(or shop and smell the flowers)   Spring has finally arrived and one of the highlights of the season is the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley Washington.  This year I am participating in one of the many art shows going on during the month of April.  SAT (Skagit Artist Together) in association with the Tulip Valley Winery have brought together a small, informal group of about 25 artists to show their work at a working winery barn during the month long Festival.  It looks like the Tulips will show up right on time this year so why not come out and enjoy a day of  seeing one of  the many places around here that inspires so much beautiful art and even take some of it home to enjoy all year long. Tulip Valley Winery and Orchard 16163 State Route 536 Mt. Vernon (Memorial Hwy)

I have a good life but sometimes I need to be reminded to appreciate it.  This year we’ve been remodeling and since hubby and I were both sick on and off  through January and February things got off schedule.    Then March arrives and I get a summons for jury duty.  VIMH (voice in my head) stirs, ‘now is not a good time for this’.  I am excited about an art show coming up in April but getting ready is always hectic.  Hubby, who usually helps get me through the chaos, is sick again and working overtime shifts seven days a week so I’m on my own.    Check list...Do my chores, do hubby’s chores, order cards, choose pieces to show, make inventory tags, coordinate schedule for days I work show, answer emails about changes in schedule, work on new artwork for the shows this summer.  VIMH laughs.  Dogs knock only backup hard drive off desk and break it.  New stuff isn’t backed up.  Trip to town, half a day wasted only minor crises number ??? from the last two weeks. VIMH sneers ‘but who’s counting’.  Plan trip to town day before I report for jury duty to get groceries and run errands...VIMH whispers ‘just in case you get stuck on a trial’...early start, long exhausting day...when VIMH warns ‘you know what happens when you get over tired’ I ignore it.    Countdown...Spend the morning of shopping trip making  lists of where to go, what to buy, and phone calls to make when I get home...(call courthouse (after 5) for instructions...call car dealership about notation about my breaks on paperwork from my last oil change...no one said a word to me).  VIMH again ‘you rely on your car and don’t have time for this.’  I leave for town in the sunshine...I get home in the rain and wind of a spring storm.  The clocks are blinking and my computer is off (it was on when I left).   I Fix the clocks check the computer (remember no backup)  put away groceries and start dinner.  Hubby gets home.  Go to make phone calls while dinner’s cooking.    PHONE IS DEAD......MELTDOWN We don’t  get a cell signal out here.  It’s late, I’m tired and by now I am in tears.  Hubby gets out the phone we use when we have a power outage, plugs it in and hands it to me...dial tone working fine.  The wireless just has a dead battery.  Reality Check...VIMH  ‘all this stress, all this worry just because I got a Jury summons...what was I thinking’?  The next day I sat on a hard plastic chair for two hours then was told to go home.  I didn’t  have to come back......   I have a good life.  I am lucky to live where I do (in this country), express my voice through my art and complain about anything I want to and sometimes I need a reminder to be patient and take part in the things that make my good life possible.       As my son so aptly put it into perspective when he face booked me after I complained about my jury summons...... ”Go America...and bring a book.”

I have written poems for years and tucked them away in a notebook never quite knowing what to do with them.  When Arlington added a poetry contest for this years Eagle Festival I decided to enter...what could I lose?  Nothing apparently...I Won!  Thank you everyone who voted for my poem.  Here it is...what do you think? SEASONS My garden beckons in autumn in the wind where tattered remnants of summer flowers wait to be covered with a bed of newly fallen leaves turned scarlet and gold by October nights My garden beckons in winter in the snow where tiny sleeping buds on frost kissed branches sparkle in the cold pale sun waiting for December to break it's icy spell My garden beckons in spring in the rain where blossoms open and flowers burst forth in kaleidoscopic colors like April rainbows after a storm My garden beckons in summer in the shade where a cool green canopy of leaves invites me to sit and rest among the fruits of September's harvest until my garden beckons again

Several years ago I read a blog entry by Christine Kane about choosing a word to work on during the year instead of making New Years resolutions.  Over the last few years I have chosen words like clarity, trust, change, and they have all taught me valuable insights about myself and my life.  But knowing something and doing something about it are two completely different things.  Being clear on what my dreams are, trusting they can come true and changing my life in ways that make those dreams possible mean nothing unless I do my part to make them happen.  So this year I chose the word action and what I have learned from previous years words about setting clear intentions brings to mind the old saying “Be careful what you wish for!”    On February 12 and 13 I will be in Granite Falls, WA with my daughter Nyna June, who is a jewelry artist and silversmith, for my second art show of the year.  We will be in the Atrium between The Robin’s Nest and The Whistle Stop.  So come see us.  It should be a fun weekend.  And stay tuned...the year has just gotten started.

