Backing up is hard to do...

With eight of our nine (the oldest couldn't make the April reunion)
You can tell that graduations will be going off like popcorn
in just a few years... the first two kernels have already blown!

Emotions ran the gamut on this road trip. Graduations do that to you, but he's a great kid with much promise... will be fun to watch, always has been! Had a great visit with all three Arkansas g-kids... so proud... so very proud of the whole bunch! (The BIG kids, too!)

Then we headed home with a planned stop at my Memphis gallery. As per my request, they had all artwork ready for me to pick up. Yes, I said MY REQUEST! After checking to be sure it wasn't because of something they'd said or done, they assured me they understood my need to downsize my career. In fact, they alluded to hearing this from others as well... this is a time when many are rethinking their directions.

Simplify... consolidate... downsize... yikes! This is not a stated goal! Expand! Spread out... get your work in as many markets as possible... my mantra for the last 30 years!

But that was then and this is now. I've been giving this a lot of thought and the facts are: creating more and more inventory is not what I want to do for the remainder of my productive, creative years. I will continue to paint but without quite the pressure to please others and with more emphasis on pleasing myself. There are places I want to go in my studio... not big surges in new directions, but something like cleaning out the closets of my mind and making sure nothing has been overlooked. Maybe a little more of this and not so much of that... perhaps there will be more stories to tell as this progresses, but don't expect the boat to rock.

Building a substantial career (meaning attaining way more than I'd hoped for) took off for real as the last kid left home. The foundation was well in place and I was off and running. Now I purposefully begin to rein it in, crank it down, *cruise at a more manageable speed. I still have three excellent galleries and came home to mailbox evidence of appreciation from each.

Never the less, I was choked up as I loaded the car in Memphis... Perry Nicole Gallery is terrific... Nicki and David are really good people!

*To cruise at a more manageable speed: As we do on the highway to save a little fuel/energy, the same applies as time/energy becomes more illusive...