R E F L E C T I O N S

My Biggest Painting to Date

2011-10-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

Usually, after I've been painting for an exhibition, I will complete the body of work, get it delivered, attend the reception, then I go through the, "post show blues." It seems to be a normal experience for artists, at least the ones I know. So much energy goes into preparation and the event, kind of like a wedding, and then it's over. Well, recently I completed a very large painting, the biggest painting I have painted in my career as an artist (so far) in fact. This painting drew me in, pulled me back and forth, made me fall in love, and then I had to let her go. She is on her way to Abu Dhabi to a new Westin Resort that is opening there. My wall, once filled with a canvas about 8 feet tall by 11 feet wide, is back to being empty and it feels weird. It's not usually so tough for me to let a painting go like this. I mean, I've been working professionally for 14 years now. I've seen so many of my pieces fly away and never have become attached. I love them all, don't think I don't, and it's always a wonderful surprise to happen upon wherever they may be hanging, but I don't usually don't remain so emotionally tied to them when they go. This one was different. I don't know if it was the physical size that commanded, the level of growth that occurred, or maybe both of those and other factors that made me lament watching her sail off to her new destination, but she's gone and I miss her. This is a good thing though. I hope she has this impact on others. I hope that when people in Abu Dhabi look at her, they will experience the mystery of life and light that I see reflected on the water. I hope they too will lament at having to pull their eyes away, leaving only a reflection of the image on their memory.

Echo (un-numbered)
Oil on canvas
120"x84"

Oh, and if you have a little more time, there is a wonderful article in the November issue of Country Roads Magazine about me. Here's a link to that article, http://countryroadsmagazine.com/Visual-Performing-Arts/jill-hackney

A Summer of Commissions

2011-09-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that the summer just flew by as fast as it did. The kids have been back in school for over a month and I've been working hard to get my routine down. I was standing in line this morning at Garden District Coffee and, with a big grin on my face, blurted out to the the lady next to me that, "I just love Monday!" Okay, that makes me sound weird, but, well, I do love Monday. I love my routine. I love that Monday means my quiet/coffee time at the coffee shop. I love that my "office" is at a corner table next to the outlet. Doing my "administrative stuff" ie answering emails, ordering supplies, etc... is much easier for me to do there than at home. When I'm home I'm driven to work in the studio, of course :)

When we were buying a house down here in Baton Rouge, both my husband and I realized that I couldn't afford any down time in painting. I had several commissions on the front burner and more paintings to create after that. Building a space was not an option and, after years of renting studio space, I was really wanting to put my income back into our pockets instead of a landlord's. The perfect house presented itself to us via For Sale By Owner. I fell in love with it's antiquity, it's quirkiness, it's potential, and it's glorious extra room built on the back of the house. A room that, if it did not have carpet, could be an excellent basketball court. It has great natural light and a ceiling at least 20 feet tall. We put in a bid on the house before I had ever seen it in person. I knew it was right and my gut was correct.

So I hit the ground in Baton Rouge running. I have completed three commissions since we moved here and am working on a fourth. The current piece I am working on is the largest painting I have created to date. It measures approximately 7 feet tall by 10 feet wide. I knew, of course, that I would be able to do this, but I wasn't sure how. Well, I've never created a painting using 4 inch brushes, but this one makes them look like small instruments. I just can't even imagine Michelangelo up there painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. One person painted that!!! It took him four years. Amazing.

Here are images of the two commissions I completed which will be hanging in the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida.

This commissioned painting of Limes will be settling in a Houston, TX home.

I am always honored and humbled that people put their faith and trust in me to complete a painting for them. I am lucky to have these opportunities and certainly never take them for granted.

