BEE DRAWING ON DISTRESSED DICTIONARY PAGE

"Bee"

5" x 5" Mixed Media Drawing on Distressed, Dictionary Page

The month of April has been really eventful and hectic.  This is the month my advanced students enter their final, most challenging competitions and I also sponsor our Speech and Debate team to their state competition while my husband works as the state tournament director.  Both of these events are demanding.  I mat and prepare hundreds of students pieces for the art event and the state event lasts for five days on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. 

During this year's state speech tournament, we had a tornado hit just a few blocks from where the tournament was held.  The following night our family had another tornado hit their Oklahoma community and the tournament awards ceremony was cancelled so OU could evacuate their campus due to more threatening storms.  We spent two, sleepless nights watching the news and the skies.

When we arrived home I sponsored another trip downstate so two of my advanced students could attend an awards ceremony at the state capitol where they were presented with citations and money from the governor.  I hadn't really recovered from the previous trips before I had to drive ten hours to the capital and back.

During all of these school activities our family has been prayerful and worried about the health of our eldest daughter, Kiley.  She discovered two breast lumps - one quite large.  After weeks of biopsies, tests and surgery we are blessed to learn that the tumors appear to be benign - but lots of sleepless nights in between.

Not to mention we had a death in our extended family in the midst of the chaos.  Our daughter is married into another, large, ranching family in our area.  The patriarch of that family passed away unexpectedly which sent big ripples and grief for everyone.

So - needless to say - there hasn't been anytime on the easel.  I've been very fortunate that my Etsy store has been busy but due to all the chaos of the past few weeks, I haven't had any time to respond to orders.  Today was a joyful day as I finally got my pencils busy and found time to pack up orders to ship around the country.

I think a busy bee is a pretty fitting start back on my art adventure.

We are very blessed - I hope life is back to normal routine.