People do read this

Not many, but enough to make me feel less alone in the world. Thank you Beth, Linda and Corina. Sometimes I think artists function very much in their own small bubble of reality, finding it a distraction when the world intrudies. I know it's this way with me, until that sudden lightbulb moment when I realize that I need people too. I came to understand this many years ago, when I was the mother of small children, and suddenly realized that I hadn't spoken to another adult--other than the clerk at the grocery store--in almost 7 months. ( My husband had been away) Since then, I've made the effort to be with people, mainly accomplished with my volunteer work. One of the potential difficulties with reducing my volounteer work, in the next little while, has been the possibility of isolating myself, especially with impending winter, and the natural isolation that can bring. Thank Goodness for the internet and e-mail.

The natural "high" that came with starting my painting and design classes has diminished, and now I'm in that middle state where there is just hard work and few satisfying results. I knew this would happen and am prepared for it. I know I just have to plug along until one day I'll see results. My painting is not going badly, but I'm nowhere near the state where I can put down, in paint, the vision I have in my mind. I can almost do this with fabric, and when struggling with my painting, sometimes find myself reverting to the techniques that work with fabric. Yes--I used a rubber stamp successfully in a piece I was trying to do of "the forest floor" ( barf). I made some pretty good rocks that way, and was able to use a rubber stamp I had made a couple of years back.

A good thing happened, when I was sorting out my supply cupboard, and came across a box Beth had sent me. I opened it up and discovered two bottles of acrylic paint in exactly the two colours it had been suggested that I buy--well sealed and usable. Beth, you have contributed much to these classes. The brushes you sent turned out to be acrylic brushes. My watercolour brushes sure wouldn't have done the job! Thank you.