JAN. 3 to 31, 2026:Doing Hopeful Things

Four years ago, ideas began bubbling up. (Like in a witch’s cauldron? Kinda, but more just gently pushing their way to the surface!) Sixty in the rearview mirror, I was feeling a new me rising.

And, I was feeling my grammies. Both were born in the first decade of the 20th century. Creative, resourceful women who lived through the influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. They remembered their first car rides and suffragettes. Phone numbers were 4 digits, not ten. Most of what they ate, they grew or hunted. Creativity was not a gift; it was a necessity. Money was for necessities. Even if it had been plentiful, my rural grandmothers had no access to art supplies. Still, they created and curated beauty in their lives.

I wondered what I might create using materials available to my grandmothers. This close-up is a small part of a seven-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide, by 3-foot-deep installation titled Forest Dreams. I worked on this piece for over 2 years. It looks just like my acrylic paintings – TRIPPY!