Patti Gibbons Art

Recently I took a weekend  class at the Woodstock School of Art with  artist, Meredith Rosier. I had seen her work at a gallery last summer, and a friend of mine recommended her workshops. It had been a year or more since I had taken a workshop. Though weekend classes take away my time off, they invigorate and energize me in a way that I can't explain.  My art  background is thin and scattered.  My family discouraged my pursuit of art, and told me I was not good enough.  Because they refused to pay for my tuition if I studied art, I took a year off from high school to work and save for community college where I pursued an Associate in Art .  My training was basic, filling in all that I did not get in High School:  Drawing and Composition,  2 and 3D Design, Anatomy, Painting 1 and II,  lots of Art History, and the other courses that one has to take; math, psychology, science, gym.  I was on the Dean's List most of my college degree...

The more I see, paint, experience, hurt, and laugh, the more I grow.  I embrace the difficult and painful because I now know they contain poignant lessons for me.  I celebrate each day with gusto and appreciation,  embracing the bad with bravado as I navigate the unknown waters. Last week's visit with my mother ended in a lesson about love, caring, and the human touch - all experienced in a Springsteen sort of way. Anyone who knows me well knows of my struggles with my parental units. Abuse. Alcoholism. Mental illness.  The culmination of a lifetime of hard work and therapy brings Acceptance, and with acceptance comes love. Or,  perhaps it is the other way around. .....I braved traffic and lines to get my mom a bagel stick stuffed with lox cream cheese.  I had forgotten it was the day of Kingston's St. Patrick's Day Parade, and the roads and plaza were packed with the traffic from floats and people.  As I crawled along I wondered if I should have...

I am glad this week is over and I get to start a new one today, one that is full of inspiration, determination, and healing. After a week of emotional upheaval after losing my art room and having to toss, pack, move, and unpack nearly 20 years of hoarded art supplies, I am ready to let it go and ponder the lessons I had to learn. I had been so upset by how the move played out that it was making me sick, emotionally and physcially.  When my chiropractor hinted that some of my back pain was due to stress, I had to do a WHOA PATTI, and take a few steps backward and shift my thinking. So- instead of feeling victimized, I shifted my thoughts to be joyful that I am getting a new space, and am enjoying setting it up .... as my OWN space.  To help myself in this transition, I made a list of all of the wonderful things about my new room: 1) though I am tucked in between child care and the detention room,  for the most part it is a much quieter place to be than my previous...

Lying awake for hours at a time in back pain AND having night sweats is a time I do most of my thinking.  Thankfully my insomnia seems not to disturb the others sleeping in my bed.  Larry gives an occasional snort in his sleep, and Shiva, his cat, purrs when my hand accidentally touches his back. Often I can get back to sleep, but tonight is one of those times when the only thing I can do is get up, move around, go to the freezer and pour a schluck of vodka at 4:30 in the morning, hoping that it will enable me to get back to sleep.  I am thankful that it is not a school night, as this option would not be available to me if it was.  Hopefully I will go back to bed and sleep in as long as I need to. There have been a lot of minor earthquakes recently in my life.  A close relative has tipped over the edge, leaving her family (me and my brothers/sisters and cousins) with having to find a safe place for her to live, and an estate, properties, and four storage uni...

I still have a few years yet before I can retire, unless laws get passed that cut the arts from high schools in NY, or else laws that protected American workers, like the seniority law, are stricken off the books.  As of this writing,  in NYC, "a bill to strip away the heart of fairness in layoffs -- seniority -- passed the Senate 33-27 .  All Republicans voted in favor of the bill along with two Democrats" (Richard C. Iannuzzi)  And why may I ask, are only teachers that are being targeted in this? Dead wood is no good -  in any job, but have a system in place and be proactive in making sure teachers who are not doing well do PIP (Performance Improvement Plans) and have the support that they need to improve, as well as having administrators showing their faces in classrooms and observing what is going on in their schools! I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years.  I am active in my union, which is a strike against me.  I say no to things that I am...