What are your Summer Plans?

It is almost summer, the damp days of our Michigan Spring are giving way to beautiful blue sky days.  The flowers are in bloom all around exhibiting an  almost endless display of radiant colors. 

Fair and festival season is upon us.  Is anyone planning to attend Michigan Center’s MI own Carp Carnival in June?  Some of my fondest childhood memories are of spending this time of year on and around Michigan Center Lake.  Camping, fishing, spearing, boat rides, just being outside and bon fires are forever part of my soul. 

I get angry sometimes that my physical condition interferes with so many activities that I love.  I am always looking for ways to get outside and experience the great outdoors.  It’s funny sometimes how something as simple as the smell of fresh cut grass can make my soul feel lighter. 

What are your summer plans?  Are local places and events your highlights or will you venture out of town.  Will you be visiting Comerica Park to cheer on our Detroit Tigers?  Will you attend a concert or two?  Visit the drive- in movies in Coldwater.  Are you going fishing, camping , hiking or is a trip to the casino more your speed?  Lets talk about our summer plans or summer wish list.  Do you have a great sugestion?  We can learn a lot from each other.

Welcome to Parish Stahl’s Dynamic Ability Blog.  For several years’ staff and friends of disability Connections have been having discussions about how to use technology to reach out to and engage our community.  More of our people are using and embracing the internet; so it is the perfect time to extend a hand of friendship to our fellow human beings using this technology.

As a person with a disability, it is my hope that we can have a lively, informative and fun exchange of stories, ideas, issues and concerns we have in common.  One aspect that I hope will make this place unique is the fact that, yes, some of us are people with disabilities, but we are so much more.  We are sportsmen, collectors, fans, hobbyists, parents, partners, athletes and many other things.  Let’s talk about what we are into from the perspective of people with disabilities. 

People with disabilities are some of the strongest people on the face of the earth.  Our natural ability as problem solvers, out of necessity, can be a source of great strength to others.  Please share this link with your friends and let’s talk….. the more the better.

I plan to post a new article on the first of each month to get the conversation started, but where this blog goes and how it grows and evolves is up to you.  I will drive, but help me navigate, so we can get where we need to go.  I look forward to connecting with lots of new friends.

Angelica is not only an artist with CreateAbility, but a part of the CreateAbility Advisory Board.

Angelica became interested in Art when she visited a gallery in Jackson in her early twenties.  She was drawn to a painting of flowers.  The price of the piece was more than she could afford and so she decided to paint her own.

Angelica attended Glossel School of the Arts in Houston where she was living at the time.  After studying there she studied under other artists who were also painters.  She works with both oils and acrylics as her mediums, but her favorite medium is oils.  She likes these oils as they take longer to dry and this allows more time to work with your subject matter.

Her favorite subject matter is flowers because they reflect life and fragility and “life is fragile”.  She also likes flowers because they offer “soft edges” versus hard lines in work.  

Her favorite style of painting is loose brush strokes, similar to the style of Van Gogh.  She also likes this style as it allows the artist to put “energy” into the work. 

Her favorite artist is an American artist named  Sargent who was influenced by Monet.  She likes his work as he paints in a realistic sense and has a good sense of color and he also draws well.  Angelica feels that to be a good painter that good drawing skills are essential as well.  Her other favorite artist is the French artists Pierre, also a painter.   She like his work because he works with a canvas taped to the wall, rather than a stretched canvas that is the common method.  He stretches his canvas after he completes the work and uses his fingers and rags as his primary tools to paint with. 

Angelica starts her own works by finding something in a picture or still life that draws her interest…usually flowers and more recently faces.    She  starts with a loose sketch, then fills in a more complete drawing then paints.   She also considers the different angles of her subject by viewing it from different angles.

She likes to get out of her comfort zone by painting people or portraits.  She is also drawn to hands as they offer a variety of subject matter and are a close up, more intimate subject matter, versus landscapes, which are distant.