much to be thankful for...

Happy Holidays!

May the new year be filled with exciting new beginnings ...

photo Joelle Swanson

Lefse in the making...

via iPhone

Well we started ricing the cold (previously boiled) potatoes at 11am and finished cooking the last (#50) piece of lefse at 4pm with two griddles going... here you can see my mother's excellent rolling technique while my griddle is cooking and then the unrolling on to grandma Ruth's griddle. Its all about the lefse stick.

Lefse weekend....

Three generation date on Saturday - my grandmother is going to teach my mother and I how to make Lefse. (Ok my mom already knows how to make it...)
A holiday treat... spread a little butter and brown sugar, roll and eat... Yum.
It is an all day affair... wish me luck!

one last christmas celebration

Cain and I are off to celebrate the holidays with the Swanson's. My mom's side of the family. Paul (94) and Ruth (79) started it all. My mother is one of five children, I am one of 16 grandchildren and there are three great grandchildren. It is always chaos we we all get together in one place but its always a great time. Yes there are differences but love and tradition keep us together.
Many of these people frequent the photographs in my piece lacuna.

paul and ruth swanson 2006

Family Portrait...

mom

saturday morning

Just Released...

Bill Cleveland just released this new book...

Art and Upheaval

Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation.

Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

Art can be a powerful agent of personal, institutional and community change. The stories in this book have valuable implications for artists, academics, educators, human service providers, philanthropists, and community leaders throughout the world. The artists documented in the book have generated new technologies for advocacy, organizing, peacemaking, healing trauma and the rebuilding of community. Creativity is our most powerful capacity, and it can mitigate and heal our most destructive tendencies.

William Cleveland, director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community, is an activist, teacher, facilitator, lecturer and writer, and the author of Art in Other Places, which explores the emerging community arts movement in the United States.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés is an American poet, cantadora, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist. She has written more than six books on the life of the soul, most notably, Women Who Run with the Wolves.

snail mail!!!! (2)

gotta love the love from mom!

Richard Oulahan

My father in law passed on the morning of Friday May 9. We celebrated his life and accomplishments on May 13, 2008. Over 500 people came to give their respects. We were moved by this outpouring of support. thank you
He was an incredible father, dynamic public figure and a visionary. Richard was a grassroots community activist in Milwaukee for 30+ years. He left an impression on the city of Milwaukee. You can read about his work in the community here, here and here.

His memory and love fill our hearts.

mathew

Veterans Day

my grandfather, Paul Swanson age 93, WWII veteran 12th Armored Division
(grandma Ruth in the background)

Veterans Day

Paul Swanson, age 92. World War II veteran, my grandfather.