I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately – just how many creative minds we have in our community. I’m talking about Toledo and vicinity…this area provides an embarrassment of riches from local artists who are largely unsung. I want to mention the paintings I saw at Gathering Volumes (www.gatheringvolumes.com) last Sunday…beautiful works, all completed by your neighbors. I met another  group of local authors; almost everyone at the meeting was new to me. Everyone is working on some interesting project, and we’re all so very different in our genres, our approaches, our world views.

We have great dance schools in our area: the Ballet Theater of Toledo, as well as the Toledo Ballet; Daryl Jervis Dance; Manhattan Dance…the dance school list is particularly long. The list of local musicians is long, too…Johnny Rodriguez; Ashley Kelley; Addison Schmidt; Kristi Marie Fuller; Kyle White; Cindy Slee and the Rhythm Method; my own son, Aaron Konwinski (no prejudice, but he’s pretty awesome); Don Coats; Brad Long. Don’t forget about our terrific Toledo Symphony Orchestra – if you haven’t heard them, you owe it to yourself to go because they are truly fantastic. Jazz, blues and bluegrass have deep roots here, too. SO, FOLKS…I can’t go on. I’ll leave out too many people.

Here’s the end game. We have so much local talent that I hope you’ll remember to support them. When you’re looking for something fun and entertaining to do, you don’t have to look too far because what we have right in our own backyard is worth exploring.

Today’s picture is Oklahoma City again – an Oklahoma redbud in bloom. I loved them so much when I was out there that I bought one for our yard. It’s getting ready to bloom right now, and when it does, I’ll photograph it and post it. An Ohio Oklahoma redbud. 🙂

Peace to all.