Birthday Bliss Before Hospital Assignment

This was a day filled to the brim with extreme feelings ... I mean to the brim and running over. To start with, a couple of years ago a lovely young woman asked me to mentor her as an emerging artist for an assigned school project. Of course, I took the job, I was so honored. The more time I spent with my sweet young friend, the more I admired her. Smart, kind, dedicated, sensitive and very talented ... not just in watercolor. But that just sets today's stage ... her mom had secretly gotten in touch with me hoping I could attend a surprise birthday gathering for her. OH - what fun!

We met at a charming and earthy local haunt (Kiri's favorite spot) and then her mom was to chauffeur her from school for what was to be a mom 'n daughter lunch. Then, "SURPRISE!!" It was a table of six adults - I mean, how many high school student's have six adults who so respect and connect with her that they show up to spend quality time with? Eh? Well, we were all there and she was surprised! We ended up telling what times in our relationship with dear Kiri had touched us most. The endearing, heartfelt stories I heard from this family and friends furthered my awareness of what a close, supportive and lovingly creative nest this dear girl had grown up in. My heart was bursting to jump up and tell her to be aware and not take for granted what she has woven around her in love and what an atmosphere of wisdom and unity this nest afforded her. I was envious and thrilled at the same time ... and yes, for those of you who know me ... know how tears rolled down my cheeks without explanation. I did excuse myself first, because I did have an appointment. Really. But I had to let my emotions settle. Whew - and you thought it was just a luncheon.

My appointment was with my hubby. With the continuing pain in breathing and growing weakness, we found a new doctor and met with him. After listening to the saga and then, to his lungs, he told me to take him across the street to the hospital emergency room and get him admitted. Extreme pneumonia! And within a day he was scheduled for surgery. It went so fast it was like I was watching a movie. I won't go into all the mis-communications and mixed up litany with the day of the surgery ... let's just say I spent almost eight hours in the Waiting Room. Where I got to do this lovely sketch.

During the ensuing days, I attempted to care for home, Cody, keep my art commitments and spend time with the slow healing Roland. The surgery they'd hoped to perform orthoscopically had turned into a eight inch incision plus more you don't wanna hear about. For nine days I visited and watched him gather some sense of health back. When he came home he was so weak, it was unbelievable.

But life continued ... Valentine's Day came and went. I made Ro a card but the day seemed to just disappear by ... I commemorated it with the lil' dance of hearts across the bottom of the journal page. Just adjacent to my image of Ro in the hospital bed. Then to kinda add icing to the cake ... one of my favorite lil' ceramic critters (a colorful fish, with mouth wide open) where I daily put my vitamins - - yep, you guessed it - - it flew to the floor crashing into teeny lil pieces. I saved his eye and ... to end with a bit of humor ... "here's looking at you"!

Valentine's Day & Mentoring Sweetness

I've wanted to share this page in my journal for awhile - - but you know the "getting-to-the-computer" challenge. So, finally here's the entries for my Valentine's Day and the ending of my Mentoring with my Dear Kiri.

Valentine's Day was a bit unpredictable. I'd received this lil flier from a fellow at the February Ashland First Friday in my studio, and it intrigued me. The presentation of film shorts included beautifully hand-colored films and - I thought - perhaps Roland, my Valentine, would find that entertaining. So it put me into action of reserving dinner at his favorite lil Ashland restaurant, Lela's (http://www.lelascafe.com/) with a brisk early dinner in mind. That way we could wisk off to the University Campus and see the shorts. But as the day approached, I realized, to be open, compassionate and self-less (well, at least an effort towards that), I asked him to make the decision as to whether we'd hurry a single course, or revel in a slow, "muse-ful" dinner. When we got to the restaurant and he saw the menu (did I tell you, he's a "closet" fabulous chef?) - you can guess which direction won out. Yep, the leisurely dinner. And it felt calming, pleasing to watch him savor his dinner and my company :) I've kept a portion of the tender card Ro gave me at dinner, to complete this entry.

