Share Your Creative Expressions

Here’s something new and fun in this digital age! This page showcases the many forms of expression our class members enjoy. Painting, photography, creative cooking, gardening, sculpture, crafts, quilting, woodworking, poetry, blogs, and musical performances.

What Creative Expressions are in your life? They are welcome here. Send an email to Gail Mardfin (gail@plpgrahicdesign.com) and attach UP TO SIX (6) JPGs of your visual expressions, or PDFs of written work, or LINKS to performing arts on youtube, vimeo, etc. (Sorry, our server does not allow large files, so we do need links.)

Please include your name and any other contact information you’d like to appear on this page (e.g. your hometown, website, YouTube channel, blog, etc.) and a short explanation if needed (MUST BE 70 WORDS OR LESS!).

Enjoy all the creative expressions that follow… click on any photo to see the full picture and then you can advance to the next photo in that section by using arrows.

CATHY ASHLEY MUSKUS
I have never really thought of myself as creative, but as a nursing professor I did a lot of patient simulation, coming up with scenarios, makeup, costumes, scripts – so I guess I’m wrong! I retired JUST before COVID hit and my third grandchild arrived. Now there’s a bit more time for the farm, cross stitch, needlepoint, and crocheting.

ROGER BEATTY
The first thing I did upon — call it semi-retirement — was get a kayak and begin exploring my local river system. They are the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord rivers in Eastern Mass, the ones Thoreau spent his lifetime boating, studying, and chronicling in his journals. But they’re my rivers now. I take long trips year-round, and take lots of videos/photos along the way. I’m not a great photographer, but it’s easy to capture this beauty.

CONNI BERGIN CARROZELLI
I wrote this one-act play nine years ago.. have gone back and forth on whether I should submit it or not. My husband said, “No! It’s racist.’ Of course, it is by no means racist, but the characters in the play are. So my great dilemma in this day of Cancel Culture: should I or shouldn’t I. My meaning way back when was pretty clear. It was performed at the Darien Library, no questions asked, bu we are a long way from those innocent days of common sense. Anyway, I am going to be bold, and open it up for inspection, on the assumption that if anyone would understand it – and possibly recognize a bit of it – it would be my classmates of ’71. Nowadays we artists do have to play it safe. But condidering I never have played it safe, why start now? But to cover myself, somewhat, I will include the disclaimer. Sheesh!

Click to read DISCLAIMER
Click to read GREEN PASTURES

MARK BUBAR
I fish, watch the sunset, garden, raise bees, work, spend time in the bat cave, appreciate my family and every day. Not all in that order.

JEFF CASTLE
My workshop is my ‘Man-cave’! Doing lots of repairs but also building some new items as I go. Baby Adirondack chairs; hand painted backgammon board table; 1940’s prints of Blackfeet Indians I hand matted and framed using old barn wood; rebuilt a dilapidated bench; a new gate where one once had been in a stone wall at my son’s house; and my latest project, a new bathroom vanity.

NOEL COGBURN BRYANT
Over the years between work and family, life was crazy, but both quilting and jewelry making gave me the opportunity to play with color and design whenever I had a moment, and both projects could sit for long periods when I couldn’t work on them. An added bonus was the wonderful people I met while doing both!

ANN COLLINS
I wasn’t very creative for most of my working life. Free time went mostly to outdoor activities (hiking; skiing; biking;golf) and travel. However, I was creative on my golf shots out of the woods due to errant tee shots! 😉 Since retiring 3 years ago (and moving to PA), I learned to knit and completed a community college “Roving Photographer” certificate. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks, just takes a little longer!

JEFFY CUMMINGS GRIFFIN
After 25 years directing Griffin Children’s Studio in Boulder, Colorado, my focus has shifted from children’s imaginative art to serious play with floral design and watercolor. Gathering fresh flowers and exploring the fluidity of watercolor bring me back to my roots of growing up along Five Mile River Road in Darien.