My Tropical Paradise or Rain Rain Rain

2011-07-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have last posted. In the interim my husband and I, along with our boys have moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana as my husband has accepted the job of Tax Professor at the LSU School of Law. After the first week that we moved here it has been a constant deluge of rain every single day, and I do mean every. I don't mind the rain so much as it really helps to keep the heat lower here. I remember sweltering heat growing up in New Orleans, and it hasn't really been so oppressive this summer in the Capitol City. Okay, so we bought this amazing house in the Garden District. I love it, it is so weird and quirky and kind of funky too. Back in the Nineteen "teens" (I know this house was built before 1920) our house was the first house built in Drehr Place subdivision. Subsequently, in the 1980's, it's owner at the time moved the house over about three lots, turned it to face a different street, raised it up a story and added a 1st floor, enclosed the original porch (now upstairs) to create a fabulous kitchen with a Professional Viking stove with double oven, and added this HUGE 750 sq ft room with, at least 20 ft. cathedral ceiling onto the back of the house. Of course I claimed the big big room for my studio (my studio of my dreams)!!!! After all of this, the house was left with a walkway sized space of a yard on the back, less to mow! I love my house, with added stairways, rooms closets, attic and studio, it's also a great house for hide and seek. Fun :)

So, about my delay in posting, I had kind of a personal dilemma that made me question all of this. What was that dilemma, it was my mother, well, I'd like to blame it on my mother, but really it's just how I reacted to my mother's need for extreme privacy. It was around last November when my mom called me and a conversation regarding my blog ensued. She told me that she had read it. I was never expecting her to take the time to do something like that, but there it was. She was upset, upset that I had shared my feelings and emotions and my life experiences. This was always a scary thing for my mom. Pain, emotional or physical from me or my sisters, seemed to threaten her being, upset the fragile equilibrium of her psyche. I never liked putting her in a place of unhappiness or anger, it was like walking a tightrope. My blog had unnerved her a bit and she felt exposed.

Being a mom myself now, I know that it's not an easy job. Every day I am met with the task of balancing my needs with the needs of my kids and husband, just as it is for all people who find themselves the caretakers and/or partners of others. It's a huge responsibility that has great impact. My mom and dad really did the best they could, I know they did. It's hard to understand my mom's childhood as she really doesn't talk about it much. What I have gleaned about it, I have learned from her sister, my aunt. My mom doesn't discuss her life, especially anything unpleasant. If things ever seeped out, it was generally with a bitterness and anger, generally toward her sister. All I really know is that she was a good girl and did what she was told. So, growing up I learned if life was kicking me in the teeth, I was to keep my mouth shut and don't talk about it, especially to mom. Basically I learned to accept that "life was great" and if anything bad happened to me, it was probably my fault. I remember when I was riding my bike one day and was hit by a car. With a fractured skull and a bruised brain, I had lost much of the function on the right side of my body, especially my right arm. I did not have the strength to hold a door knob and turn it. Nor could I hold a pencil to write a sentence. I had received a lot of "get well soon" gifts for which my mom wanted me to write "thank you" notes. I tried, I really did, but when I told my mom I couldn't hold the pencil, she just got mad and told me I was "faking it". Wow, was that confusing to a 12 year old. I did my best to just not talk about how difficult things were. Plus, the injury also seemed to scramble my speech and writing. I would say words that didn't make sense and when I would handwrite (even to this day) I scrambled the letters in words or just leave them out. Fortunately the speech repaired, but as far as writing goes, it's still frustrating. At least I don't seem to have this issue when I type. Thank you keyboard :)

Well anyway, my mom began to question me about what I was sharing on my blog. She kind of got upset. I could feel that it was really coming from a place of vulnerability in her. She felt exposed and that was scary for her. She liked to keep her life under lock and key. It was really tough for me, living like that, and years ago I decided that it was not a healthy or natural way for me to live. I did not want to keep my life, issues and all, a secret. We all have issues and difficulties. We have all been raised by people with issues and difficulties. I love my mom and truly respect her. She is not a bad person and I know she loves me and my sisters fiercely. She would do anything within her means to help us, in the best way that she can. I don't really know what happened in her life to make physical or emotional pain such a difficult thing for her to cope with, why these things seem to scare her so much that her reaction is always one of anger and denial. I think it can only be that she never wanted us to be in pain and maybe the mirror of the pain in our faces was too much for her to bear. My sisters and I were told to "buck up kid" when we were young. Something tells me the apple didn't fall far from the tree and maybe her dad was a lot like that too. I don't really know much about my grandmother, as she died when I was two, but I do remember my grandfather and what an emotional and overbearing man he could be. He could also be the most loving, caring, and funny grandpa in the universe.

