Home For Thanksgiving...And it's alright. Really.

For the past ten years or so I've not really had a Thanksgiving (or even Xmas)holiday (read, rest) vacation...I've had to drive here or there to set up and sell my artworks. Blue Genie and Eye of the Dog in Austin and San Marcos, Texas and the past couple of years, the Little Craft Show here in NW Arkansas. This year, due to many reasons; I'm still here in NW Arky.  I didn't get picked for the Little Craft Show, haven't done Blue Genie in a few years because I moved, and my cat got sick, my back is bad and I'm exhausted from my work schedule.  But mostly the cat getting sick threw me over the edge, so I cancelled my annual trip to Austin where I usually have turkey with friends and then spend the weekend in San Marcos, selling and hanging out.  At first the possibility of not going was so strange and foreign I didn't even want to consider it. My younger self would've said, "Oh what the hell, just go and get through it!" Now that I'm somewhat older and maybe just a little bit wiser I thought, "Well, what's the worst thing that could happen if I don't go?" And that's when I realized that while I will and do miss my friends/family there, I'll live, they'll live and I can drive down another time, when I can really spend a good focused visit. It's nice to be relaxing, eating, working on a bazillion pet portrait commissions that need to be done before xmas. It's a good life. I do have some small scratchboard trinkets and art pieces at the Walton Arts Center gallery here in Fayetteville during the holiday season. The gallery is open one hour before events/shows until December 23rd. There are 20+ other artists there with pottery, paintings, jewelry etc... It's a good show, and the best part about it is they do all the selling and smoozing. There is an artist reception this Saturday from 2-5pm. I will clean up and go mingle.  I also have many little pieces of art that were destined to go to Texas to sell...contact me to see/buy them. That's it. The above piece of art is a mixed-media piece from my "Little Houses" series. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope my cat gets better soon. I hope y'all had plenty to eat and good times wherever you spend your turkey day.

Christmas Past Is Past

Just a few early pictures of me with Santa.  At W&D's Department Store in No. Indiana. My mother really went crazy with the pink sponge curlers on me (I can remember trying to sleep in those damned things)...this was during the Shirley Temple years. As in, she had a desire for me to BE Shirley Temple. I have the tap shoes to prove it. These are the only Santa and Me photos I have. They stop in 1962 when I was 7. I don't know if I got too old to sit on his lap, if I stopped believing in him, or if those photos are still buried somewhere in my mother's house. The thing is, she saved everything...and the problem is, she saved EVERYTHING.  I have lots of artwork from elementary school that she archived. It seems I was very prolific even then. And as you can imagine, not very good. But still, I remember saying that I wanted to be a freelance artist, even though I'm sure I didn't really know what that was. Well, that and a plumber, both of which I have been and am.
I'm working on building the Cat Scratchin' kickstarter project, with the launch planned in January. It's all good, even though I'm going through a very restless time. Happy Happy, and Merry Merry y'all.