A Week In The Life Of An Artist.

 My friends often ask me, as friends often do...

"what's new, what's going on, what's happening with you?" 

And...

I often answer..."not much really"...period...end of reply.

As I sit here on Friday afternoon to write my blog post for the week, as I do every Friday afternoon...I'm looking over the photos on my phone from this week, wondering what to post about since I really didn't have a plan in mind, and it kinda makes me wonder...how could I ever answer "not much really" to the question of "what's going on?" It's a good thing I take photos to remember exactly what went on during the week, since sometimes they are a blur of activity!

Albeit, this has been a busy week, but not more than any other week.  I'm wondering if all artists take what they get to do for a living in stride, and think of it just as another busy week without a review of how wonderful that week was.  I guess it goes without saying for anyone really...if you love what you do...do you just carry on, or do you take a moment here and there and really appreciate it?

My week in a glance with great appreciation...

Monday with my Mixed Media class.  So much fun with these artists you can hardly call it work!  They show up every week, ready to learn something new from me and turn out some pretty cool art...all while enjoying and learning from each other as well.

 Below are just a few student works they've all been working on, creating a series of pieces.

Laurie Fuller

Marty Atwell

     Margo Palmer

 Mona Boucher

Next up...a lesson plan with mono printing on a gelli plate.  Papers I made in preparation for the class...then we all got together and made so many printed papers in Monday class, we now each have quite a stash to work with in our upcoming projects.

 I took my papers and started a mixed media piece to work on in the 

Advanced Abstract class I take at Art On 30th.

This one still has a long way to go...
but the first layers of papers I made in class were my inspiration.

Tuesday, while the gelli plate was still out, I took some time to make stationery to get in the mail for the artist mail exchange I do monthly with three different artists.  It's fun to get small pieces of art from them show up in my mail box amongst the bills and junk mail every month.  Something I look forward to sending and receiving.

Thursday rolled around and that's the day I spend with the group of mentored artists

I get to be a part of at Ashton Gallery.

Kate Ashton (our mentor) was interviewed for the upcoming Wildlife show by the local NBC news station.  The gallery has partnered with Global Conservation Force for this show, to benefit protection of endangered rhinos from poachers and extinction.  Dagmar Midcap from the news channel was there to interview Kate and check out the art for the show...she's very passionate about this cause and we all got behind her 110%.  Even painting up a crash of rhino's for the event.  She was taken with my polka dot rhino...Kate named him Fred!

And now Friday has once again rolled around and its time for more painting with the Friday group of abstract painters, lead by Kate Ashton and Sheila Daube...great instigators of collaboration between the artists in this group.  Along with our own pieces of art, we work on a large piece together...always exciting and very rewarding to see how others approach a piece of art and get right in there and paint together!

A little taste of what collaboration looks like at At On 30th...

So I guess this is what I mean when I say..."not much is going on."

Crazy talking!

Now its Friday evening...I'm finishing up my post...so appreciative for my week...

a glass of wine, dinner and Netflix are waiting for me.

I hope you have all had a wonderful week you can look back on,

and tip your glass to.