Today's picture lunch was one of the most interesting yet. My good friend Christine suggested we follow a geocache (www.geocaching.com for all you Muggles) titled "Fun With Concrete." We drove through this little neighborhood in Aurora, Illinois to find a run down, condemed, house that looked like it was going to collapse any minute. On, in and around this house was sculpture after sculpture of what appeared to be slaves. I have posted a few of the photos here, but to see them all, visit my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1084839809&ref=profile, or my website at www.fantamphotography.com (under the fine art gallery).

After lunch I went back to the office to do a little research. Here is what I found:

The African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veteran's Archives
http://www.narrowlarry.com/nlaahm.html

artist: dr. charles smith (born: 1940)
built: 1986 - 2001
where: 126 south kendall street, aurora, illinois
status: sculptures no longer on property (dr. smith has moved to hammond, louisiana)

In 1986, in the yard of his small home on the east side of Aurora, Dr. Charles Smith began building his vision: a sculptural monument dedicated to the contributions and experiences of African-Americans. Before his vision, Dr. Smith, a Vietnam Veteran, had felt lost in pain and anger. Then he received his inspiration: "God told me, 'Use Art - I give you a weapon', just like He gave Dr. King the Gandhi strategy." From that moment on and despite the fact that he had never received training in art, his house lot started to fill with sculpted tributes to the leaders and martyrs of Black America: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King among them. In addition, there are memorials to the 4,000 Black Americans who died in Vietnam, to victims of the Rwanda tragedy, as well as to whites that helped with the Underground Railroad.

As scholar Lisa Stone writes, "The African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archives is equal parts memorial and mirror, commemorating and reflecting the complexity of late 20th Century life, and its elaborate, and at times bewildering, commingled histories."

In 2002, Dr. Smith moved from Illinois in order to start two new museums in Hammond & New Orleans, Louisiana. (The New Orleans project, known as the Algiers Folk Art Zone, is a collaboration with artist Charles Gillam.) Forever passionate, forever formidable, forever free, Dr. Charles Smith continues to spread his message of remembrance, hope, and vision.

I opened my blog the other day for the first time in weeks and noticed that I had a follower. Expecting it to be a friend or relative, I clicked on the comment to see that it was Jodie LeJeune, author of the beautiful and inspiring blog Everything Vintage (http://jodielejeune.blogspot.com/). I had a follower that I didn't know! So, excitedly, I clicked on her comment, which congratulated me for being published in the new issue of Artful Blogging. Huh?!

I sent Jodie an email as she must be mistaken, but she replied, "Yes girl, you are published in the May issue which will be out on May 1st. Your article is listed in the "Buzz" on page 3... It was late in the evening and although my excitement was mounting to get my hands on the magazine, I had to wait until the next day. Morning came and I realized that the book store wouldn't be open until after I was at work, so I had to wait until my lunch hour. Noon finally came and off my friend and I went to see my name in print. Alas, the bookstore did not get their copies yet. We tried another nearby store and, again, not available. I must wait until after work.

On my way home, driving a bit too fast, I stopped at another bookstore, just to be disappointed yet again. Now I had to hurry home to prepare my son for his baseball game and would not have another opportunity to look for the magazine until evening. After the game (which our team won 12-5 yippee!), I decided to call another store and YES they had one copy and would hold it for me at the front counter.

I got to the bookstore and had my husband open it and read it to me. There, on page 3 was my first ever blog comment, left to Susannah, author of the beautiful blog Ink on my Fingers (http://inkonmyfingers.typepad.com). It reads:

"On having a very rough morning at the office yesterday, I decided to spend my lunch in a quiet corner of the nearby coffee shop. Before I bought my very large caramel, skim, latte, I browsed through the magazine rack. Somehow the bright blue cover of Artful Blogging, a magazine I never heard of before, caught my eye. I took it over to the couch in the corner with my giant cup of coffee and haven't stopped reading it since. I have now started a blog, and hopefully with a little nurturing, it will grow into the photographic/art journal I've always known is inside of me.
Tammy Fanara

www.heartssprings.blogspot.com."

I couldn't believe it. MY words, recognized by such inspiring writers! It gave me an inner joy that can only be explained one way... my hearts springs went "boing-oing" all for myself. What a feeling!

Thank you Jodie! Thank you Susannah! Thank you Artful Blogging! Thank you Universe!