You may remember the portrait of Yorkies Zoey and Prince from January. Well, they were actually the second portrait of dogs I was commissioned to do over the holidays. The first was top secret…until yesterday. So after quite a long time with no portrait commissions I had two requests in December within days of each other, and both were of dogs. But Copper was a dog I knew.

Nine years ago we bought an artist’s summer cottage as our new home. The artist who had created this space was Nell Blaine, and despite being confined to a wheelchair and limited to the use of her left hand, she left a catalogue of beloved paintings of her view and her gardens, with the help of gardeners and landscape designers. When we moved in Nell had been gone for sixteen years and the remaining garden designer gave us a tour of the acre property. There were rare native plants, a “fan garden,” hosta collection, a babbling brook…so many lovely things that met their demise when I took over, but that was just half the property. The rest was wild. And not just wild…angry wild.

“The best people.” That’s what our friend Kevin called Karen and Steven. He didn’t just say that, he said, “You HAVE to meet Karen and Steven, they are the BEST people.” I was looking for some theatre advice for my aspiring actress, and Kevin said Karen was the person to know, she managed one of the busiest theaters in the region and she would be happy to help. I thought Kevin was being naive that this incredibly busy woman would have time to help someone she had never heard of but I was wrong.

I cannot tell you how therapeutic it has been to spend my time staring at two beautiful little faces who are completely oblivious to the world around them.

We’re back. Today Iain and I put up the first I Am More: Massachusetts exhibit since March at the Wellesley Free Library. The library reached out to me over a year ago to suggest hosting the exhibit and I assumed it would be canceled like everything else, but they said, no, everyone needs art right now–it’s happening. It is a big beautiful library and the exhibit is in the lobby just inside the entrance, and in the Wakelin Room just off the lobby for the month of January. Thank you to the librarians, staff and volunteers in every community library.

These last few weeks there’s been another artist in the studio. As I draw at the wall she’s been curled up with her laptop, headphones on, drinking iced chai, clicking away. What started as a learned skill for a gift turned into a booming side-hustle for the musical theatre actor, who, like so many others, has no theatre.

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It’s been a year since I picked up a drawing pencil. The drawing wall has been a blank sheet of paper for twelve months and I haven’t cared. I wondered if I would ever care again. As has happened in the past, it took the lost of a beloved individual to get me moving again. Continue reading →

There is tap practice going on in the next room. Our musical theatre college freshman made a miraculous effort to move herself out of her downtown Chicago apartment, into storage, and got herself on a plane home. Never has loud tapping, beginner piano practice, and a car ride filled with show tunes sounded better.

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News is accumulating quickly so I thought I’d better open the floodgates while I can.

The next confirmed regional exhibit of I Am More: Massachusetts will be at UMass Amherst! This was my first choice as a western MA location, and with the help of Dr. Corey Griffin, the Public Art Committee unanimously approved hosting the exhibit on campus. We looked at the most high-traffic areas for students, staff and faculty and we’re now finalizing the location for a late winter/early spring exhibit. Continue reading →

Yesterday Iain and I hung the 32nd exhibit of I Am More in the gallery of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. It was a messy two and a half hour commute each way in a bit of snow, but the enthusiasm of my native Vermonters made it worth it! Continue reading →