When things go a little pear-shaped.

Well, m’dears, it is possible I may have temporarily lost what is left of my mind.

Lots of things are happening at the moment. Tuesday, June 11th, will see the opening of a dichotomic show, Flora and Fauna, with my botanicals representing the flora, and photography by Birgit Pruess representing the fauna. It will be located at Nicole’s Fine Pastry in downtown Fargo, and I hope you will stop by if you are in town.

July will see the completion of my large project I keep taunting you about (and I will finally be able to share pictures of what I have been up to!).

I will also have a solo show starting in September at Salon Three Five (also in downtown Fargo), and a large solo show at the Bismarck Art & Galleries Association (BAGA) in February 2020 (paintings needed to be completed in November). Plus all the various little shows one submits a piece or two in. Things are coming together, and it is all very exciting, except for one tiny detail.

I don’t have the pieces finished for them yet.

Of course, there is still “plenty of time”. However, instead of spending the last weekend completing various in process paintings, or working up new ones, I spent it throwing paintings in various states of progress into the garbage.

Two weeks ago I went to Minneapolis for a workshop on painting pears, which was a lot of fun and an excellent refresher on a few of the basics I seem to have misplaced in my brain, as well as a wonderful opportunity to wander around the beautiful Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

This also meant that between what I had learned during my large project and this workshop, I came home to stare at my in process paintings with dread. It isn’t that they weren’t potentially redeemable, it was just that the idea of actually redeeming them was exhausting. I spent an entire week finding every possible excuse to avoid them until this weekend, when I snapped.

My work areas are now remarkably clean and organized, I have a small pile of paintings I haven’t given up on yet, and I flat threw out many, many things that were taking up space in my brain, in addition to my house. I should feel terrible about it–I now have a lot of work to do, and absolutely zero things to point to to prove I am working on it–but I don’t. I feel wonderfully pleased about it, as if an exhausting guest has finally gone home and I have put the house in order and am ready to get back to normal. I have been reorganizing my paints, getting my glass area sorted out, and finishing up a special commission-glass hearts in custom colors for an entire family.

So hopefully the near future will be full of posts with lots of pretty art in it now that I have removed multiple obstacles. If not, I am gonna have a problem.

Charging boldly forward!