30-year anniversary art

Today is the 30th anniversary of my mother's death from breast cancer. At the art show this weekend, I bought 3 prints from local artist Angela Canada Hopkins who has been studying cancer cells forms and rendering them as artistic expression in paintings as a way to cope with the loss of her father to cancer. Some of her pieces have been featured on the cover of science Journals. I admired her work the first time through her studio (on the Loveland Studio Tour this weekend) but after I left, I realized I was really uncomfortable with the subject. So, I turned the car around and went back. After looking at the art work some more and talking to Angela, I realized it was a really good idea to look at something we usually feel is ugly and frightening in a different way. So I bought the prints as a tribute to my family remembrance this week.

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Books Worth Remembering

Robyn Davidson: Tracks
1970's memoir of Robyn Davidson's trek via camel through the Outback from Alice Springs to Perth. Rough and true. I can't believe a lot of Gen X Australians have never heard of her epic. Talkin' about my generation, I guess. It is worth a read!
Hanif Kureishi: Buddha of Suburbia (FF Classics)
This is a book that made the rounds at our Melbourne apartment - Sherissa and Jennie left it here. It was so funny and engaging I couldn't put it down. Story of a young Londoner of the late 60's/early 70's of partial Indian heritage. His father gets a new lease on life as a guru set out to enlighten all who will listen. But the young man is the Buddha in my mind. Probably not for everyone as he comes of age in all sorts of ways. I need to know more about this apparent cult classic -- in the early 90's it was made into a BBC TV series and David Bowie did the sound track.
Milan/ Heim, Michael Henry (TRN)/ Heim, Michael Henry Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A used copy of this book came to me quite randomly. While I was reading it on an airplane back from Brisbane I found a short article about the author at the bottom page of the newspaper and I thought it was pretty remarkable I could use that as a book mark while I read it. I remember seeing the movie in 1991 when we first moved to Globe Miami. It is dark and different, about love, sex, and the Soviet take over of Czechoslovakia in the 60's. Lots of questions about the bigger picture and what it means to be alive.
Alistair MacLeod: No Great Mischief
This book was amazing. From the first Scots crossing to Cape Breton Nova Scotia to uranium mining in Elliot Lake, Ontario (where BHPB has closed mines I have been to many times) to the mild life of a middle class dentist in Toronto. Oh, and alcoholism, the good and bad of family clans, the pivot point effect of a one instant accident resulting in tragedy. Oh and Gaelic singing. How did it cover all that? I tapped into my Scottish ancestry.
Deepak Chopra: Peace Is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End (Chopra, Deepak)
Its the only way in every way
Manil Suri: The Death of Vishnu: A Novel (P.S.)
I felt like I understood a piece of life in India after I read this.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Yes! Food, Praying, Yoga, On Your Own. Many, many people told me I needed to read this and they were right.
Anne Tyler: The Accidental Tourist: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Jennie was reading this book from her father's shelf when she arrived. I remembered the movie 20 years ago. It was a good read.