WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE...

I've spent the past five weeks or so putting together a memory book for my high school class' 50th reunion. I love this kind of work: challenging, detailed, exacting, but mostly fun indulging in fond memories of growing up in the 50s and finishing high school in the early '60s. Mine was an odd birth year...too old to be baby boomers (by a year), but too young to be part of the Elvis Presley era. By the time the swingin' part of the '60s hit, most of my friends and I were married and parents. So putting this book together, reading all the bio's, looking at the hopeful, naive faces in our 1963 yearbook and comparing them with our senior citizen photos has been great fun.

"Pavane"watercolor on archival paper  $400 (framed)

On the other hand (and isn't there always an "other hand"?),  the result of five weeks of intensive computer time is that I've neglected my easel and my paint brush. Art-A-Whirl is rapidly approaching (more on that later) and I've not got nearly the new work finished that I'd planned on. Three are at the framer's, including "Pavane." It's a departure from my usual work. Maybe it's remembering (and finally laughing at) the bad advice my high school counselor gave me about my future that loosened me up, maybe it's (once more) realizing that all those near-misses of growing up have had a positive effect on me, after all. What I'm sure of is that when I stepped back and looked at "Pavane," I liked what I saw. And isn't that the best part of growing older?