Embracing Abundance

Wonderful things are still happening for me. I am embracing the abundance and not apologizing to the universe any more, but taking it in and giving it out knowing that there is more to come.



That's a new sunflower painting in my gallery window. I made three of them and hung them in the window at the first of the month, along with pillows and bags that I had decorated with sunflowers and everything has sold except one painting!! Every month since June has been amazing except August.Thank goodness for my wine and paint classes- they've helped keep me on goal even during a notorious dead month (August) for merchants in Roswell.



Thank you Roswellites and my sweet friend, Pam, who travels for two hours to take a class. I love seeing people create something that they originally thought they couldn't. I love seeing creatives that had put their brushes away, get them out again, because a simple painting has jump-started their art again.




My drawing is still coming along and I'm practicing with more fervor than ever since I someday want to teach fine art classes, not just fun art.

"The best painting comes out of compulsions and obsessions, out of deep love or hate, out of intellectual or emotional involvement with something that lies outside the painting itself. - Edward Betts




I'm still thousands paintings away from 10,000 paintings, still 4 years away from 10 years of everyday, consistent work but I am still on track. And if you knew me, you would know that not wavering is a huge personal sacred success for me.

I think the most fulfilling thing, even beyond being able to pay the bills and keep my own gallery profitable, is seeing and hearing and being with other artists and hopeful creatives, and inspiring and spurring one another on to be our best selves.

Come by and see me at Main Street Arts, right downtown on Roswell's Main Street.
Yes, I know, it's unbelievable. Even a bad day, is a good day in a open studio in an art gallery!

Main Street Arts

I am having so much fun at Main Street Arts. I wish you could see our window installations. They are really cool. If you haven't heard our great news , well, my Sweet Farmer and I purchased a building in downtown Roswell, N.M. Yes! It's across the street from the Alien Museum and Yes! It is on Main Street right in the middle of everything! And yes! I'm so proud of it! Our grand opening was June 15.

"The Gallery" which is a co-op gallery of artists is renting 2/3 of the building. We share common spaces like bathrooms and a workshop area. They open and close the store 6 days a week. But I love being down there. I enjoy being with the other artists and meeting all the wonderful tourists and shoppers that stop in. It's very energizing.



I've met the neatest people like Max. He draws incredible cartoons.


And this is my first "Paint Party" in June. Everyone had a great painting and encouraged me to do many more.


My sales have doubled. I recently sold my original Cheetah, a cowgirl, and lots of prints and even some older work.


That Cheetah was so wild, that it took just the right customer to love him and take him home.


I can't wait to share more stories of the life of a gallery owner. Just pinch me.
It still feels like a dream.

But dreams are good. I don't want to ever stop dreaming.


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HOPE- AND MY GREEN HILL.

 A long time ago on a far away hill a passionate girl filled with hope started her journey exploring art. She didn't know the right way to go or the wrong way to go. She just went..... forward. She read and she painted and she played and she practiced and she studied and she geeked out on art supplies. And she plays to this day. Happily, merrily now she plays in her own art gallery called "Krantz Art". She and her sweet Farmer bought a building and named it "Main Street Arts" and now it shelters her and a co-op gallery of 30 beautiful artisans. And they all live happily together.

 That lucky, very blessed-to-the-max girl is your's truly, ODD CHICK.It is still amazing to me where your most passionate passions will lead you if you will just listen, if you will explore, if you will follow your heart.

MY GREEN HILL is HERE AND NOW.

AND HOPE continues to perch on my shoulder whispering that there are more luscious hills ahead.

I have never seen anyone do that before....

We heard it at least 30 times. "Welllllll......I've never seen anyone try to paint carpet", with a pinch of salty scoffing. Only a pinch. But just enough, every time, to make a girl wonder why originality is such a scary thing to some, and when it quit being a road block or hazard to creativity for others.  Art has certainly made me braver in that area.

This idea wasn't mine alone, of course. It came after a brain-storming session with an art friend about how to get rid of boring carpet. "It's a canvas", she said. And off I go like Alice down the rabbit hole. AND There are chrome sheets on my ceilings and paint on my carpet and wood pallets painted with gold glitter. It's been done before somewhere I bet, but it feels original to me.

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

If you haven't heard, I've been incredibly blessed lately as Sweet Farmer and I have purchased a building on main street in Roswell, New Mexico and I have leased 3/4 of it out to a co-op gallery and have retained 1000 square feet for my own gallery space and studio. I KNOW!!! I can't believe I just wrote that!!It's true.

It's a canvas. The whole space is just like a new canvas and I am enjoying painting it layer by layer. Of course, I have had lots of help. Like Isaac, this new friend, young and spunky, cool as beans grafitti artist who has helped me paint pinwheels. I wish I had permission to share his story because he has a great story and I'm so glad I met him.

He doesn't think I'm odd. When he heard what I wanted to do with the floor, he says things like, "that's going down hard" and that translates, "wow, I like that". He gets that you have to be brave and do your thing even when people think you're a little too original. But I think artists learn to embrace the fear of doing it different. We've learned to accept failure, uncertainty, and surprise outcomes on some level. We know you can always begin again. But we have to explore the boundaries of creativity. And step over them now and then. 

