Moonbeams And Mocha

December has been a challenging month. Lots of life going on: travel, fun, friends, family, all good things but throw in surgery for both Rick and I then a bonus big time cold...it slowed us both down for the end of the year. Which is not a bad thing, not a fun way to do it but starting a new year with a Super Moon helps.

We sat outside by the fire-pit, with warm apple cider, watched as the first full moon of 2018 came up from behind the mountains. A very nice way to end the first day of the year.

I was planning to do my review of 2017 in pictures as I have done for many years in the past. The problems is picking one picture to represent each month is really hard this time. We did a road trip from June to August. I averaged 800 pictures for each state we stayed in, there were several we just drove through Not even going to do the math but that's a lot of pictures. Being that my head has been kind of foggy made this take even longer. I am nearly there, I have the road trip pictures in a separate folder, with folders within that folder for collage images being created. This started as a present for Rick. I gave him a flash drive with the images that are going to go into a book. In a way it turned out well because now I can include additional pictures he  had taken of our road trip.

So, I thought I would put together a FB two part album, First 5 months and the second album would be the rest of the year. I will try to keep it down to 1 maybe 2 pictures for each state and special events. I am going to count this as 3 things to check off my getting started in a New Year List. Back to writing the blog. On a side note, for those that have followed the Blog under Wild at heART, I said last year would be the last year for it and it is gone. This blog will focus more directly on my art but will include travel that especially influence my work. Getting the photos organized is number 2 on my list and 3 will be posting them to FB. Not sure if I should say 4 will be the printed book, still need to put all those photos in a separate file, with titles, locations, etc.

I have been going through all these photographs, inspired to start new works. There are many images as reference for paintings. Today, I will print some of them out and get my studio back in order. To add to our busy December we had some new windows installed. This will make my studio much brighter and stay cooler longer in the summer. I am clearing out things, there may be some special sales, almost free art and a few free suprises. Time to clean out the flat files.

January is a good time to get things in order, make plans and commitments. Shows are coming, need to apply to future shows. Starting to set up the calendar for workshops: Paper Making will be in February that much I know.  My mocha is gone, time to wrap up this long blog with a few pictures of the 2018 Super Moon. This year may be the year I include a full moon with maybe a wise old owl or a big old tree, maybe elephants....too many options. If there is something that you would like to see me create that includes a moon, let me know and I will see what we can create together.

Take care all, Happy, Safe and Healthy 2018!