✔️ Checking In
A lot's going on, it's been hard to find a minute
Hello again Substack friends,
This one’s just a shorty to say hi 👋 and bring you up to date.
It’s been a while since I have posted anything. News in the past couple of months has been overwhelming to the point of creative paralysis (you too?)
Adding to this, my home, my retreat and sanctuary, has been occupied by contractors fixing pipes, painting walls, repairing walkways and porch posts, checking for termites, inspecting the roof and resurfacing the driveway. Yes, we are selling our little Shangri-La in the Chatsworth hills. It’s exhausting.
The incentive for the move is to be closer to a family elder on the East Coast, and to one daughter who is moving to VA. But also, my husband and I feel we have gotten as much fun and sun out of Los Angeles as we can. Time to share our beautiful location with a new homeowner. As we strike out in search of adventures in fresh zip codes, new art inspirations are guaranteed to follow.
But before I go anywhere, I’ve got more art to share here!
This weekend, Sat Feb 28, my studio group at Vita Art Center in Ventura will be hosting an Open Studio, 5-8pm. I will be showing some larger, not-seen-before-in-public paintings (also for sale) and a few smaller new ones, so I hope you can stop by.
A (bigly) Mural is Looking for a Home
One big painting I’m hoping to find a home for before I leave CA is my “Desert Fire” mural. I plan to make this mural available as an “in-kind” donation to a nature non-profit. Do you know any Nature NPs that would be interested in this big (60” x 192”) desert mural? It would look great in someone’s visitor’s center! LMK.
In addition to the open studio, I am also preparing some very new and colorful paintings for an upcoming solo show (here’s sneaks of two WIPs) ~
This show will be hosted by the Artists and Maker’s Gallery in San Gabriel, 4/25 – 6/06/2026. I’m very excited (and a little nervous) about this exhibition as it will be my first large scale solo. Be assured that I will be publishing much more information and details about this event as the date gets closer. I have a lot of gallery walls to fill, so I hope you can come see it!
🎢 And now on to Watching, Reading, Listening:
Watching:
I’ve been getting to the movie theater more recently so I’ve seen a lot of the current crop of films, but I haven’t seen anything that really made me think much about it afterwards. Meh?
I am looking forward to KPops! the new Anderson Paak film, mainly because my husband did the Special Effects on it. He said it was a very fun project to work on and the crew, actors, and Paak, were all incredibly nice people so I’m always down for supporting that. Plus, I’m hoping for a great soundtrack! 🎶
Reading:
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. This is a new author for me. He is a Native American (Blackfeet) author who specializes in historic Native American horror. This book is set in 1912 and tells the story of a preacher who becomes acquainted with a mysterious Blackfeet man with vampiric tendencies who tasks the preacher with listening to his confessions. I’m in the middle of it, but I like the writing. I’ll be reading more of his books.
And if you can believe it, I’m still reading The Expanse series. I’m on book 8 now, just one more to go! (9 volumes, 5500 total pages!)
Listening (today):
Prizefighter - 2026 Mumford and Sons
Bloodline - 2026 Mon Rovia
Rarely do I Dream - 2025 Youth Lagoon
Sinners - 2025 Soundtrack album
👉 I’m always interested in your watches, reads and listens- share your finds! 😁
Thanks again for reading, it means the world to me knowing you’re on the other side of this keyboard. 🫶🏼 Gotta run, talk soon~
Hey there! Maybe check with the Audubon center for your mural
I like those WIP's, especially the figure on the couch. You do sound busy!! I hope to see that movie your sweetheart worked on:))