New photos taken with my cell phone

Keith Alan Hamilton, poet and photographer and creator of The Hamilton Gallery, came to visit from the Boston area a couple of weekends ago, and we toured him around some of our favorite places. Poems to accompany these photos will be posted soon.

Manhattan Beach

Marina del Rey

The Music Center and Disney Hall

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The Getty

Meet my dear friend, Keith Hamilton, poet and cell-phone photographer

I think I was one of the first to join Keith’s Facebook group Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists, etc., and as such we developed a mutual admiration for each other’s work. Keith offered to showcase my work on his Hamilton Gallery and has been very generous in promoting my work ever since. My husband and I had dinner with Keith when we were in Boston last spring, and we became devoted friends. We’re also talking about collaborating on a poetry and cell-phone photography project. More about that later.

Keith’s style is earthy. He doesn’t pull any punches. And he has a heart of gold – all he wants to do is save the world.

How and Why I Publish

By Keith Alan Hamilton

I’m a Publisher, editor, poet, writer and cell-phone photographer.  I have a mind that fires on all cylinders; I think and think and think about everything, often to the point of mania, which leads to mental fatigue with extreme lows of prolonged depression.  I have thought of suicide so often, I’ve gotten used to it as a part of me being me.  

As far as me as an artist, I have been developing my spiritual philosophy, style of writing (poetry, prose, sayings, etc.) and photography for many years. My words and photos are rooted within the nurturing arms of my hero, my Polish/German mother, who filled me with her willpower and loving temperament. They are also deeply influenced with the character of my Scot Irish grandfather, who was a master storyteller and could hold his audience spellbound for hours on end. My words and photos often reveal the cultural flavor representative of where I was born. I was raised in the USA, a small place called Freeland, Michigan.

If I were asked to describe my style, I would say it embodies the everyday spirit of a Norman Rockwell illustration, a sort of raw Mark Twain individuality and the perfectionist mannerism captured in an Ansel Adams photo. It is my hope that my everyday style, that unique flavor tasted within the emergence of my words and photos, will appeal to a broad spectrum of people around the world.

At Keith Alan Hamilton.com, I am an online publisher who provides the creative spirit greater distribution and readership over the Internet free of charge. The two websites I publish online are The Hamilton Gallery and NatureIQ.com.  They are what I call living documents (works of art in progress).  It is my vision to create over the Internet, a freely accessible publishing environment by way of a flip book technology.  Online, people can view (free of charge) the evolving creative process of my artwork, as well as other artists featured (a networking collaborative of Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists, etc.).  Why? I am a firm believer that creativity breeds creativity and the more creativity that is shared with others, where people observe and experience the entire creative process from start to finish, will benefit all humanity. By seeing the struggle to bring forth works of art the people of the world from young to the old too, will be inspired to be more creative themselves. They will be encouraged to bring forth works of art in word and image to be shared with others, which will collectively provide positive change for all humanity.

By allowing artists the opportunity to showcase their artwork, be published through this flip-book technology at my web sites, free of charge to them, over a freely accessible medium like the internet, a larger audience of people can experience, view and read their style of artwork. Many artists, me included can get published at a relatively moderate cost today; however, many of us are not promoted and distributed to the point where our creations can be viewed and/or read by others on a large scale. Many artists are not as concerned with getting rich or being famous, but rather if their work, their creations are being widely viewed and/or read, shared and enjoyed by others. That is my heartfelt hope, my vision in forming this collaborative of the best artists in the world, is that they get widely distributed for the lasting benefit of humanity as a whole.

Keith’s links:

The Hamilton Gallery  ~  Online: an Artist Collaborative of Words, Images and more..... http://www.keithalanhamilton.com/navigate.html

NatureIQ.com: Let’s Survive, Not Die!  

http://www.natureiq.com/

My online book Nature  ~  IQ: Let’s Survive, Not Die!  Will be published in print by Inner Child Press before the end of the year.  http://www.natureiq.com/intro/Default.html

My Youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFaYylHp_4k&list=HL1350750235&feature=mh_lolz 

My Gutsy Story won!

