Curiouser and Curiouser

It has been an honor and a privilege to exhibit my paintings alongside my dad and my sister at the Springville Museum of Art. Wandering the many rooms of this retrospective sum of paintings is a visual feast. The museum curators have outdone themselves with informative cards, hands-on crafts, and a thematically arrangement of the art laced with readable treats.

Two of the walls are dedicated to a family tree with my parents at the base and each of their five children branching off with grandkids and great-grandkids following. We put all our names in a hat a drew each other, proclaimed artists and proclaimed artistically challenged alike, and made the portraits for the tree.

In an interactive room you can make flowers to throw at the feet of one of Cass' paintings. And, she made a huge a fun flannel board with all sorts of hand-made figures and pieces, as only her wild creativity can conjure, to create a scene or a story. Belatedly, I have a shadow puppet theater with scripts and puppets to perform your own puppet show!

A room of curiosities has cabinets, stands, and walls saturated with interesting objects from our studios and things that we have made with our hands. We provided a key to help navigate through the stuff.

Don't forget to stop by the gift shop. We've got some good stuff in there. From one dollar post cards to magnets, to prints, lithos, and even some original drawings.

Planning sesh. We worked hard for this wonderful show. I was blown away and overcome with emotion on the opening night. I love my family and I'm one lucky little girl.

What would you do?

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?
7"x6" oil on panel 

Send a ribbon in one ear and pull it out the other. Hammers fly, stamping out a sentence. The anticipation feels like cracking open a fortune cookie, only the message will be authentic. She might be revealing secrets or making tangible her raw thoughts in glorious honesty. Today she is declaring a mantra. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? She is pretty determined to do it. To name those things, then do them - no matter what. No thought to what she might be embarrassed to admit she hasn't done. No confession of fears. Just determination. 

The Heron

The Heron, 2013
Oil on panel, 12×9 in

 A Heron went wading one early morning to take his breakfast from the shallows of a stream. There were many Fish in the water, but the stately Heron thought he could find better. "Such small fry is certainly not suitable fare for a Heron," he remarked to himself.

And as a choice young Perch swam by, the Heron tipped his long bill in the air and snapped, "No, sir, I certainly wouldn't open my beak for that!"

The sun grew higher and all the Fish left the shallows for the cool, deep, middle of the stream. When the Heron could find no trace of a Fish left in the stream, he was very grateful to finally break his fast on a mere snail.

Aesop's Fables always have a moral. The story of The Heron illustrates that one aught not be too hard to suit or may have to settle for crap, or worse for nothing at all. This idea is kind of like waiting for the perfect blog post to appear. Poignant and informative, dashed out in a spot somewhere between a poopy diaper, unschooling madness and little hungry mouths.

Admittedly, this may not be what the writer of the the perch-passing Heron had in mind, but certainly what is on my mind. It's a new year, a fresh start. A time to make goals and think about words like Legacy and Soul Proprietor. When the Springville Museum curators wrote informative cards to educate the viewer on my paintings in our (my dad, my sister, and my) spectacular show , their main resource was my blog. My past trail of imperfect compositions, attempting to enlighten you, my viewer, as to the meaning of my art. These blog posts, writing about my art, has value now and in the future.

Speaking of Legacy, when my Opera Omnia (complete works) is published, I will need many words to fill it's pages. These are them words. Blog on little em.