Mom, part of me hopes you don't read this post, but another part of me hopes you do. I love you mom and I recognize I wouldn't be the amazing person I am today without the life experiences that have built me. Thank you for loving me the best way you could and thank you for respecting me for the person I am today, even though I know sometimes you don't "get" me and other times you worry what I'm about to say. There it is, I've opened another Pandora's Box. I'll be waiting to hear from you mom :)

Limes 48" x 20"

2011-03-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here is another painting I recently finished. I am so in love with the reflections of the shadows of the branches.

Limes 48"x20"
at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert, CA

Painting of Lime

2011-02-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished product of the painting of the lime. This piece measures 30" x 30" and was inspired by a jar of branches on a wall shelf in a Belgian restaurant.

Lime
30" x 30"
Oil on Panel

My Orchid Collection

2011-02-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

Orchids are definitely one of my favorite subjects to interpret. The flowers are so beautiful and so delicate, the colors so varied. It's been funny and also quite an obligation as my orchid collection has grown from just a few to eight plants now. Watering these babies has really become somewhat of a chore. I would not call myself lazy by any means, but being a mom, I tend to attend to things that are on the front burner. Orchids don't nag for water very often, and fortunately for me, they are pretty darn hardy and don't seem to mind the fact that they get ignored an awful lot.

Sometimes I'm inspired by an orchid's color and I just have to have it to paint. Other times I have had requests to paint certain color flowers. I have lots of white orchid plants as I've had many a commission for white orchids. I have two that make beautiful purple flowers, one is yellow with a purple center (very LSU, geaux Tigers!) and one that is just an exquisite lavenderish pink (which I'm happy to say is going to bloom in the next couple months!).

Here's a couple of pictures of what has become my orchid table. These guys really seem to like it in my studio. They get tons of natural light as my windows face North. The morning light shines bright on them and then it's just reflected light all afternoon. As long as I remember to water them about once a week, these babies bloom bloom bloom, so pretty. Not sure what I'm going to do with them when I move to Louisiana. I wonder if there's an orchid rescue?...

A Peak Into the Future

2011-02-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

My husband and I went out on a "date" last Saturday night to celebrate our 14th anniversary. We went to a Belgian restaurant with a really bizarre name, Mannequin Pis. From what I understand, this is a famous statue in Belgium, interesting...

Well, aside from the fact that the food was actually very good and the decor was quite nice, there was this vase with a bunch of branches in it on a shelf against the wall. A nice little decorating touch for the restaurant, but an inspiration for me. There was light was fixed on it in such a way that it cast the most beautiful shadows, shadows that would go in and out of focus like a hazy memory. As soon as I got to the studio today, I grabbed up some dead branches and placed them just so for this photograph which will be my next painting. A look into the future.

Pears to Apples

2011-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm definitely one to not beat a dead horse. I was working on a large piece, 108" x 36". The composition was of yellowish pears. I laid in the drawing and got to work. The piece was coming along okay, but something about it was bugging me. It just wasn't right. The composition didn't feel strong enough to really carry and make a statement. So after looking at it for days and days, I decided to paint over it. I went out and purchased some McIntosh apples, which I think are totally cute to paint because they're so fat and round, and got to work. I think the end result made the decision a good one. This piece can be sold as one, two, or three separate paintings as each panel can stand independently of the others.

McIntosh Apples
Oil on 3 panels 108"x36"

Happy New Year

2011-01-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone :) Okay, so it's been a little bit since I last posted. A lot has happened since I last posted! I've finished a few paintings in my still life series. Most of these pieces are destined for Melissa Morgan Fine Art out in Palm Desert, California.

