The Amazing Joy and Power of Art: 2016 Reflections

The year started off horrible as the word cancer echoed and bounced around my head like a demonic ping pong ball. Friends and family, acquaintances online and off rallied and gave me the gift of their kindness, support, and way too much chocolate ;) It meant the world and I can't thank you enough. They did something else, they made me laugh each day when I left the house and I saw my front trees boobbombed with donated knitted, crochet, felt and plastic circles and boobs.Dear Nancy, oh you were

a darling friend to help me put them together and install them. They are down now, BUT they will be seen in a new way later this year ;)

To cope with the daily radiation treatment for six weeks I painted a stone a day. I would go straight to the studio after radiation treatment and paint. I focused ONLY on getting that stone painted and went into that zone artists often talk about, meditative and lost in the moment. Nothing else existed except that moment in the studio. I began to look forward to seeing what the heck I would paint the next day and seeing that countdown bowl fill up. I am in the clear for now. Things got better, in fact a WHOLE lot better. After finishing my 6 weeks of radiation, then 6 weeks of an Artist Residency with jafapal Nancy I was rewarded with the privilege and joy of spending a month with my beautiful  new granddaughter and her mama and baba in Arizona. Got filmed for the Art Show, have two exhibits and several art projects lined up and now do doodles for diba. New hopes, dreams and joys influence art just as much as sorrow does, and art influences life. So the year has ended on a much happier note.

 ps. whoever stuck all those chairs in our trees, you made me laugh my arse off

THANK YOU