Less Than 100 Days to Dinan

Yikes! There are less than 100 days left before I leave for France. My son is exercising his eyes with a daily eye rolling indicating that I have PLENTY of time. What he doesn't realize is all that I have to prepare before I go. The list keeps growing with regard to what I am going to need. I just found out that I am to host a reception at the cottage at the end of the month-long stay. This will be when I display the work that I have made while there and a piece will be selected for their collection. For some reason, I am hung up on the idea that I will have to make an invitation. This from a former graphic designer. I must be losing my grip! Instead, I should be concerned that I won't be able to communicate with the people attending my reception. Further, perhaps I should learn to drive a manual shift car? I KNEW I would need to know how to drive one of those things.... Ironically, it is next to impossible to rent an automatic-shift car in Europe while it is really impossible to rent a manual-shift vehicle here in the States. 

I am proud to say that I have completed French 1. That means that I have taken roughly 60 hours of lessons not including my time spent listening to CDs and podcasts. Today, I purchased a small French phrase book (no real confidence regarding my French!) and Frommer's Guide to Paris. My friend Chris loaned me 2 guidebooks for Brittany as well as some books that she read prior to her trip there. She is a peach. She also loaned me a very small printer which I can use to print those invitations that I am so concerned about. I just picked up a new suitcase to hold all these things as well.

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that I will be participating in the McLean Project for the Arts Artfest on October 2, which means that I need to get cracking making paintings in advance of the show. To see information about that show, click on this link: http://www.mpaart.org/artfest.php

Also, my work will be featured in Building 4 at the Workhouse during the month of November, so I need to make work for that as well. I was inspired by the family trip to California that we took last month. This trip was wonderful and caused July to blast past in a blur. I will be making a series of pieces that are related to that trip. In fact, I have already started one. I decided to use a very textured surface to remove myself from the comfort zone that I have been in relative to my work. Here is an image of the work in progress:

I suppose this is the year in which I will remove myself from comfort zones. I am excited about the trip, but feel a measure of trepidation as well. I guess trepidation is the order of the day. All one needs to do is open a newspaper to feel that.... In my case, the anxiety is tempered with elation and excitement... c'est bon!

P.S. I have not forgotten the promise to make a painting of Artie... took pics in California for that very project. Unfortunately, that needs to be put on a back-burner....