Wypominki Kobiety is showing through July 12th at White Rabbit Galleries in Barberton, OH. Sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council, it runs concurrently with the WRG annual juried show, Down the Rabbit Hole.
Thanks so much to all the friends and friends of friends who came to my opening show- the volume of people was overwhelming for me and I so very much hope that you were all able to take something away from the exhibition.
It’s been a wild year.
To tell the truth, this is the first time in all my 30 years working professionally that I have focused on a single project. With the exception of 3 commissions, this is all I thought about for the duration. With the closing of this project, I have a variety of feels ranging from relief to an odd sense of energy. I’m proud of it, happy it’s over, exhausted, excited for the next project… a crock pot of stuff that’s hard to describe.
In my quiet life, there have been some upheavals (good and less than good) but focusing on the project has been a plumbob for me. It was just hanging there with everything else orbiting around it. I’m stumbling right now, trying to figure out what will be the next central focus of my adventure.
Since I took the paintings out of my studio and dropped them off at the gallery, I’ve gotten a haircut. I learned how to give a chicken a bath (disaster). I’ve laughed with friends well into the early morning hours. I’ve barely touched a paintbrush, except for my teaching obligations. I’ve sat and squealed with my Michigan family, made plans with my mountain bike family, fought with my immediate family. I’ve run with the dog and slept under the stars. I’ve looked, tentatively, into the near future to the hesitant, nervous dreams and “what ifs” I have spent so much of my life pushing away… all while fixing the car, working the field and canning the vegetables.
I’d like to race again this year. I’d like to visit more museums. See the ocean. I’d like to fall in love, but not too much. I’d like to build an igloo. I’d like to run naked through a rainstorm. I’d like to climb more trees.
For now, at least through the end of June, I am taking a break. I have a new project lined up which is tentatively called “the after life of a chair,” but I will not start work on this until July. I will sit on my hands, take a few deep breaths, maybe enjoy a kiss and wait to see what the ancestors have to say.
My deepest thanks to the Ohio Arts Council for the funding to have this experience and to the White Rabbit Galleries for giving a misfit a space to belong. Thanks to the patrons who have bought my work. To Jay and Andrea and Clint because we all need a few believers. To Eric and Kyle and Laura, who are changing how I think about the way I speak. To the mothers, wherever they are, looking down at me (side eye). Thanks to the animals that live at my tiny farm, for always being happy to see me when I come home. And to Jim, who I am convinced can’t read but took my gallery book anyways. I hope you like the pictures, buddy, you’re pretty swell.
And to those of you who follow along here. I have doubts that long after I am gone anyone will sing of my brave deeds in battle, but I appreciate your ear. Be blessed, as your ancestors would will it.
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