Art in the City

The rain didn't keep the crowds away from Artwalk in downtown Birmingham Friday night and it's always a fun event. People love to come downtown if you just give them a reason. I didn't set up this year but JD did and I was there and free to walk around and see all the artwork for a change. The thing about doing shows is you never get to see anything else, except in a just passing by kind of way. It's so nice to be able to visit with the other artists. I have to mention my friend and fellow artistGina Cochran; she's started a blog - art and autism - about her son, and if you or someone you know is facing that problem I'd highly recommend it. She's an excellent writer.

Next Sunday I have a show at Deerwood Lake in Shelby County, then we're going to North Carolina for a few days, then we have three shows in a row; Bluff Park in Birmingham, Mecca in Carrollton, Georgia, and finally Kentuck in Northport. With all that's been going on this year I am seriously short on work so I'm going to be very very busy. Times like this I tend to panic and develop serious creative blockage. It doesn't help that is raining and dark all the time either. Light, I need light.

Back to the easel.

Clothes That Don't Fit Anybody Anymore

Mama couldn't throw anything away.

She passed away in July and now my sister and I have all this....stuff to go through. Why? Why would someone keep a box of old socks? Or a box of plastic lids? Or boxes and boxes of magazines from the seventies? Broken knicknacks, broken furniture, broken appliances, all the leftovers of forty years in this house.

Now she's gone and all I feel is anger. The truth about my mother is she was a strong willed, domineering woman. And out of her grandchildren and great grandchildren she picked favorites and actively disliked others. For no reason. And the one she disliked the most stayed with her when she was bedridden and tenderly fed her and changed her every day. Her favorites took advantage of her all their lives. My sister and I told her they were taking advantage of her but she wouldn't listen. When she died all her money and valuables were gone and all that's left is a rundown house and all this broken stuff. We had to borrow money to bury her. I'm so angry, angry with her and angry with myself that I didn't do more to stop what she was doing.

It's a terrible thing when a grandparent plays favorites in such an obvious way. So much bitterness and hurt feelings tore the family apart.

I hesitate to post this, don't say bad things about the dead and all that, but I needed to say it so now I did.