May 2021 Newsletter

 I’ve been asked more than once if I’d ever consider creating something not made of roses and expand my artistic expression beyond the form.  The answer to that is perhaps someday, but likely, not someday soon!  Instead of feeling stifled by the form after so many years, I find myself constantly compelled by it.  As with the fresh blooms that come with spring, May proved to be a month ushering in many new artistic ideas, series and materials, as well as marketing opportunities and strategies. 

Think outside the box.  Or so they say...  

My very first blog. Louise Bourgeois's Femme Maison series immediately comes to mind - a series of paintings and sculptures from the 1940's of women's bodies with houses in place of their heads, a nod (pun intended) to the many hats we can and do wear as women - that of mother, wife, employee, accountant, cleaner, tastemaker, chef, teacher, designer, gardener... I could go on.  I've been wearing so many hats for so many years that I've been perpetually frustrated when donning each, thinking to myself as I rush to make a weeknight dinner that is truly nothing special but perhaps arrange it with a tiny bit of flair... If only I had the time and energy to devote myself to all-things-culinary, perhaps I could make a really scrumptious and impressive meal!  And so, as I wear each hat fleetingly before quickly trading it for the next, I've been burdened by this dreadful sense of having only achieved mediocrity, never having had enough time to delve, to discover, to truly master.  That same sense of longing - for time, space and the opportunity to discover - I've felt most urgently with my art; this burning need within me to create has existed for decades, its own wanting child.