Thank You!!!!!

This week, after a month of travel and another trip slated to begin the day after tomorrow, I found myself scratching my head about what to say here.  I took a bunch more pictures in San Francisco and Berkeley, but none of them seemed just right.  I've been deep cleaning the studio for an upcoming event, and you've heard it all before.  I decided to blow the dust off my neglected gouache paints this afternoon and make some drawings.  Amidst all the hustle and bustle of jet lag and unpacking and plan making it felt good to sit still and squeeze all those bright colors out onto a messy palette.

I wasn't sure what to draw, so I painted ten thank you notes.  Two of them got sent right out, and the rest will get tucked away for another day, another appreciation.  Then, tonight, as I'm winding down and thinking about tomorrow and making list after list of what to pack for Chicago, I realized that I'm so grateful for this summer, so grateful to be spending my days teaching and making art. Thank you, reader, whoever you are.  Thanks for reading these entries and encouraging me through your comments.  Thanks for buying my samplers and taking my classes. Thanks to Charlotte Lyons and Jenny Doh and Cal Patch who encouraged me to start a blog in the first place, and dropped my name with a splash into this world on their own blogs to get me started. Thanks to Squam for introducing me to those three in the first place. Thanks to the School of the Art Institute for hiring me to be a professor 9 years ago and for inviting me back to teach another class this summer.  Thank you thank you thank you.  I would not be travelling around the country teaching workshops and classes if it weren't for all of you.

I'm headed out Thursday for Chicago, and it will likely be quiet around here for a week or two.  I'll see you soon.  In the meantime, check out all the great work that people have been making in this summer's workshops (and add your own!) in the new Student Work Flickr Group.