Now the ending of my mentoring project was pretty tender too. I'd been invited by both Kiri and her parents to be present for her formal presentation of the "Mentoring Project" that she and I'd endeavored to fulfill over the past 40 hours and 3 months. I was so touched and amazed at the maturity of the 3 earlier presentations - I could hardly contain myself. But when Kiri took the stage, she'd framed beautifully her final piece (the triptych) and matted uniformly in dramatic black mat all the exercises and sketches we'd every developed.


Her presentation took awhile as she dialogued what she'd learned, opening with profuse compliments for me. I delighted as she unveiled each piece and heard the audience exude a "wow". I was immeasurably proud of her and impressed by her progress when viewed this way in entirety. Following the assembly, her mom and dad handed me a lush and gorgeous rose bouquet and thank you card. Of course, I teared up :)


Over the next few days I pondered our whole endeavor and came up with the word "worth" - because out of all that investment and interaction - what I felt most and saw Kiri beam with - was worth. Increased worth.

So, now for the new technique - I'd been aching to try this new technique with Golden's Light Molding Paste. I understood you can spread the paste onto WC paper, then, carve in different textures and words. It dries white, light weight, and absorbent. When dry I dropped in various colors that went along with my feeling of "worth" and lastly, some delicious acrylic liquid bronze. Yippie - did I have fun! LOVE this new process - so unpredictable and luxurious in texture. I did find tho, that after it had dried and I'd dangled my dried rose on string (to add movement), the rose petal stuck to the paste, tearing it off my yellow string. But I'll use this again, guaranteed.


Looking at the page . . . can we have too much sweetness in our lives . . . heck NO!!! Go enjoy!

The JOYS of Mentoring

Middle of November I received a rather odd phone call message. My husband had taken it, and when giving the message to me mentioned, the young was very "wary" about giving out any information. When I returned the call, it was an Ashland Student who's class had an upcoming project.

It required each student to find an artist who would mentor them for a period of 40 hours, culminating in early February. The student was to complete a project in their chosen medium that would also benefit or include a "service" aspect. I was blushingly thrilled!! Of course, I accepted and have been meeting 2 nights a week, for a total of 5 hours weekly putting together this project.

First we have been adding to her repertoire of skills since most of her school experience was using watercolor rather loosely. I had her work on this little painting that combines wet-into-wet washes (the sky), aerial perspective (different planes of foreground, mid-ground and background), light source and some color balance. She's including some frisquet and wax crayon for resist. Both of us were very pleased with her first exercise.

One of her favorite watercolor subject matter is flowers. I'd seen her portfolio and she does them well, but could really make the floral glow if she incorporated more glazing. So our second project went on to "glazing" techniques. Here she is referencing the partial demo I'd done for her while she works on her own piece. I'm also having her use my palette and some of my brushes to give her a taste of different materials and different qualities. She's been very diligent and dedicated to finishing projects and I've been so impressed with the quality of her finished work. I can't wait to see how her completed projects comes out.

Since her focus for the "service" aspect will be around the forests, she has begun designing a fascinating piece (I'll keep secret for the completed debut). Here she's started with some reference photos and is sketching up her first designs. I've gained so much introspect into the children's world of 2009 and gained immense respect for this dear girl and she travels through her life.

Having no children and few interactions with kids, it's been very sweetly revealed how much I've missed not having children and how much I relish this growing relationship. I've had the pleasure of meeting both her mom and dad, and even the older brother. To my sheer joy, last night I attended the local school's Christmas Play, featuring my new friend. It was just amazing, the talent, the props, the acting abilities (and the quality with which characters were performed) and the enthusiastic rejoicing after this first presentation.

Can you sense how much I am enjoying this special gift to my "plate"? It may be time consuming, but the wealth of experience I've gained and look forward to ~ ~ are immense. So sometimes when you think your plate is too full, just be open to the gift that may be waiting on your doorstep. Again, I urge you ~ ~ take that leap!