So things are progressing on Rapunzel's tower.  I have had the meeting with my hired painters for creating the King, Queen, and Enchantress panels.  I can't wait to see what they come up with.  I had so much fun mixing the paint and putting together their "kits" - included the primed wooden panels (think like Leonardo da Vinci), color splash pages visualizing all the paints I pre-mixed (and bottled up in my plethora of prescription bottles), brushes, water tub, and palettes. We also had a lot of fun sorting through my box of Renaissance teaching references, posters, and student work- they had a great laugh at my demos!  It really made me wistful for teaching - the year at Bluewater Elementary in 2001-2002 is a real highlight in my life.  I am really hoping that in the new, larger studio I will be able to have a workshop area for private lessons and for lessons for home schoolers. We are lucky enough to celebrate the opening of a County Rec Center in our neighborhood (less than 2 miles away) - it opens in late April and I am also hoping to contact them about teaching some private lessons there.  One idea I have is to teach an Art Appreciation for adults - we would do 6 weeks of slide shows, lectures, and some hands-on creation and end with a field trip into Nashville for museum and gallery hopping.  It will take me a while to get the proposals together and I will probably have to wait until after the installation of Rapunzel in May . . . but just having something like this to think about while I am "working my jigsaw" is invigorating - mental stimulation cannot be taken for granted! Here is the final product of the stepping stones to be hidden around the Rapunzel tower:   They are all lined up side-by-side and are not the most professional shots - I am trying to be less perfectionist and get some more posts live - that was the whole point of the blog, right???? Other working shots of the studio (ie, garage):     Panels for upper tower, and my version of the JIG - note my lovely posture (not)! Actually all the walls of the upper tower are cut and - MIRACLE - they actually fit together perfectly . . . after I finish painting the kids' bathroom today I hope to get back in the studio and take the next level of shots showing the next stages. Will be traveling to Knoxville, TN this weekend - a great art friend, Alicia Beach, is having a solo exhibition and I will be meeting my little sister (who lives in Spartanburg, SC) and my nieces Gracie & Emma for a Zoo day on Saturday.  It will be just wee Claire and I and we are really excited (we are still keeping our fingers crossed that Grandma will make it, too)! Some of you might not know this, but our family has a penchant, shall we say, of bizarre accidents.  Here is Emma, Gracie, and my sister Susan on Easter Sunday.  On the day before Emma got busted in the eye while playing on a slide before the Egg Hunt (phone update on site), then leaving the park Susan fell (in her flip flops) off the curb and strained her ankle . . . additional phone updates . . .meanwhile, at "home" in Illinois at my mom's house for her 65th birthday/Easter dinner on said Saturday (me being lazy we had this catered, thanks brother John) . . . while waiting on the food to arrive my nephew Garrett (17, big football player) was helping my Claire (age 5) and niece Morgan (age 8) to fly their HELLO KITTY kite . . . he tripped on one of the numerous brick flowerbeds and broke HIS ankle in 3 places and has had an ortho surgery already!!!!  We have decided there must have been a bizarre full moon or eclipse on the 22nd!!!! Garrett has his Xrays on his my space page . . . don't know the link, but will add it later.  On a sad, sad note, this means he doesn't get to go into the Marines as planned as he now has "hardware" holding his ankle together.  The war beats on and I also have a niece going into the Army in July and my nephew Joshua signed up for the Air Force last Friday . . . terror in our hearts, but pride, too . . . our family has a long history or military enlistments from the Revolution (J. Cahill was on the boat when Washington crossed the Delaware River and SO WAS ONE OF MY HUSBAND'S ANCESTORS - IT WAS FATE!), then through the Civil War on both sides, both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam - this is not something we intend to perpetuate, but there you go. So off on additional tangents - god love Eckhart Tolle and A New Earth, I can't keep up with the on-line classes and listen while working in the studio - but, wow, I'm so glad there are other beings out there like me - thought I was a freak! For Art's Sake, sher

I have been working on this web banner for at least a month now - it still doesn't stretch as far as I would like - but, it is there! For some reason my insert image icon isn't working or I would add some alternative banners here - will try again later . . . Just another professional job I do not feel fully capable of - the whole "graphic designer" jobs that are required of visual artists in this technological age.  But I do like the idea of being in control of my image and how I am presented to the world.  I have far to go in my graphic knowledge and really need to get back into the studio to work on RAPUNZEL - have been researching material and finally bought the wood yesterday.  It was a huge boost to open the check from the museum - I feel very official now!! Wish me luck - pictures to come soon - can't find my camera in the jumble of house, studio, and have been visiting family while my children were on Spring Break (but my hubby did take them to Disney for 3 days - I worked on art most of that time)! Sher