It’s been awfully quiet around the studio lately, namely because the artist lost her voice! A serious matter, since corralling a Pug puppy involves boisterous hollering from time to time (okay, every 20 minutes or so). The good news is – the bug that made the rounds has left the building. This delayed our plans to unveil the new studio for you in a timely fashion, but I’m delighted to finally pull back the curtain now! The sparkly bits are polished and the fluffy parts are fluffed.
Join me for the home studio tour!
It’s not the biggest studio in the world, nor the fanciest, but it’s another milestone in the journey. If my Mother were still alive, there would have been weekly phone calls with updates on each little step in the process, starting with the flooring and the glass doorknobs, and ending with anecdotes about what the contractors discovered under the sheetrock. I’ve been flooded with memories of her lately, as the anniversary of her passing is approaching.
On some of the nights I stayed with her during her 2 years in hospice, I would read to her from poetry books. Her favorite was Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends. She had written hundreds of poems in her lifetime, and won awards for her writing, so her love of language was a part of who she was. But it was her imagination – and her storytelling when we were children – that fueled my dreams and my writing. She used to sing silly songs to us when we were young, and, when we were older, took us the library every week. She saved money back from the grocery budget to buy us Disney records, which we played on summer days, sitting on the floor in the bedroom I shared with my three sisters. Her piano room had shelves lined with poetry anthologies and literature textbooks, and binders filled with her written and typed work.
Where do the stories go, when the storyteller is gone? As long as I can still remember the sound of her laughter, and see her hands turning the pages of a book at her kitchen table, maybe the story isn’t finished, quite yet. Maybe the storyteller is still here, a part of the fabric of who I am today, and who I am growing to be.
Birds and Bees Abuzz in the Studio
Painting Brilliant Birds & Bees
July 13-15, 2018
Flower Mound Studio
Get the Buzz Here
My March 23 workshop is full, but there are a few seats left for Painting Brilliant Birds and Bees, July 13-15, 2018, here in the new studio. Flower Mound, Texas, is just 15 minutes from DFW International Airport in North Texas, and the gals who joined me in February said the new Marriott in Flower Mound is lovely, with waterfall gardens and walking paths just outside. July students will get to meet the pug helpers, and have special meals prepared by Chef Carlos. If it’s not too warm that weekend, we’ll have lunches in the flower gardens. Best of all, my studio workshops are super small with plenty of teacher TLC!
Spring is the perfect time to give away a new $100 gift certificate for art supplies! Tubes of joy, boxes from Dickblick.com on the doorstep, brushes in pristine clear wrappers, all the things that make an artists’ heart to go pitty pat! To be entered to win, leave a comment on the blog, easy as pie. And please, if you’re already signed up for the July workshop, don’t bring the artist pie. She has already converted all her jeans to stretchy! I’ll announce the winner on July 12, just in time for the Birds and the Bees in the studio!
Disclaimer: Content in the July Birds & Bees workshop has been approved by the Workshop Association of America with a rating of Bee Gee, suitable for all audiences. Some scenes do depict shockingly bold color, however.
PS: Join me for a VIP painting dream getaway to Italy during the National Truffle Festival in Le Marche region in October 2018.
Get all the delicious Italy details here
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