The horizontal McIntosh Apples 48"x12" was actually painted for my husband. He just recently accepted a job as an Assistant Professor of Law at the LSU Law school. We will be moving down to Baton Rouge this summer. I thought it would be nice to give "apples" to the teacher, and he would have something nice to hang in his office. I'm so proud of Phil!!! Now I've got to find good schools for my boys in Baton Rouge.

McIntosh Apples
Oil on Panel 36"x48"

Yellow Pears 36"x36"

McIntosh Apples 48"x12"

The Best Commission Ever

2010-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

This painting is very sentimental to me. I happened to be visiting my folks back in October around when my mom's birthday was. My dad commissioned me to create a painting for my mom. This was such a sweet and wonderful thing for him to ask of me. I let my mom pick out the image she wanted me to paint from. She chose one of my images from my summer trip to Veracruz, MX. I couldn't be happier with the way this piece came out. To me it feels of happiness and love. I hope it brings both of my folks both joy and pride. I love you mom and dad.


Echo XXV, Oil on linen, 42" x 60"

Observations of a Cub Scout Mom

2010-11-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

For weeks my youngest son asked me over and over if I was going on the Cub Scout camping trip. Okay, in my mind I really like the idea of camping, getting back to nature. The reality of getting dirty, smelling like campfire, and sleeping on an air mattress in the cold in a damp tent is far from the beautiful experience I have in my mind. But he batted his big eyes at me and "pleeeeeeeeassssssed" me non stop till I broke down, gave in, and agreed to go. One night of suffering for his happiness wouldn't be so bad. And, it actually turned out even better than I thought.

Okay, chaos makes me nervous. 25 boys ranging in ages from 6 to 10 and a lack of mothers can make for a tremendous amount of quasi supervised chaos. As a mom, I found it fascinating, watching how the dad's pretty much let the kids run wild. Talking to my husband, he explained it as kind of like "Lord of the Flies" with "some" parental supervision. So there were only three moms (including me) on the trip, the rest were boys and dads. At the beginning of the trip I fought my impulse to control, and by the end I was able to mostly sat back and watch.

I know that my boys are young for such a short time. These moments and opportunities to create lifetime memories can slip through my hands like the sand. Looking back, I know I have missed so many of these moments already. What else is life, but moments captured and others missed and to always make the best with what we have.

Two Deaths in 24 Hours

2010-10-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as I was driving home from my studio I received a call on my cell phone from my oldest son. He was wondering why there was an ambulance, a fire truck and a police car parked in front of our house. Pretty sure that it wasn't my house on fire I turned the corner and sure enough, there must have been a 911 call because there were all the emergency vehicles. When my husband got home from work, he stopped to talk to one of our neighbors and got the news. We live in a townhouse community and as it turned out one of our neighbor's grown kid (20 something?) had shot himself with a rifle in the head. So sad. It's hard to imagine, or maybe not, what can make a person so desperate to end their life.

And then this morning I witnessed something I never expected. As I was driving to work there were cars stopped in the road. It was bizarre because there didn't appear to be any kind of accident. Then I saw a policeman get out of his car, stand in the middle of the road, point his gun and take two shots at a deer. I'm guessing he was trying to put the deer out of it's misery from being hit by a car. I was still feeling pretty shaken from what happened the day before and this kind of freaked me out. We are on, then we are off, forever.

Thinking about how depressed that poor kid who killed himself must have been, made me remember when I was kid in middle school and how tough it was. I was not a gifted athlete, I was a chubby kid, and was 12 when my family moved to New Orleans. Talk about a deck stacked against me. Every day I dreaded going to school, facing the bullies and the humiliation that ensued. I felt so incredibly alone, and yes, I had thoughts about killing myself back then. I also had hope. I had to believe that things would get better. In the eighth grade things had gotten so bad I could hardly stand it. Then, one day when I was riding my bike home from a friend's house, I was hit by a car. It was bad and I mean bad. I had a serious head injury and was laid up in the hospital for almost 2 weeks. I was out of school for about a month and had lost a ton of weight during that time. When I came back I looked like a new person. Not even the vicious asshole bully bothered me anymore.

