Waking up to Spring!

And some days it is warm enough to enjoy outdoor markets!
Here is my love, Rifaat, at his booth in the
Freemont Sunday Market, Seattle

Can you feel it? The sap is rising. Yesterday we saw an eagle carrying a branch several times bigger than herself across the water to build her nest. The buds on the quince are swelling pink. The ducks are mating. And I'm in love, too!

Finally, after a long winter of not being able to focus on the projects I want to do and the classes I want to teach--finally--just today--my brain woke up! Today I did preliminary planning for classes I want to teach in silk painting, and for two projects I want to do.

I want to do a co-operative project with a middle school or high school class that combines:

•  Observation of the birds and sea life at my favorite beach
• A study of it's history--what it was like before the white man came as well as when the pilings supported a dock that welcomed a ferry boat
• Art projects expressing our findings to the community, with an exhibition in a public place.

and I want to draw on my years of sailing in Puget Sound to bring to land bound people an awareness of the water, of what the land is like from a water-based perspective. I want to fill in my years of notes, photos, and paintings with new observations this summer, sailing my little Cat 27 into small harbors and rural places. I want to do a new body of work, paintings on silk or cotton,  to give people in this region a different perspective of this beautiful place.

If you would like to know when I offer classes and how these projects are coming along, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. It comes out by email about once or twice a month.