Wednesday, March 29, 2017

1 closes, 1 opens, and painting live!

So the show in Macon at the Macon Arts Alliance Gallery is coming to a close this week. If you haven't been you should check it out. I'll still have work there after the show too and there's lots of talented folks displaying there so if you miss this time there'll still be more to see.

And... coming up this week is the Magnolia Art Xchange show Blooming with Max where the Pioneer Garden Club will be presenting a floral show inspired by master artists. My painting Camelia will also be on display for the 2 day show.


Camelia
30x40
acrylic and gold leaf

The show is open to the public on Friday March 31st from 1pm-4pm and on Saturday April 1st from 10am-3pm. On Saturday I'll be there painting live. I've got another camelia painting started so this is what I'll be working on at the show.



What makes it even better? I'll be painting with my buddy Julie Shealy! I'm so excited!! You may have seen Julie's Bloomies at Gateway Bank this past year. She had a fabulous show running from Oct through December. I first met Julie when we worked together on an Artist Within project with the Marion Cultural Alliance. We don't get to see each other too often so I'm not sure if we'll spend more time painting or sharing grandchildren photos :)  but anyway.... if you can, come by Ocala Union Station and see us on Saturday.



Friday, March 17, 2017

Happy, sad, angry, grateful, you name it......

I've been feeling them all lately. I don't have to go to Disney World, the roller coaster is right here in my head. I haven't posted in a while because I've had a hard time getting out of my head recently and have just been doing what's absolutely necessary. The best part of the last few weeks has been spending time with my grandbabies. My daughter and her family made another trip from TX. Here she is with her baby girl and 2 nieces and below is her son.



These are the little munchkins who keep me going. When they're here, everything else stops and sometimes that's a really good thing!

What stops? Paying attention to the news. Right now, nothing is more depressing and anger inducing than what this administration is doing- between the likelihood of losing my health insurance when I need it the most to #45 wanting to eliminate arts funding, environmental protections and meals for children and seniors for crying out loud! What's going to happen to the public schools my little munchkins will be attending? What's going to happen to the sick people who can't see a doctor? BUT.... we'll have a useless wall that we'll have to pay for. Riiiight. Everything that's good in this country is at risk because of lying, greedy, hard hearted, selfish people. I am so disgusted by not only the assholes in the White House but people close to me who still support them. What is the point of having a massive military when there won't be much left to protect? Yes, I'm a bleeding heart liberal and proud of it. I'd much rather be that than cold hearted and compassion-less. Ugh.... end of rant.

So there's the sad and angry part. It really is difficult to focus sometimes with all this crap going on. I end up sharing more political stuff on FB than art stuff and that's not a good thing but it's important stuff that needs to be said because it affects all of us personally and the art world too. We need more people to care about it and I'm not going to put on the rose colored glasses or stick my head in the sand.

What helps is balance and staying grateful.

I'm truly grateful for all the sales my 2 galleries have made for me.

I'm grateful for the portrait commissions and the faith that customers put in me to create what could become a family heirloom.

I'm grateful for a growing, local, art community.

I'm grateful to be able to do the work I love!

I'm grateful for my family, dear friends and especially all my kids and grandchildren.

Doing what I love and having friends and family around me - that's the stuff of life that makes it worth living.

Ok, got a few things out of my head and now, back to the drawing board.