Marion Arts Festival is Virtual This Year and I Contributed a Make and Take Project!

 

Happy Thursday morning, friends!  We just made it through a couple of nights below freezing....brrrr.  I think most of my plants survived, thank goodness.  Let's hope that's enough of that nonsense for the remainder of April.  I know a few of you got some snow.....and I sympathize!!! Somehow we missed the snow...whew! 

Just a quick pop in to share with you a recent article about the Marion Arts Festival!  It would've been Saturday, May 15th, but to be on the safe side, it's going virtual this year.  So for a month, they've planned all sorts of fun and festivities ONLINE!  I've contributed a make and take Mother's Day card project.  100 local kiddos can pick up goody bags at the Marion library, and they can follow along with me to create a one of a kind card for Mom.  It was a BLAST working on this project!  If you want to see the video, click on "My Videos" here on my site, and you should find it near the top of the listings.  

And to read the whole article about what M.A.F. is offering this year, click HERE.

I really feel like "sprucing" around the house.  Spring does that to me.  There are lots of what I call "medium to large sized projects" waiting for me to tackle, such as repainting the stairs with a funky design, cleaning out and repainting a couple of closets, spiffying up the patio and some furniture re-dos. BUT.....I've got a lot of work to do, and shows coming up, so they will have to wait for now.  For now, I indulge in little sprucing projects, like picking up flowers at Trader Joes, and putting them in a platter with my heart rock collection on the dining room table.  Making them front and center again makes me happy.  I can tell you where most of the hearts have come from...each with their own happy memory.  

It makes me smile as I walk past, on my way to kitchen chores.  There are ALWAYS kitchen chores.  Have you noticed that?  Sigh.  Happy Earth Day!  See you again soon!  -Dori

My Word a Day Journal and Pop Up Shop Coming Soon!

 

Good morning pals!  Happy Friday!  We've had cool and cloudy weather this week....and I'm so happy to see the sun shining brightly this morning!  It's supposed to warm up enough later today, that I'll leave the back studio door open for the doggies to come and go.  They love that!  I love this part of spring before the bugs come out.  It's such a narrow window.  Ha!  

How are you?  The Patricks are plugging along.  I can't believe we are halfway through April already.  Eeeek.  There's yard work to be done.  I'm hoping to tackle some of that this weekend.  Our old boy, chocolate lab turned 11 a few days ago.  We are nursing his back leg.  He seems to have tweaked it, so he's on some meds and lots of rest, which doesn't seem to bother him much.  

Alright, on to the news!  I'm prepping for my first retail event of the year....a GREAT BIG, teeny tiny pop up art show!  Details above.  I'll be hanging out in the Marion Chocolate Shop, which is SO MUCH FUN!  BIG THANKS to Gae and Deane for letting me take over their space for the day!  All of the artwork in this show will be SMALL.  Nothing larger than 5x7.  It's going to be fun!  If you're in the area, I hope you'll swing by and say hi!

If you follow me on social media, you probably already know about my "word a day" journal.  I'm taking an old journal used to record workouts (that was hardly used last year because of the pandemic...haha), and I'm doing quick five minute "entries".  Each entry is a swoosh of paint, some scribbles, a few other marks, a piece of collage, and a word that comes to mind.    I'll share a few examples here....but you can see them all on my Instagram page: @patrickdori and on my Facebook page: Dori Patrick Art.  

These have been a great warm up exercise in the studio for me.  It's good to just get your hands moving, and also nice to have a word to focus on for the day.  A good mantra never hurts, does it? 

I hope you are all doing well, friends!  Stay strong and take good care of one another.

Until next time!  -Dori