Oct 17

oops!!

Dear Friends and Fellow Art Enthusiasts ,

With apologies for adding to your inbox, yesterday, I sent out a newsletter, without sharing my story with you before it was published and sent off. (That's what happens when you hire an expert to tidy up your website; sometimes, it becomes unusable.)

Now, where was I?

Riding Out the Storm and Finding Inspiration:

Thankfully, for those of us south of Fort Myers, Hurricane Milton for all it’s anxiety causing lead up wasn't as severe as we feared, in spite of it being the fifth hurricane I've experienced, for the first time, when the mandatory evacuation orders came for the zone that I live in, I listened, Its just too scary a thing to go through by yourself, I was lucky to secure what seemed like the last available room in the area at a Wyndham extended stay hotel, roughly 10 miles from my coastal abode.

Run For the Hills

It turned out to be comfortable, featuring a kitchenette, bedroom and living room . And, fortunately pet-friendly for my puppy Gigi.

Amid the extreme anxiety leading up to the monster’s arrival, it turn out to be not so bad for us here. There were lots of dogs to interact with, and friendly co-evacuees . On Wednesday, the night Milton came ashore, the hotel hosted a "Happy Hour" in the café, serving wine and dinner on the house. I sat at the bar with Gigi on my lap, happily snacking on potato chips, while I chatted with surprisingly like-minded folks. from all over the state.

The Direction Home

The Lighter Side

Returning home on Thursday, I was delighted to find my condo completely unharmed, having maintained electricity throughout the storm.

And when returning to my work, I found the hurricane has crept into my approach to my art-making. I now find myself expressing a mix of chaos and order in ways Ive touched on before but not quite so succinctly. The experience has somehow honed my mission. I am reminded of a quote by the art critic Carter Ratcliff

“There comes a time when one wants what one does to address the world beyond the haven of one’s sensibility. Whether making a work of art ever counts as doing something about “the brutality of the world” is a question that may be unanswerable. Serious artists are those who carry on as if they knew that the answer is yes.”