MARY ELLEN CUSACK SIVORE
Computer savvy I’m not! (Joe Vitti, what happened to 35mm film and contact sheets??) But with help from my 13 year old granddaughter, never too old to learn, we got it done. Photography has always been a love of mine. Portraits, engagement and wedding, landscapes, old architecture which I love printing on canvas and framing in old windows. My favorite subject now, my amazing grandkids, all 6 of them!

JOANNE DORISS LEFFERTS
innerlightspiritualdirection.com • tendingthegarden.org
One of my great joys is experiencing the beauty and wonder of nature, and capturing these moments of delight in photographs so that I can share them with others. I have a blog called Tending the Garden: Seeds of Inspiration, in which I share ponderings on life and our connection to whatever it is that we call sacred, and how to ‘tend the garden’ of the mind and spirit.

Reminder: click on any photo to see the full picture and then you can advance to the next photo in that section by using arrows.

ROB HIGHT
I enjoy ornamental gardening and then capturing the beauty with photos. I also enjoy writing poetry (thank you DHS) when the muse isn’t busy doing other things. During COVID, I also took up genealogical research on an immigrant forefather that led to so many discoveries that writing a book seemed the most informative way to present the new material (now 200 pages in, and about 75% complete).

Click to read FENCE ROW (poetry)
Click to read STEP OUT (poetry)
Click to read THERE, NO T HERE (poetry)

POSEY HOLLAND GRIFFIN
Here are some of my knitting projects, including the “littlest Yalie” sweater for a friend’s first grandson.

LIZ HOUGH HARDEN
Any creativity I can muster up, goes to designing silk fabrics and clothing, cooking, and my true love…gardening.

CHUCK HUNTER
My interest in photography was born in my years at DHS, and has enriched my life over the decades. True to my roots, my passion runs to black and white photography, and my main subjects are landscapes, people, and textures. These are a few recent examples. I included the dog picture because, well, I like dogs.

SUE LADUE McMASTER

KATHLEEN (KATHE) JENKINS ENNEN
www.nnonthewind.com
I’ve always loved photography and travel, since my first trip to Europe in 1969. Immediately after retiring my husband and I travelled to 21 countries in 9 months. I started posting travel photos on a blog I built in 2015. Currently (September 2022) I’m in Mammoth Lakes, CA, the scenery and hiking here is incredible.

HAL LEFFERTS
Here’s a link to a show that I did with James Lumsden and John Burns at Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT. Unfortunately, we don’t see James in this video, but he’s holding down the bass. This was our recent band called Famous Before We’re Dead. Unfortunately, the pandemic has put an end to this kind of fun for a while.

SETH LEFFERTS
I have a lot of songs that I have recorded, but none are loaded up to a site that I can link to for just listening, except my first album “Spirit Helper – Revisited,” which is on iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/seth-lefferts/368952014 If I can choose a few of my photographs I will upload them, but choosing is the hardest part…

LUCY LEYLAND
After 20 years of teaching art I retired and decided to try my hand at something other than 4th and 5th grade exemplars. Started with mixed media then pivoted (who didn’t?) during COVID. I began a series of studies documenting our escape from Boston to Trustees of Reservations properties across the state. Some may recognize DeCordova Museum, Lincoln or Greenwood Farm, Ipswich. Gathered 12 together in a calendar aptly named, Sanctuary.

BRIAN LINDNER
I began creating mosaic glass pieces upon retirement several years ago as a natural and logical progression from a career in real estate finance. I have fun working in my third floor office, looking out at the water, listening to good music, creating these pieces and periodically running downstairs to get a band aid when I cut myself.

BRUCE MANCHON • Boulder, CO
I am a collector of eccentric or eclectic art. A Forever Buff, now living back in Boulder, highlighted by my BoulderCruzer/Burning Man Bike. My love for travel and adventure especially with family. And for years, I have been chasing waterfalls and love to capture them.

Reminder: click on any photo to see the full picture and then you can advance to the next photo in that section by using arrows.

