Boy, does the time every fly! It’s already almost the middle of July! Just hung a new show at the Riverfront Art Gallery, www.riverfrontartgallery.com. Some of my favorite vacations. Reception is this Saturday, at 5 pm…Also have work at Pelican Art “Hope and Optimism” show, and at Plaza Arts in Healdsburg. Viva Chocolat has 12 pieces in their wonderful little chocolate shop down the street from the gallery. All in all, I have about 30 pieces hanging right now.

I’m in a wierd place with my painting again. I’m happy with what I’m doing…will post some updates tomorrow…but am vaguely dissatisfied with the landscape genre. Perhaps it’s all tied in with a desire to have more spirit in my life.

There is so much mediocre art out there…I don’t want to be just another mediocre artist. Have I really found my “voice?” Or am I just rendering what I see around me? Or is that my “voice?” Is there anything unique about what I’m doing at all?

As always, I am asking myself if my paintings are just nice decorations, or is there something else there. Sometimes I think “it” art has to be undecipherable to be legitimate. If you can’t understand what the artist is saying, it must be profound, right?

And then there’s art that IS just decoration…big flowers, big flower parts, I reallly mean really big…and this is exciting? Maybe it’s big, but what is it?

WASCO’s Aqua Areas Show is coming up…last year I sold one of my favorite ever paintings there…”Grace”. This year, I wonder if I have anything worthy to enter. Maybe I’m show fatigued. Maybe I’m “painting just for shows” fatigued.

Mid-September I will be featured artist at Riverfront Art Gallery…that means 12-14 “new” pieces…OH VEY! Gotta get painting. Pray for inspiration!

I can’t believe May is gone and June is on it’s way! My month at the Plumas Arts Gallery went well…sold a print of “Spanish Creek” and some cards. Now I have 12 pieces hanging at Viva Cocolat in downtown Petaluma, a fabulous little chololate shop. Some of the work formerly shown in Cucina Paradiso moved next door to the sweets shop! Here’s their website: [www.vivacololat.com] Next week, I’ll hang two pieces at another local art gallery Pelican Art…their website: [www.pelicanart.com] The name of the show is “Hope and Optimism”. Awesome Dawning Day is one of these pieces. At the end of the month, I will start a month at the Plaza Arts Galley in Healdsburg, just off the square…more later.

I’ve added links to my friend Karen’s blogs…Daily Dialect, which is a heartwarming blog about being with a one-year old…if you’ve had small children or grandchidren, you’ll relate. The other blog, Local Dialect, is a commentary on current events in Petaluma!

Here is the link announding the reception in the Plumas Arts Gallery on Friday, May 1. The art will be exhibited in a cozy little galley with wonderful old brick walls…you know, the ones that have lines of seasoned bricks waving across the wall…Hope to see you there!

http://plumasarts.org/prelease/walk.html

I’m off to Quincy to prepare for the show to be hung next week at Plumas Arts Gallery in downtown Quincy. It will hang for about a month. Two days after that show goes up, we change the show at the Riverfront Art Gallery…the challenge will be having two cohesive shows at the same time. Check out my friend Susan Cornelius blog on the blog roll…really interesting work.

Thank you to everyone for all of the positive feedback on my new website. It’s been a long time coming and thanks to katgrafix, it’s just what I wanted.

Announcing my webpage www.marileeford.com. As of this afternoon, we have finally tweaked and tweaked and have gone live! I hope you’ll enjoy it! And offer any suggestions for improvement that you care to share!

In the picture from End of July, an earlier posting, you will see Herman posing in front of my painting…dear Herman passed onto cat heaven last night, from liver disease.  He slowly stopped breathing, as he snuggled in my lap with my daughter Tesia by our side.  He was a friendly, dignified, big male cat, who stayed very close in his last days of life and we will miss him every day.