MOUSE HOUSE PARTY

 

Mouse House Party: Fill the Hole opens this Friday!

I am honored to be one of 150 artists invited to participate
 in the Mouse House Party: Fill the Hole.

The exhibit opens at Current Cleveland art gallery on Friday, August 6, 2021
and was spurred by Liz Maugans and organized by her, as well.

Using an arch shapes provided by Maugans and representing a Mouse Hole, artists were asked
to make work expressing how they felt last year during the Covid pandemic, 
or illustrate how they spent their time.

My work, Prayers for the Dead, illustrates the grief and loss I have 
been experiencing since the beginning of the pandemic.

Full Circle, Beginnings and Endings

 

My brother Denny and my mom in the 1950s

This has been quite a year so far, a time of quiet reflection, of rediscovering passion, of circling back to childhood, of reconnecting with people who loved my family and who love me. It has also been a time of unspeakable loss, beginning with the sudden death of my brother at the end of February and the precarious nature of life itself even in the present, as other loved ones face down illness and more. And in the middle of all of it, I had an amazing opportunity to exhibit my work, which is one of the greatest honors of my life, sharing my work with the public and hearing their comments and feedback.

Working on the exhibition interfered with my grieving process. Because I am an artist, I was grateful to be able to begin finding my way again through sitting quietly and making art as I prepared for it. I mentioned one of the new pieces, Traveler, in a previous blog post, which I finished and dedicated to my brother. Following the gentle rhythm of my ideas and trusting the process, I kept working.

I finished a second piece, Talisman, that ended up being a trip down the rabbit hole back into my childhood family and my own childhood. The eggs at the bottom are my siblings; the five of us, now down to three. There are many childhood references, address numbers, birthdates, toys, moving parts, game pieces, a clock face, a broken Swiss army knife. A whiff of the past that pulsed through my veins into the present, as I let it come out in the work. It's one of my favorite pieces. Value the process.

Talisman by Gayle Pritchard, 2021

So, I go 'round and 'round, my head and heart spinning and breaking as I try to return to joy. This is the energy of the week of an total eclipse, the psychics and astrologers say, a week where it is time to be quiet and reflect while the full circle is completed. Clear the way for the future, make room for what is coming.

Grief and loss can consume a person. The path to living, however, is digging your way out from the abyss. That takes resilience, a highly undervalued skill developed through adversity; a skill that allows humans to completely lose their way and still come back, full circle, once again, to brings their gifts back to the world. What I am truly grateful for, as always, is that I know how I will heal; it will be the same way I have always healed: picking up the bits and pieces, fragments of memories and conversations, glimpses into another's soul, while I wait for what is mine, a gift from the universe.

This last artwork says it all, which is why I bought it from my friend Jill Milenski when it spoke to my heart. I have it hanging in my home where I can see it several times a day. It will be my new mantra for now.

Art and Meaning

She Found Her Voice by Gail Crum
from the exhibition 
Uncovered Stories

  If you are a member of the viewing public as opposed to being an   artist,   you may not know that one of the many beautiful things   that art does   is bring meaning to the times. Artists have a way of   looking at the world differently than most people. That quirky way   of   seeing gets   combined with the tools of expression, and the     end   result, the piece of  art, is what you see when you visit an   exhibition like my current   one, Uncovered Stories. 

 In this three-woman exhibition, the fourth one presented by Gail   Crum, Jill Milenski, and me in as many years, much of the work   presented was made during the pandemic last year. Artworks, such   as our trio of altered books made to keep us going and connected,   reflect what was happening just as a contemporaneous journal   written during the Civil War would. You just need to open your   heart to connect to the artwork.

The artists created altered books, which they shared in a 
round robin during the pandemic, to stay connected with 
each other when they couldn't meet.

 

Gail's piece, shown above, finds meaning in  uncovering the beauty in a cast-off cloth doll, which she placed in a glass case she lined with delicate handmade paper. She recasts the broken-down figure, ennobling it with beauty and grace. Indeed, she found her voice.

In her piece, below, Jill combines drawing, painting and  collage to create Doorways Into the Past, a piece that contemplates the joys and perils of raising a teenager during the pandemic. It's both fraught and wistful at the same time, and certainly something any parent can relate to.

Doorways Into the Past by Jill Milenski, as
seen in Uncovered Stories.

