I finished writing a grant to do more work on the Modern Muses. Asking someone for money to make an art piece makes me get very focused. What is a muse? Do they have less power now, as most women do? What are their working conditions and job descriptions? It came to me that the modern Calliope, would be the muse of communication. And what better emblem than an antenna. This is a maquette, (mock up) of an idea. 
Three years in this studio
Charlotte recommended that to be a serious artist, I needed a serious studio space. This is an old classroom, 20’x30′ with hardwood floors and four windows that are eight feet high. In the winter, my Tai Chi class meet in my studio. The advice was incredible! Here’s my left leg, and class.
Tea in the gallery
The Fine Ladies will host an afternoon Tea on Saturday in the Sleeping Stones Gallery. We think it will be a great setting when we get everything done!
Habitat Restore
This round piece of plywood was for sale at the Habitat store for $0.75. I couldn’t resist, but only got two. Now they’re gone. They came from speaker cabinets. 
I screwed it to the other board to work on it. The squares are mat board, to refer to QR codes. It isn’t taking the paint the way a flat surface would, so it’s hard to stay loose, when I keep running into edges. But as in oils, I do better when I keep adding paint. Now if I could only figure out how to get a pic on FB. I’m a Luddite on dial-up.
Still life
Charles & Karen came to my studio and we did a still life. We all are painting more.
Xeris
As I added more paint, I dropped some letters. I live in a rain forest, so it might seem strange to do a series on Xeriscape. I strongly believe that people need to pay attention to the plants that thrive in their region without insane irrigation.
These are for…
Kim showed pottery & Nick showed paintings, but they couldn’t attend. These will give them an idea of their display.
Open studio tour
Thanks to everyone that ventured out for the Haywood Open Studio Tour. We met some interesting people, and they got to see what Fines Creek school has to offer in terms of artist’s space.
JMW Turner
I saw a painting by turner of a castle in the fog. I took this photo on a foggy winters day, so I thought I’d do something similar. This is day one.
Changes to “Changes”
I am painting oils over these panels. You can put oils on top of acrylics, but you can’t go the other way, without peeling paint. I thought I’d change a lot, but mostly there were areas that seemed thin to me. Who knows, when this dries I may not like it either. However, I’ll take my cue from Willem DeKoonig, who worked on one of his “Woman” paintings for over 10 years. When we had llamas, you learned that you couldn’t let them win over bad behavior. You had to correct it. Same thing with paintings. 