Mimi Torchia Boothby

Maddalena’s admonishment

There are always social changes with each new generation. These differences can be great when generations span continents as well. As the grandchild of two sets of Italian grandparents, sometimes this became very apparent to me. Despite their greatest efforts to become Americans they still retained some of their old world ideas, particularly my grandmother…

December 30, 2010

On painting Abraham Lincoln

I try to draw or paint every single day, it’s a discipline that I think helps me as an artist. I didn’t have a commission to paint Saturday so I went through the Shorpy archive of old photographs and found one of Abraham Lincoln. It was taken the year that he died. Perfect, I thought,…

December 20, 2010

The curve of the hornist’s hand

To excel at any instrument requires practice and dedication, but there are some other physical qualities that can give you a real advantage with most instruments including: dexterity for the violin family, long fingers for the piano, a good embouchure for all wind instruments, which includes the French Horn. The French horn, however, is unique…

December 19, 2010

Back to the barn

Maybe you can think of a better name for this painting? In the very middle of the last century, a very small girl who lived in a big city picked up a pencil and started drawing horses. I do not understand why these big beasts are so important to so many little girls, but no…

December 14, 2010

Worth more than money

Like many artists, I donate a fair number of my paintings to charities that I care about, so last month when I was asked if I had anything for Feral Care‘s fund raising auction, I offered one of my favorite cat paintings, the Smiling Cat. I liked it so much I painted it twice (I…

December 12, 2010