Memoir in the form of a graphic novel, narrative drawn on paper with graphite, exposition rendered in watercolor and watercolor collage. Part 1 begins when I went downtown during the riots in April 1968, then left the US to spend the summer studying in England, learning much more than my seminar in the 20th Century English Novel at the University of London intended to teach me. I returned home to use the benefit of this new education.

Part 2 begins in April 2015, with the arrest and hospitalization of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries sustained in police custody. When the mostly nonviolent Baltimore Uprising became violent, I focused on what I had learned about Freddie Gray, his life, and found it to be a catalog of what has to change in Baltimore. I embarked on a journey into Baltimore, led by this catalog, and learned that Freddie Gray had begun a legacy that continues in this Balkanized, silo-ed, segregated city.

Baltimore Ceasefire 365 is overcoming every boundary and barrier in our silo-ed, Balkanized, segregated city to bring people together to call for an end to murder in this city. It is everything Baltimore needs: inclusive, nonviolent, community-based, compassionate. Joining the march and libation ceremony at our first event in August 2017, I realized that this is completely different. 

The beginning of my sketchbook practice, the ground and foundation of all my subsequent work. Since March 2012, the 40th anniversary of beginning this book, I study all of them, expecting to find something new.

My second sketchbook of a series begun in 1972 and continuing into the present. Voiceover comments on life in Baltimore City during this time, and my development of art practice and process.

Sketchbook practice is integral to my teaching. A four-session workshop in watercolor painting for beginners, based in a 7x10" sketchbook which becomes a reference for independent painting. The sessions teach brush handling, color mixing, water management, still life and landscape painting. The fourth session takes place outdoors, weather permitting. The materials kit (required) is artist-quality paint, paper, and accessories, so that students are not fighting poor-quality supplies as they learn. Learning step-by-step, students find that they can't do it wrong.

The first group was only three students taking Brush and Book at Creative Alliance, spring 2010. Their passion and determination were so strong that they demanded a continuing monthly workshop after the course ended. For more than 2 years after, they supported a sequel workshop, Beyond Brush and Book, tailored to specific materials and subjects as these students requested them.

A Baltimore City garden club hired me to teach Brush and Book as their monthly program, reserving four of their meetings for this purpose. Their practice is to hold these meetings in their homes, which lend themselves admirably for the purpose.

I hope to offer Brush and Book to other groups, as a community art project, in schools, after-school programs, staff inservice programs, hospital and other clinical settings.

As Baltimore struggled in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, April 2015, I focused myself on Freddie Gray and his life, which seems like a catalog of what must change in Baltimore. I began a brush meditation using classic watercolor practice to mix gray using complimentary colors (red/green, yellow/purple, blue/orange) in ascending intensity. Four panels became the foundation of an installation, with an unfinished portrait framed in a Gray box, with Gray bandanas for viewers to take away and wear and use. This work will never be for sale. Exhibited in Big Show, Creative Alliance, 2015.