GAIL MARDFIN
SeeTheGood.net • SeeTheGoodCards.com • gail@plpgraphicdesign.com
After teaching art for 20 years, I’ve been doing more of my own work since 2007, now mostly watercolors (including commissions) and I love to make greeting cards!

PATRICIA MASON MARTIN
PatriciaMartin.com • Facebook Patricia Mason-Martin
I am a freelance copywriter, and feel fortunate to have had several nonfiction books published, including a coffee table book, “The Right Side of Forty: Celebrating Timeless Women,” a collaboration with photographer Leif Zurmuhlen. I recorded a spoken word/music CD with producer/musician Gus Mancini and my first book of poetry, “In Venice I Could Sing,” will be released in spring ’21. Currently, I’m juggling a couple more nonfiction projects.

Click to read THE WALK (Poetry)
Click to read IN VENICE I COULD SING (Poetry)
Click to read THE FARMERS MARKET LIFE (Poetry)

KEVIN MOFFATT
MannaSilks.com • etsy.com/shop/MannaSilks • MannaArt.com
I make silk scarves that I sell retail and wholesale. Also acrylic flow paintings that I’ve been doing lately, and spontaneous prophetic pastels. All are available on my websites above.

MIKE MOORE
After graduating from DHS, my family moved to RI to own and run an inn. I left RI and became a commercial pilot and a teacher of TM, teaching meditation around the world. It appears that my meditation and my movement through the skies have become a platform for my creative expressions. My last expressions in the past two decades involved developing wind and solar projects around the USA and Canada, which light up some 1.5 million homes. Here are photos highlighting some of those projects.

SUSAN PRENTICE
susanprentice.com • @sprentice (instagram)
Studio 6B, Farmington Valley Arts Center, Avon, CT
My career in art began in advertising (where I had adventures flying helicopters into the Grand Canyon, and out to Gulf of Mexico oil rigs). Then, instead of “real jobs” I did graphic design, garden design, and was an herb purveyor to fine restaurants. Finally, 20 years ago, I became a fine artist and now have a studio/gallery where I do graphic design, garden design, and fine art.

GRETCHEN STECKER LARSON • West Salem, Wisconsin
etsy.com/shop/artcraftbygretchen @gretchen.handmade on instagram
Ain’t retirement great!!! Making art most of the morning and reading in
the afternoon followed by a nap. I sew quilted wall hangings, make encaustics, pottery and am getting back into photography. My husband and I built (we did everything!) a cabin on 40 acres that we bought (20 minutes from home).
https://obfus.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=661

JOE VITTI
When I realized my guitar skills weren’t going to earn me a living, I switched to photography and 37 years in the newspaper industry gave me the opportunities to photograph top musicians. I captured Corky Siegel in a spotlight. Bruce Springsteen hit a local bar in Athens, Ohio. Miles Davis played the Playboy Jazz Festival. Mick Jagger was in Tucson. Dee Dee Bridgewater was in Indy, and Dave Matthews played in Noblesville.

ALAN WITSCHONKE
www.alanwitschonke.com
I’ve been working as an illustrator and formal portrait painter in the Boston area since graduation from Rhode Island School of Design in 1975. I have also illustrated a series of non-fiction, young adult children’s books published by Mikaya Press and many cookbooks, including the Mark Bittman “How to Cook Everything” franchise.

BILL WRIGHT
“Woodpile Fish” – a Covid distraction
“Burst to the Sky” – As a DHS girls & boys track coach, at the end of this season some spring cleaning of a dusty gear closet was in order. In the corner were years of well used javelins lost in time. They all hold some story of an aspiring high schooler taking a shot of throwing a spear into the sky.

SALLY WURTZELL WRIGHT
I love to do tons of creative things; it’s hard to limit it to six images! I also love to make furniture and other things from reclaimed or salvaged wood.
Seagate8studio.Etsy.com Silver and leather bracelets coming soon!