Patti Gibbons Art

I am on the road at least once a week with art supplies and and not every bag is suitable for every situation. After years of making art and being an art teacher, I have whittled it down to four different bags that I use when I travel/teach. My goal is to get the most that I can fit in my bag, and have ease of  transporting it. Starting from the top; a black cross-body bag, that I got for free from AARP.   I am saving my money for a bigger and better bag, but for now, this nylon freebie works just fine. It is my watercolor bag. In this small 9" x 6" x 3" bag I can pack the following:  3-4 of my Kremer  pan sets, fold-able cup (purchased in a camping store)  folded paper paper towels, waterproof and a non waterproof black ink pen a pencil or two an eraser brushes and water-brushes.  a pad of watercolor postcards, and a 6 x 9 or so watercolor book/pad. The red bag I purchased in a second hand shop in the Adirondacks a few weeks ago for 5.00, a...

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...

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...