Hey, I know her!

A few years ago, I started painting my neighborhood. Well, the people in my neighborhood. Extending from my house to the shops up the street and down to the downtown corridor, anyone was fair game. If you happened to be standing on the corner looking particularly interesting, there was a good chance I was going to ask to snap your photo and paint you!

I’ve continued to paint the locals. This year, focusing on a local coffee shop and their clientele. But the same rules apply, if you happen to be sipping your coffee and catch my eye, you might just get painted.

This way of painting has introduced me to so many people in our city. Kids, moms, entrepreneurs, first responders, volunteers, and pastors. It’s expanded my heart and my love for this area. But it’s also done something else. It’s included you!

I exhibited some of my portraits at a local artisan event downtown a few weekends ago. For the first time, I mainly included paintings of locals. The number one comment I heard was, ‘Hey, I know that girl/guy/person/mailman!’ There’s real beauty in connection. Even if it’s between a person on the canvas and the one outside of the canvas.

How lovely to be seen and recognized and known!

'Home'?

‘Home’ has been an awkward term for me for a long time. I’ve moved over 20 times in my lifetime, 17 of them in my 24 years of marriage. So, ‘home’ feels elusive and hard to grasp. But now and then there are moments when my hearts whispers to me ‘this is home’.

When I’m walking down the street and someone calls my name and says hello. That feels like home.

When I’m talking to someone and realize we’ve lived in or visited the same places. That feels like home.

When I share a memory or have history with someone. That feels like home.

When I pull into the driveway of my current home, number 20-something, and the first one we’ve ever owned. This is starting to feel like home.

The city we’ve put roots into over the last four years, Medford. It’s starting to feel like home.

We have neighbors and are neighbors.

We have family down the road.

We’ve made friends.

We have meaningful work in meaningful communities.

And the art part of my heart is flourishing. I’m inspired everyday by the beautiful people that make up the city of Medford. Especially those in my own neighborhood. And that is why I’ve created 18 paintings this year of my neighbors. My beautiful, hard-working, inspiring, West Medford neighbors.

They make this place feel like home.

Come celebrate this place I call home with me and my neighbors next month at Central Art Gallery here in downtown Medford. During Medford’s Third Friday Art Walk from 5:00-8:00 on November 18th I will be exhibiting my West Medford paintings. All are welcome! All are wanted. I hope all of you feel….at home.

I Was Influenced By: Faye Jurisich

My mom’s best friend from college was an artist.

She didn’t live near us, but when she visited, I was in awe. Although I admired her for all the creative offerings she contributed to the beautification of our home, what really made an impression on my child’s art heart was when she pulled out the crayons.

Wow. While I tried painstakingly to color within the lines of the latest grocery store coloring contest picture, and my sister neatly outlined each graphic before carefully coloring it in, Faye created ART! A purple tree? A green sky? Wait, you don’t have to follow the rules? You can just CREATE? My little mind was blown.

My coloring game changed after that. And my view of creativity blossomed.

Thanks, Faye, for making art and making time for a little girl who really, really loved to color!

I Was Influenced By: Peggy Mory

I loved growing up in a small town.

We knew the cashiers at the grocery store. We knew the pharmacist. Postal workers were a steady fixtures and local pastors and florists acted as anchors. Landmarks.

As a child, one of my favorite local businesses was the Mory’s office and art supply shop. It was full of potential. All the ingredients needed for creating.

But the best thing about this store was Mr. Mory. She was kind. She was approachable. She has time for a little girl who loved art.

I have two memories of her that were influential in shaping my young, just-forming view of how artists treat people.

My older sister has always been a go-getter. At some point in elementary school, she decided to organize a yard sale to support muscular dystrophy. I made artwork to sell. But no art vendor can sell her work without displaying it well, so off we went to see Mrs. Mory. She helped me come up with a grand plan- to decorate a box! It was such a big deal to my little self. I loved that box, that art, and that moment learning from Mrs. Mory.

I don’t know what came first, the yard sale or Halloween, but my other memory fell on America’s most artistic day of the year- October 31st. Believe what you want about that controversial day, but no other day highlights our love for creating more than Halloween! Again, off we went to see Mrs. Mory for some state of the art face paint. I was a cowgirl. And I was impressed. How could someone transform a face so easily? I mean, she gave me lashes, and freckles, and all the necessary ingredients to be the cutest cowgirl on the coast.

Looking back, what were enormous moments for little me, were probably no big deal to a busy artist going about her day. But, I am so thankful for her example. From her I learned what artists should look like. They should make time for moments, big and small. They should be approachable. They should be relatable and available. And, their small acts of kindness make big impressions.