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Sharing life's wonder through art
Kathrine’s lovely, incredibly talented and a dear, sweet, generous soul. And I coveted her submission to the 2015 TAE. I offered to pay for it in advance and have her send it directly to me, but of course, that goes against the spirit of the exhibit and event. So… she offered to paint me one herself. And it came today! Yipee! Isn’t it gorgeous?
It’s all about the Plant City Strawberry Festival these days! The festival starts next week, but art submissions are due in today. So… naturally, I submitted. I am bummed because I was in such a rush I was unable to get good photos of one of them before they were framed, and to me, it’s the most special of all.
The Twitter Art Exhibit is an annual event that raises money for a particular designated charity each year. In it’s fifth year of operation, the TAE 2015 is being held in Moss, Norway again (that’s where David Sandum, the founder and a very talented artist himself is from). I managed to get my painting done early this year! It’s bright and cheery. I hope it brings joy to some collector.
The holiday season — December and New Year’s — in South Florida is a time to behold! Dry, cool and pleasant. And by chance I discovered that it stays lighter far longer in the evenings than it does up north!
So, we had some friends over and celebrated with some great food, wine and company on the lanai. Lovely! We hope your holidays were pleasant too!
Growing up as a middle child (seventh of nine), I was the queen of hand-me-downs and leftovers. I also got left at stores more than once as my mother shepherded the rest of the kids into the old blue dodge station wagon not realizing one little chickadee was playing quietly alone in some corner of the store or another. I vividly remember one of the incidents and still recall the image of the vehicle driving off as I stood there. Bear in mind, this was decades before cellphones. Thankfully, the shopkeeper was a lovely lady. With a great duck pull-toy with cool bright yellow paddles that spun. No worries there!
A few years later, at the age of 10 or 11, I suffered third-degree burns in a kitchen accident and was in the hospital (Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital) for nearly six weeks. In a perverse way, it became a gift to me. For once in my life, I was THE CENTER of attention. My parents came to visit, brought friends, cards, gifts from people I hadn’t heard from in ages. My demeanor was bright and cheery. So much so, according to my mother, that some of the physicians would come into my room to get “cheered up” themselves. Despite the pain and suffering (don’t get me wrong, there was a ton of that at times), there was some great good to be had.
BUT, I was a competitive swimmer before the accident and went back to swimming even after the burns on my legs and thighs had healed, though I bore dark, thick visible scars. The doctors had deemed it unwise to perform plastic surgery and skin grafts at that age. I learned to shrug off the stares and comments of those unable to hide their reaction to my unsightly scars and developed a thick inner skin to match the thick scar tissue that encased much of my upper thighs and behind one knee.
As I got older, I realized those scars made me who I was — a deep and insightful person — far more interested in what was below a person’s surface than the exterior package. I never did get the skin graft surgery. In the end, I learned to celebrate my scars. Embrace them.Revel in them. That is why, when I saw this image, I had to co-opt it.
Now it’s your turn. Do you have a fracture, scar or chip that you have learned to celebrate?
During the summer, stepson James was here from England with his fiance for vacation. He is a fan of my artwork and mentioned how he’d love to have an original citiscape to grace his home. So it got me thinking…
When he was young, he and his lovely older sister visited a couple of times while we lived up north. Their time here included visits to New York and our most precious photos are of each of them posing with their dads at a spot on Liberty Island with the World Trade Center towers behind them. It got me thinking… and then painting. So here, as a gift for James, is “The New York I Recall.” Unfortunately, we’ll have to figure out how to get it over to him now. Anyone have any great suggestions for cost-effective Trans-Atlantic shipping?
Who doesn’t love visiting animals in natural-ish settings? We sure do and trekked over to Busch Gardens Tampa today! We’re exhausted, but get a load of some of the photos we captured. By we, I mean the Hubs and I. And for the record, yes, I did go on a couple of the wilder rides. He held our stuff and stayed at ground level.
So, I started this painting for my very first show in Nashville. It was spring, 2010 and it
Nashville at Night, as I’ve always called it, was not the largest painting on display there by any means. That honor went to a 36 x 80 inch work that was (happily for me) acquired within a couple of weeks of the opening by a private collector. NaN did not sell. I’d priced it very high, figuring if someone wanted to acquire it, it would have to be at some cost. While I could paint another similar to keep on hand, it wouldn’t be the same as that very first one, painted just before the traumatic and city-defining 2010 flood. In fact, the show was to open that Sunday, May 2 and had to be postponed by one week’s time.
