Media Project

 I've been playing around with an idea of trying to create a video art piece using a memory of my mother.

During the late 1970's (75-79) I remember walking daily to the bus stop with my mother. She would take me to school using the bus, and then get back on the bus (this may be a bit off, but it's how I remember it) and take it to work. During the winter it was of course cold and I was quite a bit smaller (I'm quite a bit larger now, ha ha) and when it got very cold, my mother would take me and wrap her coat around me. I would hug her as we walked together through the snow-covered streets to the bus stop.

This is one of the fondest memories I have of my mother and so I want to try and create something to recreate this moment. In order to show others what I'm trying to create, I used AI to create a representation of the moment that only exists in my head. AI did a pretty good job, but I didn't want to work on it any further. If I did I would have asked it to change the pants... no one wore jeans in my memories, at least not to school or work.

After that, I actually asked AI to blur the image and set the figures further back. Maybe that's an idea for the piece, not to be so specific, to seem like a spectator who is far away and who is trying to watch through the snow and wind. 

I'll keep working on it. 

Dream State

 

    

Last night a fog rolled in to town. I went out and took a few pictures. It was so quiet. Every once in a while a car rolled through. Then it went back to silence. 

It was like the scene in Twilight Zone. It felt like anything could walk out of the fog. 

Lately, things have been crazy. My mother passed away, the semester has started, and I've been trying to be a little bit more social. Getting out of bed is hard. Been sleeping more, and I suppose dreaming more. This foggy streetscape seems like it belongs in my dreams. 

Maybe my Mom would walk out of the fog. That would be startling, but kinda nice too. 

When I go over to her house now, it actually feels comforting. At some point the house will have to change, but for now it's nice to still feel like her little world still exists down the street.

Sad day

On January 10 I received a text from my uncle Chuck.

Hey Chris, I’ve been calling your mom for 2 days and she’s not answering. Is everything okay?

I called her house. No answer. I got in the car and drove over. It was after 6pm and her house was completely dark. A package was still on the porch. That wasn’t like her to leave something out there. This wasn’t looking good.

She had passed away about a day before. I found her in her bedroom. The police said she died of natural causes, probably in her sleep. 

Mom with Lorenzo 12/21/25

She was less than a month away from turning 81, and it felt as if she was doing fine. I didn't see this coming though I know she was in pain. She had arthritis pain for years. Moving was hard, but she was able to walk around, and used a cane or a walker. 

We had gathered for the holidays and everything seemed fine. We went over to my Godmother Cathy's to celebrate Christmas eve. My cousin Lauren, Lorenzo's godmother was there as well as me, Ramona, Lorenzo and my mom. Things were nice, we had a good meal and shared presents. 

Xmas Eve 2025

Christmas Day we gathered at my Ramona’s grandma’s home. My mother came with us and seemed to have a good time. There wasn’t any inkling of the issue to come.

The next week was busy as I was trying to get work done to prepare for the upcoming spring semester. That was a typical thing and so I didn't usually talk much with family including my mother. 

I had forgotten my mother's presents at my godmother's house, and stopped by on December 28th to grab them. I would bring them by my mom's that night so she could use the warm blanket and shawl we had gotten her. She was cold and was happy to have them. I said goodbye and gave her a kiss. Unknown to me this would be the last time I would embrace her and see her. 

On New Year's eve, we had invited my mom to come with us to Ramona's grandmother's house. She wanted to but wasn't feeling up to it. I called her and wished her Happy New Years. I called the next day to check on her. The call lasted two minutes, probably talked about nothing, but wanted to see how she was doing. It was the last time we would talk.

Jamestowne Settlement

 Our family has been to this site at least four times and it always captures my attention. It is where America (the good, the bad and the ugly) all began. There had been other attempts to settle the area but that were unsuccessful, namely, the Roanoke colony. Lately, that period of time has interested me. I don't really know why, but certainly it has something to do with the fact that we go to this area for vacations. Maybe. in a former life I lived in that time and place. I dunno. It just draws me in and I'm fascinated by Elizabethan and Jacobean period history. 

It just strikes me as strange to consider Shakespeare's England as being part of the culture of the crew when they landed. It doesn't really feel like that belongs in America, but it does. We appear to give a lot of attention to the revolutionary period, or maybe pilgrims, but our British beginning is slightly different.

Above is a likeness of Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, and his story.

The Virginia colony was a "bachelor colony" composed of men and boys seeking gold. From 1607 to 1620, English culture underwent a pivotal shift from exploratory commercial ventures to the establishment of permanent social and religious institutions. This period saw the transition from a "get-rich-quick" adventurer mindset to a focus on family stability and religious identity. In England, the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 standardized English prose and reinforced the "majesty of kings," while the 1616 death of William Shakespeare signaled the end of the high Renaissance era.

Above is an image of the Jamestowne site. My son Lorenzo is standing about where John Rolfe and Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indians were married. The partial walls show the boundaries of the first church built at the Jamestowne settlement. 

It's an interesting area to explore and it seems it will someday be under water. Something to consider.

A dark cultural shift occurred in 1619 with the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia. This marked the beginning of a labor system that would evolve from indentured servitude into racialized slavery, fundamentally altering English concepts of social hierarchy and labor in the colonies.

Above is and illustration in the Jamestown settlement museum about an early enslaved woman named Angela. She came to Virginia in 1619, captured from a Spanish slave ship by English privateer ships. 

Above is cowrie shell found on the grounds of the Jamestown settlement brought by enslaved Africans from their home across the ocean.

Out of Town

 

We planned a short trip to visit with or friends and our goddaughters in Maryland. Later we’re moving on to Williamsburg, VA for a couple weeks. 

In Maryland we were stopping off for a surprise birthday party for our friend Ken. It was also around the time of my wife’s birthday. I’ll let you guess what her age is. Now on to Virginia.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to my new home on the internet! This is my feeble attempt to tear myself away from the abomination that we know as social media. It's not easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is and so here it goes.

If you are interested in what's going on in my life, you can find out about it here. If you're a casual acquaintance then I suspect you will just move on. Facebook, etc. calling mere acquaintances "friends" was an afront to friendship. We have all become so dependent on those insincere interactions that society has been falling apart. I was born before the World Wide Web was a thing, before VCRs, before answering machines. I was fully formed before web 1.0 and adapted when it became part of everyday life. I actually love technology, but since going through about fifteen years of this social media crap I've had enough. 

While I realize that it's not that easy to separate myself from social media (I mean, I teach in a communications department at a local college) I need to set some boundaries. This blog is my line in the sand.

Okay. I will probably be posting images and videos from my life here, so family members and friends who are dear to us can keep up. If you feel inspired, I will be happy to follow your own blogs or personal websites too. I am not going to allow comments, so that will cause me a whole other set of obligations. If you find something worth commenting on, please give me a call or stop by and we can have a coffee or a drink. If you know me you probably know my number and have my address. Let's have real interactions and talk, maybe even face-to-face (insert astonished look here) and maybe meet at a restaurant or cafe.

Will I post regularly? Yes, probably once a week, maybe even more than that. Hope to see (some of you, ha ha) soon.

Peace and all good!

- Chris