Waiting

It seems I write this blog every year about this time. Although things are looking up, usually I am complaining about being rejected. Looks like this is going to be the summer of the wait list. First Maitland, now Art in the Gardens. Actually being waitlisted for Art in the Gardens is probably the best possible outcome for now. I applied to Deland with Art in the Gardens as a backup before I realized that if I was invited to Art in the Gardens I would have to accept or decline before I knew whether or not I was invited to Deland. Not a good plan. Now if I don’t get invited to Deland, I can still hope that I might get called off the wait list for Art in the Gardens. I know God’s in charge of all of this but I do wish I had more than one confirmed show for the fall.

At any rate, I have redesigned the booth, printed most everything, and should complete framing next weekend. Then I will go through the matted pieces and separate them into first and second string and go through my supplies to make sure I have enough of everything. I have to be ready for Maitland, just in case they call me.

I’ve got my fingers crossed and prayers said for Winter Park Autumn and Winter Springs that will be deciding soon.

I have learned not to pray to get into a show, but to pray to put my best foot forward. Praying to get into a show and not getting in just leaves me pissed off at God. I do the best footwork I can and it will all work out the way it is supposed to.

Summer at the Beach

A few weeks ago Clif and I went to Vierra Wetlands for the first time. Unfortunately the road through the wetlands was closed because of the heavy rains so we didn’t stay long. Instead we headed over to the beach to try and get some photos there. These are some of the photos from that day. Normally my process is to download all the photos into one file and then go through them and move the ones I like to a second file for a second look a few days later. Then if I still like them they get cataloged and numbered for selling. I liked these so much I skipped the intermediate step. I think at least one of these will be on my booth wall for next season.

Scenes from a Train - 4

My mother grew up on a farm in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania. She never hesitated to tell me about the difficulties of farm life. She told me that the reason that Shoe-Fly pie was eaten with milk on it was because it was the last pie to be eaten in the winter and by then it had become hard as a brick. But I loved Shoe-Fly pie with milk on it and the idea of having room to roam and a horse or two was very appealing to me. I’ve never realized my dream of living on a farm and note, that what appealed to me about living on a farm was not the idea of planting things or manual labor of any kind. My dream farm is more like the horse farms I see in Middleburg, Virginia, rolling hills with beautiful horses, the bastion of the very rich. And thank God for the very rich, because even though I have no hope of ever living there, it is still a wonderful place to drive through.

This is not one of those farms. This is a farm that, through her stories, I envision my mother might have grown up on.

Spiritual Renewal - 2

A few days ago I promised to recommend another website so here it is – www.urbanmonk.net. Warning – You can spend hours reading this site, especially if you have any lurking resentments, character defects, or just plain “issues”. And I don’t think any of us reach adulthood, no matter how great our parenting, without “issues”.

Next - More scenes from a train.

A Cloud Day

Yesterday Clif and I went exploring and taking photographs. It was one of those perfect sky days. We started out with a dead battery (thankfully in the driveway) which threatened to ruin the trip before we started but Sears came through with a new battery and we were on our way by 9:30. A little late for sunrise but the sky was absolutely gorgeous the whole day. Nice blue sky with white puffy clouds and a few threatening ones to give it some character. We started out at Merritt Island, going down some roads we hadn’t been down before. Then we went to the Enchanted Forest and finished up the day at Vierra Wetlands. The threatening clouds took over and it poured down rain. We had been going since 8 AM so we left before sunset but not without getting some nice photographs of the sun coming through the clouds after the rain.