Speaking of beginning again. This is what was under 60 or 70 years of layers of stucco on the top of the store. Once it was named "Everybody's". And now, many years later it will be a place for everybody to create, share their art, and share their passion.

There are lot of us art geeks out there. Thankfully.

YAH! IT's SPRING!

I'm crowing like a happy rooster over here for a hundred happy reasons.

I'm happy it's spring!!

I'm loving this new app called Over that Misty Mawn turned us on to. OH YUM_ take her class and she shows you how to use it and even more secrets!

I've seen people making beautiful cards and fun post using this app. It makes your art all brand new again when you can use it a different way.

DANGER! DANGER! artist's crush!! -  This is 120 half stick pastels from Rembrandt that I got for my birthday!! AREN'T they the most beautiful sight. THESE have made me very happy. I did spill the box which made me sad for a minute because they were all sorted into color and values. But I think I can get a picture and put them back right .. or not.. they are still making me sigh every time I open the box!

I have BIG news. I'm tackling something that is mind-boggling for me right now. BUT it is bringing me lots of happiness and joy. I can't wait to share it with you. Give me a couple of weeks. 

I hope the first day of Spring is getting you energized for great things. 

Of course, I still love SWEET FARMER. He makes me really happy!

Don't let anything stop you from having a great SPRING! 

My Colorful Life

"Adele Bloch-Bauer's Pet Cheetah"
Acrylic/Mixed Media on 2X4 foot gallery wrapped canvas

I will always remember
painting this cheetah
painting because I finished it the day before my 55th birthday.
He represents my wild and colorful life.
If I'm having a mid-life crisis- then this is the best crisis I have ever had and I never want it to end. BRING IT ON!
I recently told my hair-dresser to cut my hair but leave it a little grungy. GRUNGY???- but it's short and messy and I love it. It fits my life on the go.
It shakes out when I take my dirt bike helmet off  and it doesn't look too bad.
I'm wrinkling and getting chubby, and having flashes of something besides brilliance, memory's fading, and all those things but I'm good with all that. I mean, I want to take care of myself and be healthy and I know I've been hot and now I am COOL beans and ba-ba-ba-ba bad to the bone. And wiser. And calmer. And kinder. A better lover of people. So heck to all those other small things like fitting in skinny jeans, compared to the good gifts I've been given through age and time, I will take about 50 more years in my yoga pants! 
I'm in love with my husband, my kids, my grandkids and my art. Oh, my GOODNESS. My art/mind/life has truly been the greatest gift of this season of my life. I will forever be grateful that I prayed that simple prayer and asked God to teach me to draw in 2007.
God has also given me a peace in my heart, and a spacious place in my head to grow in Him. I just hope He gives me more time and health to do a thousand things on my bucket tank load list of places to go and new passions to chase down. I know it's a lot to ask. 
I intend to recreate myself at least 10 more times. New hairdos, new hobbies, less stuff,  classy fashions, new sports- I intend to be NEW, and classy, and traveling and learning until the day I die (I'm heading to Ireland in September!) or until I lose my ability to decide what to do with my day or my mind. But there's no time to waste.  My heart is nearly bursting now. 
Thanks for sharing the years with me!! I hope we have many more.
Above all things, I feel grateful, for this moment, this time, and my very precious mid-life season.

Acrylic on 22x30 Fabriano Paper - 

This is my latest painting called "Our Prayers Are Our Gifts" inspired by not one, but two glorious on-line classes.
You must check out Misty Mawn's Full Circle Workshop. It is packed full of 12 weeks of pure, undiluted, mind-blowing inspiration. I have loved it so much.
And
Jeanne Oliver's "Studying Under The Masters". This is a group of artists that hold nothing back and has been very educational and I have been reading like a mad woman and devouring new and magical information about the old art masters, and who inspired them, and who inspired them... and you can imagine it cost me another penny and many a library visit to hunt down the info- but it has FIRED ME UP, I tell you.

I learned to weave a scarf on a loom!!! Check off another bucket list item. It was an amazing day and I was so pleased with myself when she found no mistakes as far as missing a weave -Because I am always the messy one!

I'm still practicing my drawing. I'm even teaching some little kids some basic drawing lessons and that has been a big deal for me. I love seeing them progress, and loving their drawings and it has helped my own drawing by repeating the basics over and over.

And when I can't stand the joy of painting and drawing, and my chores are done, I take a little spin on my new (used) dirt-bike Sweet Farmer got me for Valentines. I love to see the farm land around here as I ride, and search for drawing inspirations on the back roads. 

Life is really good for me right now. It's hard not to feel guilty sometimes. Our lives are not perfect and sad things have happened that created a huge tidal wave of grief in our life.

 We lost my sister-in-law, Sweet Farmer's only sibling -his big sister. It was a heart attack at 51. She was a beautiful, loving mother and wife and she loved her little brother with a deep and consistent devotion. They were super close. I have been so sad for my Sweet Farmer as he bravely goes on to accept the loss of her presence from this side of things.

In spite of sad things, our lives are rich and full and hold so many opportunities. Even losing someone, makes you realize how very special our moments are with loved ones and to be truly present in the day you have.

Give you gifts to world and let it gift you back.

And spread grace... the world needs it so badly.