BLUR.

I...I don't even know where to start.  I really don't.

This past week was a week of ups and downs.  I was on my game, I was off my game.  I was with it, I was out of it.  I was focused, I was borderline ADHD.

If I had to choose one word to describe the week that word would be 'blur'.  

...how crazy did it get?  I drove down to Miami this morning for an event...an event that happened yesterday.  Yep, totally happened.  Besides being out my time and gas money...I gained some time to catch up on my sleep...and to just...be still for a little while.  

The first thing, probably one of the biggest things to report is that the folks over at Gallery 2014...ummm...they liked my work.  (yes, I had a MAJOR Sally Field moment, and I ain't afraid to admit it!)  Last Friday night I spent time organizing my work, prepping some bootleg 'contact sheets' I came up with, printing inventory sheets..and basically just trying to get my s__(insert favorite 'S' word here)__ together.  And I did my best.  Went to sleep, feeling kind of like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Saturday...I hauled 'Grape Ape' (my '97 Honda Civic with muchos miles on it) down to Hollywood, Florida with three years worth of my art packed away in plastic bins and a large black portfolio.  I had another bag ready with clear plastic sleeves, lightweight mats and some backing boards...just in case.  I brought all my work in and then took a deep breath.

I wasn't prepared for what happened next.  Elizabeth San Juan, one of the owners for Gallery 2014, literally sat on the floor and just started to go through my art- all of it.  I would babble on about each series...hoping I made sense, but knowing that when I get excited I talk too fast and my southern accent thickens up.  But she kept on, bin by bin, folder by folder, she literally looked at every piece of my art, and had good things to say to me.

So she and Sharon pulled some pieces aside and then I worked on pricing with Sharon while the gallery started to fill up with folks in for the Art Walk.  Elizabeth was in and out and she kept looking at my work, at me, and then back out at the gallery.  She said she wanted some pieces out there ASAP and then...just like that, some of my work was already out, for sale.

In a real, white-walled, fancy art gallery.

I also discovered that Elizabeth is allergic to cats, but that's a whole other story...so...coincidentally that even goes with the craziness of this past week. (Sorry, Elizabeth!!!) 

So that was the weekend, obviously a 'high' moment.  Followed by Sunday, November 16th- the day that Amy died, which no matter how many years pass will always be a low.  This year I spent my day in my pj's, napping and just being by myself.  

And I started to think....about the day after Amy passed, November 17, 2005.  That was an important day because that was our first day without her...and the day that we all started to have that realization...and try to make sense of it...and move forward...somehow.  I created a FB group for our classmates and other people who knew Amy to post under the idea of #AMY1117. The idea behind this is that of November 17th...the next day...figuring out how to keep her memory alive.  

I have been thinking about my art, and why I make it and the more I think I have figured out the more questions I come up with.  I know that Amy is such a large part of my art and my life, sometimes it is hard to articulate that into words...so I just make my whimsical ladies, and they make me forget about all that fancy thinking stuff.  But I feel that there is some way that I can connect the healing that my own art has provided to me to other people that are going through the bereavement process...and the more I think about that the more I like that idea.

Sorry again, syntax.  Sorry, order.  Sorry, sense.  

I will continue to revisit this stream of thought...just know, well- know that I am still trying to figure it all out.  (hey, aren't we all?!)


I have more to report from last week, but I will save it- all good things.


The bad things were me oversleeping on Tuesday, thinking I lost an ENTIRE class' artwork, issues with the kiln...oh, and driving to Miami this morning for an event that was yesterday.


I hear ya universe, slow it down.  Let me wrap up this blog post, start on my daily art and try to make it to sleep by midnight!