IN FOCUS: News from Sutton Studios

Issue No. 28

October 2009

Schedule a sitting before the holidays and take your pick of three special offers!

SPOTLIGHT

Bouncing Roxy
(click to enlarge)

Smiling Roxy
(click to enlarge)

All grown up
Roxy is awesome!

When this striking Great Dane strolls into a room, everyone is amazed. Roxy and Dianne first met when she was 10 weeks old and weighed only 18 pounds. Today she is a bouncing 2-year-old and weighs 140 pounds.

When asked how Roxy took to being in the studios, Dianne said, "Roxy had a wonderful time - no collar and the best treats she's ever been offered. She found it very hard not to drool. David really knew how to capture her personality and Roxy truly had a ball. She can be a very elegant, beautiful girl, but she's actually quite a clown."

"I was so pleased when I saw the proofs because I had Roxy's photo taken as a gift to my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. Being at Sutton Studios and spending time with David was a pleasure. I'm sure we will be back!!"

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REFLECTION & REFRACTION

In this month's Reflection we revisit a piece David wrote for the October, 2007, newsletter: The Fall. David's father has since passed on, and the family home has been sold.

The Fall

Many years ago, in August, I moved from the Midwest to Southern California to go to school.

Immersed as I was in a new college, a new culture, new friends and a new city, August and September sped quickly by. In the first weeks of October, though, I began to notice a vague feeling of something not right, an unanswered anticipation I could not put my finger on. As October wound on, this feeling grew.

One day walking to campus I heard a muffled crash behind me. I looked back to see that a giant palm branch (frond?) had dropped from one of the forty-foot palms that line many of Los Angeles' streets.

Aha. Fall.

Now I understood. Twenty years in the Midwest had accustomed me to the seasonal turn toward fall in October. My psyche, my personal rhythms - my guts - had all anticipated a change, and it had not come. No color shift on the horizon, nothing rustling around my ankles, no slate grey sky looming overhead. I missed it all.

One evening I described this over the phone to my mom back in Indiana. A week later I received a package in the mail. When I opened it, a vividly colored array of maple leaves tumbled out, each leaf painstakingly dipped in melted paraffin to preserve its color. I kept those leaves for years.

I enjoy all the seasons, but if I had to choose a favorite, I wouldn't hesitate to choose Autumn.

Such a beautiful word, Autumn, the silent "n" giving it an indistinct ending and hinting at meaning below the surface. Autumnmnmn. The season's depth and complexity might explain why, unlike Spring, Summer and Winter, we've given this season two names.

Autumn. Fall. A time of gathering in, going inward, Autumn inspires reflection. Autumn plays yin to Spring's yang. While Spring brings us light and promise, Autumn shows us the way to darkness and introspection. I think of entering a forest. As you go deeper the trees begin to thicken overhead, closing off the light. You know that on the forest's other edge the trees will again thin out, allowing light to return, but your walk through darkness will not be without trepidation.

Click to enlarge.

Last week, on one of Autumn's very first days, I drove to South Bend, Indiana and spent several hours taking pictures in and around the house where I grew up. As a result I've been thinking more than usual about the cycles of the seasons and the cycles of our lives, and how these cycles help give our lives meaning.

My parents bought this new three-bedroom ranch with a full basement in 1961. Ours was a model home in a new development. Six of us moved into that house, and for a couple of years (after my youngest sister was born and before my older brother left for college) seven of us lived within its walls.

My mother died two years ago, and my father finally had to move out of the house last July. This once bustling building now provides shelter to no one. What was, in my parents' time, the newest of the new is now old, worn.

While the undiscerning eye might see an old house filled with junk, I see entire histories. Moving through the basement with my camera I see a wooden toy-box my dad made for my older brother over fifty years ago. In it a handsaw with a letter "s" painted on the handle. I recognize that saw. When I was a teenager, my dad brought this saw home from Western Illinois after he'd helped to empty out his own father's house.

