Well, not sure where you are, but where I am, it is most definitely NOT a beach day! Where I live in Ashland, OR we get summer weather: big storms, thunder, lightning, the actual bolts like Zeus is throwing a javelin, extreme heat and some nice frosty days with hail thrown in for good measure. The heat is on today. But the AC was on early in the week.
But what remains? Painting. Staying at the easel. Working, Emailing, Paperwork for business. More painting. Keeping close track of the news and openings so I can follow where my customers are finally opening their stores. One of my first customers and my longtime friends at the elizabethW shop in Carmel opened this week. It’s a big deal. We’ve all been sheltering in place since mid March and between that and George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent long overdue social changes and systemic racist conversations that are happening out loud, we are coming out of this period different than when we went in. Better? I’m not sure. But we’re coming out. One of the pandemic truths that I have learned is that it’s a privilege to both enter society again and to shelter in place as “punishment” or national directive. No going to war, just staying inside. This is the year we’re waking up. Maybe next year we’ll look back and see how 20/20 our vision needed to be for things to change….??
But in the meantime, painting and creating and trying to stay on course when the news cycle is begging me to to stop. One of my motivations is knowing my friends are opening their shop, the walls need new art and we all need uplifting whatever that looks like for you. For me, it’s the beach. Carmel Beach in particular is one of my favorites. No superlatives do it justice. It’s just that postcard perfect rugged wild northern California patch of ocean and sand.
This piece and more (soon to be revealed) headed to elizabethW Carmel early next week.
Wishing you all a weekend of peaceful kindness and simple pleasures.
Mxo
“Carmel Beach View” 16×20″
P.S. Sending snail mail and Fancy Envelopes now that the pace of life has slowed down? You might like these. I know my postman gets a kick out of my outgoing mail.