve helped build floats and ridden in several Annie Malone May Day Parades for the Ville neighborhood, an old community identified with the historic Black community in St. Louis. This is an annual parade, now held downtown, to benefit orphaned children. I’ve also helped create murals on public buildings and galleries.

Riehlife: I love the phrase “seasoned artist” in your bio. That feels like quite an achievement. What are the new challenges that continue to excite you?

JLM: I have visions of combining various materials such as wood with clay, copper, and other found materials into one work of art. I've been making some clay sculpture and paintings based around my brother James' life who played baseball in the Negro Leagues. James would send me advertising posters of his upcoming games. The colorful designs propelled me into a lifetime of creating expressive art.

In Memory of Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (wood on velvet) by Joseph LaMarque

Riehlife: Joe, you recently had an exciting experience in selling a wonderful piece I originally saw in the Urban League National Convention fine arts exhibit. The piece is titled “Tribute to Louis Satchmo Armstrong” and is a carved trumpet mounted on black velvet inside a wooden box. Behind the mouthpiece you draped a white handkerchief symbolic of Armstrong’s trademark. You sold that piece to Oscar Joyner as a gift for his father Tom Joyner, nationally known radio personality. That must have been a fine moment. Can you tell us more about what that feels like?

JLM: It gave me a feeling of accomplishment to make something that someone else valued and saw as a treasured gift.

The trumpet is made out of sycamore. It’s satisfying to take materials that most people would consider nothing and to make something of value. That’s the essence of my art and I think most artists feel something similar.

This project was inspired by the struggle New Orleans is going through following the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina since 2005. Each media report reminded me of its rich music history. I thought of Satchmo as the godfather of New Orleans jazz; he was the first ambassador to spread this musical art form throughout the world. As I carved, sanded, and rubbed the wood, my anthology CD of Satchmo played in my studio. Creating "In Memory of Louis Satchmo Armstrong" allowed me to feel a connection to the nomadic people of New Orleans and in a small way honor one of its famous citizens.

"Chicken Feed", watercolor by Joseph LaMarque

Riehlife: Joe, I enjoy knowing you. Your art has a strength and gentle humor that's good to see. Your art makes a real contribution to the world. Thank you for being my guest on Riehlife today.

Now, in December, my second private party in St. Louis---and my only Holiday Party this season---is at Freida's Salon 53, whose slogan is "Home is where the art is."

In September I wrote: "This felt like a welcome home party. This party felt like a welcome to the village." You can read the entire post on that welcoming party at Freida's Salon 53 and the "Freida Footnotes" by clicking here.

Although I carried my camera with me...although cameras were clicking all night long as if I were part of a Broadway Opening...I have no photos to share with you, more's the pity...only the images of my words. Come join the party.

I came early and stayed late to fully savor my Party of the Season. Sitting near the doorway it was like being on a Red Carpet walk on opening night as artists, poets, pastors, professors, and the folks from the pages of "Who's Who in Black St. Louis" came through the door...the artistic director for St. Louis' Black Repertory Theater Company...Eugene B. Redmond ("Happy birthday, again!" someone called out when the poetry king and elder entered...referring to Redmond’s birthday and retirement celebration Nov. 28 at the Missouri History Museum...Howard and Vickie Denson, the forces behind St. Louis' Black Pages...and a steady stream of other really fun guests.

One of the pleasures for me was chatting and catching up with several of the artists I've featured on Riehlife in the series of profiles I've been published on African-American fine artists and leaders of cultural organizations in St. Louis. I was delighted to see Rene Dimanche Jr., Joseph LaMarque (profile coming soon), Edna J. Patterson Petty and her husband Reggie, and Rochleigh Z. Wholfe. (Look at the category ART MATTERS on the sidebar of the web home page to view all posts on this subject.) Meeting these people and getting to know them as we worked on these profiles has been a big highlight of my first six months in St. Louis as they shared their company and comfort.

I met Charlene, an art patron who loves portraits. For her, it's the eyes that have it. She has some portraits in her home whose eyes have presence, and can follow a body around the room. We've seen this before, and it's magic when it happens.

Amidst good food (I got there early enough for the tequila-lime shrimp!) a story-telling feast flowed. We got into a riff of Our Wild Youth and I haven't laughed so hard all month, I'm telling you...the clubs, the carding, the revelations about how the world worked. I told my Bad Girl story of tailing a fellow orchestra member for fun as a teen when Alton had a 10 o'clock curfew in the 1960s and getting into a mishap my father showed up to dig me out of. One of the joys equal to listening to a good story is having your own story echoed back. I felt as if I were at home being teased by my family and I loved the embracing laughter. This is community storytelling, of the type I've known mainly around a campfire or a family dining room table.

When Freida came to top up the nut bowls, I tried to catch her up on a story about where to hold the line in mentoring students; she said to tell it to y'all here. I said, "Now, I run a G-rated blog." Hmmmm....I think you had to be there to catch that particular bit of repartee.

Freida has created a gorgeous space for art and social and creative exchanges. Whenever there's art on the walls and people who love art...and even the artists there who made the art, you have a sure-fired recipe for spirited discussion. Katrina Shannon displayed a cloudscape over the mountains that looked like a seascape. As she explained her process of making these prints, we all flocked around her to learn more about the strong image she'd made.

Freida, like me, is a Frog Woman. All over her house there are marvelous toys, sculptures, prints, and paintings of frogs...from the comic to the transcendent. Me? I keep my collection of frogs corralled in the corner of one bathroom.

Salon 53 is truly everything a salon should be..."a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess, to amuse one another and refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation" (Wikipedia) or, as Freida's brochure says, "A periodic gathering of people of social or intellectual distinction...a hall or gallery for the exhibition of works of art." And, in this space of homey-ness, Salon 53 remains a place to engage with one another and a willingness to stay and converse for a good length of time that can be rare in our age of decreasing intimacy. Salon 53 is all about connection.

I drove home filled with good talk and images of elegantly-dressed people at ease in their skin, willing to laugh and have a good time. We’d joined together to celebrate the re-birth of the sun on Winter Solstice, an evening, a community, the creative energy of the assembly, and the joy of being there together.