Looking over the back yard I see a rusting antenna tower, its top section standing on the ground next to its base. When my dad put this tower up, it was the tallest structure in the neighborhood, a silver pillar that enabled us to pull in the Chicago channels. Dad used to climb to the top of that tower every November to affix a lighted star he'd fashioned out of plywood, foil and a broomstick. Cable TV put this once mighty tower out of business years ago. In the garage, a dusty foil-covered star hangs where it has hung for twenty years or more.

As I move through the back yard past the crumbling remains of a wooden privacy fence my father built, I survey the side yard, which once served as our neighborhood football field. An enormous maple tree now shades almost the entire yard. I pause to watch the sunlight play through the tree's leaves. The leaves have that deep, dark shade of green they take on just before their autumn colors begin to burst forth.

For the first time it dawns on me that this is the tree. Although I've been home hundreds of times since I moved to California thirty years ago, I'm only now making the connection, realizing that a handful of leaves from this tree, colored by Autumn's touch, tossed on October winds, then lovingly gathered by a middle-aged mother of five, once traveled across the country to eventually find their rest in Southern California.

David Sutton
Write to David

COMMUNITY FOCUS

Fall events in your neighborhood It's official! Autumn is here and events are happening all over the Chicago area. Join in the fun and fundraising with area animal shelters and rescues. All events listed below offer the Sutton Studios Gift Certificate Package (complimentary sitting, 11x11 matted and signed print and a $50 framing voucher), as a silent auction or contest prize. Many of the events will also feature the 2010 Dog Days Calendar. Canine Therapy Corps Unleashed! Friday, October 16th Unleash your inner child at the Canine Therapy Corps street jamboree/game night. Those who just want to have fun, as well as inveterate gamers, are invited to join in the revelry with therapy dogs, vintage to virtual games, a silent auction, dancing and entertainment by Whata Bout Bob. Don't forget the delicious cuisine and open bar. For more information call: 773-404-6467. True Hearts of Rottweiler Rescue RottOberfest Sunday, October 18th Pack up the dogs and family for RottOberfest at Grant Woods Forest Preserve Shelter A in Lake Villa from 11am - 4pm. RottOberfest attracts over 100 pet-loving families from Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Great food, great fun and a great silent auction! For additional information visit True Hearts' website. Chicago English Bulldog Rescue Bully Bash 2009! Sunday, October 18th Bully Bash is full of fun for families, singles and of course, our English Bulldogs! Held at a bigger and better 7-acre location in 2009, join us at Fox Valley Kickers (1015 Harvey Rd., Oswego) for a FULL DAY of fun from 11:30 to 5:00! Plan on bringing your folding chairs, blankets and energy for the best Bash yet! Come enjoy food, fun, and friends amidst games for your bulldogs, a Halloween Costume Contest and Agility Contest (with prizes of course), Spa Bully, silent auction, the Rescue Parade, 50/50 raffle and much more. Visit ebullymatch.com for details. Felines, Inc. 5th Annual Meow Mixer Friday, October 23rd Enjoy the company of friendly Felines, Inc. fans while indulging in fabulous refreshments, beer and wine. Don't miss the biggest and best silent auction in the city! All proceeds benefit cats and kittens at Felines, Inc.. Purchase tickets online or call the shelter at: 773-465-4132. Email Abby with questions. Chicago Botanic Garden Spooky Pooch Parade Saturday, October 31st Just one day a year, dogs are invited as guests to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Don't miss the hilarious fall parade of dogs and their owners in Halloween costumes. Celebrity judges preside over the canine costume contest and awards ceremony. All five category award winners will receive a Sutton Studios Gift Certificate Package. For additional information please visit the Chicago Botanic Garden'swebsite Lakeshore Athletic Club - Illinois Center Dog Yoga Class - Halloween Costume Contest Saturday, October 31st Have you seen the dog yoga class stories on your local news lately? Well check it out at the Lakeshore Athletic Club - Illinois Center. Spend more time with your dog and with other people that love their dogs as much as you do! Class sizes are limited so call in advance. Don't miss the Dog Yoga Halloween Contest! For more information call Becky at 312-616-900 x221 or visit the LAC site.