I will have a piece in the Oak Park Art League’s upcoming show, “Intersection: Art & Word,” which will be up until May 28 (my birthday!). I will also have a piece in the adjacent PopUp Gallery’s “World Collage Day” show, running the same dates. My work will also remain up at Kettlestrings Tavern in Oak Park until the end of May.
The Spring 2 session of my Tuesday afternoon mixed media class is running until May 24, and then will be followed by a summer break. I will have an Open Studio Day on May 15, from 10:00-3:00. followed by a Farmers Market Workshop (for watercolor and mixed media) on Saturday, June 5, from 10:00-2:00. Register here!
Meanwhile, Spring is in it’s most lovely glory right now around here, and the blossoms around my house are so beautiful. We had a day of crazy wind gusts so I hope the blossoms stick around a bit longer and we don’t wake up to them blown down tomorrow. I’m also ready to plant my lettuces, tomatoes, peppers and potted flowers for the season. They are all just waiting in little containers for me to turn the soil and clean up the pots and spend a day with my husband getting everyone settled in their new locations in the back yard.
I had a small mixed media painting in the Oak Park Art League’s 100th Anniversary show for all of April, and we were encouraged to submit a piece that reflected our current art practices. This one felt right, as it represented this liminal space we are currently living in, not quite locked down, not quite “normal,” and unsure of what that even looks like anymore. It feels like moving through the fog to me, and looking toward a hopeful, if uncertain future.
Speaking of moving through fog, I’ve come to a decision of sorts. I am ready to live life without social media for an extended period of time. At this writing I’m not sure if that means just logging out for the summer or deleting my accounts entirely. A paradigm shift.
It’s not about politics, fake news, or considering Instagram and Facebook tedious or onerous. I appreciate and love a lot of aspects of social media. So many people I have reconnected with matter to me, and there is a TON of art related life that I’ve loved participating in on these platforms. It’s more about the fact that I lived happily until 2008 without social media, so it’s been 15 years of life with it, and I want to experience life in 2021 (and longer) without it again. I want to feel what it is to have it out of my consciousness.
I am an introvert by nature, and want to simplify, be present, quiet, and let distractions go to see what it feels like to not have them for an extended period of time. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but suddenly it feels important for me to delete the apps on my phone, log out and stay logged out for at least three months or more.
Before I log out completely, though, I need to figure out how to add the mailing list feature here on my website, so I do have an avenue of direct communication with those who want to keep up with my art developments. As all of this goes, it’s not complicated, I just need to do it.
Happy Spring to all and I hope to see you in places expected and not expected 🙂
