Hello bloggers.

Lots of times people will ask me which of my studios I like the best, and I always tell them, “Whichever I’m in right now.”  Sometimes I think about this when I’m in one part of the world getting ready to back to my home in a different part of the world.  Before long I’ll be back to Chicago, my hometown.

I think I was blessed for being born in Chicago, because it’s such an eclectic environment.  In reality, Chicago is hundreds of little towns all knitted together, all under the tapestry called “Chicago.”  Each neighborhood has their own restaurants, churches, and cultures.  We have a common communication system, telephones, we have railroad tracks and roads and streets, highways, busses, and undergrounds, which bring us all together and keep us all in one huge family.  The great thing about Chicago is that we identify ourselves as Chicagoans, but we’re also members of other constituencies.  If you’re Roman Catholic, you tell people which parrish you’re from, St. Sabina or the Beverly area or whatever.  In my day you knew the people from Sabina were working for the streetcars, the people in the Beverly area were most likely going to be the doctors and lawyers...

It really teaches you the strength of diversity.  As long as we can all keep marching along from generation to generation, all getting a little bit better, whatever that means, and all understanding each other, then we’re making each new generation more responsible than the last.

When you visit Chicago, I believe you’ll find it one of the most beautiful cities that you come across.  There’s a real interest in anything that blooms, the architecture, the public art, which I think is as good as any, the teeming shopping areas, the whole buzz of Chicago with its protected lakefront and its interesting neighborhoods.  It’s something to be savored.  So as you can see, I should be working for the Chamber of Commerce instead of directing funerals or making paintings.

Matt