Henry

I am struck with the fierce attachment many of us have to our pets. I specialize in canines..although I can hardly use the plural. SInce 1975 I have had only one dog. It would actually be more fitting to say that she has had me. Her name is Rosie and she came into my life in december 2001. I knew things would change. I didn't know my heart would break open.
I write about dogs today because I just finished work on a commission for a woman whose love affair with a small, elegant, boston terrier has exceeded all expectations. Henry is his name and love is his game.
I suspect Rosie would approve.

Bringing Aid to Women of Nanaimo

Here I am, last night, delivering much needed Charm Beauty and Poise tips to the girls of the Nanaimo Business Women's Association. Sad that there are so many women out there who have let themselves go.

sitting down on the job

This is what i saw out my studio window this evening. It's not uncommon to see deer outside my place. This is a small, rural island I live on. But to see one sitting down..now that's unusual.
Make yourself at home I say. This land is your land.

Sigmund Driven to Edge

Well, I'm afraid I may have pushed Sigmund to the brink of his tolerance for artists mucking about with his likeness. He has thrown up his hands and his cigar in sheer exasperation and is perched perilously on the ledge of my back deck and all because I sent out into the world, a large canvas showing him reincarnated as a bird. You'd think he'd appreciate the gesture, you know, trying to free him from all of his mental encumbrances. This is the gratitude he shows me.
I suppose I need to work more on my giving to get.

What's a nice girl like you doing in a recession like this?

For a painter, totally reliant on my income from art, I am having what amounts to way too much fun these days, when you consider that we are in the worst economic downturn since God was a girl. The galleries that represent me have all gone a little limp and sales are sagging like an old brassiere. One of my galleries is throwing in the towel/bra altogether, after over 20 years in business.

Some folks say the art market may never quite recover. But as Gloria Gaynor put it so eloquently in 1978 when I looked like this and had just burned my bra, i will survive. And how I will do that is through diversification....which loosely translated means 'a girl does what a girl has to do'. I am painting smaller works and getting them out to folks via my web, holding my own art shows in the homes of friends who will let me, and producing mixed media speaking events which I am taking on the road.

Yes, it's true, this recession has turned me into a one girl band...but the music never sounded sweeter.

earliest known blog entry

This is me in 1953 getting comfortable with a typewriter which I am certain weighed more than me. I was very short at the time, so several pillows were pressed into service to bring me to a better height. This was before we knew about ergonomics otherwise they might have had me stabilizing my tiny core by balancing on a ball. I don't know why the little measuring spoon is so close at hand unless I was planning to add a dash of irony to the entry.

sigmund, we have lift-off

Today a very old friend (she's not old, but our connection is) emailed me a photo of us from 1955 when we were classmates in kindergarten. I guess it got into me somehow. I know this because the painting I worked on shortly after getting the email shows Sigmund Freud as a bird, lifting off. I was originally thinking of having him in a housedress and turning him into a wife from the 1950s; something I am sure he would not have approved of. But instead he ended up flying. If I were on the couch today, he would no doubt have something to say about all of this.