I’ve been keeping a secret for five years. It started as fragments – scenes flitting through my mind, snippets of conversation coalescing, personalities merging into characters. When I was five years old, I wrote and illustrated a series called “Jumpy the Frog,” and planted seeds of a lifelong dream. Five years ago, almost forty years…Read more My Secret Is Out…
travel
From Their Hands to Yours… Tuungane Pamoja
As an artist, I am passionate about other creative people, especially those buried in situations where they struggle to have a voice. My involvement with Pamba Toto (my friend and I founded the business in 2006) beats at the core of my heart… For these artisans buried in Nairobi slums to realize how incredibly talented…Read more From Their Hands to Yours… Tuungane Pamoja
Creating a photo essay
This past summer I enjoyed the incredible privilege of taking an on-line class with photographer and blogger Otto von Münchow. My learning curve felt like a ride up a roller coaster hill: rapid, challenging, thrilling. I shot some of the workshop while in Kenya and then photographed images back in the US to add in, with…Read more Creating a photo essay
Finding the Way to Nowhere (in Kenya)
Bounce and jostle over potholes and dusty ruts to the middle of nowhere. Second-guess a few times if you've lost your way. Double check with someone on the side of the road. Spot the turn-off at last and park your car. Hop out and glance to the right; and, shocked to discover it here in…Read more Finding the Way to Nowhere (in Kenya)
In the Cracks
Astonished, I found Him, the Beautiful One, deep in a cranny of Mathare Valley, Kenya - the same One I glimpsed in the fissure of a Mother Teresa's home in Huruma, as I share below. It's enough to make my head spin - apparently, at least according to what my senses report, my body landed…Read more In the Cracks
Why do slums exist in Kenya?
One of the greatest joys of my recent trip to Kenya was sharing the experience with two of my children, Justin age 17 and Jacob age 20. I tried to capture some of the wonder I felt in a previous blog entry: Meeting Myself There. Because of Justin's most unexpected surgery, Tommy John to repair…Read more Why do slums exist in Kenya?
Colors of Kenya
Color lives and breathes in Kenya. From subtle drab slip-and-slide of slum grays and browns to vital dance of Meru tea-farm greens, color sings and color weeps in Kenya. Color shimmers delicately in a solitary tear, lingering on the face of a Ugandan artisan now grown from a childhood spent as a household servant. Fed…Read more Colors of Kenya
