I’ve been posting on Instagram, and sadly neglecting WordPress. Still haven’t found a way to get this to flow into Instagram, once I do, all will be well!

Here’s my monthly Mailing, this time the story of Spool!
I was recently invited to join Alessandro Berni gallery for representation in their online gallery. In the last few days we dotted the is and crossed the ts and this morning I was one of the new artists introduced in their mailing.
I was pleased that working virtually meant I was able to enter the Women Painters West show ‘Hope Springs Eternal‘. And…. well you know those robo calls that we’ve all started getting again? I’m glad I picked up one with an LA area code whose number I didn’t recognize, because I was being congratulated for winning third place in show with one of my entries, Hope Rising. I’d had an interesting exchange with the lady who’d been setting up the virtual show, because I’d mentioned that my work has poetry in it and she was trying to find a way to best show this.
Then when I looked at the show link, I noticed something – I’d sent the wrong image for the other painting. Nevertheless, the one I’d sent was on theme so I emailed and explained what I’d done, and asked to change the name of the painting. There was a flurry of misunderstood emails where the lady thought it was the painting that had one. At the moment of writing, it looks like ‘Rising Together’ (the name is now corrected) won third prize, it was actually ‘Hope Rising’. Perhaps it will be fixed by the time you look at this! I hope so!
The title of this painting is ‘And Never Leave…’ I’m glad to say that it has found its forever home with one of my favorite collectors!
Dawn off my back porch (there’s a new one every day but few look as good as this one). The poem written for this painting and painted into it is:
To step into a place and just belong
to stand within a sky and to believe
to raise your head, look up and to behold
and never leave, and never leave, and never leave.
I love seeing paintings in their ‘Foreverhome’ – brings closure to having sent your children out into the void, to see where they landed. One of my recent sales goes to a collector who now has a brood of five of my little ones, and he graced me with pictures of their new residence. His face really isn’t like that but as he ended up in one of the photos too, I gave him a little more anonymity!
It’s my pleasure to announce that one of my paintings was accepted into the 4th Annual Skies Exhibition with Fusion Arts. I guess I have been working with Fusion for quite a while as I was accepted in the 3rd Annual also. And further joy, as they’re local to me, I was able to meet them a couple years ago – back when we met people IRL!
Anyway, enjoy the virtual exhibition HERE.
There are so many species on the brink of extinction, hence this influence.
I have a tree painted on the back of my garage with leaves made from pieces of soda cans, stapled loosely so that they rustle delightfully in the breeze. Against the trunk is painted ‘The wind of change may not blow you someplace different but it might shape you into something more beautiful’.
I write this on the cusp between the Covid shutdowns and the George Floyd riots. Many businesses have been shuttered so long they may not survive. Some have been so impacted by the new health restrictions imposed on reopening, they have given up. Now we see others burned or looted out of existence and yet others may be unwilling to continue in some neighborhoods.
I have a friend who has been through several careers. She describes the changes as getting to a point where she needed to reinvent herself. This year it seems many will need to reinvent themselves or make adjustments to how they live or work.
One of the adjustments I’ve been considering is to make some work more easily shippable, so it is less prohibitive to sell online. I decided to experiment a little with refractured acrylics on canvas; lighter weight than panels, but also a different medium for the refractured part. The first experiment (above) was relatively successful.
Another couple items that came out of spending time at home was an update to ‘Busting the Bard’. This is now available in paperback and kindle from Amazon. And the fourth poetry and painting book ‘My Next Breath’ is close to being complete. (Click here for links.) It is available as a paperback but my proofreader and the person writing an intro on the back have yet to have time to do this, so there will be an update hopefully by the end of this week and I’ll create the kindle version then. I’ll order hard copies once art fairs restart or other outlets need restocking, but if you’d like to get a signed copy let me know.
I will have work in two online shows:
Jun 6-Jul 12: 6x6x2020 Online fundraiser for Rochester Contemporary Art Center
Jun 2nd-Aug 30th (approx) The Planet of Joy at Lark Gallery Online. This may develop into a physical gallery show next month and I should be on a Q&A Virtual Art Talk on Zoom soon. I’ll send another email when this is set.