I am thrilled that My Gutsy Story won first place for the month of June. I heartfully thank Sonia Marsh for accepting my story application and posting it for her monthly contest. Also, so many people made very insightful and wonderful comments about my story. 


One in particular was just posted this morning. And I have to share it with you. It is from my friend and fellow poet and cell-phone photographer, Keith Alan Hamilton. Ever since I joined Keith's Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists - Networking Group on Facebook, he and I have had a special bond. And I was fortunate to meet him and his girlfriend personally when my husband and I were in Boston in May. Keith has also created 


The Hamilton Gallery   ~   Online: an Artist Collaborative of Words, Images and more.....

Online publisher
providing the creative spirit
greater distribution & readership
over the internet
free of charge.

Keith has honored me by showcasing my poetry and material about my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, at The Hamilton Gallery. His wonderful words this morning just took the breath out of me:

What follows is my review of Madeline’s book…. Madeline Tasky Sharples is a world class human being and I am blessed to call her one of my dearest friends. As far as I am concerned the word gutsy only touches on how magnificent Madeline truly is….. 

~Keith Alan Hamilton~ 

Review is from: Leaving the Hall Light On (Hardcover)

This memoir with poems by Madeline Sharples, I hope will have a positive effect on the reader’s intellect and values beyond the awareness of a mother’s tremendous courage as a human being to cope with and talk about the loss of her son. Way beyond her gifted abilities to write so openly and poetically about her son’s life experience, his all-out struggle with a condition not fully understood and still felt as not normal by others. Way, way beyond the heart wrenching trauma underwent by a family who had a beloved member commit the ill thought of and unspeakable act, the taking of his own life. Madeline’s forthright and insightful words, whether intentional or not, will present an introspective opportunity to the reader. Where the reader is unexpectedly provided the chance to self-reflect and wrestle with their own preconceived biases and inhibitions on this matter. Those socially embedded judgments, which sadly cause a state of disease, a lack of discernment concerning two separate but often associated components within the trials and tribulations of day-to-day living. Publically chosen and accepted labels, shadowed by the stigma of disease, mental illness and defect, called bipolar disorder and suicide.

In Leaving the Hall Light On, Madeline Sharples has graciously given forth the experience of her son’s journey through life as a precious gift. Her son’s life and how he lived it, holds out tremendous value to those who care to listen. Beneath the pain and stigma, is a cherished life, no matter if perceived as being tragically cut short, in the end was well worth every moment it was humanly lived. A life of a son, portrayed honestly without embarrassment or regret by the loving words of his mother. The writing of this memoir with poems by Madeline Sharples may have been at times hard for her to say or bear; and yet, her heartfelt words keep alive the spirit of purpose and positive effect her son’s life experience will have on others, even after he chose to walk into the release of death. Her son’s life and death offers us all the opportunity to learn and then personally grow as a human being ourselves.

Thank you Madeline Sharples for helping to let the memory, the spirit and the value of Paul’s life, get the chance to breathe fully within the beat of time. 

April Platform Challenge - Day 2

Today's platform-building task is to set goals, including short-term and long-term goals. Robert Lee Brewer wants us to also make a list of goals to accomplish by the end of this year; and then, make a list of goals to accomplish before I die.

Here are my goal lists:

Short-term goals:

• Complete April Platform Challenge on My Name Is Not Bob blog
• Complete April PAD Challenge on Poetic Asides blog
• Get an ebook of my memoir ready for publication
• Submit poetry to chapbook and full-length book contests
• Have lots of sales at the LA Times Festival of Books
• Finish editing Keith Alan Hamilton’s Nature IQ book of poetry
• Answer Daisy’s questions for her SunnyRoomStudio blog
• Keep on with my social network marketing efforts
• Set up blog tour for release of my ebook

Long-term goals (same as goals to accomplish by the end of 2012):

• Publish my ebook
• Produce and release a CD with Paul’s music
• Finish my novel and find an agent for it
• Publish full-length poetry collection
• Continue writing articles for PsychAlive and Naturally Savvy

Goals to accomplish before I die

• Be a better wife, mother, and friend
• Become a grandmother
• Travel to places on my bucket list
• Live in Italy for at least four months
• Erase the stigma of mental illness and suicide so that lives can be saved

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