Madeline Sharples
Madeline Sharples has worked most of her professional life as a technical writer, grant writer, and proposal process manager. She began writing poetry when her oldest son, Paul, was diagnosed as manic depressive and has continued as a way to heal since his death by suicide in 1999. Her poetry has appeared in The Compassionate Friends newsletter, ONTHEBUS, The Great American Poetry Show, Mamazine, and will appear in an anthology about grief entitled Feel Better in the Mourning. She also co-authored a book about women in nontraditional professions called Blue Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994), co-edited the poetry anthology The Great American Poetry Show, Volume I (The Muse Media, 2004), won third prize in the Redondo Beach, California Exceptional Artists poetry contest in November 1999, and has published four poetry chapbooks. She lives with her husband of 36 years in Manhattan Beach, California. Her surviving son, Ben, is 32.
Paul Blieden
Paul is a painter and a photographer who lives in Manhattan Beach, California. He has been doing both since he was in high school, wow - that's over forty years. His photography hangs in company offices and homes across the United States. He works in both medium format and 35mm. Using his new Canon 30D digital, a Bronica ETRS and a Canon EOS-1N, he travels throughout the United States and overseas taking photos mostly for his own enjoyment. But he has found that many individuals like his work enough to actually pay him money for his work. What a dream to do what he enjoys and to get paid to do it. He is a an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association and the Palos Verdes Art Center. Mostly self taught, he has learned through a lot of trial and error to see what pleases his artist's eye; and when someone tells him one of his photos looks like a painting, he knows he has done something right.
OTHER IMAGES: www.paulblieden.com