Good evening!
We just got back from Northern Michigan this evening. What would have been an eleven hour drive was more like twelve and a half due to heavy rains and accidents. Highway 70, which goes from Baltimore to Hagerstown and beyond was a parking lot. Makes for rather stressful, anxious driving, but my fella remained steady as ever and stayed the course without using choice words or a particular finger. I was really proud of him.
It's funny to be a rather modern woman but still subscribe to more traditional gender-specific roles. I put him through graduate school and supported us early on, yet he doesn't let me drive...it's almost as if he's protecting me in a way...like delivering a precious package to wherever we are off too and I rather like it. Of course, it is very possible that he just thinks my driving sucks, refuses to subject himself to it, and therefore insists that he drive (under the guise of gentlemanly conduct).
Being an artists allows me to be home with my lovies most of the time. I have receptions and show preps as well as studio time to produce new work, but for the most part, I can schedule what I need to around my family time.
I really am blessed to have the best of both worlds. I don't feel like me when I'm not creating...instead a grouchy crank inhabits my person when I haven't tapped my artistic outlet in a while. I don't make for a good anything (certainly not a wife and mother) when I haven't had my work/creative time to let loose on the canvas. Anyone who read my blog over the past winter could easily pick up on that. I was miserable being stuck in the house, not painting, on all of those (many, many) snow days. I'm still catching up on projects that did not get done months ago. Thank God there is built-in flexibility in my vocation.
Anyhow, enough about my mood swings. I've got lots of new ideas and had many concepts for paintings floating about my cranium after spending five days off the grid in Northern Michigan with the hubby. We had some team building exercises, ate plenty of Great Lakes fish, slept in, and hiked the property. Best part? We learned that Frank, our beloved elderly neighbor is still with us, just moved to a place where appropriate care can be engaged as needed. That was quite a relief as we hadn't seen him to say goodbye and now it is very possible that we will see him again this summer, perhaps one more time before he indeed joins his wife that he lost three years ago.
His farm continues to inspire me. I hope that whomever buys Frank's bucolic stretch of hilled acreage keeps it as a working farm. We shall see...there is an auction slated for later this month and Frank's farm will belong to someone new. As sad as that makes me, those beneficent fields need some love. They've been resting too long and might desire some seed to nourish.
Stay tuned this week for some exciting new work. There is a significant art grant for a spacious installation that I am applying for and will be generating a proposal this week to submit for review. Please send one up and wish me luck. I want this something awful.
Lastly- Hello to the Netherlands who made a visit to my site this week and also a very warm "Bon Jour" to Quebec! If you were the lovely French father/son duo at the West Annapolis Artworks reception recently, I hope that you had smooth sailing while taking your new boat home from Annapolis!