As a painter, poet, performer, dancer, my creativity usually begins with getting into the flow. My hands become my eyes and put down the image, my feet listen to the music and decide the moves, the dream part of my brain tells me what to write. It’s basically losing the self to find the self. I have decades of flow behind me; I don’t know what I’ve got ahead!

I’ll have the opportunity to discuss my thoughts on creativity in a presentation at Danceworks, 1661 N Water Street, on Friday, October 17, at 7:30 PM. I’ll also have some of my latest artwork, and some of my oldest artwork, on exhibit there from October 10 to January 8, opening reception October 17, 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Below are a few of the recent drawings I'll include in the show, and some comments about them.

Why do I draw dancers? I'm not a dancer, I just love to dance, even if I make an absolute fool of myself, love to move to music, letting my feet guide me, love feeling energized and free. So when I draw dancers, I'm feeling the movement and energy. And freedom. 

My pen drawings of dancers were done at Danceworks and at UWM performances. In the dark.

I'm a people-person, love to watch, to draw and paint them and to write about their relationships to each other and to the world around them. That's one of the reasons I could sit on the #15 bus all day and not get bored. When I lived in New York, I'd sometimes take the A train to the end of the line and back, drawing what was going on around me.  The two drawings below I did in Milwaukee buses.

And then there are dogs. I've done dozens, no, hundreds, of drawings of dogs. Whenever I visit New York, I try to spend time in Central Park, which swarms with relationships, lovers, parents, nannies, children, dogs, trees, pigeons, and I sit on a bench and draw it all. Like the one below, which I did in Central Park last spring.

On Sunday I glanced at the lake from Atwater Bluff, expecting nothing special. Yet it was spectacular! What made the lake look that way? There were dark streaks, turquoise streaks, and a startling band of white in the distance, probably a mix of mists and cloud reflections.

That's what's so fascinating about life: I never know what I'll find somewhere until I get there, what friends, what strangers, what mists.

I of course have no idea who will show up at Friday night's reception in our gallery. I do know what work is there! Adolph recently moved his BALCONY from the Regent's Board Room at UWM's Chapman Hall to the gallery, and his Oriental Pharmacy Lunch Counter is still there. I just set up a show of dancer drawings that I did last year when Margot Sappington was setting Common People for the Milwaukee Ballet. These drawings aren't yet on our web site, but some earlier dancers are. Our guest artist is Joe Boblick. You can see his work in the MIAD Online Gallery.

As for the Artist Marketplace on Saturday, I'm not yet sure what sculptures, what paintings, what drawings we'll use, don't know if our tent will consent to another fair, don't know if the weather will be fair. What I do know are the details of both events, if all pans out as planned:

FRIDAY, July 25, 7 to 10 PM, reception at Rosenblatt Gallery, work by Adolph & Suzanne Rosenblatt & Joe Boblick, 181 N Broadway, in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward
SATURDAY, July 26, 10 AM to 5 PM, Fourth Annual Artist Marketplace, in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 North Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee
 
 

The older I get, the smaller my artwork. Some reasons: I can carry a tiny drawing pad without needing a big purse.  I can capture fleeting passers-by more quickly and unobtrusively. Anyway, less is often more. Here's another advantage: In the Roberta Avonn Fiskum Art Gallery at UW-Whitewater I can fit several small works into my quarter of the "Phenomenal Women" show. The opening reception is Wednesday, February 27, 4:30-6:00. Marie Mellott and I will perform at 5:00, "Three Ladies in Their Eighties" plus some of our poems. Marie will become her 101-year-old grandmother, I'll do my global warming poem, which you can see on YouTube  if you won't be in the Whitewater area.

MORE DETAILS: The other three artists are Anne Kingsbury of Woodland Pattern, Flora Menager, and Caitlin Carroll.
The Roberta Avonn Fiskum Art Gallery is a newly-constructed gallery in the University Center Building in the heart of the UW-Whitewater campus. If you want more precise directions, please call Beth Wiza at 262-210-9491.

Beginning on Gallery Night, October 19th, our son Eli's vibrant, richly textured paintings will be on exhibit in the North Room of Rosenblatt Gallery. Unlike his parents, Adolph and me, who work directly from life, Eli creates his own dream world triggered by the many places he's traveled and the characters he's met there. And suddenly you are there with him, in that playful, brilliantly-colored world of strong-faced men and women stealing glances at each other, or puffing on cigarettes, or waiting. You can see some of his work on his website and on YouTube,

Adolph's environmental sculptures and my oceanscapes and dancers are also on view in the gallery.
Rosenblatt Gallery, 181 N Broadway in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, is located above Artasia Gallery and Museum. Gallery night and day hours, Friday, Oct 19, and Saturday, Oct 20: 10am to 11pm