Love in the time of Covid-19

Yes, I'm back. I bet you thought I'd never post again. I wasn't sure I would either but times they are a changin'. A lot's changed in the last year and a half so there's lots to share with you. I'm not going to play catch up all in one post though. Maybe sharing bits and pieces as I go will get me back in the habit of posting again.

This is a tough time for all of us. It's hard to keep the spirits up sometimes but I'm working on it. I'm also working on working if that makes sense. Working in the studio is not a problem. I've always been an introvert so this work at home thing is heaven for me. I love solitude. What I have to work on is sharing the work that comes from that studio time. So now I'm spending more time online and getting back to this blog.

My biggest news.... last year I became co-owner of an art collective. I'm one of 6 painters at Gallery B in downtown Ocala. I've been part of the gallery for less than a year and now, here we are, with temporarily closed doors. All my time and energy has been toward the gallery and I love it! We're a close group that has so much fun working together. Of course we're looking forward to opening again when this mess is over, we just don't know how long that's going to take. So in the meantime, we're all just working on ways to keep sharing the love, our love for our friends and family and our love for art. The big gallery news is 👇

I love this photo! This was the coolest thing to happen at our gallery since we opened. That building on the right is Citizens First Bank. It's the first branch to open in Ocala and they contacted us at the gallery because they wanted to purchase original art for inside the bank. The bank is located directly across the street from our gallery. They were amazing to work with and in the photo above you see four of us from the gallery delivering the art across the street and leading the art parade is the bank President Lindsey Blaise. Our friend and photographer Jenny Eggers risked life and limb getting out in the middle of the intersection to get this shot of us taking our art to the bank.

Here are a few pics from inside our gallery...

The doorway opens into our neighbor's beautiful store, Greiner's Clothing

We're so fortunate to have this space. We have 6 painters - the other 5 artists are Julie Shealy, Sandy Sanders, Cheryl Ritter, Bobbie Deuell and Laurie Kopec. We also have a potter, Gene Hotaling and woodworker, Garrett Boutwell. 

That's it for now. I'll share again soon, I swear! I have some updating to do and a lot of new artwork to share too so check in again. Until then, stay safe and healthy. 

Much love,

C

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.

Giving thanks in more ways than one

Well I don't know about you but it's been a crazy busy time these last few weeks. I guess it always is in the time leading up to the holidays. I know my gallery rep has been busy. I want to give a giant shout out to the Signature Gallery in Tallahassee. Because of them I've had the best month in art sales yet. 5 Swallows, pictured here, along with 5 other paintings found new homes recently thanks to their efforts. The folks there are the kindest, hardest working, most ethical I've found in the gallery world so far so thanks to Vera and the rest of the crew there. I love working with them!

What else am I truly thankful for? I had the most amazing Christmas surprise ever. My daughter and her hubby decided on the afternoon of Christmas day that they would pack up my two grandbabies and the granddog and drive straight through all the way from Dallas TX to my house in central FL. On Monday I saw a black dog coming up the front steps of the house. I thought - that looks just like Maddie but that can't be. Next thing I know my daughter's face is grinning at me through the front door glass. Crazy!!!! 

Needless to say there were lots of tears and laughter and hugging and squeezing. The best part.... my son and his family were already here because we were celebrating Christmas with them on Monday so the house was full and happy.

Did I plan to paint this week? Yep. Do I care? Nope. Sometimes, plans you have for painting or other job stuff, can go right out the window when you can have the joy of kids and grandkids for a few days.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish for you a very Happy New Year! See you in January.

Art, Lamps, and Beer

Last Friday was the opening reception for my show at the 567 Center for Renewal in Macon GA. Beth did a wonderful job of hanging the show and I met so many great people!! I'm also very, VERY grateful that the opening of my show happen to be in between the 2 snow storms that hit Georgia! Talk about good timing.

Anyway, we arrived the day before to deliver the work and hang it, although Beth had most of it done by the time we were available to help - she's amazing! She also fed us that night. We had a lovely time hanging out with her and her hubby. Friday we spent the day exploring Macon. We found more artsy stuff, antique shops, lamps, great pizza, an eclectic paper store, lamps, neat architecture, more lamps, a really cool toy shop where we found a chunky puzzle for our grandson, banana bread beer.......

really, banana bread beer, and it was good.

Not kidding about the lamps. There's something about Macon. We pulled into one parking lot because we saw a sign that said "art". It looked like it would be an art gallery but in the windows all you could see were lamps. We walked inside and it was full of paintings and reproductions and lamps - table lamps all over the place. Every style and size you can imagine. Later when we went to the pizza place, where we had the banana beer, what did we see hanging from the ceiling? Lamps. The whole ceiling was covered with lamps and chandeliers. Strange.

Anyway, back to art. Here I am with Beth Smith, curator at the 567.  

After spending the evening with the friendly folks who came by the reception, we walked around the block to the Contemporary Arts Exchange. What a hoot! This place is an old building where part of it is left un-renovated and the city leases rooms to artists to use as studios. During the First Friday Art Walk they open the building and it's party time. Kids are running around the halls, artists are hanging out, a band is playing downstairs, there are buckets with ice and beer, and tables with wine. If I lived in the area I would definitely have a studio there.

Earlier in the day we visited the Macon Arts Alliance gallery. It's a beautiful space and I'm happy to say that when my show at the 567 is over at the end of February, my work will then be included at the Arts Alliance gallery so this little Macon/Ocala art connection will continue. Yay!