Sunset Valley Art Fest - April 28

Saturday was a perfect day for an art show at the Sunset Valley Art Fest. The fact that Sunset Valley is only about 2 miles from my home and the show was only 6 hours long made it even that much better.  I sometimes envy my musician friends that show up for a gig to play no more than 4 hours and only have to bring their musical instruments and at worse, a PA. Dylan and I surprise ourselves every time I have a show by being able to fit a tent, a table, an 8 panel display rack, 2 director's chairs, many paintings and jewelry into my Honda Accord. Amazing! Fortunately this Saturday, Nita showed up in her SUV and helped get it all back home. I only wish I would have gotten more photos of my art display, my weekend helper, Dylan and some of my other friends that came by.

Christina and Christy

There was great entertainment by the Gourds, Brave Combo and Bill Oliver. I love doing art shows. I create art to inspire others and when I sell my art online I don't really get the experience of the face to face interaction with the buyer. It is heartwarming to have people tell me they have been following my art for years and have the perfect place for the art they purchase for me or that they are buying it for. Dylan was so cute this weekend, ready with his sharpie for me to autograph art.

My newest fan is my great-neiece, Bianca. Here she is with her favorite painting and her new necklace.

The first customer of the morning

Art Show and Women's Rally Saturday!

I am excited to announce that I am doing

my one and only art show this spring!

Saturday April 28

 Come and Purchase Cool Art

and

Hear to Great Music

Brave Combo

and

The Gourds

On the main stage

and...

Bill Oliver and Beth Galiger

On the Children's Stage

The Sunset Valley Art Fest

Toney Burger Center

9 am - 3 pm

After that I hope to go to the Seeing Red Rally

At the State Capitol

Held on the same day as other

UniteWomen.orghttp://unitewomen.org/unite/ Rallies

It is clear that women have so much work to do

to protect and advance our full freedoms and rights

in every area of our lives

including the wide range of economic,

legal, safety and educational issues that affect women.

 

Please Watch This Video!

Here is Another Good Video!

420 In Austin Texas - Finally, a Statue of Willie!

It has been a week to remember! Friday, April 20 (4/20) at 4:20 was the unveiling of Willie Nelson's statue in front of the the Austin City Limits, Moody Theater on Willie Nelson Blvd! I read that there was a crowd of about 2,000 but in my mind, I was amongst small group of friends and family as Willie helped unveil the statue honoring him. For those of you who have been living under a rock, 420 has long been reserved to celebrate smoking pot. Organizers said they didn't intentionally choose April 20 for the event, but once they found out, they scheduled the unveiling at 4:20 p.m. as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Willie's advocacy for the legalization of pot.

The statue was created by Philadelphia sculptor, Clete Shields who said the leaning pose and heroic scale are intended to show Nelson's openness and whimsical side while honoring his tremendous influence on music and the city. He said  "We wanted to get a timeless Willie, an ageless Willie."

Friday was very surreal. To the world Willie is a 10-time Grammy Award winner who has sold more than 40 million copies of his 150 albums. The heartfelt congratulations from Kris Kristofferson expressed more of what Willie is to me and brought tears to my eyes. He said how proud he was of his friend and he couldn't have imagined the city honoring Willie during the early days of what became known as the Cosmic Cowboy movement in music. That is a time that so many of us hold close to our hearts. I was 18 and Willie's daughter, Lana was 20 when we became roommates. That year (1974) we drove Lana's Ford station wagon with our other roommate Mary, following Willie on his California tour. We thought he might need our support on the west coast only to find the crowds as large as they were in Texas. We celebrated Lana's 21st birthday at the famous Italian restaurant, Vanessi's in San Francisco with my sister, Nita who was living in Marin County, and the entire Willie Nelson band.

From the first time I saw Willie perform, I was always amazed at how he would make contact with everyone in the crowd starting with the front row. You could just feel the energy move all the way to the back of the crowd. To the drunkest in the crowd he would sing "Whiskey River" and end the show with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Everyone would leave feeling like we had just gone to church. In the 80s, during the first year of Farm-Aid,  Willie's secretary Jody Fischer, hired me to help with the overwhelming response from farmers and supporters at the recording studio.

