I am the (volunteer) webmaster for the Watercolor Society of Oregon. It’s not a big deal, except when it is. And the last couple of years, with the increased demands of everything going online, the website has become a bit of a burden. This last year, at the fall WSO convention, I was named volunteer of the year, which was…
Tonight will be a short post because I’m tired and I don’t have a lot to say. Obviously, we are all home again from our time at the beach house. It was lovely, and I got a lot of thinking done. I’m hoping some of my thoughts and plans come into fruition. Today I received a “rejection” from ISEA that…
Today I did watch the 4th (and final) video in Lesley Humprey’s painting horses series. However, I did no painting of horses. Debbie Loyd, a magnificent painter I have known for years, saw on Facebook that I was complaining about my original workshop getting cancelled, and offered to drive down for the day and provide an online workshop on waves…
Progress is not linear, and some days that is more evident than others. Yesterday, I had two art experiences. First, I listened to Renee Kahn through a presentation by the ISEA, which was excellent and gave me a lot to think about. Second, I started on the second demo of the Lesley Humprey series, which was on charcoal and gouache. While…
I am not famed for my flexibility. If I have a plan, that’s it. I hate a change. I’m not change resistant; I don’t resist just because something is changing. I resist when MY plans change. Thus, I was not in the best of moods when I found out yesterday that the virtual workshop by Jean Pederson had been cancelled.…
Captious: ADJECTIVE; formal; (of a person) tending to find fault or raise petty objections. “a captious teacher” synonyms: critical · fault-finding · quibbling · niggling · cavilling · carping · criticizing · disapproving · censorious · judgmental · overcritical · hypercritical · pedantic · hairsplitting · pettifogging · pass-remarkable In a search for the title of today’s post, I went…
For those of you who were worried about my sanity because of the recent influx of dancing animals, you will be relieved to know that this post does not showcase any NEW dancing animals projects. Yellowstone Dancers – the pause before commitment I am still working through my ideas around Yellowstone Dancers. I think I’ve landed on a plan, but…
I told a friend this week about my latest project and she said, “Tara, do we need to talk about this recent obsession with dancing animals?” No, Gretchen. I’m as sane as I ever was, and yes, I’m aware that is not a high bar. Unfortunately, my sanity or lack thereof was of little import this weekend. The memorial for…
I need to announce that there is a vanishingly small chance that I have learned something. This is a red letter day! Let me explain. Back in June, when I went on my great Western Adventure, on Day 6 I went through Yellowstone National Park. I started pretty early in the morning and witnessed a herd of young bachelors tussling…
A week ago, one of my co-workers–Andrew Dutterer–was killed in an accident on I-5. To say that the death was senseless is an understatement. While all deaths are hard, the sheer randomness of this one hurts almost as much as any other factor. His obituary can be found here. I work at a very small state agency called the Oregon…