03.31.07 TEACH TOLERANCE

Visiting a friend's art studio I discover that these sentiments aren't new.

03.30.07 RESIDENTIAL POLITICS

Politics occasionally trumps spring time bloom.

03.29.07 WALK POSTER

I have saved my earnings from selling a few woodcuts this month to do a large offset press run of my popular "Walk" poster. Now I can offer it free to anyone else who would like to post it in their community. Just send your address and two 39c stamps to Walk Poster, c/o Josef Beery, 108 2nd St SW #30, Charlottesville, VA, 22902. This was the first poster I created in a series of linoleum cut posters which I call, "Change the World" posters.

03.26.07 EAT LOCAL OYSTERS

Celebrating local foods on a farm near our home, I met two young men who are reviving the oyster industry in the Rappahannock River. They raise our native oyster, Crassostrea virginica, for sale to restaurants. This local oyster is delicious and is struggling to compete with new international competitors. A Japanese oyster is now being farmed around the world and a Chinese oyster is even being introduced in the Chesapeake Bay. Our native Virginia oysters are delicious and vary in taste depending on the mollusk variety and the location of the oyster bed. For example, oysters from the tidewater Rappahannock River are sweet while oysters from beds off Chincoteague island are boldly salty. Hope from the river bottom found on our hors d'oeuvre plate!

03.24.07 COLLEGE CUTUPS

These two college students dressed as my favorite Monty Python characters at a school banquet. Big smiles!

03.23.07 THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN

Photographer Peggy Harrison recently returned from El Salvador with this stunning photo. Peggy was shooting photos for a story about creative responses to violence. This child cared for her younger sibling while her mother was interviewed. Her mother had organized other women in her community, all survivors of El Salvador's political violence, to open a school and a restaurant.

03.20.07 EYES OPENING

Slowly the country seems to be recognizing the mistakes of the last half decade. Will we pay attention long enough to make the real changes required? This woman marched past my studio downtown yesterday on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

03.16.07 JUST A GLIMPSE

"So many were only given the dream of love
So many given just a glimpse and that from a great distance
Who am I to be ungrateful who saw the beloved face to face?"

Painting by Trisha Orr on display in a local gallery. Trisha is married to the poet Gregory Orr, author of the magnificent book of poetry, Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved.

03.15.07 TAKE THE INITIATIVE

In chess, white moves first. The Washington Post recently published an article on the popularity of chess playing among African Americans in the District. Their comment on the advantage given to "white":
"You have got to take the initiative, no matter that someone else has it first." "All that ‘white moves first, white people do this and white people do that‘--is only an excuse, and if you give a chess player an excuse, they are more likely to fail. That’s the same in life."

03.14.07 GO LOW IMPACT

On my commute into the city this morning I am encouraged by the site of a commuter in a GEM car. These little electric cars look fabulous! Still limited by a 30 mile range per charge.

03.11.2007 HALF CENTURY OF FATHERING

Holding the newly arrived Emma this afternoon reminded me of a fifty-year-old photo on my desk.

3.8.07 WELCOME EMMA!