My newest completed piece of art: an oil on panel, 16″ x 24″. The model’s name is Zwanda. She sat for 3 days.

Here’s a sneak peak of my interpretation of a wonderful portrait of a German woman from the ’70’s called “My Fair Lady”. Upside down view shows a lot in the interpretation. I’m glad I have differences; but I think I am capturing the essence.

Thomas Merton

The Eleventh General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society
Nazareth College – Rochester, NY – June 11-14, 2009

In June 2009 the International Thomas Merton Society will hold its Eleventh General Meeting in Rochester, NY, on the campus of Nazareth College. Featured participants in the conference include:

• Rachel Fell McDermott, Associate Professor and Chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department at Barnard College where she specializes in South Asia, especially India.

• Herbert Mason, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of History and Religious Thought at Boston University where he teaches in the field of Arabic and Islamic Studies. For a number of years he corresponded with Thomas Merton.

• James Conner, OCSO, a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani. He was a student of Thomas Merton and was Merton’s under-master for novices. He has served as chaplain to the Benedictine Community of Osage Monastery, Oklahoma, and, for five years in the late nineties, as Abbot of Assumption Abbey in Missouri. He was fourth President of the ITMS and has written on Thomas Merton in Cistercian Studies, The Merton Annual, and in the volume Thomas Merton Monk: A Monastic Tribute.

• Judith Simmer-Brown, a Professor at Naropa University and a prominent Buddhist scholar. She is on the Board of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and a member of the Lilly Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter.

• Kate Campbell, originally from Sledge, Mississippi, the daughter of a Baptist preacher. Kate’s formative years were forged by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and those indelible experiences continue to inform her music. Kate has performed at some of the most prestigious festivals at home and abroad including the Cambridge Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

• Donald Grayston, now retired from teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, will deliver the presidential address.

Many other Merton scholars will also be participating in concurrent sessions and workshops.

Other highlights will include:

• Opportunities for interreligious prayer and dialogue

• Exhibit of photographs by Thomas Merton

Full details of the conference can be found on the conference web site: http://www.merton.org/Rochester/
Reserve your place now – late registration fees apply after May 15th

In peace,

Paul.

##########################
Dr Paul M Pearson.
Director and Archivist,
Thomas Merton Center,
Bellarmine University,
2001 Newburg Road,
Louisville, KY. 40205.

Tel: 502 452 8177.
Cell: 502 693 1937.
Fax: 502 452 8452.

www.merton.org

This is a fun free-form where I started with a watercolor wash, used salt, and when dry, I painted in the shapes that the wash created. I had no idea what would transpire. In the end, it looked like…”A Starry Sky Above a Coral Sea”.