Tuesday, May 31, 2016

love is served

How is it the last day of May already? Time just seems to zip by when the warm weather is here!

This month's "Paint-a-Thon" (entitled Small But Mighty!) took place on Friday, May 20th at She Doesn't Like Guthries in Lewiston, and it was a beautiful day from beginning to end. Heather and the staff at Guthries kept me going with good music all day long- and they rewarded me with a lovely glass of red wine when I was finished! The winner of "Serving Love" was Chris Rose, who is now officially a collector of my work! Coincidentally, May 20th was Chris's birthday, so thanks to his kind contribution to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, I was able to contribute to his day of celebrations. Yay!

"Serving Love," moments after being signed!


My show at Guthries is still up for a few more days (I'll be taking it down the morning of Saturday, June 4th), so I won't have my final fundraising total until then...but I will certainly let you know what that number is when I have it!

Now that my May Brushstrokes With Impact (tm) "Paint-a-Thon" has passed, I'm excited to announce the "Paint-a-Thon" that's coming up in June: Paint4TheCure Part Deux! The National Foundation for Cancer Research's "Play4TheCure" campaign was the charity I partnered with for my very first "Paint-a-Thon" event back in December 2015, and I'm happy to be working with NFCR once again! I will be setting up my easel in the front window of Wyler's (the venue that hosted me back in February for VANtastic!) on Friday, June 10th, and painting from 10am-6pm. The completed 8" x 8" painting will be raffled off at the end of the day, with 50% of the raffle ticket sales going to NFCR's "Play4TheCure" program. Stop by, say hello, buy a raffle ticket...and, as always, thank you for your support!

Here's the link to the public Facebook event page (feel free to share!): https://www.facebook.com/events/188376058225194/

...and here's the link to the Carii fundraising page:
https://www.carii.com/#/fundraising/paint-a-thonpaint4thecure-part-deux





Monday, May 9, 2016

may i catch up?

May 1st was the one-year anniversary of my mom's passing, and yesterday was Mother's Day. I can think of no better way for me to pay tribute to my mother than to dedicate my next Brushstrokes With Impact (tm) "Paint-a-Thon" event to a cause that she was passionate about: feeding others. Every time my parents would go to the grocery store, my mom would have multiple items in her cart for the church's food bank (canned goods, peanut butter, sometimes even cookies). After they would get home, my dad would reach for a cookie (not realizing its intended destination) and she would scold him, saying, "That's for the poor!" to which he would reply, "Well, what's for the rich?" My dad had a million of 'em, including the phrase he used to describe my mom, "small but mighty," and that's the name I'm giving to this month's event. Please join me at She Doesn't Like Guthries on Friday, May 20th, from 10am-6pm; this month's charity is the Good Shepherd Food Bank! If you can't be there in person, that's okay: long-distance support is always appreciated! Here's the link for the Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/485366764982251/) and here's the link to buy raffle tickets online (https://www.carii.com/#/fundraising/paint-a-thonsmall-but-mighty). 

So...what else has been going on? Well, my dear friend Tim came to visit recently! We had a great time, and not only was he able to pick up "Earth Flower" (the painting he won in April's Brushstrokes With Impact (tm) "Paint-a-Thon"/Every Day is Like EARTH DAY), but he added "Mexicali Ganesh" to his collection as well! Talk about going to a good home...thank you, Tim, for your friendship and your support! I am grateful for you. 


saying "so long" in Brunswick...

...and "hello" from its new home in New York! 


Oh, yes: last week, I led my first-ever paint bar-style class at Curtis Memorial Library! I was nervous, but it went really well. I wrote about it in my most recent Curtis Creative Spaces blog post, so if you'd like to read that story, please click the link: http://curtiscreativespaces.com/its-a-hoot/. In the meantime, here's a picture!

photo credit: Sarah Brown
  


Finally, I'm happy to say that my May show at She Doesn't Like Guthries in Lewiston is a two-person show with Keith SpiroKeith has been a collector and a friend, as well as an advocate for my Brushstrokes With Impact (tm) campaign, but we've never shown our work together until now. The show went up on Friday, May 6th, and we really packed the place! Please stop by sometime this month to see for yourself, and while you're at it, treat yourself to some tasty food

a taste of the show!