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The big day is almost here...in just a couple of days I will have finished my employment in public education and entered retirement!  My alternate identity, that of a fine artist, will take center stage.  It is an exciting time, but one filled with questions, doubts, visions of what will be, or could be, and hoping that the dreams I've been cherishing will finally come true.  Dream is about to become reality.

Now I like to think I'm a pretty decent artist...I sell my work regularly and well, and exhibit when I have time.  I've put in the over 10,000 hours they say you need to spend learning your trade/craft/art.  I am passionate about creating things.  Now the future opens up and I can spend the time I've yearned for creating in the studio. Only, there is what you might call (with apologies to Al Gore) an "inconvenient truth".  

I've looked at my work, and I have a reality to face -- I could and should do better.  I see the work of other artists and say, I love what they are doing -- why can't I do that?  Or something of my own, using some of their tools?  What techniques can I adapt to fulfill my visions?  There comes a time when you can follow your own methods only so far.  It's time to ramp it up, and learn!! When I was early in my career, I took a workshop with the late great Al Brouillette.  I struggled a bit, and I can remember his saying, "don't you know about negative space??" after a particularly frustrating day.  I had to admit, I didn't really understand it.  That stung.  But I grasped the idea and his influence on my work is still there! Step up and move forward. I treasure that workshop as a turning point in my work.  

There are a few artists within my reach that I hope to learn from.  The prospect is exciting.  To paint without restraint of time, to explore new subject matter, and see what happens.  Set up outside and paint what I see. Maybe step back and start over with some basics.  Study. Laugh.  Play.  This is my new reality.  Let's see where it takes me!!

This is the latest layout at the Lowcountry Artists Gallery, Charleston, SC.  Take a mental vacation and find yourself on a lazy lowcountry afternoon, soaking in the sky and sea.  Any of these paintings will take you to a kinder, gentler, part of the lovely South. If you are in the area, stop by and take a look!

Most people who know me, understand my deep, enduring LOVE of the original Star Trek.  It debuted on television fifty years ago, and I can tell you I was almost 10 years old, impressionable, a bit of a nerd and pretty much a misfit in all areas of a ten year old's life.  The universe of Star Trek was a place where everyone had a place to belong, whether you were male, female, black, white, green or pointy eared.  Most folks tended to get along, unless you were a Klingon or Romulan, and then you could be a difficult customer.  The later versions of the series even made a place for them to belong!  The series of Gene Roddenberry has been analyzed, dissertated, theorized, glorified, and idealized.  It prompted generations of astronauts, engineers, explorers of all kinds.  

While my pre-teen hormones were mostly focused on the dashing Captain Kirk -- you have to admit he was a major babe back then -- my misfit mind was drawn to Mr. Spock.  He looked at the world with logic as his measure, internally struggling to fit in with a half human half Vulcan heritage, intent on making sense of an illogical universe with his unpredictable human colleagues he reluctantly admitted were friends.

One of Spock's favorite lines was "I like to think there are always possibilities."  It's one of mine, too.  As I grew up and became an artist, it has been my mantra with each new project, with each new artwork.  Surely, art holds endless possibilities, and each creator has that opportunity of making something only they can do, only in that precious moment.  Whether they do it for themselves, or for others to embrace, or to sell to art lovers -- they are making the imagined into the possible. 

In my misfit heart, I believe in the possible.  I believe that there is beauty and joy, even in the midst of the gritty cruelty that the news says is all around us.  Above my threshold in my home is scripted "Live Long and Prosper"...No matter how much longer I may live, or what I accumulate, I hope that my art will help me to live long after my breath stops, and the works of my heart and hands will bring enrichment to those who appreciate it.  I am thankful that I have already lived long, and prospered in my fashion.  But the future awaits, and as my pointy eared Vulcan friend would say, it is full of possibilities.