Hi everyone!  Welcome to the new members that have joined my blog!  I taught level 1 color study today,     mentored an artist friend, and then painted for a few hours in the afternoon, before I had to attend a two hour instructor meeting.  One of the highlights of the day is that my dear friend, Dan Thompson, gave me a painting that he did!  I will post it tomorrow!  I'm thrilled.  I have quite a collection of art from different artists,, mostly my colleagues at Incamminati, but also a collection of woodcut prints of birds from my dearly beloved mentor and teacher from my teen years, Nike Parton of Sarasota, Florida.  She knew Henry Hensche, and taught me the palette that I have been using for almost 40 years.  It will be fun to show these here on my blog.  I have a really cool palette-knife self-portrat by Kerry Dunn, two beautiful landscapes by Darren Kingsley, a stunning portrait by Natalie Italiano, and a beautiful nude by Lea Colie Wight.  Whew!!!  Guess I just picked out my blog project for the weekend. Also, for the week-end I have to deliver my painting "Miranda" to the State Museum of Harrisburg, the painting shown above that I thought would go here???  but the computer had its own idea....

Good night, everyone!  I have a full day of painting tomorrow.  I need to work on my painting of Mehgna Varma, pictured above.....the very lovely daughter of my friend and past student, Jay Varma....another most excellent artist, and photographer.

Ok....so here is another story about growing up Mennonite.....
In my junior high biology class some of the students managed to get the (Mennonite) teacher off the lesson at hand, and discuss what he would do if his home was invaded by a rapist/killer/whatever...you get the picture.
The students knew that this would prove to be too tantalizing for Mr. You-Might-Know-Who, and that he would predictably feel obligated to set a good Christian stance for his young impressionable pupils. He had been set up….they just wanted to get him off the boring biology chapter that was putting quite a few students to sleep.....and allowing others to engage in delicious daydreams of being at the beach. (This was Sarasota, Florida.)
"Mr. You-Might-Know-Who, if you don't believe in fighting of any kind, then what would you do if someone broke into your house, and started raping your wife?"
Mr. Y-M-K-W thought for not one Menno-second. His students souls were at stake. He had to leave a lasting, Mennonites-don't-fight-back impression!!! And ("God, please help me!") what would the principle and the board of trustees say, if this would get back to them!!!!! (And, by God (A-men!) it would!!!) It would hurtle through the ole Mennonite grapevine so fast that even God couldn't stop it!!!
“I would stand beside them and pray…..”
Hmmmm……really???????????
My hand shot up, I couldn’t help it….that wasn’t what my mom ever, ever told me to do!!!!
My mother, the indelible Audrey Metz (Frey, at the time) (you don’t mind me using your name, Mom, do you?.) was, and still is, an independent-thinking woman….she couldn’t help that….her father was a Mennonite preacher. She had been taught to lead a good orderly directed life, to stick to the principles. So she did….her own! (She was the first woman in our church to stop wearing a covering…..you know…the sin-sifter. The little netted cap or (ick!) the floral lace “covering” that showed the world, and especially your congregation that you, as a woman, were subservient to God and those of the male persuasion…..)
“Yes, Robin?” (did I detect a quiver in his voice? Did he know just then, (knowing my mother very well…Mennonite grapevine thing and all) that something radical and shocking would erupt out of my mouth????
“My mom told me that if that ever happened to me….I was supposed to KICK HIM RIGHT IN THE BALLS…RIGHT WHERE IT COUNTS!!!!!” (imagine being the teacher…..how this horrific postulation would come to your ears in slow-mo……from one of your students…from a supposed-to-be submissive female
Poor Mr. You-might-know-who…..the classroom reverberated with shouts, cheers, and laughter. He had been set up, again, and we were way off-subject….once again.
(was that the sound of the principle, with Mennonite trustees in tow, marching down the hall to the biology lab?)
Just realized what week-end this is…how appropriate!!! Happy Mothers’ Day, everyone!!! And Mom…..you rock!!!!!!

"It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life, and it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps then you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered." Jim Collins, From Good to Great

My favorite quote of all times....for the time being........what's yours?

Just finished a pallete knife painting...

Ok......warning.....The next painting I put on here will be a nude self-portrait entitled "Fighter". It is still in progress.

It is not in clear focus, did it with my phone, and this is the best that I could get.

The photos in the wooden box are going to be pictures of boxers, and the object in the left bottom corner will be a n artbook opened to one of Thomas Eakins paintings of some boxers. I want to put a boxing glove in the painting yet, but need to get one first.

well...here I am....on my blahg for the first time.......just putting a few of my paintings on for now