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LONG ISLAND, NY—Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero—in a fight he had hoped would show he was still a contender—couldn’t make it out of the third round.

Former world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero is hard at work preparing for his main event showdown with unbeaten Omar Figueroa that headlines Premier Boxing Champions on Fox and Fox Deportes July 15 in the first boxing event at the newly renovated Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Sheryl Cathers uses public utility boxes as her canvas

I read Successful Smaller Downtowns & Business Districts: What Every Businessperson, Property Owner, and Municipal Official Should Know, by John L. Gann Jr., and got some inspirations for downtown Gilroy.

When painting in oils, I use more of an impressionistic style. I prefer to paint in plein air, painting outdoors, looking directly at the subject and paying specific attention to the effects of light on the subject and landscapes. The paintings are more spontaneous. I am trying to capture a feeling of a moment on the canvas. I am less interested in details. These paintings can be used as studies for a larger studio painting later on, but often stand on their own, typically taking about 3 to 4 hours on site.

Gilroy artist, Karah Karpinski, 37, got her creative side from her mother, Cindy and drive to succeed from her father, Paul. “I’ve always loved to draw and paint since I was little,” said Karpinski, who started painting murals on friends’ walls - everything from portraits to three dimensional murals and cartoon characters. You can see her latest creation outside Robot Shark at 7454 Monterey Street in downtown Gilroy. “I’m just beginning to explore new ideas and getting my artwork onto business’ floors and walls. It’s called illusion or 3-D murals. I do it all free-hand.” Reach Karah at [email protected].

Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero said he is more prepared for a fight than he has been for a long time.

Gilroy’s phantasmic fists are set to do battle in the ring once again, with an July 15 fight against Omar Figueroa at the Nassau Coliseum.

In between winter storms, a bright, sunny weekend beckoned me out to a wine tasting at Miramar Vineyards. Several groups, celebrating various milestones, filled the expansive patio, overlooking a vastness of vineyards and rolling green hills. Nearby, a team of wine drinkers played bocce ball on the shaded court.

If you enjoy the outdoors, it is likely you are a photographer. You are on the trail and come around a bend. Suddenly, the world drops away and a vast landscape stretches to an incomprehensibly distant horizon. When nature shows off like this, it is natural to want to preserve it in pixels.The grand landscape will always be the top priority to a hiker with a camera, but with practice, photography can also be a window to natural beauty that we routinely pass by unnoticed.Over the years, I have been to a handful of photographic seminars, always in a place of special natural beauty. But I am not sure that Yosemite or Point Reyes is the best place to learn to see beyond the usual wide angle landscape. If you gave a camera to a monkey in Yosemite Valley, he would likely return with some nice photographs. How could he miss? But could he take a good photograph in a vacant lot?I believe that the measure of a good photographer is one who makes extraordinary images in ordinary surroundings. Cultivating the heightened visual acuity necessary to create images like this is an excellent way to bring us closer to the natural world. Getting out into nature is important, but when we go, we should strive to walk into it and not just through it.I am better at preaching it than doing it, but photography has helped me open my eyes to natural beauty that I would have otherwise passed without notice. It has awakened me to the beauty of nature at my feet or close at hand that I never saw before. It has challenged me to see with a child’s eyes and discover extraordinary sights in ordinary places.With this in mind, photography becomes as much a practice in expanded seeing as the pursuit of a picture. You don’t need a hoochy-coochy Nikon SLR to do this. Next time you hit the trail, grab your pocket camera. Use your hike as an opportunity to really look at the “ordinary” sights you pass. Is there a spider web bejeweled with morning dew? Are some fallen maple leaves resting on autumn’s tawny grasses just so? How about the brightly colored lichen on that rock? I wonder if a photo of the sycamore trees reflected in that creek pool will look like one of Monet’s impressionist paintings.It is a bit surprising, but I have learned that images of simple scenes like this wear far better on a viewer’s eyes than the photo of the alpine peaks bathed in alpenglow. Mark my words, you will take that image off the wall while the picture of the maples leaves on the grass continues to please.The possibilities are endless. As we look more carefully, we begin to see more deeply. In the process, we learn that the ordinary things we pass without notice are indeed extraordinary.