Weird thing is, during those really hard times when I felt like I had no friends and the world was against me, I always saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Though the tunnel was so damn long, I always felt like I had some kind of destiny, whatever that meant. My one solace was that I had my art. I had always believed in myself as an artist and no one could take that from me.

The Beginning of Echo XXIV

2010-10-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, here's an opportunity to watch as another of my paintings evolves from blank panels to a finished work of art. This painting, Echo XXIV is on two square panels and it's total measure is 72" wide by 36" tall. This piece is also inspired by my trip to Mexico last summer.

Echo XXIV day one

I've had another fabulous day of painting, so here is day two...

Echo XXIV day two

Rainy Days

2010-09-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

My oldest son lost a tooth yesterday, one of his molars. Since the tooth fairy still visits the house, he found $5 under his pillow. I'm not sure how many more teeth he has to lose, but at the age of 12, I don't think it's many more.

Well, I'm still home since I'm not much of a painter on a rainy day. It's really kind of a bummer, but rain really effects my mood and my creativity. So up here in Maryland, and it seems all along the Eastern Seaboard we're having a particularly wet day. I'm quite a go getter and I hate not feeling productive, so on days like this it really becomes about the house and the laundry. I think I'm going to whip up a good chicken and sausage gumbo too, it's a perfect day for that.

I'll be heading back down to Louisiana in November, something which I always look forward to. Lots of work to do for Frederick l'Ecole. So many good things are happening with the organization. It will be exciting when I can actually talk about some of these things as they come to fruition.

Back in August during the fundraiser "New-Nu's is Better than No-Nu's" at The Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette, the hosts of the event got the idea to create a video that would "speak" to the producers of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition". Of course the hope is that they will see what we have lost when our building burnt down and hopefully they will also see the great deal of community support we have for our organization. If you feel so inclined, please share this with your friends. It's pretty amazing.

Echo XXIII

2010-09-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

It always feels good when I've gotten past the halfway point in a painting. My painting speed definitely picks up when I'm more finished, than not, and increases exponentially until it's complete. It's funny, my paintings used to go so fast, and now it seems that my style and my methods have taught me to have a lot more patience. It's odd that I've even allowed myself to slow down on my work like this. I'm such an impatient person, in general. This patience thing, if I do say so myself, has all been for the better.

Echo XXIII
oil on panel
48"x48"

I've been toying with the idea of painting on canvas or linen. Toying so much that I'm removing a window in my studio to extend a wall so I can set up my canvas there. Why am I doing this? Well, I LOVE my panels, I mean LOVE. Painting on wood was a love I discovered one day when I was working in my studio in Baton Rouge. I haven't put a brush to canvas since maybe the late 90's. My hopes in moving back to a fabric surface is that this will help to alleviate the risk of damage and also make shipping a lot easier. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the surface will lend itself to my style and we will work well together.

The Long and Winding Road Back Home

2010-09-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Up to Thursday, September 16th of last week my friend George and I had been working tirelessly on a grant to help rebuild our little non-profit cultural education organization, Frederick l'Ecole des Arts. George delivered the package to FedEx to be delivered overnight and in their hands on Friday morning. We are now holding our breath to see if our organization makes it to the next round. So, for the rest of Thursday, I kind of felt like someone had let all the air out of my tires. It was weird, it was like all that crazy, frenetic, 5 hour long phone conferences, staying up till one the morning stuff, though it exhausted me, gave me a sense of purpose. When all of it was over, I felt kind of sad. But then Friday morning came, the sun was shining, I put on my music and picked up my brush, and got back to work on my poor, neglected Echo XXIII, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 6 of painting on Echo XXIII

Okay, so this weekend my family and I headed to Wheeling, West Virginia to visit with my mom and dad. It's a kind of difficult thing to do because, well, my dad is getting really old. He's only 73, but he's been suffering with all kinds of problems. He recently had surgery on his spine. He'd been having a great deal of pain couldn't walk because of stenosis. At least now the pain is pretty much gone, but he's struggling so hard to regain his strength. His muscles had atrophied so much. On top of his physical problems, he is also having signs of memory loss and other related issues with the mind. My dad was a very powerful attorney in his day. A really smart man with quick wit and incredibly handsome. He looks so much like George Clooney that when I see George Clooney in a movie, it's like watching my dad.

