1979

Jim Litwin reporting. First, a little personal news. After commuting weekly from Chicago to St. Louis for almost a year and a half in my role as vice president of marketing for CPI Corp. (Sears Portrait Studio), I accepted a position last July as VP of market insights at Vertis Inc. In this role, I am responsible for marketing research and new product development at this large communications organization that specializes in retail ad inserts and direct mail. While I will forgo the discounted family portraits, I get to work out of a home office for a change and get to see my family during the week!

V.J. Singal writes from Houston, where he is president of The Articulate Professional, an executive communications consulting firm. His free "Words of the Month" e-mail and Internet service now has well over 150,000 subscribers (including me), many of whom receive it on their hand-held devices via AvantGo. You too can gain "perspicuity" in your writing and speaking by visiting verbalenergy.com. V.J. is also working on an updated edition of his 1995 book, The Articulate Professional, which he hopes to publish later this year.

	Beverly Shipko '79 with some of her award-winning oil paintings of desserts

Multi-talented Beverly Shipko writes from New York that she and husband Jay Sloofman '78 celebrated their 26th anniversary last summer and now have daughters in high school (junior) and college (freshman). She says, "My art career feels like it's taking off after all these years. I continue to show my work regularly at the O.K. Harris Works of Art in Soho, and the Robert Kidd Gallery in Birmingham, Mich. Over the last year, I've had work in the "Contemporary American Realism VIII" Show at the M.A. Doran Gallery, in Tulsa, Okla., and the Temple Arts Festival in Nashville, Tenn.

"My painting, 'Four Chocolate Cakes,' 2005, won an award and will be published in the 'Best of New York Artists and Artisans' by Kennedy Promotions in Virginia.

"My BIG news is that I will be having my first solo show at a museum. The name of the show is 'Great Temptations' and it will open Sept. 1 at the Wiregrass Museum in Dothan, Ala. Jay and I plan on going down for the opening. I just started the first painting of a new series, 'Four Carrot Cakes,' which I expect to exhibit at the show. I had to get a new refrigerator with a freezer large enough to store multiple carrot cakes for this series!

"On separate subjects, I met up with Ed Price and his wife in Santa Monica, where we went out to dinner a few times, checked out the beach and Santa Monica Pier, and visited the Getty Museum at sunset — a spectacular architectural and art site we would highly recommend to anyone visiting Los Angeles. It had been a number of years since we had gotten together, but it didn't feel like it at all! We all had a wonderful time.

"Also, Jay and I are looking forward to attending the Bat Mitzvah of Carin Gendell's daughter in Great Falls, Virg. While we do our best to get together, it's still an infrequent occurrence since Carin moved down to the Washington, D.C. area many years ago. I liked it better when she lived in Scarsdale, 10 minutes away.

"Finally, our company, Marketing Visions, has now been in business for more than 20 years, developing clever strategic solutions for leading companies in a variety of different categories. 2006 is shaping up to be a good year with a number of relatively new clients, including Combe (Just for Men Hair Color), Coty Cosmetics, Saks Off 5th, Pep Boys and Goya Foods. I'm still managing director, and Jay is president. Sometimes it's a challenge juggling marketing visions and painting — not to mention two teenagers — but I wouldn't change it for a minute."

Bev would love to hear from classmates, and I would love to hear from you about what is exciting, rewarding and inspirational in your lives.