I haven't found a way of reconciling what kind of work I do while watching my the world devolve into chaos. I'd prefer to just look at and respond to things that cause me a sense of awe or some kind of reminder of the beauty in the world than to show in my work my absolute horror of what is going on everyday. My question to myself is how different am I from the people depicted in the movie "Don't Look Up." I do really just want these horrors to go away. But it's not enough to wish things away. I don't have an answer.

Today I learned that one of my paintings that has been available for print through Black Cat Studio Gallery, "Along the way," has been purchased. I am of course very pleased with this. I've been working with Black Cat Studio for many years now, primarily getting my work photographed there as well as having had a pamphlet of some of my paintings made for distribution. If anyone is interested in this pamphlet, just let me know, send me your address to me at [email protected], and I will send one out to you.

Alas, all good things come to an end as Black Cat Studio Gallery will no longer be functioning as it had been previously meaning that artists can just work with them as print on demand without Black Cat being involved with the packaging, and shipping. That said, if you are interested in having a giclee print made of any of my work, please write to me, again at [email protected]. Let me know what size you are interested in and I'll work with Black Cat to have a print made, work out the cost and then send it to you directly.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

June

I've been preparing for in person teaching, something I haven't done since 2020 when College of Marin's Community Education discontinued in person teaching when the pandemic first began. Although I know many instructors have continued teaching via Zoom, somehow, I just didn't have the heart for it as part of what I really like about teaching both drawing and painting is the personal interaction between not only me and the students, but the interaction that students have with one another. People who I've talked to who have taught Zoom classes have given me mixed responses as to how they felt it went; some really liked teaching this way, but the majority, not so much.

In any case, classes are slated to start again in a little less than two weeks, on Wednesdays, beginning on January 26 for seven weeks in total. Hopefully classes will begin with no delays or cancellations. I can tell that people are chomping at the bit for in person classes as I've had 18 people sign up (my cap)  since January 4.

I always prepare ahead of time by doing the some of the same projects using the same materials that I'll be giving students so they can see how I've handled them,

Below is one of the charcoal drawings I've been working on, Eucalyptus,  11" x 14."