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Dear friends of the Blood Star,

After a couple of years without much travel, we decided to venture out, vaccinated and masked, to see new sights. We're not getting any younger and there are too many places we want to visit and revisit.

The Hudson Valley in New York State didn't disappoint. So much fascinating history - in the visual arts, it was where landscape painting  started to gain favour in North America. Prior to Thomas Cole's and Frederick Church's arrival, and what's become known as the Hudson River School of painting, those who wanted to own art favoured portraits of themselves or their loved ones. More recently, with the leadership of Pete and Toshi Seeger and others, it's where the environmental movement took hold in the US. They encouraged people to think globally and act locally as they worked to clean up the polluted Hudson River that was suffering from long term industrial abuse. We saw the boat Clearwater being lovingly tended at anchor. Such a small boat had such a large impact with its educational, consciousness-raising work on the river.

Previously unknown to us, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is a marvel. It's said to be the largest art museum in the US, a former fabric printing factory complex of low rise brick buildings, it houses some very exciting, large art. Fantastical ceramic creations by Francesca DiMattio and works by Anselm Kiefer were among our favourites.

Frank with work by Francesca DiMattio at Mass MOCA

Work by Anselm Kiefer from his Velimir Chlebnikov series at Mass MOCA

On the homefront, we're very happy to have work in The Gallery George this month. Frank is showing digital work; Susan is showing  work from the Life is Like a Box of Chocolates series. And we'll both have work in the The Gallery George's Autumnal Equinox show, November 2 - 27. The Gallery George is at 1502 East Hastings Street in Vancouver, hours are Wednesday to Sunday noon to 6 pm with Crawl hours during the very popular Eastside Culture Crawl November 17 - 20.

from Susan's Life is Like a Box of Chocolates series showing this month at The Gallery George

Frank's Birds at Olympic Village showing at The Gallery George in November

Susan will have work in the Federation of Canadian Artists' juried Mixed, and Water exhibits in November at the FCA Gallery on Granville Island.

And we're very happy to be going back to show our work at the Steveston Museum for the month of December, beginning December 3. We loved our time there last December.

And now to get back to work.

Our best to all of you,

Susan and Frank