Happy Mothers Day to my wife Carolyn

Carolyn holding our daughter Audrey, April 1981

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“Pink Pinwheels”

Last day of Free Shipping on Spoonflower.

Here is one of Carolyn’s fabric designs for sale on Spoonflower. “Pink Pinwheels”. Check it out. https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/studiodyess

“Fortune Cookies”

Free Shipping on Spoonflower through May 10

Here is one of Carolyn’s fabric designs for sale on Spoonflower.

“Fortune Cookies”. Check it out.  https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/studiodyess

“Give it a Whirl”

Free Shipping on Spoonflower

Here is one of Carolyn’s fabric designs for sale on Spoonflower.

“Give it a Whirl”. Check it out.  https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/studiodyess

Our Town by Thorton Wilder presented by Pressor Arts Center.

My daughter Christy, the person on the right , played Mrs. Webb in the play Our Town. She has acted in many plays at the Pressor Arts center in Mexico Missouri. My wife and and I attended the Sunday afternoon performance.The woman on the left is playing Mrs. Gibbs.

Christy in another scene during the performance. Photos are from the facebook page of the Pressor Performance Arts Center.

Below is a blog post by our friend Tim Carson who with his wife Kathy attended this performance.

Our Town is every town by vitalwholeness I was pleased to recently attend another presentation of the now classic stage play Our Town written by Thornton Wilder. As you know, the sparseness of this play makes it rich. And the running commentary by the Stage Manager actually interprets the normality of life in its bigger view. There are portions of the three act play that always bring me to tears, mostly in the closing act that pulls no punches in bringing the stark reality of mortality and eternity to the fore. The Stage Manager warns us early on that however intrigued we might be with day-to-day life in Grover’s Corners and refrains of love and marriage, more somber themes are on the way. He wasn’t kidding. Up to the cemetery we go where the dead are “weaned away from the world” step by step. The living can’t grasp the meaning of life until it’s gone and they sure can’t grasp eternity, not fully, though, as the Stage Manger says, “everybody in their bones knows that something is eternal.” But it is Emily, dead too early, who captures the longing for life unobserved and missed when she looks back one last time. Her monologue is the nut of the play, and one sentence stands out more than any other: “Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover’s Corners. Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking. and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? – every, every minute?” And we lean in and listen to the answer of the Stage Manager, our resident philosopher: “No. The saints and poets, maybe—they do some.” After Emily returns and takes her place in the company of those who have crossed over, darkness falls over Grover’s Corners and the Stage Manager helps us, one more time, to see how the ordinary turns under the aspect of eternity. After noting the time, the way we finite creatures understand time, he speaks to us and says,  “Hm…Eleven o’clock in Grover’s Corners…You get a good rest, too. Good night.” Do we get a good night’s rest? The saints and poets, maybe. Is this an Easter story? Part of it? Or larger than it? Think about that as you watch the close of Act 3 in the Lincoln Center production with actress Penelope Ann Miller.

Here is a segment from  the director’s note by  Dave Roland from the play program.
“It is a play about what it means to be human, what it means for ordinary, unexceptional people to have life and identity, and to contribute their own verse to ” the powerful play.” And in it’s own uniquely powerful way, it encourages the audience to be sure that they are contributing their own verse, they take some time to fully appreciate the small, beautiful wonders of life and our relationship to those with whom we share it.”

Edgar Allan Poe portrait

experimental digital portrait of Edgar Allan Poe by John Dyess

This is a recent digital portrait  of Edgar Allan poe that I created.

wild flower-3-4-2019

My backyard is covered with these small wild flowers.This section of the flower is less than an inch. I took this photo with my new i-phone camera. I may create a drawing of this visually interesting flower. I have no idea what is the name of this flower. Weed or flower I like the design and colors.

Reading Edgar Allan Poe on March 2, 2019

Today I returned to reading my copy of Edgar Allan Poe -complete Tales & Poems. I continued to work on my painting “Old Tree” and I voted for the Mayor of Eureka Missouri.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story. He is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Wikipedia
Lived: Jan.19,1809 – Oct 07, 1849
height 5″ 8′
spouse: Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe ( m. 1836 – 1847)

Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite authors.

I created a montage illustration of Edgar Allan Poe in 2005  to use as a portfolio sample and to sell  prints.

My montage illustration of Poe. The reference for the portrait of Poe is the only photo of him that I am aware of.

Prints of my illustration of Edgar Allan Poe can be purchased at johndyessart.com

what I saw on March 31,2019

art of Martin Luther King that I created for a gallery show on Civil Rights at Webster Groves Christian Church

today I saw a documentary about the Selma to Montgomery march for voters rights during Christian education at Webster Groves Christian Church.

The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil-rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. In March of that year, in an effort to register black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups. As the world watched, the protesters—under the protection of federalized National Guard troops—finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. The historic march, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s participation in it, raised awareness of the difficulties faced by black voters, and the need for a national Voting Rights Act.
history.com

today I saw my friend Denise welcome a young woman visiting our church who was from the country of Columbia, by speaking to her in Spanish.Today I saw an eight year old girl from our church welcome this woman’s daughter and sat with her during the church service.

today I  saw this on the back of our worship bulletin,
“Webster Groves Christian Church is diverse in age, race, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, biblical interpretation, and political persuasion. We celebrate and honor the diversity of God’s creation and pray to be the body of Christ by striving to love as God loves.”
http://www.wgcc.org

my day on March 29,2019

Today I taught a class called Drawing for Graphics at St.Louis Community College at Meramec.The class is from 9:00 am until 12:50 pm.  The students were completing an assignment to create a Silhouette drawing and line drawing of an ocean fish. Their line drawing will then be used for a laser engraving.

This image is a laser engraving of a ink drawing of a fish I created for a textbook illustration in the 1990’s. This engraving was created several weeks ago at the Center for Visual Technology at St.Louis Community Collage at Meramec. This was a test of the new laser engraving machine.This image was engraved on black mat board. The tan color is a result of the engraving process. This sample was used to explain the engraving process to the students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting

I have taught at Meramec as an adjunct professor since 1997.