“Things are tough” people keep saying.  “”Things” are what they are,“ some of us respond.  Blessed with “an eye”, eagerness, empathy, we artists launch ourselves into the future by painting personal universes on whatever medium we are duty bound to use: with a squish of a paint company’s colorist’s new work, something bold, strong, brilliant, sparkly, unusual. We work with selected brushes and palette knives. For two years, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then for additional two years in Tualatin, Oregon, I hand cut pounds of paper which I then used to form figures on brightly painted drip-grids creating my own brand of collage.

As an emerging elder artist, something is always interesting, worth exploring. There is no time like the present though ”things” are tough; so we explore, excavate, embrace, enlightening ourselves, growing in satisfaction with our lives, knowing peace, conscious of our wake, what we leave behind.  Last year, when a long relationship ended, I moved from a house with a huge studio in the country to living in a 200 sq ft., downtown studio in an apartment building.  Extreme downsizing took place. I’m finding joy in smaller formats (more of them for one thing); I’m enjoying living in a city again. My last efforts in the country were on recycled doors, very large, time consuming, pieces.

My adventure, as an artist, is, as O’Keeffe says, to “live in my heart and head” and “making my feelings tangible” is the key to continual discovery.