Pre-Antibiotic Era Death by Eczema

In the last week I've come across some firsts in death certificates such as death by rabies (11 year old girl, bitten by a dog in 1922), but today's death was surprising, a 10 month old male infant, primary cause of death was eczema, 1889. I looked it up, and sure enough, there was a medical article from The Journal of Pediatrics written in 1934 discussing sudden infant death from eczema. It was not common, but it did occur, and they didn't understand why a case that did not present as dire led to sudden death. Had to be infection going systemic, right? Prior to antibiotics any kind of infection could kill you. I had a 3x great aunt die from a needle prick on her finger going septic. Her death certificate listed as an attributing cause of death: slight indigestion.

New Work For The Gallery

                                                 Bubble Koi Blocks, 2026

 I've been very busy creating new artwork for the gallery, Bottlebrush Gallery of the Arts, which I delivered last week.  And I've been working a lot on writing.  This summer my short story, The Cabinet of Kimber Lee was published by The Writing Disorder, and I have a lot of other stories floating around out there waiting to hear back.  I'll be honest - rejection is really difficult to process.  You can't take it personally, and every writer has been rejected, but it stings unlike anything else I've ever experienced.  When my art is rejected I'm able to let that roll off me, but with writing, that cuts to the core.  

I have to have lunch with my mother tomorrow, so any fragile feelings I have about rejection should somehow be reinforced and validated all in one fell swoop. 

      
 

Honoring President Carter

 

 

 

 

The flag at the Veterans Memorial in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA, is flying at half staff to honor the passing of a great man, former President James Earl Carter (Oct 1924- Dec 2024), despite trump feeling slighted by the act.  We will never stop honoring this country's heroes, and trump, a convicted felon, will never be one of them.

Watercolor: Lipovka 1947 Ladislav Vycpalek

Lipovka, USSR 1947

     I was looking for a frame to repurpose at a thrift store and I found this little gem by the famed composer Ladislav Vycpalek, who must have dabbled in watercolors.  I bought the painting and had it in a drawer for quite some time before I researched the artist and discovered that he was a well regarded composer living and working in the Soviet Bloc.  I decided to sell the painting on ebay because my wife is forcing me to downsize from my vast collection of just about everything.  It sold pretty quickly, and on the cheap - but still more than I paid for it.  I think that the person who bought it will appreciate its uniqueness and effort.

A Collection From A Graveyard

                                              Deer and Turkeys, Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA

 

My wife and I started volunteering for find a grave a year or so ago, and while photographing headstones, it's easy to get engaged with whatever else is going on around us.  The impressive monuments, the landscape, the wildlife, all creating an ambiance that defies the typical creepy solemnity of a cemetery.

   

The Winter Crypt in Winter 

 

                                                      

                                                              Moorhead Monument

                                                 Temple of Memories Mausoleum

I usually refer to the Mausoleum as "Temporal Memories", and I've shot more pictures inside of there than anywhere else.  It's astounding, trapped in time from when it was constructed in the 1960s, including the decor. 

 
 

 

3 Barbies, A Cubist Dream

                                               3 Barbies, A Cubist Dream, 2023

 

     I never had a Barbie doll as a child, though curiously now I have three.  My sister had a Barbie and a a few of the big accessories that went with her, but not the Barbie Dream House, despite asking for it year after year.  As an adult she, when she was buying the second dream house for her granddaughters to play with at her house when she babysat them, she asked our mother why she never got the much coveted dream house, mom said that she had enough Barbie stuff.  

     I wasn't interested in dolls as a child and typically dismembered them and drew on their faces with ball point pen.  And the one time my sister did prevail upon me to play Barbie with her, I put Barbie in our brother's GI Joe Jeep and sent her merrily on her way down a steep hill, and straight into a tree trunk.  Barbie survived, but ever after had a dented boob.

     "She's ruined!" my sister wailed.  Now of course, since the Barbie movie, we now know that she was just played with too hard, and because of it, is impervious to being gaslit by the patriarchy.  All hail the Barbies!  They shall herald the wide-eyed future, and we will be standing by.

 

 
 

Ohio: No on Issue 1

 Ohioans did vote down the GOP attempt to limit their ability to amend their state constitution, particularly in regards to women's access to proper healthcare and abortion.  As climate change becomes more pronounced in how it effects our everyday lives, we need government that works for us, not one that divides us and demonizes our differences and micromanages our biology.  Humanity is on the cusp of the greatest challenge to our survival.