Happy New Year! 2010

Happy New Year to all of You!

It never ceases to amaze me how each year I start out with so many things I want to get done! I love that I can start new, and reflect on what worked, what didn't, what if? Questions to be asked, solutions to be solved, challenges to be overcome and goals to be met.

Looking back, I am happy that I accomplished a good many of the intentions and goals that I wrote down in my "Dream Book". There are some things that were not accomplished and I will re-evaluate those, but I never look at the "unfinished" things as negative. Like an unfinished painting, unfinished wishes and goals are just another thing that will come into completion in time. I don't worry about it.

This past year was quite busy. I developed my curriculum for my workshops and classes and launch those mid-spring at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. I am gearing for more venues to teach and will continue to expand my calendar. I find that when I teach, my heart is enthusiastic and I have a ton of energy. It is another way that I can pay it forward and help others with their artistic journey. My dream is to be able to get a group together and travel various places on the globe and explore new "vignettes" that stir our hearts. Wouldn't that be fun?

I also painted more each day and that was a challenge, especially running a household, organizing Exhibits and Shows, being on art society boards such as ISAP and Minnesota Watercolor Society, marketing and promoting my art and also this year, teaching my "Expressive Workshops and Classes", marketing my husband's business-and so much more. My calendar was full!

Now as I ponder this year, I want to work on getting more cohesive works of art. I have several series that are ongoing and I want to push to complete several for upcoming shows and festivals.

I have also opened more online store's such as Cafe Press, ImageKind and Simply Licensed which are all wonderful opportunities to sell my art. These sites are fairly new to me and I post specific images to those venues and the rest will be on my website. Speaking of websites, I will be continuing to update and tweat my website month by month. I love having the availability of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and many other online sites. I have met some wonderful people online and will continue to explore Social Media for more marketing and promotions.

As always, I will paint from my heart. I paint what I love-nothing more, nothing less, and that is all I want to do. I will continue to paint those aspects of life that cause me to feel deep emotions and express those emotions in my art with bold, bright beautiful colors. I plan to have fun adding more pieces to the Sister Series, make more Mountain Messages, continue on until I complete twelve large Crosses of Hope, will goof off making Art Deco Dogs, and whatever else this year will unfold that will be an inspiration to me!

Blessings and love to all of you who stop by to read my blog. With all the information on the web-it's a wonder that we get anything done at all! Happy New Year!

"In the Fire" from the "Sister's Series"

This painting is actually a part of my "Sister's Series"© and is called, "In the Fire"©. It is inspired from the loss of my mother and the grief my family experienced. My sister's were very supportive and courageous during my mothers two year illness and subsequent death. It would have been very difficult to go through the surgery, horrid hospital stays, etc., and all the pain my mother endured, had it not been for them, and for my father. Watching someone you love go through so much suffering is not what any of us expects or wants.

Since my mother's passing, I am finding "Hidden Treasure's" in many of my recent paintings. You may, or may not, have read about my "Hidden Treasure's"© series, (see previous blog), and how the series was birthed, but in this Sister's Series painting, I am seeing the hidden treasure of suffering along those you love-without being bitter. I believe this is a gift. It is all what we tell ourselves. Positive or negative-it is our choice to choose how we are going to react to difficulties and challenges in our lives. Even though this experience is hard to embrace, I am able to say that it has left me feeling free and joyful. Don't get me wrong, I will miss my mother terribly and I still need to keep tissues close by, but I am seeing some positive things happening-especially in my paintings. As my heart and emotions heal, I am excited to see the results as I expand into new expressions in my paintings.