Patti Gibbons Art

Hay Field, Staatsburg, NY Mohonk Preserve, NY From the Studio, Kingston From the Studio, Kingston From the Home Throne My winter shows are done. Despite the economy, I have done well with what I have had. Holiday cards sold out, as did my new tin ornaments. I also sold art. It is gratifying when someone falls in love with a piece of me that sings to them. Winter is setting in, and I am holing myself up in my house for the next three days to rest, and to get into the holiday spirit. I have a few commissions to paint before the holiday, and plenty to do- like clean up the house, and buy food! after such a flurry of constant work. In spite of the busy-ness, I have managed to continue my daily essay on light for the month. A few selections from the weeks work. Be safe you east coasters...there's another storm coming.  Off to buy cat litter, food, and some art supplies!

Today was foggy, rainy, damp, but warm for early December. I took the trip along the Rondout Creek, and over the old Port Ewen bridge, to visit a co-worker whom I worked with for many years. She was one of my mentors who will be most remembered for her revelation of the KIS  principle - Keep It Simple. She knew how wrapped up in detail I would get, and how it would bog me down and stress me out.  Today, when I was prepping for my adult autistic students, her words softly resounded in my head. I listened as I pulled through my drawers looking for the papers for my project. She was right. Don't give them 15 choices of paper...give them 2. It made it easier for me, and I know it was easier for them. Shortly after retiring, she was diagnosed with Altzheimers. Like the landscape enveloped in the mist, so is her memory.  Bits and pieces of of her life come in and out of focus...always kept from being razor sharp by something that fogs her past life. To Lynn...may you be...

I run an art group online on Facebook. It's a forum where people write, post their art,   photos, thoughts. It's a safe place where we celebrate creativity and diversity- no room for harsh critique. It's a brotherhood/sisterhood of sorts. It's been a few years now that some of us have connected.  This month - in between the moments of furiously working doing shows and my other jobs, I am trying to make a snapshot/ photo each day.  My theme--The Season of Lights. Hanukkah, Christmas, and the Winter Solstice, all revolve around light. Here are my first few days worth of photographs taken with my iPhone. Some are altered in phone apps, some have stories...  Playing with the laser at Thanksgiving. That included shining it in the neighbors house which prompted a humerous phone call. When my daughter left for Iraq, we lit this candle in the picture window - in the old American tradition - so that she would find her way home to us. Though she came home 10 year...

  Hard to believe it is Thanksgiving next weekend. Time flies when you are busy.I will be doing this show on Sunday, and am bringing my cards, small artworks(painting/mixed media works)and perhaps some journals. It is the first fair of the season for me, and I still have Unison, the Art Foray at Mohonk, and am particiaptingin a craft show in my home city of Kingston, NY.  More details to follow.  Fall is definitely entrenched here in the Hudson Valley. I have ordered my snow tires and am putting them on tomorrow. Since I no longer have "snow days or delays" and if I don't work, I don't get paid, I decided to spend the money and be safe.   iPhone photo altered in one of my favorite photo apps, available both for iPhone and Android called SNAPSEED.

The art show was a huge success. 10 out of 21 pieces sold! Thanks to my friends, coworkers, and neighbors who came out to show their unending support!!! I decided to make art accessible to all people by making small works and pricing them reasonably. Art for the 99%.  I made a series of "Teeny Tinies" which ranged in size from 5 x 5" to 4 x 12" and a few sizes in between.  I had just finished the two main focal pieces of the show, which were 24 x 36", so working small had some challenges after working on paintings on which I sometimes used house painting brushes!  I love painting large pieces as they allow the viewer to feel like they can step into the landscape. Small ones are  little intimate worlds which take a closer inspection in order to enter them. I have been told my work fits into several genres;  I have decided to call my style:  Primitive Magical Realism Hudson Valley School.  I have a few things in the works for November/Dece...

I have been UBER busy working a few different jobs, and painting the work for my show which opens on Saturday the 5th.  I have done the bio/artist statement, made the postcards, printed them, handed/posted/ them out, and today finished the last of the two large paintings.  It is surreal that I have created an entire new life, a very different life from the one before.  It is a lot of work, but it's joyful work!!! The last painting gave me a really hard time, and I am hoping that it will be dry enough to be able to hang. I put it outside in the sun today, hoping that it will be ready by Tuesday morning when Nancy and I hang it. It has been quite the interesting experience, as I had to paint 5 or 6 small paintings, and two LARGE ones for the show.  I still have to wire them, and make the price list. When I had my two other shows a few years ago, I already had the work done and just had to frame some of the pieces and do the PR work. This time I had ...

