Eight Best Things

2017, you were one of the best!

1.  The house: We dreamed this one into reality. Co-creating with Richard and the Divine-Holy- Spirit-of-House-Building, the three of us built a new house. Two years ago we tore down our old one. Yep, you read that right. After a winter of intense design work and figuring out how to live in a space as we rebuilt it, we set off on a building journey that was like climbing Everest without oxygen, in flip-flops, with a pint bottle of Poland Spring Water to quench our thirst. We created something that so delights us every time we walk through the door that I sometimes giggle upon arrival and ask, “Is this ours?”

Wow. So much for thinking that age has any kind of limitations. Ha!

2. I got a new studio. I never want to leave it. Seriously. It is big and beautiful and yes, we built that too.

3. I started painting moons which gave birth to my series called Sheer Lunacy, Paintings of the Evening Sky. I explored all the lunar phases, I read moon myths, I walked at night alone in the dark woods and discovered magic. Come to find out that lots of other people like the moons too. My paintings sold well. 

​     4. I played at interior design. I’ve always loved the way space shapes who we are, the way our environments affect our psychological,  mental and spiritual selves. I played with fabrics and paint colors and lighting and art. I got some of it just right and some of it is still a work in progress. Like me. 

     5. I painted every day for months. Every day. Even if it was just a small painting, even when I was tired from building, even when I thought I had nothing to say, I painted. Some of them are fantastic… some of them went into a small pile under my desk.

6. I did a solo show of my work. I helped run a gallery in town with five very cool women. My business grew. I sold paintings and prints between mudding sheetrock and sanding beams.

 7. We grew a garden. Richard did a lot. I worked hard until my second Lyme tick bite and my   second round of antibiotics and then those little buggers put the kybosh on my gardening enthusiasm. However, Richard kept going strong and we had a bumper harvest that we’re still      eating in January. Mmm, mm.

8. This is the year I hit Full Retirement Age. What an odd societal construct THAT is. I think as we built the house we pretty much demolished THAT goofy idea which, by the way, had started circulating around our thoughts. Pish-Posh!

So now I’m off to further explore the meaning of life through paint and words. You know… take another look at the big questions like…why are we here? And what is the meaning of all of this?

 I'm looking forward to 2018. Lots of good painting days ahead.