15 years and counting

Yesterday I went to the regular Thursday morning artist breakfast only to find that there was just one other artist in attendance. This is a rarity. for 15 years, give or take a few months, a group of mid-career Louisville artists have been meeting for breakfast every Thursday morning. What began as a group of 8 has included more than 50 artists through the years. Most weeks there are about 10 artists who show up between 8:45and 9:20am. while this has always been an open meeting the group has embraced the arrival of some artists and seemingly ignored others who dropped out after 2 or 3 visits.

All of this began when a fellow Louisville Visual Art Association Board member asked me to introduce her to some local artists. She was a senior level banker getting ready to retire and so she could concentrate on painting. She asked me to set up a lunch meting but I told her that, unlike 9-5 workers, no artist I knew would be willing to interrupt a studio day just to have lunch and just chat. I also told her that I often met artist friends for breakfast and thought that might work better. We each decided to invite an artist friend for breakfast the following week. That next week the 4 of us decided this might be a great way to keep in touch with artists since the only time we ever seemed to get together was during openings when there was no way to have any sort of serious discussion or exchange of information while standing around in  a crowd. We decided to each ask another artist to meet the following week at which time we collectively decided this was a very good idea indeed.

From this simple idea an institution was born. We began at one restaurant until their prices got so high that some people stopped coming for economic reasons. We then moved to a very small downtown diner where we took over their back room and terrorized their quirky 1950's style waitress for a couple of years. Their crowded condition and smoking policy drove us into suburbia for about 5 years until that restaurant/deli lost it's lease. We now meet at the edge of downtown in a lovely restaurant where we simply push another table together as the group enlarges from week to week. Once again we are on a first name basis with the waitress and have the gratitude of the owner for increasing his Thursday morning business.

The most interesting thing is how many of the artists from that first year still come several times each month. As some people have moved out of town others have moved in to fill their places yet there is still a core group of 8-10 who have continued from those beginning months. Most of us are in our late 50's to mid 60's now but several are over 75 and a few are in their 30's. Lots of experience to share . Lots of talent around 1 table. All in all, it's probably the best idea I ever had!! So being there with only 1 other person yesterday was a fluke that happens several times a year.Iit gave me a chance to really have a serious conversation with someone I knew only slightly and that was an amazingly enjoyable hour.

on exhibit

"Broken Link" will be included in an exhibit at Louisville's Firehouse Gallery on Hancock Street. 
The show features 2 dozen regional artists. There is an opening reception Thursday September 1
from 6-8pm as well as the First Friday Trollley Hop the following evening. I suggest trying to attend
Thursday since the forecast for Friday is 95F!

time marches on....

So many things have happened during the past 7 weeks that I hardly know where to begin. Of course the most important is the birth of my 3rd grandchild, Nathaniel, on July 26. A blessing for one and all.

But life manages to continue in all the small regular ways despite such big events. My problem is that the heat this summer has been so fierce that I have turned into a human slug. I'm more than ready for the end of air conditioning season and the return of 55F nights!!

My position as Artist Facilitator for ArtsWORK New Albany has been a real source of frustration. It's such a misfit for this little suburban community across the river from Louisville. all of the artists I have asked to participate in giving Saturday morning talks have been gracious in accepting my invitation but the audiences continue to shrink to the point where I am embarrassed by the turnout, moreso by the fact that there is no money available to even pay them the smallest honorarium for their eforts. September is the last month of the program and I will try every trick I can to get a bigger turnout for one of the region's most respected and admired senior artists. Unfortunately there is a program at the same site that evening with NPR's Bob Edwards, a beloved Louisville native, which may very well trump the morning talk in the crossing the river department for people interested in both..... We shall see.

Meanwhile my garden has once more gone to pot. This was most definitely NOT the year to resume any attempt at growing tomatoes or anything else in large pots. Planning on buying field chrysanthemums and chucking all the herbs and veggies for a bit of color!! And so it goes.

