Tuxedo Cat II

Tuxedo Cat II

Oil on canvas, 12x12

Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me

if you are interested in buying this painting.
  

I am always amazed at what it takes to get a show together.

First, of course, there is the painting. But that's just the start.

I drove to Montgomery, N.Y., last weekend with a vanload of canvases. At the Wallkill River School Gallery, I hauled my art inside and splayed it around the beautiful room where it will hang for the coming weeks.

I hemmed and hawed. I tried this and that. I weighed one piece against another. I talked to Shawn Dell Joyce, hanging her pieces in the next room. We looked at hers, and at mine (we had decided to hang our stuff separately, intead of interspersed) and we made decisions.

In the end, I hung about 20 pieces, and took another 20 home. I will bring a different 20 or so back, dog and cat paintings, mainly, to hang for one weekend in a room on the second floor of the gallery.

Today, the night before the artists' reception (5-7 p.m. at the gallery, 232 Ward St. (Route 17K, Montgomery, NY), I sit in my chilly office/studio and work to tie up a million loose ends. I'm printing cards (commission a painting of your pet!). I'm printing flyers (here's the Art for Shelter Animals Project!). I'm printing photographs of rescue dogs and cats (pet-portrait workshop on Sunday!).

I am remembering to bring business cards, and my framing stuff. I am remembering to load my  animal paintings. I am remembering to bring my share of the reception food, and my paints, and easel, and canvases, and to stop somewhere on the way and get sparkling cider. I have to remember my camera, and then remember to take pictures.

And I have to remember to chill out and have some fun, too. Because in the long run, that's what this is all about, this new life. It's about enjoying the tasks again. It's about loving the work and everything that goes with it. It's about loving the people I meet, and the chance I have to talk with them. It's about challenge and satisfaction and accomplishment, and in the very longest of runs, it is about joy.

And it is, so much, about joy.

Thank you for reading. Thank you, as always, for your support.