Patti Gibbons Art

  Cover depicts one of Hugo's abstract ink drawings   Whistler Painting I have a lovely collection of art books. However, I  have never read nor looked at all of my books, so I decided a long time ago to stop collecting them obsessively, and to only buy what really touched me. The last major book purchase I made a few years ago was ODD NERDRUM: Themes , a book that gets 160.00+ on Amazon.  I got it as a remainder on B & N a few years ago for 50.00 (now it's triple that....and I am providing a link to Borders to get it for only slightly more than what I paid for it. ) But 163.95 Amazon? Really? Today I broke my "no book rule" and searched the Internet for two books that I had to have. One is Shadows of a Hand: The Drawings of Victor Hugo , and the other Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly .  I checked Amazon first and was taken aback on the prices of the books.  I REALLY wanted these books but could not afford tho...

After 10 months of frenetically living two lives in one, I have the summer off from Job #1 so that I can spend my summer vacation time working full time at Job #2. Though I love Job #1,  I REALLY love Job #2,  but  I have to work Job #1 so that I can have a retirement income to support Job #2 , and hopefully be able to live happily ever after on the fruits of both.  I have to say that I burnt the candle at both ends the past few months. Teaching full time, studying under two artists, and working hard at producing art and working even harder at trying to sell it, left me VERY tired.  And, I have sorely ignored this blog, as writing was beginning to feel like Job #3, and I knew I could not do anything well if I did that...so....since Job #1 is on a hiatus for 2 months, I AM BACK WRITING - back with news and reviews from my travels and adventures around the Hudson Valley, with photos of the beauty of the Catskills, of life, and illustrated with the fruits of my...

The end of the school year is brutal. This year I have another student art show to prepare for, and one to take down in a local college gallery. The entire classroom has to be packed, moved, and unpacked, all while testing is being done in both rooms. I will be back in my old art room again, though it still has a slight burnt smell from the fire.  But I will buy an ionizer, and hope that it will all work out in the end. Grades must be done. But the joy of teaching comes from the love that the students give me, the thoughtful gift from a young teen who said I helped her in so many ways, the boy who wants to borrow a dollar, and then laughs and says "you're gonna miss us" with a wink.  In my class of Asperger's boys, each one lines up to give me a big hug goodbye.  I don't have the heart to tell them that I may not have them for art next year, but I promise them that I will see them in September. Then there are the students whose moms have died, and who de...