Why I Oughta...

If you ever find yourself at St. Mary of Gostyn Catholic Church in Downers Grove, make sure you take a moment to look at the painting of the Virgin Mary hanging in the vestibule right outside the church that is hanging just to the right of the main doors.  That's it above. St. Mary's is the oldest Catholic church in Downers.  From the SMG site : St. Mary of Gostyn Parish, the oldest Catholic church in Downers Grove, was founded by poor immigrants who came from Gostyn, Poland, shortly after the American Civil War. By the 1880’s, Polish-speaking priests from Chicago were regularly serving this rural settlement. Masses were said in homes or tents because there was no church. Founded by Polish immigrants.  Cool, right?  But also cool because my Mom is Polish.  So that means, I'm Polish.  And so are my kids.   Right below the painting is this plaque that reads "The picture of the Virgin Mary and child dates from 1540."   Yeah...1540?!?!  If you click

  Of course, we saw all the highlights.  I've posted other art here on the blog.  Here's some art from a stop in Philadelphia .  And of course, I've posted about the art at Disney.  Here's one shot from the Polynesian .  But, we also spent quite a bit of time in the kids artist's studio where the kids and I used crayons, markers, colored pencils to make some original art.  Here's my still life featuring a blue flower in a red vase on a small table.  I call it:  Blue flower/red vase. Back in the aughts, I spent quite some time in my parent's basement working with acrylics and doing some painting.  Mostly on the weekends, while listening to some of my record collection.  It was really a therapeutic experience for me and something I did to express myself.  The medium was always paint and because I didn't have time or money for canvas, I mostly used manilla folders.  Or...frankly...half of manilla folders - where I ripped them down the