Yes, Yet Another New Years List

Like almost everyone else on the planet, I've been doing a bit of reviewing here at year's end. Here's a few things I hope for the new year:

• That somebody will TAKE charge, and get our men and women out of the train wreck called Iraq.
• That for once, just once, my bills won't exceed my earnings.
• That at least one person in the world will allow their inner artist to come to life. (OK, really I hope about a million will)
• That stupid Head ON commercial will just go away.
• That my head won't explode from school, paint, work, blog, school, work, blog, paint . . . (Hmmm, wonder if Head ON works??)
  
• That my hand remain steady, my eyes clear, my soul easily inspired.
• That no child will ever see a hand raised to injure them, and the ones lost find a way back home.
• That goes for pets, too.
• That I never forget to tell and show those I love that I do.
• That even though I posted this lame end of the year entry, you all will bear with me and stick with me for another year.

Peace.

THE Gift

Been very busy as of late getting ready to start college. I had no idea it was such an involved process. I guess I ignorantly assumed I would just march in and sit down and begin.

I have had to chase down health records . . . which after all that chasing left me with having to get shots anyway . . . been shuffled from one building to another, been given a new appreciation for reasonably close parking to a destination (only 3 blocks away? How fortunate!) and have filled out at least a pound of paperwork.

But it is worth all the fuss . . . I'm in!
I'm the first member of my family to go to college.

A Christmas gift above all other gifts.

Hope all of you have a splendid Christmas/Winter Solstice/Kwanzaa/Chanukah.

Fini Revenir de Suite

Managed to get together and paint with fellow artist and good friend Ellen Zisholtz this weekend. This was my first experience painting with someone, and I am hooked! We cranked up Springsteen, went into our corners and fought with our respective canvases. It was energizing to be able to bounce ideas around and receive instant feedback. No wonder the Impressionists created such masterpieces!

Here's the finished Revenir de Suite (Be Right Back) 8"X10" acrylic on canvas.

Rainbow Painter

Well, I've gone and done it. Really gone and done it.

As if I'm not busy enough, as if I don't have more things to do than ever, paintings that need to be painted, etc . . . I just had to pile one more thing on.

I have decided to go to school and get my degree. Full time. And still work. And still paint.

Documenting the whole chain of events that got me to this place in my life would take more time than I have at the moment, and more time than I'm likely to have for a very loooong while. Let's just say an incredibly special someone encouraged me and believed in me, and took steps to make it happen. I won't be getting a free ride, I have to continue to work to see the end to this rainbow. But for the first time in many years, I do see a rainbow, and there is a pot of gold there at the end. All it took was for my someone, my mentor, to sit me down and paint the picture for me. Thank God she's an artist, and a very fine painter.

I'm going to get my BS in Art Education. So I can paint pictures like the one painted for me.

Photo courtesy of Darwin Bell.