Gathering-Around-the-table Feeling

I will spare you the details and the horrors of my upbringing and just say the highlight of my childhood was the feeling of a full house. When my grandparents would visit on a Sunday from Brighton Beach Brooklyn I would stay at the dining room table all day listening to their stories with my equally-lovely Italian stepfather. Tables are even a recurring theme in my paintings. Those were the best years until my grandparents migrated to Florida.

It dawned on me the other day that I have been recreating this full house, gathering-around-the-table feeling here in my city. When I walk Lily I am comforted by each building I pass. Library, Post office, Police Station, Bank, all of these houses and buildings are full of my sidewalk friends.

I am grateful for Woonsocket, my true adopted home. Home sweet home.