I have a solo show opening October 5th. I am thrilled, excited, scared. This is my first show since I have left my career as a full time teacher. Will I meet people's expectations? Will I WOW them? Will they be moved/inspired/tempted by what I have painted? Will I sell? Are all the paintings done? Nope.  Am I going to have them done and DRY before the show? I sure hope so!  This has been all so new to me, and I am grateful to Nancy Donskoj at The Storefront Gallery for taking a leap of faith and asking me to show there.  She picked a few large pieces based upon their under-paintings, and I have been working at getting these two large pieces done. I have about 6 or more tiny paintings to do yet too. The show features both drawings and paintings. The paintings depict vistas that have been branded into my soul:  olive trees on a hill,  a Barcelona skyline at night, the delicate colors of clouds at sunset.  Hayrolls. Fields. I  relive my exp...

This reinvention of self is taking a lot of work. AND TIME. Have I already posted that? I have been spending the week doing mock ups for my web designer, and getting ready to set up files in Drop Box. In order to do that, I have to clean up my Drop-box files -    delete some files to make more room, and then in order to find the files I need, I have to organize my desktop and hard drive into folders that make sense.  And once a day I have to take a break from the Drop Box ordeal to clean out the Cat Box.  I just wish I could clean the cat box with an "empty" button! In between those hours of sorting/filing/organizing, I pay some online bills, research hotels, make online reservations, search for work/shows, and play the occasional Candy Crush game. (I am embarrassed to say I play it...but I blame it all on my daughter!) Before I know it --- it is time to check what is ready to pick in the garden, and make dinner.  And then Larry comes home, and asks me ...

                                     The Strange Moon Like Landscape of the Golf Course A sweet little bungalow on the Course     At Wellfleet Harbor    The Salt Marsh at the Eastham Visitor Cente I am on vacation on Cape Cod.  Over the years I have come to know and love the Cape, with its oceans, bays, salt marshes, restaurants. The only thing I DON'T like about the Cape is the 4.5 hour ride which usually turns to a 6 hour ride due to traffic. Over the past several years we have been finding places of our own to stay, rather than staying with friends. We can come and go, and not worry that we are cluttering up their house with our photography and art equipment, or estate/junking finds. Renting sight unseen on the Cape is someti...

I've been painting.  Happily painting. In fields. In my studio. In the car. In my head. This is life as it should be. Spending every moment of your life doing what you love. My recent works are jubilant with vitality and color. GREEN. VERDANT GREEN. Get it while-you-can green. It's great to be alive again. Fully alive.

My mentor reminded me that this reinvention of my life is not going to take 2 weeks, or 2 months - more likely 2 years!  It gives me permission to be easy on myself, take some time to recover from 21 years of a very stressful job,  and not put so much pressure on myself to immediately get to work. "All will work out" is what others tell me,  and what has become my mantra. So day by day I do things to help align the stars for my success. I put out feelers, I am building my Internet presence. I am developing relationships with shops that are carrying my cards. I have one private student, and am nearly finished with a bevy of paperwork to teach autistic adults for 1.5 hours once a week.  I held my first mentorship/art meeting with fellow artists. I have spend some time outside traveling and painting plein air, and photographing the landscape.  I have a solo show in October, and the gallery owner is coming tomorrow to see what I have so that I can figure out...

After spending the first part of the day cleaning and purging the hall closet, I took my granddaughter over to Rhinebeck to check out the Hudson Valley Pottery and Ceramic Studio, where my friend works. Alanna LOVED being there so I will enroll her in a few classes while she is here.  They have kid classes and a summer camp, and definitely a cool place for any age to play in the clay. While she was there, I headed to Wilderstein  to paint.  It was late, and I had about an hour to work before they closed.  When I arrived it was beautiful; the sky a mix of cerulean blue and clouds. The last resident to live there was Margaret Suckley, the confidante and probably lover of FDR. She died at 100 in 1991 while still a resident of the house.  I have not gone inside yet, but the grounds have trails for hiking, and the house has a beautiful view of the Hudson. It's free to roam the grounds. I set up camp on a bench and painted. It wasn't long before the cica...

I was perusing Facebook, when I saw a Facebook Page that was "suggested" to me.  I rarely pay attention to such things, though once in a while I click on one, and even rarer, purchase something because of them. But before I get into that story, I must preface it with the story of the previous purchase, which was  multiple copies of the CD Amchitka , a concert that "launched Greenpeace" with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Phil Ochs.  I have posted about Joni Mitchell in my past posts, so the bots put an ad that featured her music on my Fb page. Once I saw Joni's name, it was in my shopping cart in no time flat.  I bought enough to give a few loved ones a copy too.  And, I loved it. SO back to the story about the FB page that was suggested..it was called "Living The Artist's Life" . I clicked on the page, "liked it" and started reading.  A few days later I researched the book and made the huge leap on Amazon to buy it.  It was a ver...