So we spent hours talking to my dad, engaging him in conversations and watching old home movies. In the movies I watched as my sisters and I used to spend hours doing handstands against the wall, turning cartwheels, playing in the snow, swimming and just goofing around. Looking back at my mom and dad in their youth. It was great to reminisce about the past, and I really enjoyed seeing us dressed in the styles of the 70's and early 80's. Oh man did we kill a lot of plaid!

The one lesson I am taking from this weekend is that I don't want to wait until I retire to do the things I want to do, travel, live in exotic places, learn new languages, etc... My dad never got to enjoy his retirement. He worked up until he couldn't anymore, and now he is old and struggling to maintain some type of quality of life. My husband's father had a similar experience, dying in his sixties as a result of radiation treatment he had received in his thirties for cancer. He too never retired, worked up until the day he had his heart surgery. Unfortunately, the damage and calcification was too great. He was never able to fully recover and passed four months after the operation, never being able to leave a medical facility because of his fragility. Life is precious and short. I know my days are numbered and I want to be able to look back and know that I have done it all.

Go West!

2010-09-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

I received some good news yesterday. A call came in from Melissa Morgan of Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert, California. She discussed her interest in representing me at her gallery. Now, I had been thinking for a long time about representation in California. Los Angeles was an obvious choice of cities, for me, as I have a friend out there I can visit and it's such a hopping metropolis. But I hadn't really done any research into the gallery scene there, so it was still just an idea floating around in my head.

Then I received an email about a week and a half ago from Melissa asking if I might be interested in showing in her gallery. At that point I got on the computer and started checking things out. The gallery looks beautiful and Ms. Morgan really seems to be a "go getter" type of person. I was pretty impressed, so, taking the proverbial "leap of faith," I accepted her offer and am getting to work on six new paintings to ship out to her. I will keep you posted as to when those paintings will be shipping out.

You can find out more about Melissa Morgan Fine Art at www.melissamorganfineart.com

DC, Annapolis, and My Kids

2010-09-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday the weather here in Maryland was simply divine so we headed down to Washington DC early to walk around a bit and enjoy the sights before heading to Siroc on 15th for dinner with friends. Okay, maybe I should not have worn my black boots for walking, but hey, I wanted to feel pretty. You know, in all the years I have lived here, I don't think I had been down to DC on a Sunday. That place is absolutely dead, it was almost impossible to find a parking garage that was open. I was completely blown away when all the coffee shops had closed by 6. We eventually found a little hole in the wall kind of place that served instant coffee. Not my idea of a great coffee experience, but it supplied the needed caffeine.

At 7:30 we (husband and I) strolled over to Siroc and met our friend Javier who was visiting from Chicago. As a surprise he had also invited a mutual friend Coqui. My husband Phil had met Javier and Coqui when he worked on the school newspaper at SMU. Conversation topics at the table ranged from politics (of course, we are in DC), to marriage, to fabulous NYU law seminars (including dinners at fancy NY restaurants) my husband enjoyed during his year there, to Latin America and the drug problems in Mexico, to thoughts of where we would wish to retire some day, and finally to our adventures in parenting. We were the last table to leave and had spent about 4 hours talking, it was just wonderful :)

On Monday Javier's flight wasn't leaving till about 7PM so we decided to take a jaunt out to Annapolis and enjoy steamed crabs at Cantler's. Another divine day of low humidity drew us to sitting outside by the water. After lunch we headed into downtown Annapolis walked around and enjoyed the remnants of our weekend, sans children. Before leaving town to head over to my sister's house (she had brought our boys back from their visit with Nana and Boompah) I bought them some fake "gold teeth" that they could wear with pride. Just a little something to welcome them home. It was perfect.