The bright spot is that friends of my brother's were here for supper Friday night and insisted on exploring the studio with amazingly enthusiastic responses. It's always lovely when near strangers encounter my work and immediately feel such a strong connection. My fingers are crossed for the possibility of sales in the future.....

hard to be creative with melting crayons

Anyone who read my last post here knows full well how I detest hot humid summer weather. What I didn't add to my earlier rant is the sad fact that oil pastels, my medium of choice since 1980, actually begin to melt in the heat. Even when air conditioning  keeps the studio around 75-78F it's still hot and humid enough for the things to melt as soon as I have them in my hands for more than about 90 seconds. I guess this would be fine if I actually used oil pastels another way but since I like layering them dry surface on to dry surface it gets a wee bit problematic to work when  the result is more like making mudpies than making art. All I can say is that I am thankful last June wasn't like this June or I'd never have been able to complete so many pieces for my "Phoenix Rising" exhibit!

This year's major task is to sift through 23 years of accumulated materials in this house so I can make the challenging decisions regarding what to save, what to throw away, what to give away and what to try to sell (heh, heh, heh and good luck with THAT!). IN addition I am spending way too much time outseid with a wonderful yard helper trying to put this poo  neglected piece of property back into some semblence of order. I came across photos of my gardens in June 1995. Glorious. Absolutely glorious in every direction. Hard to believe I actually did every bit of that work myself. I wanted to live in a park surrounded by English floral border plantings and that's what I had and enjoyed for years.

The sad thing about arthritis like I had is the complete inability to get ticked off about things I couldn't do any longer. Ok I stopped all garden work in the Spring of 2004. Nobody could expect anything besides survival of the fittest after 7 years of complete neglect. On Wednesday my son-in-law and grand daughter came over late in the morning. It was shady on the far side of the house so he agreed to tear out vines that had completely engulfed several holly trees as well as way too many volunteer shrub honeysuckles. One vine was about 1" in diameter at its base. As he was strugling to pull in out from the hollies I told Sara I wouold make her a wreath from that kind of vine. She, of course, thought Grammie was completely nuts with this sort of project. Grammie had never made a wreath in her life so Sara wsn't too far of the mark thre after all. But I just sat in a white plastic chair winding this vine around itself until I had actually created a wreath about 16" wide. It's up to Sara and Jake to decorate it for Halloween and then convince their mother to let them hang the thing!!

It's hot. That was about the limit of my creativity for the week. Now back to sorting through clothing and digging through drawers and closets for yet more surprises to drag to the lovely folks at Goodwill to rehabilitate. Last trek included a dozen stufed animals, including some rare light beige monkeys left over from one year when Starr's team mascot at camp was a beige monkey. I'm actually enjoying this process as well as the garden/yard reclamation work. Just wish it were November and 55-60F outside. And of course wish my house were sold and I was getting ready to relocate to somewhere small with large rooms!

only mad dogs and Irishwomen.....

My friend Jane has been in town visiting from Northern Ireland since May 25. These past 2+ weeks have been just about the hottest late spring weather anybody can remember. The daily misery index is through the roof and into the stratosphere, which is silly since the temperatures in the stratosphere would rival that of the Antarctic. We have had temps over 90 F with 85%+ humidity since she has  been here. Meanwhile Jane is absolutely thrilled to finally be warm as temperatures where she lives in Ballymena, 30 miles north of Belfast, have been cold and damp averaging about 40F. What is wrong with this picture?

People who know me are  well aware that my disposition gets worse and worse with every degree above about 75 when the humidity is over 60%. Needless to say during the past few weeks I haven't been my finest. Top that off with the wonderful fact that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past 2 weeks I have had a garden helper working to reclaim my long neglected yard from the wild honeysuckle, grape vines and dead shrubbery which have run amok for the past 6-7 years. My garden worker is the son of good friends and he is more than willing to do just about anything I can think of for him to tackle. Problem comes when it's about 73 or 74 at 8am and near 90 by noon. We have tried to work in the shade but there are times when that simply isn't possible. He wants me outside with him the whole time so I have done more exercise in the past 2 weeks than I have in the past 2 years. Not much visible progress as yet  so that gives a slight indication of how Herculean the task actually is!!

Back to Jane. She doesn't like air conditioning. I mean she really doesn't like it. so you can well imagine my misery when we went to visit a friend in Indiana last week and she wanted the car windows open. I managed  fine on the 40 minute  drive over there. I managed fine, just barely, when we drove a country road looking for some restaurant I had heard had fabulous birds' eye views above the Ohio River  - true enough. But after lunch at nearly 3pm with my car parked in the sun for nearly 90 minutes I insisted on AC for the long ride home. she kept her window open about an inch anyway!!

