Naturally, She's Dreaming, Susan Lukas

Naturally, She’s Dreaming

Susan Lukas

c. 2014

Wisconsin Authors

Photo and essay
39 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0615979250
paperback, $11.99
Buy on Amazon

Photography instructor Susan Lukas has put together a lovely group of essays relating to photos of nature in changing seasons. The photos have been manipulated with techniques she shares. The essays share thoughts and challenges, from dare to face your dreams in the opening “forest” to the patchwork tree, to birds, the beach, to the lovely pastel watercolor-appearing tulips.

Each work of art is a memory and a revelation, an “aha” moment for the author to share with her audience. I love photographs and taking pictures, and have played around with some of my pictures. Lukas’s book offers a unique perspective on art, nature, and the layers of beauty that challenge our psyche.

 

Lukas is a greater Milwaukee area resident who also shows her work in galleries around the country. This is her first book.

Honoring authors Greg Peck and Earl Rhode Saturday Aug 16 in Portage

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Jeff Grothman

Grothman

Grothman

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Zona Gale's Friendship Village celebration

10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday: a program at Gale’s gravesite in Silver Lake Cemetery just of West Wisconsin Street. Rain location is Portage City Hall, 115 W. Pleasant St.
2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Women’s Civic League clubhouse (and former Zona Gale home), 506 W. Edgewater St., with free guided tours and pie and ice cream on the shaded lawn. Donations are requested for the social.

The 23rd Friendship Village celebration is Saturday.
The event celebrates Portage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning author Zona Gale (1874-1938), whose village was based on Portage and its residents. The event is held in August, the month of Gale’s birthday.
Jeff Grothman has acted as the program director of the event for the past five years.
This year, the event will honor two Wisconsin authors who have penned books on topics in the Portage area: Greg Peck, author of “Death Beyond the Willows,” about the young couple who perished in the pond at Pauquette Park on their wedding day in 1927, and Earl Rhode of Pardeeville, author of “The Little River That Could,” about the Fox River.
The event begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at at Gale’s gravesite in Silver Lake Cemetery on Cemetery Road just off West Wisconsin Street. Signs will indicate where to go for those who attend.
“The mayor (Bill Tierney) will be there to welcome people,” Grothman said.
Those attending the event should bring a lawn chair or blanket. Rhode’s and Peck’s books will be available. There will be music and a poetry reading by Randolph area artist Kelly Bleich.
“He always adds a little pizzazz to the program,” Grothman said.
And there will be awards given to “someone that’s given above and beyond (for) our Portage local history,” Grothman said.
The event was started in 1991 by Portage historian and enthusiast Blanche Murtagh, who died in June 2013. Murtagh was honored at last year’s event.
For the first time, the Museum at the Portage -- formerly Gale’s home -- will not be open for viewing during the day. The museum is still under repair after a fire in April.
The event will continue at 2 p.m. with a pie and ice cream social at the Women’s Civic League Clubhouse at 506 W. Edgewater St. The house was Zona Gale’s home from 1906 to 1928.
“That’s a nice afternoon. It’s right on the (Wisconsin) river,” said Grothman. “It’s an afternoon of peace and fellowship.