Local author and visual artist Ross Alan Bachelder will give an informal talk about his most recent book, Growing Up Blue-Collar: An Uncertain Beginning, on Thursday, October 23, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

The event will take place at RiverStones Custom Framing, located at 33 N. Main Street in downtown Rochester. A selection of Bachelder’s artworks will be on display, and signed copies of Growing Up Blue-Collar will be available. Light refreshments will be served, and the public is welcome to attend.

Bachelder spent 20 years as a picture framer at Ben Franklin Crafts, where he founded the Franklin Gallery and later managed the frame shop. In one of Growing Up Blue-Collar’s 27 lively, thought-provoking essays, he reflects—in both rosy and not-so-rosy detail—on his years as a picture framer in a small-town business often viewed, unfairly, as “just another typical blue-collar retail establishment.”

He is the author of four books, all written after he turned 70: Happy Dawg Walks the Sad Man: The Remarkably Varied Adventures of a Confirmed Arts Multiple (50 Years of Immersion in the Fine & Performing Arts); Revenge: Tales Best Read in the Twilight Hours (12 Darkly Humorous Short Stories); Cecelia by Moonlight: The Problem With Intelligence (A Novel); and most recently, Growing Up Blue-Collar: An Uncertain Beginning, a no-holds-barred memoir and wide-ranging social commentary. All four books are available now on Amazon.

Now 81, Bachelder has enjoyed a long, rich life immersed in the fine and performing arts. When not writing, performing, or exhibiting his multimedia artworks in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, he has traveled extensively—visiting museums and galleries in England, Scotland, New Zealand, Canada, Reykjavik, Paris, and Amsterdam. He has also toured museums in Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, and many other cities.

For more information about the talk, call (603) 812-1488.