Patti Gibbons Art

I intended to be writing more, but I have to admit, I have been putting my energy into my granddaughter the past 10 days.  This is the third year that we take Alanna for two weeks in the summer, and indulge her in every experience that we possibly can.  I joke that her social life is better than mine, which means we move like twisters. We swim a lot as we are graced to know many people with pools, a necessary respite on hot summer days when you don't have A/C.  We've also watched the first three Harry Potter movies, and just borrowed the next three from a friend. I am hoping that one of us will take her to see the last one in 3D before she goes. I was not the perfect parent.  I loved my kids, but I was a stressed single mom who had no money, worked and went to  college to get my BS and MS so that I could have a good job with benefits to support my kids.  There price for that often took its toll in ways that make me wince.  Short tempered, always ...

The past two days I have managed to get some paint time in. The studio is pretty clean, table space available, and canvases begging to be reworked or started.  It's time that I kick into high gear.  I see the light changing, fading, and hear September calling.  I paint in desperation to hold onto the freedom of my summer, and during the time I stand in front of my canvases, I meditate on a plan to get through another year of teaching while keeping stress low and the work load manageable.  How do I balance being a full time teacher AND a full time artist?  How do I shift my thought from TEACHING TAKES AWAY MY ENERGY TO PAINT, into somehow getting energized from my teaching and bringing it home to the canvas?  Photos are of two unfinished paintings; one is of  three little cabins that were hunkered down in the steamy mist of a leftover storm,  looking like they had very long faces, and the other an evening trip over the Hudson, location unknown a...