Nita, Bianca, Cayce, Martha, Christina and Mario

Christina, Carole, Kate and Nita

Before the unveiling, a small group of friends and family met at Lambert's, a block away so we could walk together to the big event. My favorite conversation of the day .... 

Lana says to me, as we are walking on Willie Nelson Blvd in front of a store filled with Willie Nelson T-Shirts, towards the unveiling of the Willie Nelson statue... "So tell me something exciting going on in your life. " I said "Not much, just doing art, painting. And you?" Lana says "Not much. Just going to see an statue of my dad." 

We stopped in on the way and Lana bought Willie T-Shirts for some of the kids.

Dean and Mario

Then there was Lana's son Bryan who wore his own awesome T-Shirt that Willie and Annie had given him. It just seemed appropriate to wear to the unveiling of his grandfather's statue.

So here we are in 2012, our kids are grown and have their own kids. Willie was an inspiration to my parents who were older than him, my generation's inspiration, our hero and  became our kid's hero and now our grandkids. Earlier this week Willie had played in St Louis and Christian and Carrie took my grandson, Andrew to his first Willie concert. Last night was another wonderful opening night with Willie at "The Backyard." I had the privilege of going with Nita and my great  niece, Bianca to her first Willie concert. She was beyond excited and so in tuned with what Willie is about. It was awesome hanging with her. Then Nita took her on stage to get a better look at Willie.

Martha and avoided the stage rush and went to the green room where she found "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac.

Finally!  A statue of Willie in downtown Austin!
It is a glorious day! 

Watch the video here!

Easter Sunday Came and Went

Ooooopppssss.... a couple of Sundays came and went and I haven't blogged. I have been in the full blown artist mood, waking up at the crack of dawn taking advantage of every minute of daylight to either paint or garden. Who needs to go to the gym when there are flowers to plant?

Easter Sunday was the prefect spring day spent with friends. For thirty some odd years I have attended Easter Sunday service at the church in Willie's old town, Luck, but this year I invited some of my new friends and good times was had by all.

Damon, Caroline, Sam Van Elliot, Christina, Kate, Carole, Roger, Cash, Mike I just realized while typing the caption on the photo that all the names of the women in the above photo all start with the sound "K." Things that make ya go "Hummmm."

Carole, Kate and Christina

Spring and Easter arrived in perfect timing. At last, I felt like a phoenix rising from the ashes, emerging from The Dark Night of the Soul. On Good Friday, I asked Nita to cut my hair shorter than it had been since I was 25. The winter was filled with loneliness, clouded by uncertainty that felt like it would never lift. There's nothing like a little self inflicted pain. In the fall I had asked for the courage to make needed changes in my life, never expecting it to manifest the way it did, realizing I didn't fully understand courage. Kelly Rae Roberts had created several pieces of art with the word "Courage." Studying Flying Lessons and Hello Soul, Hello Business helped me not only to understand the word, but to find my own COURAGE. You know what they say, be careful of what you ask for, you will get it!

Courage by Kelly Rae Roberts

I realized that the wheels were already turning or I wouldn't have signed up for the classes. I spent my winter listening to Wayne Dyer, Oprah anyone else I could find on Hay House Radio. It was an amazing experience but one I wouldn't wish on anyone. I totally embrace the loneliness and darkness, turning it into then best art that I have created. I learned that I could only enter the dark corridors of this purification of my consciousness if I accepted the courage that comes from Spirit. I had nightmares, food was something that was forced, but I accepted the process, realizing that my courage was sustaining my mind and body on this very dark journey. I entered a cloud of unknowing, through which profound illumination in consciousness emerged. By entering and accepting the intense pain and emptiness, I emerged liberated with an enlightenment that I had never experienced. A higher consciousness replaced my ego's distorted clouded perceptions with clearer flowing light. The suffering within was transformed to profound understanding.

