Category: biographical

  • Plein Aire in downtown Seattle

    What would you do if someone told you that they would give you $100 if you’d set up an easel and paint pictures outside just long enough to have it recorded forever? Well, I said yes! I was told I had to be at 1st Street and Battery Street at 3:00 pm, so I got…

  • My father as a boy

    My father was born in Newark, NJ, in 1920 to two Italian immigrants. The midwife misspelled his name, so instead of being Alfio, he was named Alfredo Luigi Torchia. He was born at home, a first generation American. So much time has passed since his childhood that I realized it would be interesting to try…

  • my life in cartoons – part one

    As part of a mail art exchange, I was asked to correspond in cartoon format. By the time the weekend was out, I had done 8 complete strips and an autobiography! It looks like I have to work on the lettering.. To read the cartoons, click on the cartoon until it is full size. Scroll…

  • Vicino al mare – near the sea

    After winning a ribbon for one of my Italian themed paintings last week AND selling it, I decided I would have to paint a few more. Goodness knows I have hundreds of photos, great reference material, many taken by my late husband who was a talented photographer from our many trips to Italy. This painting…

  • A really good book

    The other day on the light rail, I sat across from this gentleman. The novel in his hands was fraying. Most of the front cover was gone, the inside front page was in tatters. He was so intent on what he was reading, that when I snapped a picture of him with my trusty phone/digital…