    Jill has made nearly two dozen pieces in this series,   exploring the rabbit hole of feelings, finding new   expressions every time. This is another beautiful aspect of   art, this time reserved for the maker of art. Yes, the viewer   reaps the benefits of the rabbit hole journeys, but for the   artist, long series such as this one, lead not only to deep   personal meaning, they create breakthroughs in one's   work  that forge new paths and create new challenges. It's   an exciting place to be.

  One of my own series relates to home and houses. I   started both drawing and constructing them as   assemblages about five years ago, when we were working   on an exhibition entitled Memories Evoked: Circling   Back  Home. In addition to teensy little oil pastel   drawings  of houses on top of boxes, I added sticks   stitched in place. I even created one large piece from an   old dresser drawer. Called Pink House, it was almost a     3-D  diorama of my childhood home. I put legs from an   old television on the bottom and an old rabbit ears   antennae on the top. I love that piece, which I still have.

Traveler by Gayle Pritchard, as seen in 
Uncovered Stories.

As I was preparing for my current exhibition, I started working on several new house drawings for my series, including Traveler, left. The two-dimensional wooden house is mounted on another piece of wood replete with my ubiquitous marks. A sort of map is nailed to the bottom, the "ground" area, and a beach stick is attached at the bottom. My oldest brother died as I was completing it, so I decided to dedicate the piece to him. I added the word cut from an old dictionary, traveler, as a sort of send-off for his soul. The map will help him find his way. Traveler is also a metaphor for his Irish blood; he had even more Irish DNA than the rest of his siblings, and one of our Irish surnames is a "traveler" name. Rest in peace, my brother.

So, these are just a few of the ways that artists both find and create meaning for the rest of the world to contemplate. I am grateful for the task.

Uncovered Stories: Open Through May 14, 2021

Yes, the Playhouse Gallery on the BAYarts campus is open, and our exhibition, Uncovered Stories, is installed. We had a terrific (and safe) opening last Friday, with more guests flowing through all afternoon on Saturday. Hope you can stop by to see the show. Click here for the show times and appointment schedule. We will be in the gallery every Friday night and Saturday afternoon through May 14th.
 

As always, it is such a rare honor for artists to be able to speak with exhibition guests about their work. Many visitors were familiar with our styles, but many weren't. Gail, Jill and I are always eager to answer questions.

In the front of the gallery we installed Jill's Fairy Tale series, which makes for an intricate and unusually beautiful entry into the exhibition. Along with many other highlights, the altered books we made during the shutdown, and shown at the Yards Project exhibition last year, were very popular.

In the BAYarts Sullivan Gallery the same night David King's exhibition Time Travel opened, also an interesting exhibition of paintings about family.

After the crowds died down, we enjoyed the firepit and lovely outdoor patio with some pizza from the delicious new hot restaurant on the campus, Chatty's Pizzeria. I can personally attest to the deliciousness of their gluten free cauliflower crust. Yum!

Installation view, Uncovered Stories

  Today, SCENE magazine had a nice article about both       exhibits on the BAYarts campus. Arts writer Shawn Mishak,   who interviewed us prior to the opening, called our work   "outstanding and contemplative." 

  

Gayle and Jill relax on the patio in their
Gudrunjodens dresses.

We had a lot of sales at the opening, but there is a lot of excellent work available and waiting to go on YOUR walls. Hope you can stop by the show. It will be installed through May 14, 2021.

Gail Crum, Gayle Pritchard and Jill Milenski
at the opening of their exhibit Uncovered Stories.

New Year, New Art, New Opening

In Our Studio

   Spring has arrived, along with vaccines, we have a new studio       space, new artwork, and a new exhibition.  

   The opportunity to exhibit our new work, and some made just       at the beginning of the pandemic, came about suddenly. In the       past three weeks, we have been working like crazy to finish up       pieces and install the show. It opens this Friday. Here's the             information:

Uncovered Stories

featuring the artwork of Gail Crum, Jill Milenski and Gayle Pritchard

BAYarts, Playhouse Gallery

28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, Ohio 44140

Hope to see you there! Masks are required, and the number of people in the gallery at once is limited. So, grab your mask, and enjoy the beautiful patio and firepit after you see the show.

Women in Conversation Offers an Intimate Look into Women's Experience of the World

Top row: artwork by Jill Milenski; Middle row: artwork by Gayle Pritchard;
Bottom row: artwork by Gail Crum

Our show Women in Conversation opens at the Stocker Center Gallery tomorrow night. We are so excited to see the installation. Gail Crum, Jill Milenski and I (Gayle Pritchard) first met years ago in my first Spirit Boxes, Sacred Vessels and Shrines class. The artwork was so amazing, we created an exhibition of the same name. Now, some twenty-five years later, this sisterhood of artists has created a new exhibition, our third in the past four years, and we seek again to offer a strikingly powerful view into how women see and experience life.

