Witnessing the recent bizarre attack on a multimillion dollar Gainsborough painting in London's National Gallery has haunted my thoughts. You may have missed the story, as it was overshadowed a few days later by the terrorist attack down the street, near Parliament. My first inkling was the shouting, though my husband insists he heard a slashing sound. […]
Playing with pure pigment is, for me, the best part of pastel painting. It's me and a soft stick of vibrant color, no brush or turpentine to interfere. Pastel sticks allow me to work in broad strokes, avoiding too much realistic detail. Instead, I show how it felt to be there. I'm not a camera, I'm […]
Painting makes me hungry. Really hungry. Almost as much as heavy duty yard work or aerobic exercise does. Which I found kind of surprising. While it takes a lot of concentration to think about next steps in a painting, expending mental energy normally doesn't build a large appetite. I can run a meeting, write a […]
Accept my apologies for even using a trendy word like locavore, but please bear with me while I broaden its appeal. It occurred to me recently that it's basically just another way of saying "put your money where your mouth is." Save your health, our farmers, the economy – and maybe some starving artists, too! People bemoan […]
Irony is a wonderful thing, and for those who know me well, the following announcement fits the bill. I'm someone who loves to quote "so many books, so little time" in response to whether I've watched a particular TV show. Therefore, the fact that I was interviewed on TV about my art is beyond ironic. […]
Painting workshops are an awful lot like corporate training seminars, which always comes as an unpleasant surprise to me. Yet it seems I have to learn this lesson every couple of years, when a workshop sounds too tempting to pass up. Having attended – and managed – many seminars in my previous life, I wasn't expecting the similarities. It's hard […]
Birds of a feather is a trite way to say it, but I am truly blessed to have some amazingly creative, community-minded, high energy friends. Better yet, they are willing to share their skills, connections, time and knowledge with me, inspiring me to greater heights. Recently, I had dinner with a friend who has a corporate […]
Not to sound too New Age-y, but sometimes you just have to put the intention out there and then watch carefully for the universe to respond with an opportunity. After devoting a lot of time in the last few years to volunteer board work, I recently decided to focus on my art business. At a farmers market in March, I noticed […]
One thing I love almost as much as art is social psychology. I'll spare you details of how I invented a major in consumer psych so I'd be allowed to take college courses in art, marketing, psych, design, advertising, architecture and communications from six departments in four different schools of the university. Suffice it to say I'm fascinated by how colors and shapes […]
Air travel offers hideous food, ache-inducing seats, bad air directed at your head, and people who don’t cover their mouths for sneezes and coughs. We braved it all for wonderful Thanksgiving visits in CA, returning with airplane-caught colds just as the holiday season kicked into gear. Missing a few events to spare friends, I finally attended a holiday luncheon with some fascinating, accomplished women. […]
