Sweet Corn Productions is devoted to highly entertaining
presentations that affirm self-esteem and social equality.
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Laura Stone, and her close friend Rob Ivy (Robert H. Ivy III) attended the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst Massachusetts, in 1970. Laura took my photography class, and I introduced her to T’ai Chi.
A Note from my diary, dated May 12, 1970.
“In the midst of tension and conflicts (U. Mass. was undergoing a funding cut strike. Also, my theater project was undergoing personnel changes), Laura Stone and Rob Ivy pay a visit, spreading good feelings; Laura, in particular. We grow close, physically hold each other, and mentally embrace. We entered a new sphere. She told me, ‘I love you.’ Later, I said, ‘I’m so lucky.’ And I realize I love her very much. After a while, my friend Big Al Dickinson said that when he saw us together, we had an aura about us. Laura and me talked little, but experienced a heightened awareness.”
I’m not sure that Al actually saw auras, however, to use another flowery descriptive, it was obvious that sparks were flying between us.
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Laura Stone
Amherst, Massachusetts - Early 1970
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Amherst, Massachusetts - Early 1970
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Amherst, Massachusetts - Early 1970
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Amherst, Massachusetts - Early 1970
image: Demian
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Forty-Nine Years Later …
Laura sent me a LinkedIn invite. I thought, “Could this be the Laura Stone I knew nearly fifty years ago?”
Absolutely.
During the intervening years, she has performed piano concerts, and studied T’ai Chi with Grandmaster William C. C. Chen, and others. From 1979-1994 Laura operated her own school, the T’ai Chi Ch’uan Association of Indiana, in Bloomington. In 1996, Laura create, and continues to run, The Studio School of T’ai Chi Chuan in Deventer, Netherlands. She is married to Fred van Welsem, and together, they established a Shambhala Meditation Group (Buddhism) in Deventer in 2010.
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Laura Stone
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - June 28, 2019
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Stereoscopic - for red/cyan viewing
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - June 28, 2019
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - June 28, 2019
image: Demian
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Fred van Welsem, Laura Stone
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - July 18, 2019
image: Demian
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Laura Stone
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - July 2, 2019
image: Demian
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To view Laura performing her T’ai Chi form, please see the movie I made of her, when she visited Seattle in July 2019:
Laura Stone - T’ai Chi Ch’uan
Lincoln Park, Seattle, WA - July 2, 2019
movie: Demian
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The 1970 images were shot with a 35mm camera; either a Yashica range-finder, or a Pentax SLR. The media was Ektachrome or Kodachrome. On April 10, 2019, the slides were scanned using an Epson Perfection V500 Photo, captured in VueScan, and retouch using PhotoShop Elements.
The 2019 images were shot with a Panasonic GH4 digital camera, and retouched using PhotoShop Elements.
The 2019 Stereoscopic image, which requires viewing through red/cyan colored glasses, was shot with a Fuji 3D W3, processed via StereoPhoto Maker, and retouched using PhotoShop Elements.
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