Nashville at Night has been with me through several other shows since. It now graces a wall in our home in Florida and I’m so very glad I was able to keep it. I’ve recently been commissioned to do a similar painting of New York City for a collector overseas. Looking forward to the opportunity and will present the final product here for your viewing pleasure.
PS: If you like this particular painting, fine art print copies and canvas copies are available through the following online sites:
In original format from Fine Art America
In a standard format from Saatchi’s online gallery.
Tonight’s a big night in Nashville. Hell, every night is these days, for the most part. Funny, I pick up stakes and move to Florida just as the town becomes the hottest thing this side of the Pacific! But I digress.
Tonight will be huge in Music City USA. It’s the night four new inductees join the 192 existing members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. And who might those newcomers be?
I’m writing here to celebrate Gretchen Peters. I consider myself musically illiterate (and those who know me would agree). So my judgment might not hold much weight. But I’ve been a huge fan of Gretchen’s work for more than a dozen years, thanks to my musician brother who turned me on to her. He’s always been generous about sharing like that and has never steered me wrong before!
Back to Gretchen, though. She’s kick-ass brilliant. Seriously. And not just about music. The girl knows her classics and, even more important, is one of the most intellectually curious individuals I know! And when it comes to her music… it’s exquisite. And her voice…
If you ever get to hear an angel sing, well, you’ll swear it’s this girl. Here’s an example of the whole package she offers. It’s a song called Five Minutes from her Hello Cruel World album. Though I love all her songs, I think this is my all-time favorite. The lyrics, her voice, and the gentle keyboard accompaniment just make this song a beautifully wrapped gift to all who hear it!
I love the fact that Gretchen’s the only female in this year’s bunch of songwriters to be inducted. In fact, very few women are included in this elite crowd at all! I may be wrong but it looks like less than a dozen women altogether, less than 10%. I googled (yes, using it as a verb) but could not find the exact number. Those female inductees I recognize include:
Aside: Putting this list together gave me a “holy shit” moment! I mean, I know Gretchen’s amazing, but when you consider the few peers…
I’ve been fortunate to see Gretchen perform many, many times over the years and each time, I’m struck anew by her glorious pipes. And each time, her lyrics get to me. They’re as rich as fine tapestries, woven together with threads of gold that only an artist as deep as the universe itself could pull them together. When I leave her performances, I’m absolutely spent and overwhelmed. But in a wondrous way.
In performances where she shares the stage with husband, Barry Walsh, there’s a magic that audiences can’t help but enjoy. The twosome is adorable, punning and cracking the audience (and each other) up. But when they make music… sublime. You saw it in the above link. Here’s an example of their chemistry together in a far more light-hearted tune.
I really wish I could be there tonight, but things are hectic here in the Sunshine state. So I penned this blog partly in homage and partly to immerse myself in the grandness of this lady of fabulousness. If you’ve never had a chance to check her out, I urge you, do so. Find out where she’s playing and get there. You won’t regret it!
You can learn more about this chanteuse, buy her music, and catch her on tour by visiting her website.
Now that I’m done raving about Gretchen, tell me about your favorite songwriters. I may be musically illiterate, but I still like to listen!
What the book is about: Grammy-winning producer Matt Buckley has an enviable career in Nashville and all the material trappings success can buy. His personal life is a mess, however, and the death of his father sets off an existential crisis. A chance meeting with a mysterious stranger who’s just lost his own son inspires Matt to get his act together.
After taking some positive steps forward, Matt meets and falls for April, a struggling Nashville-based musician and single mother of two. Emotionally damaged from a troubled past of her own, April is understandably reluctant, given Matt’s history and reputation, to get too involved. With courage, love and humor, the two manage to work through their personal baggage and trust issues toward a life together and a fairy tale ending… or one would think.
Keywords: Nashville, Music Industry, romance, life, death, courage, Country Music, songwriter, afterlife, Asheville
Following is a list of the online outlets Four Pillars has identified that are selling Empty Sky. If your bookseller does not stock it and you’d like a copy, suggest they order it and provide the corresponding ISBN number (paperback or ebook).
U.S. Links:
The following are stores selling the paperback book in the United States:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, alibris, Books-a-Million, Chegg, other book retailers (ISBN: 9780985709341)
The ebook edition can be downloaded here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play (ISBN: 978-0-9857093-6-5)
U.K. Links
Foyles, Oxford Bookshop(London), Amazon UK
Australia:
Buy Empty Sky through Angus & Robertson
France:
In France, the ebook is available through FNAC
Other countries:
Empty Sky is also available through Amazon outlets in other respective countries (i.e. CA, DE, JP, etc.) and through other major bookstores.