Needless to say, this Easter meant so much more to me than an Easter egg hunt.

Palm Sunday in Spicewood

Sunday was spent with some life long friends in the country southwest of town. Lana, Ellen, Martha, David and Roger. What a beautiful Palm Sunday. The bluebonnets are in full bloom, the weather is perfect and the company... almost perfect..... except for Ellen, who is the thorn in my life that reminds me that there is a CRAZY Gemini energy in the Universe that I have some strange Karma with. I love you Ellen but you are a nut.

I just read this morning that women's need connection with other women is built in to our DNA. We get energized by dopamine, our “happy” hormones when we respond to stress with nurturing, fun and social networking. Yes, I did say that David and Roger were with us so there was a little testosterone added to the mix.

We watched the soon to be released "Horse He Called Music" video by Willie Nelson that Lana and David have worked on for almost a year. It was entertaining to watch David, my fellow Taurus friend, acting like a Taurus, set up the video on the big screen. He made popcorn, turned it on and then waited for us to cry. I had already seen it 4 times and I still cried. It is an amazing piece of work. That is all I can say about it for now but May 15 the Willie Nelson CD will be released along with the video.

And yes, fun, quality “girl time” does include crying during a video. It physically and mentally helps us create more dopamine and kicks on the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Yeah, we actually bond with our girlfriends creating a chemical love cocktail between us when support each other. The the cucumber, jalapeno martini at the end of the night at the  "Iron Cactus" was just icing on the cake.

The sun setting over Willie's Golf Coarse

Lana and David  waiting for the sunset

Roger and Ellen

Roger, Ellen, Martha

Love ~ Gratitude

First thing every morning I sit with my coffee and open my emails. I look forward to my "Thoughts from the Universe" and "Brave Girls Club." Today my "Thoughts from the Universe" reminded me that thoughts become things and words are thoughts that will become things the soonest.

Last night I was sitting at "New World Deli" having a sandwich with friends while watching Sarah Elizabeth Campbell and the Banded. My friend Patti couldn't stop looking at my necklace and finally asked if she could see it. There is a cool story behind this necklace. A few months ago I heard about a study that was done by a Japanese scientist, Dr. Emoto. In the study he discovered the profound effect that words, ideas and music have on water molecules. The words "Gratitude and Love" create the highest frequency and most beautiful crystals in water molecules. I decided to design a necklace with the words "Gratitude and Love" and start wearing it. Within a day of wearing it, my brother told me he was drawn to it and wanted one. I haven't been able to keep the necklaces because every time I wear it, someone says they are very drawn to it and want one so I normally take it off and it becomes theirs. This has happened 5 times. I am considering carrying an extra in my purse from now on.

Love needs to be based in gratitude

and gratitude needs to be based in love.

 Love is an active word and gratitude is passive.

The most beautiful crystals result from the words "Love and Gratitude"

Magic on a Saturday Night

It seems that the stars aligned and magic was happening all over the planet last night. The BIG magic for me was that my son, Christian, had his first art show at a gallery in St. Louis. Even bigger news is that he sold a painting!

Christian, Carrie and Andrew - Painting SOLD

Secondly, I attended two weddings and a birthday party at Donn's. What an action packed, fun filled night! Danny and Marvin were playing and René performed the wedding for Vicki and Luke. Sorry I let you down Joy, I didn't dance on the tables after my second lemon drop. Michelle, you are still the best bartender on the planet.

Luke and Vicki

Pam, Christine, René and Chrisitna

David, Danny, Christine and Chris

The wedding took place by the bandstand and on the other side of the bar there was a birthday party for someone we didn't know. Halfway through the evening, he surprised his wife by asking her to renew their wedding vows. Love, love, love .... all the way around....

I am sorry I missed the "Lechuza" reunion out southwest of town! I sort of felt like I was there via text messages but was informed that I don't get to go to Paris with them because of my absence. Dang-it! Oh well...  I can hardly wait until the new CD is done. Maybe if I show up today I will at least get a trip to New Mexico!