May has been a doozy. I had to take an unscheduled break from videos and writing due to a family member being in the hospital. I have necessarily made that person a priority but whew, it really threw a wrench into my life and various plans.

So a quick recap:

I had planned on applying to a residency for this August. I wrote out the various pieces of the application and missed the deadline. Instead I will do my own DIY Residency. More on that in it’s own post.

I applied for, but have not heard back, for a show at a local gallery. I’m not sure when I’ll hear back or IF I’ll hear back. I’m going to reach out to the gallery and see.

Despite not hearing back from the gallery I am proceeding with completing the 300 Vehicles Project. If I don’t hear back from the gallery by the end of June I will list all 300 images here on Ko-Fi or Instagram.

I did manage to get the 3 pieces I had framed from the 300 Vehicles series to the Danvers Art Association May Show and one of the pieces won 3rd place for the mixed media (or miniatures) category! I can now say I’m a multi-award winning artist!*

My work place is finishing up the final touches on our big art show and event this week. I’m really thankful for having 2 3 day weekends in a row, one before and then one after the event. I usually get in 3 or 4 times my regular daily step count. It’s a bananas amount of work. But such a good time.

My art that I donated to the auction to raise money for work, sold for a larger sum than any of my pieces I’ve ever donated. What a nice boost and what a great way to help support the kids I work with. 

I started to make my own watercolors and gouache with foraged rocks. I made my first lake pigment from Red Maple leaves. The rock pigments are great the red maple pigment is… okay. 

​Many of these updates will get their own post at some point, but most especially the paint and pigment making. I’m fascinated by the process of breaking up rocks and adding gum arabic and making images with it. It’s been part of my residency proposals. Which I suppose is another update all on it’s own- I’m going to be applying for residencies for NEXT summer. It’s a commitment to ideas and plans and frankly a thing I struggle with. But it’s something I really really want.

*I won an Honorable Mention in the Bangor Daily News Political Cartoon contest in 1990. My cartoon was featured in a special insert in the newspaper. The cartoon was about book censorship… Go figure.

Quick note, I’m posting this concurrently on the blog instead of my usual month out wait. I’ll go back to regular month long wait between the post here for supporters and posting for free to the blog. I don’t know why I feel like it’s necessary to post this NOW vs wait, but I’m going forward with it.