flower bed

Slow on the new ideas? Get some sleep.

Need some stare out the window time?  Open the blinds.

Dreams to small? Rest.

The world is happening. Look.

Wake Up.

poem by NVR

photo by Mousy Brown

I started painting  in 1990 .. Joan knew I needed to put color somewhere and set me up with some supplies to start.  The first person that bought one of my paintings actually purchased several all at once for a business.  I was thrilled, to say the least. I can’t even remember what those painitngs looked like, actually.  I started documenting them shortly afterward.

I have an online art gallery.  You can see my paintings as well as some of my photography there. I have been fortunate to sell 10-12 works a year for the last decade and hope to have another show this Autumn or Winter in Nashville of new things.

One of my promises toward my quest of Living An Artful Life includes always taking the time to buy local art that speaks to me with the money that I may have made from the sell of my works.  Once I set aside something for taxes, supplies to replenish canvas and paint etc. I go about paying it forward.

I recently purchased two items from the art fund that I want to share with you:

I found this sculpture by Leonard Piha while on a visit to The Arts Company. The Woman With Raised Hand is now on our deck with other tin cuttings and milagro collections

Quite some time ago I was eating at the Mad Platter Restaurant in Nashville and saw an oil painting on a large canvas of a teddy bear reading the newspaper.  I adored this painting and the setting that it was in.  Just last week, I walked into my  local coffee shop, Ugly Mugs and was once again greeted by the Sophisticated Bear, sipping his coffee and reading the paper.  I sold one of my paintings in May and was thrilled to see that the local artist Taylor Hardaway had his bear still available.

Here is what  the 6 foot painting it looks like in our living room with our dog Scout sleeping under it. It’s large but it worked. Thank you Taylor!

So how do you pay your art forward?  Are you growing a garden and sharing your vegetables this year? Did you get a bonus at work and send a GivingMatters.com Gift Card to your boss?

Thank You card by NVanReece, VanReece garden

Have you taken the time to put on your to-do list to send thank you notes?

Not just the quick email thank you.  It’s time for that actual hand written thank you note.

It’s important.

Write to me if you’d like to order some of my NVR Thank You Note Cards. They have assorted watercolors of flowers on them and they are blank inside.

On the media preview for the exhibit THE BIRTH OF IMPRESSIONISM MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSÉE D’ORSAY at the  Frist Center for the Visual Arts I was excited to hear Nashville Mayor Karl Dean say that “This is a city that values art”. (see TwitVideo below – Mobile Users Click Here )

The pictures are wonderful and if you live anywhere near, or can get to, Nashville before January 23, 2011, please be sure to visit all of the exhibits at this museum as well as an assortment of other fantastic commercial art galleries and shoppes that bring truth to his statement.

While the rest of the press and bloggers made note of the importance of the pictures in this exhibit, I became distracted by the interesting frames and the stories they literally held in place.  I’m sure some of the frames were original and some may have been replacements, we’ll have to ask the curators about this.  The experience left me thinking philosophically about what type of frames we place around our own stories.

The accessories of our life are all are version of our artful pallet that tells the story of who we are. As we live our artful life, it is important to remember just how we frame things may change the story itself.

See a full set of photos take of frames at the preview

How do you frame your story?

Where are your favorite creative spaces, how did you find them and how often do you get there? Please leave your comments below.

You’ll see in the video a blank canvas -  leave in the comments an object, color or place and we’ll begin our community abstract! If you don’t comment the painting won’t happen – chime in! Let’s create.

Community Color