Patti Gibbons Art

One of the reasons I write this blog, is to share my adventures and stories about people and places in and around the Hudson Valley.  A few people recently commented that they really enjoy my writing;  I thank you for taking the time to read this untrained writer's words, and to give me encouragement. It is a matter of time before I retire from teaching; sometimes I think soon isn't soon enough. I work a high stress job, and though I love it, I know it and wears me out and keeps me from doing other things that I want to do before my end.  I suspect though some of the things will be done for love, some will also have to be done for money, and I wonder if I am interesting enough to make a side living on my writing - my words are simple, though my thoughts can be quite complex and are difficult to sort. I write from my heart. I am here for one more day before I fly home.  Though I love spending time with my family, I miss my home, studio, garden, friends, and most...

I have spent quite a bit of time on a military base as my daughter is a disabled Veteran, and her husband is currently on his second deployment in Afghanistan.  Fort Campbell straddles both  Kentucky and Tennessee;  Megan and many others have nicknamed it Kentuckasee.  It is at the eastern edge of Tornado Alley, and I can't figure out if it is in the south or the mid-west.  The weather tells me it doesn't matter; the daytime temps have been over 90 since I arrived, though I have not experienced any of the horrid storms Megan tells me rip through here.  The Army base houses the 101st Airborne DIvision, 5th Special Forces Group, 160th SOAR (ie: the pilots from Black Hawk Down), and other DIvisions.   It is the most deployed base in the US, with about 1/2 of the soldiers in Afghanistan/Iraq, and by late summer, even more will be deployed. The wives (or as in the case may be at times, the husbands) generally live in on-base housing with their children,...

Not much time to make art here, but the kids and I did snatch an hour where we all made art; Megan painted her little heart out, and Randy colored with crayons and markers, and experimented with a brush and water.  I think he is old enough for his own first washable marker set and beginner watercolors, so I am on the search for that for his birthday which is coming in early August. It's never too early to start them! I like Alanna's little sketch of the island, and of Larry and his camera.  Children's art is so pure and at this age they still have confidence in their work, though Alanna did wistfully say: "Mimi, your paints have SO many more colors than mine!"  When she is back home with me we will go to the art supply store to get her the same set. I think they are Yarkas , and they are inexpensive yet very creamy and saturated in color.  Two of my small post card sized paintings were based upon my own photos; one is a fantasy landscape. Watercolor is a cha...

I haven't made a bit of art since I have been here, save for some photos of the kids, and a couple of night shots when the kids are in bed. I don't know how any artist with little ones gets to do much and it brings me back to the days of mostly single parenting when I worked on my kitchen counters or on the dining room table doing little things to quell my urges.  I don't remember painting for a period of some 8 or 9 years and the only thing I accomplished was some jewelry making and glass work which could be done in a small space and in small bits of free time. I don't know my digital camera that well, and it is nothing fancy, but sometimes the best things are made with the most simple of tools. After all, some of history's most magnificent sketches were done with a piece of burned wood and paper. I wanted to make a photograph to celebrate the solstice. It is a night that I love, but also a night that makes me sad as I know the days will start to get shorter, a...

It's a very different world here. It feels like a sauna 24/7, and it is currently 97. The storms blow through here fiercely, and we are on the eastern edge of tornado alley. We were delayed landing in Nashville as a series of storms were hitting the city, and the wind tore apart Megan's gazebo. Flying is always an adventure. Sometimes I think I am better off driving. It took me 11 hours to get here, and I only spent 2.75 hours in the air.  I started out with delays, and ended with delays. I sat, I hovered, I sat. Then there was an accident on the highway and Andrea was stuck in traffic for 45 minutes past my arrival. But airport sitting makes for good entertainment.  I people watch , and privately chuckle at the fashion faux pas like women trying to negotiate luggage and late planes in micro minis and high heels, men adjusting their bad toupees, old ladies who really should NOT be traveling alone as their have no clue how to get from point A to point B. (that is where I ...

I have been all over the Hudson Valley these past few weeks but due to the time demands of my job, family, garden, and friends,  I have not written much.   I do miss my nightly blog musings about what goes on in my head and in my somewhat adventurous world, and tonight I miss it so much that I have decided to put the 10,000 things aside, and share a place every evening until I catch up. The only thing that keeps my adventures in order is the date stamp on my digital photos and my date book.  I used to keep a journal, but even that takes up too much time.  My recall is purely based upon the chronology of the photos on my memory card. A few weeks ago we headed over to the Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens as Larry wanted to check it out. Somehow in our miscommunication (residual dreck from the evening before) I thought we were visiting gardens, not a garden shop.  It was f-in HOT, I had a headache and was very short tempered.  I did not know whethe...

I am busy preparing to close up my classroom and to leave for Kentucky on Thursday. My daughter is having surgery to do a bone graft on her leg, and to repair the damage done to her knee by the tumor/cyst on her femur.  I will be there for two weeks, being nurse, mommy, grandma.  I am fretting a bit because I NEED to get into the studio to paint, and I will have to postpone that for a few weeks.  But I am packing my watercolor pads and my watercolors, and at the very least will make art with them-they are easy to pack and easy to set up.  And, I can share with Alanna. I was recently rejected from two shows which I really wanted to do.  They are both good exposure for me, but as fate or the jury panel would have it, I did not make it in.  Over the past few years I have learned to face the rejection letter/phone call with honor.  Art is subjective; what one person loves, the next one can hate.   So I chalked it up to "the universe/God knowi...

I can taste it now.  Only 6 more teaching days left, followed by a few weeks of grading, proctoring and cleaning up the room.  Then FREEDOM to write, travel, paint, read, swim, garden, COOK.  And in the summer, all of it is pure joy and most of the time any work seems like play.  I look forward to the long days filled with light, to waking up late when I feel like it, and reading in bed.  Summer seems early this year, as for a month I have been eating greens out of the garden and already some are bolting -  I am on my second sprouting of arugula plants. The wild roses have come and gone and today's wind and rain sent the remaining petals to the ground.  The day lilies are blooming -  something that usually happens in early July.  I  have a golden tan from sleeveless gardening and riding in the EOS.  Spring has been glorious here. Stay tuned for more consistent blogging now that the pressures of school are slowly fading away for ...