From the passage of the 19th Amendment a hundred years ago – giving women the right to vote – to the present day #MeToo era, we three artists celebrate woman's necessary role in society and the  importance of hearing steady, strong diverse female voices expressed through art. The urge to create is itself transformative and necessary, a balm for the soul. Women communicate differently about the gendered dimensions of their place in the world.

Fairy Tale Series: The Wolf at the Door, in progress. Artwork by Jill Milenski

In this groundbreaking exhibition, we raise our voices and speak through our work, a year in the making. Viewers are invited to be collaborators in completing the circle from the birth of an idea to the magical process of turning that idea into an art object that is put on display for all to engage with.

The pieces presented are inspired by daily life, the result of the way we, as women, skillfully and passionately navigate the multi-faceted roles we play: We are sisters, wives, mothers, aunts, daughters, grandmothers, soulmates, girfriends, caregivers, teachers, advocates, activists and artists.

Women in Conversation is the natural outgrowth of long-time artist friends who share a love of process and materials. The unbroken threads of decades-long conversations about our lives,our families, politics, women's issues, art, and techniques are woven into the work we are exhibiting. The show is a unique opportunity to share a piece of what brings us together as women and artists: the vulnerability, the intimacy that arises from telling our stories in our conversations with each other and through our artwork.

Saturday Night (Record Series) by Gail Crum

Along with the shared narrative, we also often share art supplies and found materials unearthed in junk and antiques stores. We share a love of process, of making something from nothing, or trying out new tools and birthing new visions in our note- and sketch-filled journals. We love laughing at the persistent compulsions that are the never-ending subjects of the objects we create. We share processes and favorite techniques with each other, simply playing and exploring ideas while we stretch to make new work that is out of our usual comfort zone. We nurture each other through our sharing and our play-days.

A box of ephemera ready to
be added to an artwork

We love color, old books and postcards, broken objects, paper dolls, fabric, and time-worn wooden blocks. We peruse junk shops, where intuitively gathered new treasures await our artists' mojo – that magical moment when the discarded trinkets and trash of everyday life are transformed. These snippets, pieces and parts are paired with process to become objects that carry the stories of our ideas.

We invite you to join in this living conversation about women, art and community. The chance to show our work and have this conversation is nurturing and necessary. It's a supportive, feminine thing we do together. We raise our voices to speak through our work. We hope you are moved, amused and inspired. Above all, we hope to see you there.

Women in Conversation

 · Where:

Stocker Art Center, 1005 N. Abbe Rd., Elyria, OH 44035

· When:

- Friday February 28, 4 – 7 p.m.: Opening reception, refreshments, Scavenger Hunt, live music and gallery talk at 6:30 p.m.

- Wednesday, March 4, 6 - 7 p.m.: 'Make and Take' with the artists before the play, Ain't I a Woman?

- Friday March 6, 6 - 7:30 p.m.: Visit the gallery before the Winter Film Series

- Friday, March 27, 6 - 7:30 p.m. | Visit the gallery before the Winter Film Series

- Thursday April 2,  4 - 7 p.m. | Closing reception, refreshments, Scavenger Hunt, live music and gallery talk at 6:30 p.m.

- TBA Other events celebrating Women's History Month and the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment

Detail of Travel Ban by Gayle Pritchard and
utilizing an altered Handkerchief Memory Project printed by
Clare Murray Adams

It's Here: Women in Conversation Opens This Friday

Detail, Spring Revisited by Gayle Pritchard

Such an exciting week lies ahead, culminating with the opening of our three-woman Women's History Month exhibition, Women in Conversation, on Friday night.

On Saturday, we unloaded six carloads of artwork into the gallery and carefully unwrapped all of the pieces for the gallery director. The space looks beautiful, and we cannot wait to see the show installed.

We all worked until the very end finishing work, wiring for hanging, adding titles to the artworks, sometimes the most difficult part. There is such a broad array of work from paintings and drawings to art quilts, assemblages, hybrid books and so much more. We created educational displays to illustrate our processes and highlight some of the materials we love to use. We even made a scavenger hunt game. Come to the opening at the Stocker Center Art Gallery Friday, February 28, 4 - 7 p.m. to play! Enjoy the art, live music and refreshments, as well. If you can't be there Friday, join us Saturday, February 29, 6 - 7 p.m. We'll be in the gallery then before the Mardi Gras concert with Terrance Simien begins.

