SUMMER!!!!!!!

Finally!  It's summertime!!  Submissions are over and I'm so excited to be spending some time with my now Senior and Sophmore daughters without the pressures of homework.  I spent yesterday on the back porch painting some new original journal covers (sneak peek below...I'll post them finished later this week, I hope!) and just enjoying the very HOT temps!  We are already in the 90's.  I wasn't complaining!  I'm just thrilled to be painting for the absolute thrill of it!  My sweet husband made us pizza in the evening and we watched a movie (still outside!).  I love summer!!!

A lovely, generous artist whom I met in Mentone this past weekend, Ricki, posted about my art on her blog this morning (thank you, Ricki!!).  You can go over and see it here.

One more quick thing:  I am so sorry that I haven't been posting on all your blogs lately.  I am having severe computer problems (I have ordered a new one!!) and for some reason I can't leave comments.

New Small Painting + Pennies

I am still working on submissions for Artfest and a show this weekend.  After this weekend, I am FREE for the summer!  (Meaning I will be working on things that I WANT to work on!)  I did manage to finish 4 paintings this week.  3 are submissions so will (for now) be kept under wraps.  The extra one is below:

Rod's Pennies of Wisdom:

On a family trip to Savannah, GA, we all sat relaxing on a balcony at the end of a fun day.  During a lull in the conversation, I asked Rod, "what is it you love about Lisa?"  With absolutely no hesitation, he answered, "Well, we get along great and I can find her in Wal-Mart!"

Rod's Pennies of Wisdom

I have been a little slow in posting lately.  Even though Artfest 2012 is about a year away, now is the time for submissions for classes...so that's what I've been working on!!  Eeeek!  It's so hard to think of that when we just finished Artfest 2011!  Soooooo....here's something different for now:

The only person to have heard this story is Tammy McGee:    My brother, Rod, has Autism.  He is highly functioning but his thought process is very different than my own (not that I am that "normal"!!).  I see him every Friday night and he never ceases to crack me up with his view of the world.  My parents were told when he was young that he would never graduate high school, never work, drive or marry.  My parents did not accept this and now years later,with their constant encouragement (and sometimes pushing),  he has done all of these things.  He drives, has worked for the DOT in the county that we live in for 25 years and has a wonderful wife (who is just like him...Lisa...I'm sure you'll hear about her "Pennies" as well later on!).
I want to explain the title "Rod's Pennies of Wisdom".  Tonight, Rod said that sometimes when you listen to a vinyl record, it will skip but if you put pennies on the arm of the needle, it will push down the arm and you can hear the music.  You will get "the wisdom" and that is how he sees himself...the Pennies of Wisdom!!....Okay!  We'll go with that!  I wanted to explain that because from time to time I will post Rod's Pennies of Wisdom and I wanted you to know the initial story.
Here is the first one:  The tornadoes happened last Wednesday here in Alabama.  On the following Friday night (2 days after) Rod said to me, "I REMEMBER when it happened"!!  I cracked up!  Guess what..I remember it, too!!  The most wonderful thing about Rod is that he is able to laugh at himself.  In fact, it is with his permission that I will be posting his Pennies of Wisdom.  More to come.....