As of Friday afternoon, 2 pm, I officially walked out the doors of the school that I had taught in for the past 21 years.  I worked really hard to get my art certification, and I worked hard for the 21 years that I taught art to youth at risk, those who had autism, those who were emotionally challenged, and any combination thereof. During those 21 years I split up with my fiance, moved out of my house, met another man,  moved back into the house, got married, barely survived adolescence with my two children, sent a daughter to war, welcomed two grandchildren into the world, have watched my daughter suffer with cancer and other illnesses, had to put my mom in the nursing home. I listened to, hugged, educated, mentored and loved thousands of children. I saw four shifts in education which meant I had to reinvent the wheel four times, and witnessed education go from being an honored profession, to one disrespected and blamed for the woes of the world. The child became the on...

I manage/mentor a group on Facebook called  Art Thirteen .  It is a gathering place for   artists/thinkers/writers who post images that please or inspire them, sometimes on a daily basis, and sometimes less often. We make our own assignments, it is open ended, and the group has been a source of creativity, humor, and camraderie.  I have met up with a few of the artists there, and hope to meet a group of them this summer when we have a gathering, and look to find a venue to host a group show.  We have botanists, historians, designers, collectors, and MORE, who impart their widsom and viewpoints in a visual journal. For 2013 I have decided to focus on a color a month. Though I can not always make art each day, I try and become intimate with that color and seek it out and depict it in any form I can manage. This month is purple. Spring is abundant in purple, so I have no problem finding inspiration from nature.  I explore purple in my greeting c...

I am getting excited. A month left of teaching and then I am reinventing my entire life,  creating my own personal paradise where I am surrounded by what and whom I love, while doing what I love. It seems very simple to me. So simple, that is seems absurd. Teaching has been a very difficult career which has involved the past 25+ years of my life. Raising two babies alone for the most part, while getting my bachelors, and then working full time while getting my  masters.  Working with at-risk and difficult teens while raising my own of the same ilk. Then illnesses here and with family. A few years of making great money but at the price of high stress. I have my moments of self doubt. Cruise thru my Facebook and you will see posts that dangle fear and doubt like dirty clothes on a line. But I am bathed in the confidence and hopeful words of friends and colleagues that it will all come together, and I will have enough. I have taken preventative measures. Refinanced m...

The late Alan Watts made this three minute video.  I have been showing it in my classes. Whenever I get nervous about leaving my secure job in a few months, I just pop this on, and I am encouraged, inspired and KNOW all will be ok. Three minutes. Three powerful minutes.  This video may have started getting the ball in motion.  I can't put my finger on the definitive moment that the seed was planted, but this was certainly part of it.

I've had a rough school year. New schedule/new students/new rules that have made the amount of stress and work at my job as a teacher unbearable. Months of sciatic and back pain while having to be on my feet 6-8 hours a day teaching.Months of PT, acupuncture, doctors. Bottles of ibuprofen.  Tests. Results? Herniated disc OR a cyst on the lower spine. Arthritis of the spine due to age.Inflammation of the coccyx. Then I got the horrid eye/sinus infection that laid me flat for 10 days. So I had a lot of time to think. I was miserable. My health was suffering on many levels. My art was suffering. My soul was being smothered. Then... I had an epiphany. I was done with my career. After 21 years of teaching in a school for special needs children, and difficult circumstances, I was toast.  I knew at that moment I could not go back.  I was far from the wonder retirement that veteran teachers of 30 years make. If I left now, I took a 50% cut in retirement fr...

I feel badly that I have neglected my blog. It's like neglecting an old friend. Once in a while people ask me why I don't write anymore. It's not that I don't want to, or don't like to, but I have been doing other things that eat up my time. Things that mostly make me happy. But I promise that I will better, even if  I don't write every day. This winter has been tough. This time of year I struggle with the lack of light and warmth, and not being able to put Sexy Sadie's top down.  I spend much time dwelling on life,  and even though I have my dark days, it excites me that I  have taken a step closer to serenity and to being true to myself. Having faith that all will be fine. Being honest when I make a mistake.  I learned a lot in 2012.  Most of them good lessons - and out of the bad came some hard core learning and growth.  I learned... To Look for magic in everyday things. That it takes a lot of work to be mindful and grateful. That pai...