For many, the holidays consist of a series of days marked by frenetic busy-ness and large doses of overstimulation.  The long lists of gifts to buy, food to cook, rooms to clean and decorations to set out effectually become blinders, narrowing our vision to the tunneled exposure of the task at hand.

I wear such blinders more often than not, but this Thanksgiving the pandemic changed the narrative.  There was still cooking to be done and the impending impact of Christmas to consider, but I began to examine my relationship to Thanksgiving, and in turn to the many other ritualized moments of our lives.

When I began to examine my reaction to a covid-altered Thanksgiving, I had to go back to the beginning.  What was Thanksgiving to me?  And only when I took Thanksgiving out of its present context could I begin to grasp my relationship to it.

For me Thanksgiving will always be at my Grandmother’s, with my Nanny, grandfather, parents, sister, and step-siblings.  With women working together in the kitchen to bring together the last minute details and my dad grumbling about the green-bean casserole, again.  It was red ice-cubes made of frozen Hawaiian Punch served with 7-Up.  The grown-ups always ate at the kitchen table and the rest of us ate around a game table.  This was my Rockwell-worthy Thanksgiving, and it could ONLY reside in the past.  

This year we experienced our first Thanksgiving meal as a family of four at our own table.  I set out my wedding china and crystal to commemorate the special occasion.  I looked at my children, tall, self-aware, teetering on the brink of adulthood, and I wondered what their Rockwell-worthy Thanksgiving would look like when they too stood on the hill of mid-life looking back.

That’s the thing about memories; they surprise us.  We can’t begin to know which moments will burn indelibly into our beings, becoming defining experiences against which all others are measured.  

In the Studio

I have been bouncing around in the studio between small sketchbooks and larger canvases. I have smeared acrylic with my fingers, experimented with gouache, created digitally, and played in watercolor, of course.

I am addicted to the process of learning and am simultaneously working through an online perspective course, teaching myself how to create a website (thanks for hanging with me!), learning about gouache, and working through an online course to encourage a more intuitive creative process.

One of my small victories has been a long time coming- my own online shop. Currently I am offering greeting cards as I ease into this new adventure. I will be offering small prints in the near future as well. If you haven’t seen the shop, be sure to check it out by clicking on Shop in the Navigation menu.

Some of the season’s art experiences have found their way into my Society6 store- check out my Steampunk Snowmen, my Holiday Anglerfish, and the Psychedelic Poinsettias (Society6 in the Navigation menu).

And if you shop locally, I am excited to be a part of Salt and Soul- an online market in Tulsa featuring local goods, arts, and services.