La Fête Cultural and New-Nu's is Better than No-Nu's

2010-09-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a trip down to Louisiana for two events, La Fête Cultural in New Orleans and New-Nu's is Better than No-Nu's in Lafayette. Both events were fundraisers, the first for The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation and the second for the rebuilding of Frederick l'Ecole des Arts (the organization for which I am president).

I had donated a painting, "Yellow Apples and White Orchid" to be auctioned in La Fête and was happy that it sold.

Yellow Apples and White Orchid
36" x 18"

Taking a Hike

2010-09-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Today my husband and I (kids are visiting with grandparents this weekend) decided to take a small road trip out to Shenandoah National Park and hike up to Mary's Rock. The trail was quite rocky and it was 3.5 miles round trip. I have always been a slow walker and there was no exception on this trip. It took me about 3 hours to do the hike and, as usual, folks passed me on the way up, and on the way down. Oh well, at least I can. From Mary's Rock you have a 360 degree view.

Arnaudville Experiment

2010-09-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

My life never seems to get boring, and this couldn't be more true right now. As well as being an artist, I am also the president of a non-profit organization down in Arnaudville, Louisiana, Frederick l'Ecole des Arts.

In July we had a terrible blow to our organization when the building we shared with Town Market, Nunu's Café (George Marks's family business) caught fire and was a complete loss. Since the fire it has been amazing to see the community of people, who have come to know us collectively as "NUNU's", rally together and work to raise funds so we can rebuild. I recently got back from a trip down to Louisiana where our first fundraiser was held at Blue Moon Saloon and Guest House in Lafayette. What a night! Six bands donated their talent and time to help us out. George and his Mom worked tirelessly serving food they used to prepare for the café. So many volunteers stood by our side, rolling up their sleeves, doing whatever needed to be done. My hats are off to all of you, with your help we can accomplish just about anything!

You can help us in so many ways. One way is to follow this link, register and vote for the Arnaudville Experiment of which Frederick l'Ecole des Arts is a component. This Place Matters, Arnaudville Experiment=Louisiana Culture. This is a grant program through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and we can win this grant if we get the most votes.

We have a website listing our upcoming fundraisers called Phoenix Rising / Nunu's where you can see what is going on. Everyone is welcome! If you can not attend a fundraiser, but would like to donate, you can make a donation to the organization on our secure Frederick l'Ecole website donation page : http://frederick-arts.org/donationform.html. Please also consider becoming a member of the organization.

A Very Busy Summer

2010-09-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

My first post on my new blog. Welcome to all of you who are reading this. The name of my blog, Reflections, is about the purest way I can express how I paint.

Okay, a little about me. I'm an artist, a wife, a mom, and a pretty happy person. I live in Maryland, but my heart is in Louisiana where I grew up (in New Orleans) and went to college (in Baton Rouge at LSU). The first time I met the man who would become my husband was on a trip to Paris back in 1990. The next time was as an employee in his book store / coffee shop, Caliban's, in Baton Rouge. Phil has been so incredibly supportive of my artistic career and has stood behind me right from the get go.

It's been 14 years now since I began developing my professional career and I'm happy to say I'm currently represented by four different galleries, Ann Connelly Fine Art in Baton Rouge, LA, Harris Gallery in Houston, TX, Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis, MO, and Blue Gallery in Three Oaks, MI.

My latest series, "Echoes" is all about reflected light, and I mean, all about! This series explores the beauty of light reflected off of water. All of my work adresses the beauty of reflected light, but painting light reflecting off of a moving surface was something I had been thinking about for a long time. Back in June of 2008 I decided to take the artistic "jump off the cliff" and create images that were completely different from what I had been painting and the Echo series was born.

Echo XX
Oil on panel
36" x 48"

I have recently taken photographs of beautiful water reflections when I was on my trip to Veracruz, MX this summer. I have already begun my first painting for that series. Here are some images of the work in progress.

Echo XXIII, Day 1

Echo XXIII, Day 2

Echo XXIII, Days 3-5

I'll be posting the continuing progress on this painting.