One of the new pieces I created for this exhibition is called Target Family. Here are some images showing my process.

I wanted to create a diverse sense of  the
people who come to this country, so I
looked for eyes of all sorts. Detail, Target
Family by Gayle Pritchard

Here are some of the images I found. I really like how it adds
an edginess to the collage. Detail, Target Family by Gayle
Pritchard

Here is the final piece. My mixed media painting backs the
collage of an official NRA target, an old photograph
that has been altered as shown above. I mounted all on a
painted board, then added the assemblage elements.
Target Family by Gayle Pritchard. 

Women in Conversation: Two Weeks and Counting

Postcard Invitation for Women in Conversation, which opens
February 28, 2020 and features the artwork of Gail Crum,
Jill Milenski and Gayle Pritchard

In exactly two weeks, Gail, Jill and I will be delivering our artwork to the Beth K. Stocker Gallery for installation. Perhaps you can imagine, then, the frenzy of finishing we are all doing in final preparation for this major exhibition.

Yesterday, I created a "two weeks and counting" task list in my journal. It took up three pages! When I woke up this morning, I started in: I finished two house drawings from my ongoing series, which included framing them both and wiring them both for hanging, and that involved drilling holes with a very fine drill bit to insert hanging hardware on the tiny frames. Afterwards, I finished drawing a third house, which will be mounted. That's on the list for completion tomorrow. Ditto the "wire for hanging," always tricky when working with found objects. 

House Drawing #5 by Gayle Pritchard
Oil pastel on water color painting

Stay with me here. I found two large pieces of wood on bulk trash day, and they were beauties, old cupboard doors beautifully aged and unpainted. After removing the nice brass hinges (saved for another day), I used one entire door for a single piece, which is also on the task list for final assembly. The other door was just the right size to fit two of my mixed media collages, but it needed to be cut in two. I have a little miter saw in my garage, but nothing to cut this board. It sat behind my garage for about six months, even though the art was finished. Just this week, a friend with a portable saw stopped by, took ten minutes to measure and saw the wood, and hurrah!, I am in business. One of those pieces, called Bingo: Only in America Can Your Dreams Come True, is what I worked on finishing this afternoon. 

The beginning parts and pieces for Bingo. 
Yes, these are the things that inspire me: found
photos to be altered, an old box top, a bingo
game board and a drawing that is stamped
and ready to be stitched. 

The collage is done, but it needs to be mounted onto the cut wood. I decided I wanted to paint it first, so I grabbed my trusty Jacquard Neopaque fabric paints for the job. Why fabric paints? I wanted the wood grain to show through, but for that, I could have also used a wood stain. I use my fabric paints all the time because: a) I already have them, which saves me a trip to the hardware store and, b) they seal wood differently than stain, which needs to have a finish put onto it. This way, the paper on the attached collage will be more protected. Here's how the painting came out:

Look how pretty it looks!

 It adds the color I need, allows the wood grain
to show through, and seals the wood. 

After it dries, but before I attach the collage, I am adding framing strips which will be painted this black on the side and red on the edge. The collage has some dimension to it, and the framing strips will help protect it. 

Guess what I will be doing tomorrow?

Come to the show if you get a chance. With nearly 100 artworks, it is going to be fantastic. See the Events page on my blog for more information.

With Loving Regard to My Hippocampus, Part 1

My tiny desk shrine

I keep a little shrine in my office next to my laptop. It is a shifting assemblage of personal objects alongside visual cues, reminders of pressing matters that require my attention. The HippoCamp mementos are among the most meaningful items I keep here, because they remind me every day of the supportive community I have found through attending the wonderful creative nonfiction conference in lovely Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I have returned from this year's event enthused, reconnected and newly able to see fresh possibilities for my work.

The magic begins after check-in and upon arrival at Tellus, the cool old Irish pub and music venue that is just down the street from the conference location at the Marriott in Penn Square. HippoCamp founders and amazing couple-in-residence, Donna Talarico and Kevin Beerman, are there for the pre-conference event, greeting newcomers and repeat offenders alike.

So fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones.
Gayle with Kevin Beerman, Ali J. Shaw, Donna Talarico and Brendan O'Meara

Attending HippoCamp with my writer daughter makes the experience even more intimate and meaningful. We relish Friday night after the conference begins, when we sit and pore over the sessions for Saturday and Sunday, trying to decide from the myriad of fabulous choices which ones we want to attend. When we don't select the same one, we share notes and insights on the car ride home, as we prepare for re-entry into our real lives.

So, yes, I am back home and back at work. Regular readers of Uncommon Threads will soon see the fruits from this year's HippoCamp. Meanwhile, I have a new stack of books to read, and a million new ideas.

From the author's table at HippoCamp 2019 

Making Marks is the Start

"Mexico" by Gayle Pritchard, oil pastel with collage and
image transfers on mat board

I have never met a kid who, at a certain age, did not like to draw. Somewhere along the line, most of them end up abandoning the skill, because they are taught, often by an untrained "art" teacher, that their drawings aren't up to snuff. They aren't taught that drawing is a lifelong skill and one that, no matter how good you naturally are at it, can become rusty or greatly improved, depending on how often you practice.

So, making marks: It's the key to it all, and my hands long to create them. Whenever I travel, even if for a few days away from home, I always bring along a little travel kit which includes drawing supplies. I especially love the marks that soft pastels or conte crayons make, but I adore using the less messy oil pastels.

I am fortunate to have two women artists in my life with whom I meet almost weekly: my art group. When we have play days, Jill, the experienced sketcher and painter in the group, often creates opportunities for us to sketch and draw in new ways. Her massive stack of filled sketchbooks regularly inspires us to keep drawing. As further incentive, she even gave both of us a set of Prismacolor pencils and a brand new sketchbook for Christmas. Get crackin', ladies!

Landscape drawing on two pages, oil pastel, by Jill Milenski

Inspired by both Jill Milenski and Gail Crum and their drawing practice, I have returned to a drawing series I started several years ago. For one of our groups' two major shows over the past two years, I began making house drawings that went along with the theme of our show, Circling Back Home.

Two of my house drawings in oil pastel, bottom,
along with Gail Crum's framed collage, top. From
our Circling Back Home exhibition.

I have also been inspired for many years by two other landscape painters: Wolf Kahn and Sheep Jones. Their use of marks and color combined create a deep longing in me, and I absolutely love their paintings. I am especially moved by Jones' imagery, the evocative houses standing in landscapes that she captures in her marks. 

Now that the New Year is well underway, I am happy to have entered back into my art studio routine. This month began with the need to clear off my work space, which always leads to the discovery of some forgotten sketch, background painting, or fabric or collage snippet. I found all of these, and since several were already in progress, still in the thrall of the original idea, I just picked them up to finish them.

House Drawing #3, Gayle Pritchard, 4 x 6

House Drawing #3 was made on a background painting I had made with a marked gesso surface painted with various acrylics, including interference paint. It creates a nice shimmer behind the oil pastels. It's attached with brass brads to one of a giant stash of vintage boxes that I have. It's a good use for the boxes, and a nice way to finish an artwork, especially these little 4" x 6" ones.

House Drawing #4 isn't finished yet. It is larger, and I am going to mount it on the piece of wood shown. It has also turned into an assemblage, with a shelf at the bottom and found wood, metal and glass pieces added. The wood background, salvaged from an old dresser drawer, has oil pastel marks, and I will probably add some more. The house drawing, just started, is also being created on a background prepared with gesso that has been drawn into before being left to dry. When the oil pastels are added to the surface, they can be pushed down into the grooves in the gesso, creating an interesting, textured surface.

House Drawing #4 by Gayle Pritchard, in progress. Found wooden blocks, beach sticks,
altered photographs, glass and metal will be attached to a piece of wood
salvaged from an old dresser drawer.

Making marks is the start of creating for me. I use a mark to "open" a surface, even if I'm working in fiber. Making marks gives a start. It's a beginning of a new idea about to come to life.

Loose Ends, New Beginnings

From the book, I Hope You Dance, by
Mark Sanders and Tia Sillers.

It's that funny time between Christmas and the New Year. Today, against all odds in northern Ohio, the sun is brilliant in the sky; even though I slept in, it's the kind of sunshine that makes you want to jump out of bed on a winters' day and greet the world. It makes you want to dance.

I haven't put the Christmas tree ornaments away yet. In fact, I just finished clearing off the dining room table yesterday, finally removing the soiled tablecloth and taking it outside for a good shake before putting it in the laundry pile. I haven't done much in the way of "necessary" work this week: laundry, grocery shopping and the like. I'm on vacation.

