Katie Bar the Door, indeed!

Strip-mall Petunias, 3.5 x 5.5", in the Tiny Moleskine Sketchbook, sketched outside PostNet on Ford Parkway yesterday

                                       Katie Bar the Door is 11.5" high, found wood, oil paint, wax medium, string.                                             A symbol of the dangers of too much self-protection.

In the last month or so, I have:

Made art every day
Taken a fantastic painting workshop with Kami Polzen
Begun teaching at Old Town Artists
Accepted an invitation to participate in the $99 Sale at the Soap Factory
Accepted an invitation to participate in the Rescue Me show at Altered Esthetics
Signed up (this morning) for a demo and workshop with Mark Balma
Accepted an offer to be profiled on CreatedByChicks.com for their "Who's Creating? Wednesday" feature
Sold several drawings and paintings
Found a new venue for my salvaged-materials art
Begun writing professionally for others after years of writing professionally for myself
Joined the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota

Thanks to Lauri Flaquer, the Mackmillers, Josephine Geiger, Kelly Williams, Gail Weber, my amazing family and many many others in my life for reminding me that if I want to, I can.

And I'm sharing all this not just because I want everyone to know how awesome my life is now, but because  I've been the most timid, the most self-effacing soul, the one with the most reasons why the things I wanted were out of my reach, and I've changed. It can be done.

I hope someone else will see what I'm doing and decide to do what they want.