July 28, 2007

I Love My Job...

2007 - The Heights 1 - 60x20

My job is pretty equally divided three ways: Art - Family - Retreat. The Art part is just demanding enough to keep me on my toes, painting regularly and leaving no time to contemplate retirement. The Family part ranks equally high on the priority list... 9 g-kids to love and wonder/worry about, and occasionally entertain.

The Retreat part is the renovation of our old/new lake house, which is coming along pretty fabulously, BTW. We step into a totally different world when we arrive... become different personalities, working side by side like a team of oxen, sweating and straining... as if we were twenty five years younger... just like we did twenty five years ago. I suspect this ole house might have rescued our 48 year marriage from the doldrums... two old buddies who might have said about all there was to say. Now there are projects to do and plans to make... it's been a very good year and promises many more.

These three entities will be coming together next week as family comes and goes. We'll be back and forth to the lake, meshing with the schedule of the two local g-kids who start school in the middle of everyone else being here. I won't go into the details... just know I'll be runnin' to keep up!

So where does the Art part come in? Well... I've recently heard from nearly every gallery that represents me (five out of six) describing their wish lists for the upcoming season... which seems to have already begun. So mixed in with vacationing family and retreating to the lake... I'll be stretching and prepping a number of canvases... and nearly all will be landscapes. Well... I said I was going to do more landscapes... guess I will.... when the rest of life settles back into place and studio time takes priority.

4 comments:

Tracy Helgeson said...

Good lord, you have been married for 48 years?! What were you, like 10 when you got married?

You are amazing to do all that you do at 58;)

Karen Jacobs said...

THANK you, Tracy... THANK YOU very much ;-) I was twenty when I married... but 58 feels about right! Actually, I think I'll hang around the 50's for a while longer. The calendar lies!

Martha Marshall said...

Karen, you are truly blessed, which you didn't need me to tell you!!

Daphne Enns said...

Do you find it helpful to get a wish-list from the galleries?

I would think that for me it would be helpful to have further direction as well as occasionally annoying to have to go in directions that I'm not interested in at the moment.