Hindsight is 2020 - Thoughts on the Year
2020 has certainly been a strange year. I retired from teaching public school art at the end of the 2018/2019 school year with the goal of making art full time. I started renting a lovely studio above a wine bar in York, PA.
I thought I could get a few part-time teaching gigs to help me pay my rent. I did, but they were not quite what I expected. I loved the classes I was teaching, but after February, classes cancelled and we went virtual.
I did have some successes in 2020. I won an Award of Excellence for Healing Arts
from Manhattan Arts International in February. I also won Best of Show in the Yorkfest Adult Juried Exhibition over the summer. The painting that won is Living Forest. It is a painting of what was my neighbor's creek in the woods. This is 30"x30" oil painting on canvas. My painting style has changed over the years. I earned my MFA in visual arts in 2017. That experienced helped me to think of making art in a different way. I am no longer trying to "copy" nature. I am experiencing nature through the process.
Most of the paintings I will be showing were created in the studio using photos that I took while walking through the woods. We purchased our neighbor's 24 acre wooded property in December. It is a magical place. I also hike at the state park which is five minutes from my home with my dog and my husband. He also retired this year. Nature continues to inspire me.
