Blog

Holiday greetings from the North Carolina Coast! I hope that each of you had the opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. I have enjoyed reading your messages and seeing photos of some of your celebrations on social media. At the same time, I realize that many of you lost a loved one this year. Finding a way to celebrate them is always a big adjustment. While 2023 has been busy and challenging in many ways, I continue to feel blessed by the friends in my life and having the good health to do the things that I love. 

Looking back on 2023, I wonder where the time went. My volunteer work keeps me pretty busy, but most of my time is dedicated to running my studio at theArtWorks. It has been a wonderful experience to have a place to display my work and a work room for printing and framing, but the best thing is the community of artists there and the visitors who come through theArtWorks.

For our April 2023 exhibition, “Birds of a Feather,” several incredibly talented photographers:  Audrey Berkowitz, Tom Hanna, Kevin Giannini, James Hightower, Dave Kilgore, Stephen Lutz, and Elizabeth Woodby joined me for a month-long exhibition. I felt so honored to display my work with theirs. I hope to plan another “Birds of a Feather” exhibition in 2025.

The holidays can be challenging for most folks, but we can never understand the challenges of the men and women who have served our country. These heroes were assigned to dangerous regions and saw horrors that we could never imagine, all to protect us. My friend, Brian, a 20-year combat veteran shared a few interviews that he had with various news agencies. The message is always the importance of connecting with these heroes and let them know we appreciate their sacrifices for the life we are blessed to live here.

As we wrap up the 2023 Holiday season, I will share a poem from my friend Barbara Bear Jamison, “The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman.

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.”

What’s coming in 2024? More art exhibitions, more travel, and more challenges! I will focus more on learning and connecting with friends, old and new, and I will finally present a solo exhibition, “Behind the Curtain, A Display of Courage, Strength, Excellence” This exhibition honors combat veterans and is a fund raiser for the Combat Veteran Motorcycle Association, a 501(c3) non-profit organization. For this exhibition, I interview and photograph 30 combat veteran men and women. The exhibition includes a short story on each veteran. The exhibition opens May 24, 2024, and closes in June. Most of the 30 will attend the opening, so please come to meet them.