Inspiration in Spades

Came across this video today (Just in case you want the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358176n). All I can say is amazing. This artist is blind. He has a wonderful outlook and impressive paintings. Talk about overcoming your disability! Enjoy!

Virtual Slideshow

The Littleton Museum allowed me to bring a photographer in to the exhibit Monday morning while the museum is closed to the public. They are very strict about photos being taken in the galleries. I thought the virtual tour would be nice to post online for the many who cannot make it to see the show in person. This virtual tour will allow you to see the scope of the show, if not the individual pieces. Please know that this does not represent my paintings themselves in their true color. The slide show is a bit better color-wise if you would rather view that. Enjoy!
I apologize to those that receive my newsletter and my blog post via email as this is a duplication of content. Once I recover (I have been told I have post-partum  blues) I will get back to painting.

Victoria's Reception at the Littleton Museum

Here are a few shots of the exhibit. It doesn't appear busy, but the lot was packed and I suppose when you are taking photos surreptitiously, you wait for a quiet moment. I was kept busy for the short period of the reception, and admittedly, I was late to my own party. There was an accident that took place on our property 20" before I was due to leave and I was not dressed yet. I had to go out to see what happened as it sounded so horrific. My garden did take a beating, but thank God, no one was visibly hurt. I do believe the poor man who plowed through our yard in order to avoid a woman who ran a stop sign was suffering shock, and his car looked totaled. I apologize to any and all those who showed up and I did not get a chance to visit with. We were ushered out in short order. I only heard rave reviews from all those I did manage to talk to and the word on the street was that this is by far the best show this museum has had. Thanks again to all of my faithful friends, and acquaintances who continue to support me in my art journey. I talked to so many new people who are now interested in my work, receiving my newsletter and in me as teacher. The road continues to  open before me.

Before the Reception on Thursday 9-15-11

Victoria with her son, Grant

Victoria, with her niece, Jen and her sister, Megan

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. My son, Grant, surprised me Tuesday afternoon not 10" after I got home from work. He had flown in from Japan to surprise me and to be here for my museum reception on Thursday evening. I was totally surprised and a bit overwhelmed with emotion, but it seems everyone else was well aware of it and they all managed to keep it hidden from me. Lucky for me I knew my niece (from Seattle) and sister (from Hawaii) were coming ahead of time. They checked in with my daughter to see if she thought I could handle them all surprising me, and she wisely said, no. My niece left yesterday afternoon after a wonderful visit. This afternoon I will meet up with my aunt and uncle (from FL) and their 6 grandchildren who are all driving up from Colorado Springs where my cousin and his family live. We will tour my one person exhibit at the Littleton Museum together (which I have yet to see) and then come home for a family dinner. Photos are verboten at the museum but I have heard there were a few reprobates who managed to get some taken. No names will be mentioned!

Starting Anew

Alley Reflection block in, 36x24

Prairie Glow block in, 18x36

Saturday found me ready to start some new paintings now that the stress of trying to have everything ready for the show is over. I looked around at what size canvas I had ready to go and decided to go large. I got both of these blocked in and Sunday found me back at my easel painting. It is amazing how blocking in basic big shapes can get a piece pulled together in short order. At this point I know the prairie piece does not look very exciting but I do have some fun things in store for it. I decided to start with this one as I want a whole weekend ahead of me to get into the Alley piece. That one has me excited. One would think I would be done with alleys by now, but it is not to be. I haven't moved much out of my neighborhood. So many treasures yet to be uncovered!

Moving Day

My Subaru with all the 16x20's and smaller

Jane's Honda Element with all the 18x24 and larger paintings

Here I am before we started to unload the 86 paintings I delivered to the Littleton Museum yesterday morning. My friend Jane and I got there right around 9:30 a.m. There were 3 volunteers checking in all the paintings; they checked the condition of the frames and then set them around the gallery; Kate helped Jane and I not only unload the cars, but load the carts and haul them inside. What a trooper.  Al and Sarah unwrapped and checked them in while we did the hauling. There was only one fatality, and that was the first painting I unloaded from my car. I tripped and hit the corner of a frame and damage it. Other than that, the only slow down was my painting titles on the spreadsheet I provided did not always match the names I had written on the backs of each piece itself (some of which had no title on them). Oops. By this time, Kate was checking in the paintings and she was very patient with me. The museum had printed out the titles in alpha order, making it hard to find if I wasn't close in guessing the first word in the title. I always sort by painting size, because I usually know what size a piece is by looking at it and I can find the right title that way. While Kate and I sorted out the odd titles, Jane folded bubble wrap and put smaller boxes into medium boxes into larger boxes, and by the time everything was done, she had also loaded up the cars! She sure made my life easy. Jane insists she had fun and was so pleased to be a part of the process. Bless her heart. She will also come on the return trip when the show comes down, which we envision we will be transporting way less paintings, of course! We left the museum before 11 a.m. Very efficient process.

Jane was tickled pink. She got to chat with the museums curator and the other two volunteers (Sarah and Al) while Kate and I sorted out our pile of mismatched names. She told me over lunch how excited they all are by the work they saw and what a great show this is going to be. I saw the curator really looking at a few pieces and Al (retired art teacher) told me as we were leaving that a number of pieces really got to him and took him to new places! That is what it is all about. Transporting people. Apparently they have never had this much work from one artist, so I said, use your judgment-if you don't want to hang them all, don't. But no, they said they can stack smaller pieces and the show was in the raw stages of ideas when I left. The actually hanging will be done Monday afternoon.  My house seems so empty!

I took the repaired frame back to the museum in the late afternoon, and everyone I met was so excited to meet me. The word was out that this was an exceptional show. Wow. Are they talking about me??? You all will have to judge that on your own. For those of you who will not make it to the show while it is up I hope to have a virtual tour for you to view in the next few weeks.

Moving Forward

I neglected to take photos of the guest room when it was the collection point for  holding all the paintings as they were packaged up and checked off the list. Not a surface or wall area remained-including closets. It would have made for a more dramatic photo. I started moving them all downstairs this past week in an effort to keep the final loading to less up and down stairs. Now the main floor has paintings stacked all over. They are due at the museum on Thursday morning. I am hoping that my friend Jane and I can get them in our cars in one trip. I plan on loading my car up on Wednesday evening with the smaller pieces and leave the larger paintings for her Honda Element. The end is in sight! Or is it just the beginning of another chapter?

I am trying to finish one last painting today. I decided it was not good enough to make it to the  museum without more work. The other 3 that were on the chopping block seem to have come together well enough to be presented to the public. It is probably a good thing I started boxing paintings up fairly early in the process or I might never have felt any of them were ready!