So now I find  myself wondering how menopausal Irish women  manage. Don't  they too get hot flashes and night sweats? Or is it so cold there most of the time that they are simply glad to have the extra body warmth?
I loved the summers I spend in Ireland and Northern Ireland because they were cool and the air was so amazingly clean. Now with the Icelandic volcano dirtying their air  and blocking the sun I still think it would be more pleasant for me than staying here and sweltering. Maybe Jane and I just  need to trade places for next summer.  The weather we have here now is only fit for mad dogs and Irishwomen!!

what friends are for

Last month my longtime friend Warren was in town for a professional conference. This was a treat of unbridled proportions for me. When we were neighbors in Cherry Hill, NJ during the 1980s we had dinner together at least once a week. Our relationship was always that of siblings since he had a sister my age whom he adored and I had 2 brothers, all living a distance away. It just happened that we because fast friends and have maintained a long distance contact through the ensuing years.

Warren  appeared at the very beginning of what was to become my professional art career. He showed enormous interest in the progress of both my oil pastel drawings as well as my clay sculptures and vessels. Eventually he began making very deliberate, highly selective purchases of my artwork. His enthusiasm and support, both emotionally and financially was invaluable. some things just don't change.

Warren contacted me to arrange a dinner date his only free evening in L'ville. When I asked what sort of food he wanted he immediately replied "Chinese" as we had probably eaten 100 Chinese dinners together in the past. I hadn't seen him in about 4 or 5 years but from the first moment on the phone it was obvious that we were in for business as usual. It's just so wonderful when time evaporates and the glue between friendships holds fast.

After a fabulous meal at the August Moon Warren asked to go to my house and see my newest work. Now he had seen much of this work online but he wanted to see first hand the progression I went through post surgeries and understand how I reeducated myself to maneuver from point A to points XY and Z. So I showed him everything I had, every scrap of paper, the good the bad the ugly as well as the "I can't believe I actually DID this!!". As is his way, he was deliberate and probative, asking thoughtful questions and making insightful comments as are only possible when someone is actually familiar with an artist's entire body of work. It's not that his interest was flattering. It's that it was gratifying for him to WANT to take so much time to study each piece and try to understand it's place in the continuum.

I am always surprised by what pieces of my work appeala to certain people. My friend Monica is my only "collector" whose taste I know so well that I have an over 90% success rate figuring out what she'll want to buy. Warren selected 2 small early studies. He and Ann have plenty of my work in their home. I really wasn't showing him these pieces with the idea he might actually buy something, let alone 2 pieces from the very middle of my 36 month struggle to recover. I always believe it is up to the artwork itself to select an audience, that's it's job. Once I sign my name to it the thing becomes a marketable commodity. But I was so deeply touched by

Warren's sincerity in wanting to purchase what were really just sturies, and imperfect studies in my eyes. But he saw something in them and that was that. So 2 landscape studies are now in Minneapolis getting acquainted with "Mc Bell's Fantasy" and "Pond Scene"  and "Good Day Sunshine" and the others whose names I have long forgotten as well as numerous ceramics collecting dust on horizontral surfaces in their very lovely home! But after all, that's what friends really are for.

strange business

In February I accepted the position of Artist Facilitator for ArtsWORK Indiana's New Albany programming. The organization aims to assist and promote artists with various disabilities. In essence I contact the selected artist pesenters for these monthly programs and collect information for a press release as well as learning what they will need in a physical sense for the presentation itelf. During their presentation I take notes and write a report about the program and account for the audience members' evaluations.

There was a hole in the schedule and I was the program presenter for May. My topic was "My Recovery Show and Tell" , another in a series of talks about how degenerative osteo-arthritis brought my 34 year career to a screeching halt in 2004 and how after bilateral shoulder replacement surgeries in 2007 I managed to reclaim my studio skills and my career. So what was different about this talk? For the first time I brought work, more than 2 dozen pieces, to share with the audience. I thought, if  picture is worth a thousand words...

Well that part was OK. I know how to tell a story as keep an audience fairly well entertained. BUT the strange business was that I had to write up and submit a report of my own program. Yes, someone else took notes while I was speaking but she left them for me to transcribe and elaborate upon. Just seems like mighty strange business to evaluate myself.