Thanksgiving builds its' crescendo to Christmas Eve dinner, the big day at our house, I rise to the occasion, making plans, decorating, preparing pies and special dishes, shopping in local boutiques, trying to find just the right gift at the right price. After the family dinner on Christmas Eve, everyone opens their sleigh gift, and the night dissolves into family stories over dessert, talks, conversations in the corner, and mellow holiday punch. After that, my vacation begins.

I used the time this past week to tie up loose ends. This gets me ready for the new year. I like to start out with a clean slate, or at least a good start on one. I worked on my genealogy piles, scanning pictures and documents, following up on correspondences that have winked at me for weeks when I was too busy to form a reply. I got a good start on thank you notes, returned phone calls, organized my recipe books, returning the loose pages pulled out for the holidays. I gathered stacks of cardboard boxes for the next recycling truck, made a bag of donations, scanned my pile of new books into Goodreads to add to my "want to read" list. I even started reading one of my new books, Michelle Obama's "Becoming."

May Queen, a collage in progress by
Gayle Pritchard

There are plenty of loose ends in my studio, as well. Because my attic access is through the closet in that room, it gets piled up with Christmas boxes, wrapping paper, gift bags and the like. When I'm not working, the table gets covered with piles of collage papers I haven't put away yet, mending projects, and large pieces of artwork that have been moved to make room for a visiting guest or two. I didn't get the table cleared off completely, but I did pull out a few things to finish up.

This collage, I call it May Queen, was started back in July in a play-day with my art group. I made several pieces that day, but I really liked this one. I pulled it out this week and finished gluing the three dimensional elements in place. I plan to darken the blue botanical drawing in the bottom right corner, and maybe add a line of nice blue oil pastel, melted to a lip-sticky consistency, along the curve of the woman's back on the left. I think that will do it. The collage was created on stretched canvas, so I will either frame it with found wood pieces, or find a box or frame to pop it into.

As the new year approaches, I wish you peace and happiness. And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. I plan to. Happy New Year.

Circling Back Home: The Opening Reception

The artists gather for a picture: Jill Milenski, Gail Crum
and Gayle Pritchard.

Exhibiting artist Gayle Pritchard looks on the
crowd at the entry to the exhibition.

 The opening reception for Memories Evoked: Circling Back Home was last Saturday night. The gallery staff reported it was the largest attendance for an opening they had seen. Needless to say, Gail, Jill and I were thrilled at the turnout. Having worked for two years to create the exhibition, each of us is delighted to be able to show a large body or our work. There are just over a hundred artworks on display, and each of us have thirty some pieces in the mix. Even we are amazed, not only with the amount of new work we created, but with how beautiful it all looks installed in the gallery.

Two feelings prevailed for me that night. Talking to people I know, such as my family, friends, my in-laws and other artists who came to see the show, I could say, "Now you know me better." The other palpable feeling I experienced is the slightly nervous anxiety that arises from being vulnerable in public. While viewers are necessary to artists, musicians,writers, poets, actors and other creative people, they do not always grasp what they are seeing, hearing or experiencing. My main goal is to create work that people engage with, as opposed to simply walking by it, leaving the work unexamined or unnoticed.

Another artist group to which I belonged, the West End Textile TArts, were organized by Susan "Pomme" Shie (not shown here: she's taking the photo!) to arrive early for a quick meeting. We were happy to add two new members, Mary "Ginger" Urbas and Gail "Riesling Grape" Crum. From the left: Jill "Lime" Milenski, Gayle "Kumquat" Pritchard, Christine "Cherry" Mauersberger and Christy "Raspberry" Gray. Our new members are on the right!

Friends old and new engaged in the show.

Spouses, children, collectors and strangers.

Susan Shie, Mary Urbas, and Christine

Mauersberger make their way through the

gallery.

So many people attended, and we were delighted!

My artist granddaughter made me a card that said Happy Art Night! My
grandson observed, "Grandma, I've been seeing all of this since I was, like,5,
and way before anyone else. It sure looks different in here, though."
Be still my heart. And thanks for coming.

 Up next: please come to our Gallery Talk on Sunday, March 12th at 1 p.m. at the Beck Center in Lakewood. You will meet all the artists, learn more about their processes, and see the artwork from the show in depth. Plus, ask all the questions you can think of! See you then.