Time Gets Away!

Where does it go?

“Revealed” 40 x 30 on canvas. To me, this looks like a lot of debris being pulled back from a hidden surface, revealing its beauty underneath. I think it has something to do with the times we’re enduring right now, an expression of hope that the future will bring something unexpectedly good.

This week has been a blur. After my last show, I’ve been painting a lot, but it seemed like I was making little progress until today. I finally finished two paintings, out of the eight or nine I had in progress. I was really frustrated with a botanical painting I started (pictured below) and I covered up some of the leaves and did layers of light pinks and yellows in the sky, and I just couldn’t make it into something I could get excited about.

On a whim, I decided to just paint over the whole thing and I did the shapes and new colors yesterday, and then on my walk this morning I got the idea for the bricks. I wanted to use a lot of lines, so I emphasized those by using black paint and pens around the shapes. I decided I liked it and finished it. Those purple swirls and drips were something I added and decided I liked them, even though they are a little weird, I didn’t feel like covering them up. The final result is “Revealed” above. It was fun!

This is what Revealed (above) looked like until yesterday!!!

I’ve been making some plans for later this year, and I decided to rent a small gallery space for a week in December for a solo show. The city has a building called the Center for Creativity where artists can rent out space for a week or more to show their work, open to the public, and can have a reception with catered food and/or alcohol served by the Center, and it’s very affordable. I went ahead and reserved it for Wednesday through Sunday of the first week of December and I will host a reception on the last day in the afternoon and invite everyone I know.

I’m trying to come up with a good title and description of what I want the exhibit to mean, I have some ideas and it will consist of a story, that one can follow from the first painting through the last one, I will have no more than a dozen pieces total, and most will be large, 30 x 40 ish or so, and then some 20 x 20s tucked in there.

I took care of some personal business last week and I am trying to figure out where I want to go next with my artwork. The gallery situation is on my mind these days, I’m off to Boulder tomorrow to pick up my two pieces at Ana’s art gallery, she is closed for the summer, and the city of Boulder is remodeling the face of the building she’s in, and there’s no parking, and it’s a big mess, so that will have to be postponed for at least a little while. I’ll talk with her tomorrow to see what she’s thinking for after re-opening in the late summer or early fall.

I did not attend First Friday last week. I was too tired that evening, ready for bed by 5 pm since the girls woke me up at 3 am howling, and I don’t know why. I admit I am not thrilled with attending First Friday sometimes. I sort of miss the days when I didn’t feel obligated to go. I’m really not, it isn’t part of my gallery contract, but it feels expected. There are a few reasons why I’m not feeling it. It’s not at all about the sales. I have made a decision, but it’s a matter of when I will execute on that. More on that later…

I got some good runs in last weekend, one up on the hills at Horsetooth Reservoir on Saturday, and on the Bacon Strip hills with Crisann on Sunday. I have felt so strong on the hills. If the altitude doesn’t destroy me in Crested Butte, I should do pretty well on the trails up there.

“On the Vine”, 14 x 11 on canvas. A fun little piece for this upcoming show.

Today was our 36th wedding anniversary. How does that happen? One day you’re an energetic twenty-something running races at a blistering pace every weekend and putting in a gazillion miles of workouts, plus graduate school, plus having energy to do everything, and then life somehow happens and knocks the shit out of you and you’re limping along carrying an extra twenty or thirty pounds and moving at half the pace you used to for everything, and you’re thinking about things like Social Security and Medicare and how to keep the house from falling apart around you, and you start thinking in time frames that are a lot shorter…

But I realize that while Dennis and I might have been an unlikely pairing if we had looked forward thirty-some years ago, looking back it makes perfect sense. We make up for each other’s weaknesses and strengths. I am so glad I did not try to find a partner that my parents would have imagined for me. No effing way. All those tennis lessons I was sent to, in my mom’s mind she wanted me to meet some rich guy, while all I learned was fart tennis (it’s a thing, look it up!), and staring out at the horizon wishing I were anywhere but on that stupid court in my white dress and shoes. I was not impressed with the tennis pro teacher. But I did learn that one valuable skill to share with my future spouse!

When you have fewer years ahead of you than you do behind you, you hope things will work out as the years stretch out ahead of you, that there will be adequate time to enjoy the future together. Keeping each other grounded in this uncertain and insane planet we are stuck on, on our little quarter acre lot that serves as home, garden, orchard, work studios, and dog park.

We went out to Dennis’s favorite restaurant and had food and margaritas. I had a hibiscus margarita that was so good. I need to figure out what they did, I think they must have used agave syrup with strong hibiscus tea and mixed it with lime juice and silver tequila. I will have to try this one at home.

Tomorrow we will go to Boulder to see Ana, and then we will go to Denver for a second day of Mexican food…this time I’m taking Dennis to La Diabla on Larimer Street for their Pambazo sandwich, the posole, and the seafood ceviche I had last time, which was mind-blowing.

And the Friday it’s back to Denver to set up for the show. Dennis will help me set up and then we’ll come home. I’m going to try to save some money by not getting a hotel and coming home at night for this show. The times I’ll have to drive should have less traffic, and it’s closer to the north side of Denver. Maybe an hour and fifteen minutes if traffic is normal, less if the traffic is light. Plus I can leave the trailer home on Saturday. I did not get a corner booth for this show, which I might end up regretting, but we’ll see. It’s supposed to be a good show.

The family picture, under Bart the pear tree, tonight with the girls, who refused to look at the camera.

The poppies are opening, and all the other flowers in the studio yard are blooming.

I have been slacking on making another video, I will try to do that before the show. I have a few ideas for short ones. I have to say it felt so good to finish two paintings today. Some days are like that, other days it’s hard to get going. After this weekend’s show, I have a week until Crested Butte and basically a whole month and a half before my next show. I can unwind and get outside and then create some new, fun pieces with the energy that will give me.

Good night everyone. I’ll be back soon. Have a great week!