I was thinking about this little painting yesterday so I pulled it out -- I think I like it. Actually, I like many of my paintings quite a bit, although the art buying public doesn't seem to like them as much as I do. Now we are on to what has become a sticky dilemma for me that is currently demanding all my time, energy, obsessive powers and eating/coping skills: WHAT SHOULD I BE SPENDING MY TIME MAKING TODAY? Because we certainly need money but for some reason I want to paint (probably an avoidance tactic of some kind -- other favorites include baking cookies, shopping, cleaning or organizing studio . . . not a comprehensive list, by the way) So anyway, in defense of my desire to paint I offer exhibit A, a little Christmas-y for the last day of July, but I enjoyed seeing it again. In the interest of complete disclosure, I also have to admit that I have been dying to try scanning something and then posting it on my blog, an exercise of my fledgling technological capabilities, for which I thank the generous IT specialist who gave me such a capable tutorial last week (you know who you are). See? I did it!

This morning my middle daughter left for Vermont Law to study environmental law and many tears were shed on both sides. I'm so proud of her accomplishments (and a little jealous!) but I am beginning to feel a sense of dread around the edges because in just a few short weeks, my youngest will leave for college as well and here I'll be! Sitting on the nest and thinking, "why don't the kids call?" Of course, there are mixed emotions because I could literally stitch all day and night, eat out every meal (wait -- I'm dangerously close to that now), catch up on much needed home improvements and worry even less about whether I'm wearing clothes most of the time. On the other hand, no one to play speed scrabble with, no one to go out to lunch and gab for hours, no one to complain to because their bedroom is messy, no swim bags/shoes/towels to step over every time I come into the house, no one to buy fruit snacks and granola bars for (maybe I will start eating some of those things!) and, except when my husband is home in the evenings, just NO ONE. That's not strictly true because there is always Cooper, thwapping his enormous tail, shedding and leaving a river of drool across the kitchen tile. But Cooper doesn't like to talk about girl things. Here is an illustration for today -- it is called "Stay-at-home-Mom" and it says, "sometimes she wonders where she will sit when the egg is gone." Right now I'm looking for a comfy chair.

This is a character lovingly referred to at my house as flower-pot-head-lady. She appears pretty regularly in my work, always with the same message. Is there a reason for this? I hate growing. Perhaps this is the reason. Except I seem to love growing when it involves eating ice cream. Do you think I misunderstand her intentions? Right now I'm considering doing a painting or collage of flower-pot-head-lady. Maybe this will keep her busy -- get her out of my needlework for awhile.


Here she is in color. Actually she looks quite pleasant in this particular picture -- she can look annoyed if provoked. I don't seem to have much control over her facial expressions.