Friends came for dinner over the weekend and were greeted by the music of Boston, which I was blaring. Hey, it was a beautiful summery evening and I was in the mood for some fun music. We immediately entered into a discussion about the band, and I found out that the lead singer, Brad Delp, had died almost two years ago! I had no idea.

I had met Brad Delp and Boston’s then-drummer, Sib Hashian, many years ago while living in Chicago. My mom was dating Sib’s dad (a famous author – but that’s another story), who arranged for two tickets to the upcoming Boston concert in Chicago and an invitation to a party afterwards at a local nightclub. I invited a girlfriend and we screamed and yelled and went nuts during the concert, and then we got to meet the band at the party.  Pretty cool, I must say!

I had never met Sib, but it wasn’t hard to find him. He was sitting in the back sporting a major ‘fro. Not knowing what else to do, my girlfriend and I took turns sitting on his lap for a picture. He was a crazy, goofy guy with a Boston accent. Brad was super-cute and had frizzy, permy hair. Super nice guy. It’s very sad to hear that he has passed away.

Epilog: Years later, I learned that Sib had married a Playboy Bunny. Maybe that explains why he had so much fun tickling my girlfriend when it was her turn to sit on his lap…

Art connection: I often listen to Boston’s music while I paint and go crazy over Sib’s awesome drumming!

I will have my painting “Electric Soup” in the WOW Show – a clever acronym for “Wide Open Whatever” – at Core Gallery in downtown Denver. Opening reception is February 15 from 6-9 p.m. at 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, Colorado. The show runs through March 2, 2008. Come say hi!

If you didn’t guess, mine’s the most colorful one…:

I will have three paintings in a show at ENB in Evergreen until mid-May.

“Moonlight Run”:

“My Sedona Roadrunner”:

and “Fresh from Hawaii”:

This is travel-day filler…

Lest you think that I’m a total slob, no, it’s only with paper. Actually, I’m pretty much a neatnick. Thanks to FlyLady you can look in any drawer or closet in my house and it’s neat and organized and decluttered. (I admit, things have gotten a little out of hand over the holidays, but I’ll get back on track.) There’s one exception — as soon as you come to something that holds paper, look out!

I was looking for my diver-certification card over the weekend, and the last place left to look was in my nice, neat photo cabinets. (Hint: photos are made of paper.) I was in a hurry, so I had to quickly pull out every photo pile that has been safely hiding in there for about ten years. Now that it’s all out it’s too scary to deal with, so there it all still sits – cabinet doors open, piles of photos on the floor–a definite tripping hazard. And, no, the card wasn’t in there.

Art is the reason I got so bogged down with photos. I decided to organize my photos one time into a pile for each year. I noticed that each year, as I got more involved with my art, the piles of photos got taller and taller. Pretty soon, I had to have two and three towers of photos for every year. Digital cameras came along just in time and probably saved my marriage!

When we get back, I’ll set a timer for fifteen minutes and grit my teeth and tuck the photos safely away again. And maybe this will be the year that I weed out all my art-reference photos from the piles and put the rest into my nice, neat albums….

For some reason, blogging seems so easy this time. All last year when I had my original blog, I rarely made entries. I had good intentions, but it somehow seemed too hard. I was not a very good blogger. This time is different – it’s effortless!

It reminds me of when I was studying Taekwondo several years ago. Everything was difficult, no matter how hard I tried. Every part of my body hurt. For my Black Belt testing, I had my knees, ankles and hands bandaged. I had liniment rubbed on my shoulders. I wanted nothing to get in the way of me passing!

Well, the moment I had that Black Belt, I switched to T’ai Chi — and never looked back. Suddenly everything was easy! I had the best balance in my class, whereas in Taekwondo I could never balance. I could finally remember every new move immediately, whereas with Taekwondo I could never seem to remember, even with a month to memorize. And all that pain just melted away.

Analogy: my previous blog website was my Taekwondo; my new blog is my T’ai Chi.

2007 has been a fun year. I’ll share the highlights of my year, with pictures. This is a year in the life of one artist:

It started with a painting trip to Hawaii, arriving on Valentine’s Day. This is in Hawaii but I’m cheating, because I lost all the images from my trip, due to a bad memory card.

“Filling the well” with a trip to St. George, Utah, for their annual Parade of Homes. Fabulous Parade!

Then to Sedona, Arizona, to fill the well some more:

I donated a painting to the “100 for 100″ fundraiser at the Center for the Arts, Evergreen:

May was the BowWow Benefit at Saks Galleries in Cherry Creek, near downtown Denver. This is the funnest show, because everyone brings their dogs into the gallery:

My painting, “Choose Me”:

My daughter donated a painting, too, and brought her dog, Mica:

John Salminen’s “design” workshop in June, where I did my first true abstract painting:

Winetasting party with friends in June (Brian, Donna, Denise, Steve, Susan):

New doggy, Pasha:

Hiking the Rockies in July (Marilyn, Sandy, Denise):

Pasha came to paint with me downtown at Studio 208 for the first time:

Time for the annual canoe trip on the Yampa (Steve and Denise):

Visiting the horses to get some poses so that I could finish my “Walking Midnight” painting:

Partying with friends (Denise, Christy, Don, Jim, Terrey, Nancy, Jerry):

Down to Santa Fe for their home tour. Not as good as St. George’s but still lots to see:

And the Indian Market in Santa Fe:

My painting got put on hold for most of the summer and fall because of dealing with new windows and new stucco on our house. What a mess that was:

My husband and I played bartender at Glitter in the Garden, an event at Foothills Art Center in Golden (Denise, Steve, Bartender):

Fundraiser for Project Education Sudan. I donated my painting, “The Long Walk Home”:

Some of my paintings hung in some friends‘ home when it was being filmed for HGTV. This picture is before their TV was hung in the X:

Met one of my favorite artists, David DeVary, at the Cowboys & Indians show at Goldenstein Gallery in Sedona in October (David DeVary, Denise):

And went to the Sedona Arts Festival:

Took a fun cooking class with A Cook’s Kitchen, run by Elizabeth Woessner and Claudine Pepin, Jacques Pepin’s daughter, who lives in Denver: