For the 3rd year now, Manor Mill hosts an exhibit called Made at the Mill and invites the instructors and all who have taken a workshop there in the past year to submit artwork. It’s a wonderful exhibit that showcases all the different types of creative classes that are held there. The piece above, “Eternal Unfolding” is my piece that is in the show. The exhibit runs from January 9th to the 18th and the opening reception is this Sunday, January 11, 1-4 pm.
When I dropped off the painting above, I also dropped off two other paintings, but these are for the 1st floor at Manor Mill which serves as a shop with so many handmade items and fun, creative products, but also houses the paintings of the represente artists at Manor Mill. I’m excited to share that I was recently invited to be one of those artists! This means that I will have at least 2-3 paintings there through the year, not just for specific exhibits.
Several years ago I wanted to create a book about bugs and insects, a naturalist/art/folklore type of book. I bound up a beautiful book, but then I only ended up makig three pages! This was one of them. I ended up taking the book apart because I wanted to use the cover for another art piece. I recently came upon my paintings that I had made for the book and decided that they needed to be on their own. I attached this bee watercolor/gouache painting to a wood panel and then kept painting and building up the surface with encaustic paint. The title comes from a book I read about bees. It was a spiritual, other worldly kind of book about bees. Very interesting read. It has always stayed with me.
The other painting I brought with me was this recent piece about my dream of owning chickens one day. After talking to some chicken owners through the year, I am aware that my dream could easily become a nightmare, but I would love to give it a try one day!
I remember it was the end of 2022 when I decided to submit my portfolio to this new place in a restored mill in upper Baltimore County that I had once visited and thought was interesting. The gallery director gave me a solo show on the 3rd floor gallery in August 2023 which was really exciting. What I didn’t know was how that would open up a door into this creative community in the middle of the woods in Monkton, MD. At that time they had requirements for artists who showed there- teach, artist talk and or demo. I did an artist talk. And I also did a workshop which was a return to teaching after taking a break from it for about 10 years or so. This workshop led to me teaching two workshops there a year since. I have met so many wonderful people through the workshops there. I also did a series of videos with them during my show, which was really nerve wracking for me because of my strange video phobia I have. But they were so helpful and supportive and Katie Aikens who interviewed me on the videos, wrote an artist feature article about my artwork. Whenever I see her it’s like seeing an old friend.
Anyway, all that to say that it is wonderful to continue to be part of a growing and thriving creative community that really supports the arts and artists in many different ways. And also, you never know what can happen once you hit that submit button.