All My Blog Posts

In part, this is the story of a black man from the South, who moved to NY, earned 3 doctorates and then moved to middle America. He is an unsung hero and genius that needs his story told to the world. I wrote this in 2017 on Martin Luther King Jr’s Memorial Holiday (several years before the beginning of the "Black Lives Matter" movement of the 2020.)

Recalling high school for some people is like reliving their “glory days.” For me, it was one of the worst times of my life, not that anyone knew that at the time. 

A journal entry written in 1996 while creating a piece of art during the time I was also going through a divorce.  It began with an assignment given through a summer Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) course through the Getty Art Institute in Los Angeles. It reflects my feelings towards art (in 1996) and shows how the art-making process can delve deep into one’s psyche to express the true emotions one might otherwise not have the courage or words to communicate.

“Aikens’ Silverlake Manor-Previously Vande Kamps” Watercolor & ink. © 2023 Linnie Aikens Lindsay This post is a bit of Silver Lake history for you nostalgia buffs. First of all, it was written Silverlake for most of our lives, so I am sticking with that, since it took its name from the adjacent Silver Lake Reservoir, which sounded kind of redundant to many of the early homeowners, then and now, especially since it wasn't technically a lake! The n

The Songs, “Feelin’ Groovy,” “Peace Train,”“Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” and "Jesus Christ Superstar" are the songs that sum up these years for me.  I was lucky enough to have been raised during the years when Woodstock rocked and thrummed through our culture and the spirit of flower power wove itself like daisy garlands through the era.

Yes, I took a stab at it.  I lived at the beach.  It would have been a sin to let such an opportunity…or challenge pass me by, but I certainly wasn’t going to do it with an audience of friends from college! They all kept telling me I would be really good at it because I was a gymnast and had good balance. Maybe so, but I had to learn to swim first, didn’t I?

This story could be labeled Part 2 in the dumb stuff young people do (or at least, I did), who think we are invincible or somehow know all the answers in our early 20’s.

I had a love-hate relationship with hiking... Sierra Symphonies tells of a annual 2 week backpacking trip I did with my family when I was young.

Most of us kids born in the 50's and 60's constantly heard these words from our parents. Digital toys were simply not even a figment of one's imagination back then. We played outside. We used our imaginations and figured out how to entertain ourselves.

In the late 1960’s, they called it the “Kool-Aid Fountain” for the alternating pastel colored waters of the Mulholland Fountain near the entrance to Griffith Park.

“Head out, girls,” were Dad’s predictable words each time we began a hike.  I think I had hiked every inch of the 53 miles of trails in Griffith Park, all before I was 14.

This story comes from my college days. One of my on campus jobs was working "Mud Crew," which was our colloquialism for the landscaping crew, as opposed to "Crud Crew," the name we'd given the custodial team at the college.

I was six years old before I actually had a name (for my imaginary friend).  That was the year my parents took us to Silverlake Presbyterian Church.....When I was little, I believed Potlucks to be every child’s favorite...

Many families have at least one story that gets told at every gathering for decades — the “big fish story” where the finally ensnared fish nemesis seems to grow to epic proportions upon every retelling. This is our family's version.

When I was a wee lass, I found some white stones in a circle under the ferns in my Scottish grandmother's backyard...

For good or bad, while I never wanted to be on the stage, I always wanted to be noticed.  My one and only day in “lights” came at age 6, when I received televised recognition. This is the tale of of an Easter Egg Rolling Contest as a child and lessons learned.

As a child, I was fascinated with wonder that anyone would paint a house in cerulean blue!  Purple and yellow pansies waved their faces between the two houses and danced like happy members of a solstice parade, under baskets of fuchsias that contributed to an exotic, almost carnival feel.  An indian family lived there...

I was that precocious child who was thoroughly obnoxious, but one couldn’t help smiling when you watched me, so they tell me, anyway.

The importance of personal stories in the understanding of the world as powerful tools for connection.

When I was very young, my dad used to call my art "wallpaper". After college I wallpapered a couple of rooms in the home of the singer, Kenny Loggins'...