One of my favorite sights in winter are Eagles soaring over my yard on a blue sky afternoon swooping and floating on the air currents or flashing through the trees behind the house picking up salmon from Jordan Creek.  I am lucky to live in a place where on my drive home from the grocery store I can see an Eagle perched in a tree by the side of the road or standing on the yellow line in the middle of the road.  Come see why I don’t mind the rain and gray skies of a PNW winter.  Come see artwork by me and a host of other local artists at an art show in downtown Arlington  just one of the many fun activities being held to celebrate these magnificent birds at the Arlington-Stillaguamish Eagle Festival.  The Eagle Festival is on Saturday February 6th.  The art show will be open on Friday February 5th as well.  Hope to see you there.

Every year the gray skies and rain of a Pacific Northwest winter put me in hibernation mode.  When I acquire a small amount of energy I do something that takes very little thought,  I clean. For me that means cleaning out the clutter.  Over the past couple of years I have hauled junk to the Goodwill, the garbage can, and the burn pile.  As more and more clutter is cleared away I feel lighter physically, mentally and spiritually.  So why am I finding it so hard to get rid of art and craft supplies I haven’t used in years, supplies that are no longer relevant to the art I do now?   Maybe it’s the little voice in my head that starts screaming when I try to toss them out  ...what if I need it later?...I bought it for a purpose...I should follow through and finish things.  Then the other little voice, the rational one, whispers...later has come and gone and they’re still here unused...I don’t remember why I bought them ...why should I finish something I no longer have any interest in or any use for.  I know the voices are just fear...fear that if I get rid of all the “stuff” all my creativity will dry up.    Everything in our lives has an energy and fear is the energy attached to clutter.  Clutter is sucking the energy out of me.  Clutter and fear drain me and keep me stuck...stuck in bed on a winter day when i could be out taking pictures of ice crystals on leaves...stuck cleaning clutter when I could be on my way to an art show at S A M...stuck hiding in my cave when I could be taking a class on new ways to use my photos in collage.  Stuck taking the same tired photographs when I could be looking at old ideas from a new perspective.   So this year I will clean the clutter out of my head as well as out of my house and make room for new energy and new ideas so next year instead of hibernating through the winter I’ll be anticipating each new day.

I turn sixty five a month from now and as I look back to where I’ve been and forward to where I’m going I understand that even with the prospect of a long life (I had an aunt who died last year just short of 109 and both of my parents are still living...my father is over 90 and my mother is in her late 80s) I have fewer years in front of me than years behind me.  When I quit my job ten years ago to explore my lifelong interest in writing and my new found interest in photography the possibilities seemed endless.  Now I realize the possibilities may be endless but my life is not.  With that in mind I’ve been looking at my future with different eyes and shifting my priorities.   I use to fear I would run out of creative ideas. Now I know I won’t and turning sixty five makes me want to only pursue the ones that speak to me the loudest.  So I’ve been asking myself which of my have-to-dos really have to be done and which of my want-to-dos are left over from the past and hold no interest to me anymore and which creative projects have grown so big in my mind that if I don’t turn them into something tangible my head will explode with the keeping of them inside.   And here is what I have concluded.  The number of years I have lived and the number of years I have left to live aren’t what’s important...living each day of those years is what counts.  Doing what I love is what makes me want to get out of bed each morning.  Doing what I love will keep me from getting old...life is too short to do anything else.

This month the book club I belong to had our meeting and book discussion during lunch at Swanson’s Nursery in Seattle instead of our regular meeting place in Snohomish.  After lunch we toured Dunn Gardens.  It was day of good food, good companionship, and enough colors and textures and unusual subjects to make any camera junkie happy. Check out the gallery ‘October Book Club’ for some of  my favorite pictures of the day.

If selling art were the only criteria for participating in an art show there would probably not be very many art shows.   Between home, family and the day to day routines of living fitting in time in the studio is hard enough...socializing with and drawing inspiration from other artists never seems to make it to the top of the to-do list.     Participating in an art show is one way to make art top-of-the list if even for just one weekend  We can visit with other artists, make new contacts, find new customers and if we are lucky...sell a little art.    The second annual Art at The Plant Farm in Smokey Point was just such an event.  This year instead of all the booths being set up in the greenhouses most were outside in the pumpkin patch.  It made the heat more bearable and more room for artists and customers alike to move around and see all the beautiful art on display.    And even though the crowds weren’t huge and sales were slow it was a good way to spend one of the last summer weekends of the year...and how can life get any better than that?

Last year, in September, several members of the Arlington Arts Council and the owners of  The Plant Farm At Smokey Point  put together an art show for North County artists.  We set up inside the Plant Farm’s greenhouses among the flowers and plants.  It was a beautiful setting and the flowers and art were a good match.  I have posted some photos from last years event in a gallery called Art at The Plant Farm 2008.    The reason I am writing about this now is September has arrived and on the 12th and 13th of this month we are doing it all over again.  This year we will pitch our tents out in the pumpkin patch.  There will be good music and good food and lots of good art.   My daughter Nyna, a jewelry artist and silversmith, and I will share a booth like we did last year and are looking forward to a great show.  So mark the dates on your calendar and drop by to see us and all the other artists (and all the fabulous plants and flowers).  You won’t be disappointed.