geoff manning

Harrison Avenue in the South End of Boston is the place to be…on the First Friday of the month. SoWa (South of Washington) is a trendy area of Boston that is home to some very talented artists. 450 Harrison Avenue houses 15 galleries and over 50 artists studios whose sole purpose is to “promote the diversity and individuality of the artists working in this flagship space, the center of the SOWA Art District”

Attending First Friday was a very exciting experience for me. I don’t “do art” so to speak. I like what I like. But going to SoWa and seeing the artists in their environment was a revelation of sorts.  There was such a variety of art, culture, personality and ambiance.

First Friday was a great opportunity for me to meet an artist whose work I have admired for the past 3 years, Charyl Weissbach. She is an encaustic impressionist that has a beautiful mind and eye for landscape. The picture below does no justice at all for her incredible work (camera phone, meh). So I encourage you to visit Charyl’s website to see her online body of work.

Here is a list of all the artists we saw:

• Charyl Weissbach
• George Wingate, Kimberly MacNeille, Sandy Belock-Phippen
• Ryan McFee
• Debby Krim
• Timothy Craig

If you live in Boston and have even the most remote appreciation of art I highly recommend attending. The studios are open daily and also by appointment (please check with the individual artists) but attending on First Friday was quite the experience.

My daughter Ella was born Thursday morning at 5:17 am. She is 6lbs 13oz and 19″ long. She has ten fingers, ten toes and is as cute as can be. I have never been so proud nor held anything so precious in my arms before. It truly is a remarkable feeling. Also, I can’t say it enough how proud I am of my wife.

We are on day 3 at the hospital (Mass General in Boston) and the staff has been incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and kind. We go home this afternoon and that will be an entirely different experience.

Thanks everyone for the support!

I was on my way to dinner at Oceanaire Boston for Restaurant Week and recorded this great video of a dance performance by a local group.

If anyone knows who this group is then please let me know so I can give them credit.

Update:
I received a message via YouTube that the group is called: You Already Know (Y.A.K.) Thanks for the tip kesmalle

The company I work for, Z-TECH Associates (located in Lexington, MA), is currently looking for a Network Engineer to attend to it’s growing client base. Z-TECH is a great company to work for and we are growing. You can forward your resume to me at geoff@geoffmanning.com or to the address listed in the Job Description.