Welcome to the Newark Art Scene...

Tonight my friend Kim Miles opened her elegant studio/gallery "Gallery of Dreams" and she has created an environment of sophistication and elegance. Kim and I first met when we traveled to Greece to paint with Anita Miller and to study the art of plein aire. I am wishing her a blessed opening and she has her own style of working in oils and home decorations. I was hoping to see Anita Miller at the opening but I had worked until almost 7 in the studio in preparation for the installation of the Paper Moon photo shoot. Priscilla Rink has worked extremely hard in preparation for this endeavor...we want to do a great job and still offer a good evening of family fun. I came home on this cool Autumn night to discover that our furnace has pooped out..$3000.00 worth but hopefully we can make the proper choice and have the new furnace installed as soon as possible. Cuddle time for all of us tonight to keep warm and cozy...even the dog and the cat :O)!

I worked on a small collaborative moleskin journal this afternoon and a restyled tee shirt for the Fall harvest Festival ...it is really a necessity because I somehow stained the front with Lord knows what so I am making a batty impressionistic style fun shirt to wear on October 23. Priscilla made her lists for tomorrow and what she will need for tomorrow. We tasted her skeleton cookies and I am planning on baking some small bite size morsels to have for the children snack tasters for the Halloween fun. Tomorrow Priscilla is creating a life size Pumpkin costume for an afternoon "paid" art adventure. I really do wish you all could meet Priscilla in person.... she is just a very creative person in her every day life. The journal project is inspired by The Notebook Project with Moleskin and it is a way to savor my short but precious visit with Mary and JoAnn. They are very deep into the Art Quilt Network Fall Retreat so it was so nice to have a day and a night with them.

My grief is heavy on my heart but with work and the help of kind kind friends I am honoring Christine by making my art and the process visible. I met with a social worker today with the possibility working with a young 8th grader in the Arts as a way of gently empowering her to recognize her own strengths. I won't know until later but it looks like I will have private one on one art time with her on Tuesday afternoons. I plan to have hot teas and cookies each afternoon to ease her into a trusting environment and hopefully create some beautiful sacred marks. I hope the powers that be will find my arrangements and costs to be affordable and doable for the mental health agency. Helping a wounded young woman is exactly what Christine would have wanted me to do...be the change I would like to see in this sometimes toxic society. I am leaving something out of my busy day but I am really tired tonight. May you be blessed in your works as an artist and Imagine and Live in peace. Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart