It is three days after the 4th of July today.  Please excuse my delay but I want to share this photo.  It is the only photograph I have "sold".  It had been juried into the annual Photography Exhibition of the Crooked Tree Art Center in Petoskey in 2012.  Actually the CTAC sold it, providing  me with a 40% commission.  I believe it sold for $125.

The photo was taken at the July 4th celebration in 2011 at Bay Harbor, a resort community just a couple miles west of Petoskey overlooking the Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.  The celebration is always scheduled a couple days prior to Petoskey's own celebration which occurs on the 4th.  I have attended only this one July 4th celebration at Bay Harbor and was with a harpist friend who is now deceased.  It was so late when I returned home from the fireworks that I was bleary eyed and slow to articulate anything.  I was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy at 2:30AM.  He looked at my drivers license and commented, "Why, you live only a couple miles from here!"  I explained that I was "returning from the Charlevoix [not even a little correct] July 4th Fireworks."  That's how clearly I was thinking.  If he realized it was only the night of July 2nd/3rd, he didn't ask me to explain and let me proceed with a gentle warning.  I suppose I could have asked him to explain why he was out driving around at 2:30 in the morning in our little, quiet, peaceful community.

I had little hope that the photo would sell after I examined all the other photos in the exhibition. Many had been submitted by professional photographers.  The exhibit ended at noon on the last day of the exhibition.  I appeared in the early afternoon to pick up my photo.  I walked through the double doors to the exhibit hall and looked to my right since I had seen the photo proudly hanging there on a couple previous visits.  Imagine my shock when it was not where it was supposed to be while all the other photographs appeared to be untouched.  This was about two hours after the exhibit ended!  I hurried out of the hall to tell the receptionist that someone must have already taken the photo by mistake....while not thinking to ask myself how likely THAT would have been!  The receptionist calmly explained that a man had been there around 11AM to buy it.  Unbelievable.  And to this day, it is the only photo I (have had) sold.

The first recognition I received for my writing was from officials of the Michigan Hemingway Society.  They decided to offer the Society's first short story contest in conjunction with its 1995 Fall Conference, held annually in Petoskey, Michigan.

I crafted my story which was actually about 90% non-fiction without telling any family members.  What a surprise to be notified that my story was awarded first place.  And how surprised I was about ten years later to be sitting next to Hemingway's nephew during the banquet at a subsequent Annual Conference to learn that his short story that year came in second place!  I was obligated to read my short story at the Reception for the Annual Conference within the hallowed interior of the Perry Davis Hotel in Petoskey that year.  

A Hemingway fan since college, I had visited his sister at her Walloon Lake cottage to have her sign the biography she wrote about her brother.  Somewhat later I found out that she participated in many local book signings and that there must be hundreds of similarly signed copies.

Unfortunately, there is a typo in the story created by the person entering the text of the story in the MHS Newsletter.  "Fiesta" should have been italicized and bold since it is the name of the Spanish language translation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

                                      "Lauren's Dress - Boro Style"   - John Porter, April 2022

My first exposure to Boro and Sashiko occurred during a workshop offered by the Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network on Bainbridge Island, WA.  I belonged to BARN when I lived in WA a few years ago and was glad to see its announcement of a virtual workshop taking place in February and March, 2022. 
 
Wikipedia has explanations of these two art forms.  Briefly, Boro began as a functional practice in northern Japan to repair apparel so as to lengthen its utility.  Adding patch upon patch to apparel generally used in industrial clothing from generation to generation served a practical end.  Sashiko is a stitching technique used in Boro that utilizes specialized threads and needles. Eventually Boro and Sashiko caught the eye of artisans and these products began to be valued as works of art.

The BARN workshop was led by nationally recognized Sashiko experts Jason Bowlsby and Shannon Leigh Roudhan (Boro & Sashiko, Harmonious Imperfection:  The Art of Japanese Mending & Stitching).  It was designed to take the artistic elements of Boro and Sashiko to a different artistic level as students created wall hangings using these techniques.
  
My second formal exposure to Sashiko took place during two days one week apart at the Glen Arbor [Michigan] Art Center.  Ms. Alyssa Brieanne Spytman (alyssabrieannedesign.com) was the instructor for this workshop which took place in April 2022.