Building a Foundation

Years ago I had an artist friend whom I admired greatly. We were friends for many years before she lost her fight with cancer, before I ever picked up a paintbrush myself. She was an educator, a teacher in the art department of a local college, and as such belonged to many organizations. One that she touted highly was the Women's Caucus for Art. She always wanted me to join, but I never did. Back then I didn't think of myself as an artist.

Then a couple years ago I met Helen at an artist's retreat of a online group of artists, sponsored by Gwen Pentecost of Joyous Lake Gallery, located in the White Mountains of Arizona. Helen and I found that we had a lot in common, and we've seen each other quite a few times since then. It's Helen's in Berkeley where I housesit.

Helen is an active member of the WCA. With all her talk about it, and with my desire to set up a foundation of artist friends here in Dallas, I've just joined the Dallas chapter. There's a couple current calls for art that I'm going to try to beat the deadline on, and there's a national convention here in February. So that's a start.

Today I'm printing images for resin boxes, and I have a new canvas on the studio wall. The painting is just something that I am doing for myself, inspired by my foray around San Francisco's Chinatown a few weeks ago.