Balancing Act of Life

Do you ever feel life is like one big balancing act? I do. It seems that my life is so full of commitments, obligations, appointments, classes, visiting relatives, running errands, and keeping up with all the recitals and programs and ceremonies my daughter is involved in, there's barely time to create art these days. I try, but boy do I get behind! Right now I need to finish three large paintings (22" x 30") for a hanging at the Indianapolis Art Center, start and complete an 8"x10" piece for a Christmas gift exchange, and create two ornaments for another gift exchange, all within the next two weeks, and still work on making new stuff for my Etsy store. The pressure is on to "produce" so that's what I plan on doing today... making art! Yeah!!

I've been trying to be more consistent with my blog postings and my listings on Etsy and eBay. That's always such a challenge for me beause I'm not a "regular-routine-schedule-type" girl, but more of a "spur-of-the-moment-fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" kind of girl!

The "Small Works Holiday Show" is now open. This annual event is held at the 423 Gallery in Columbus, Indiana. Invitations from the gallery go out to about 30 local and regional artists to submit one or two 5"x7" paintings to decorate a large Christmas tree in the center of the gallery. The paintings serve as "ornaments", nestled between the pine branches and tiny white lights. I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to submit my work again this year! All work is priced the same, at $100 each. Fifty percent of the proceeds go to a charity and the other fifty percent to the artist. The photos above are the two pieces of mixed-media I submitted. Although the originals are for sale at the gallery, I'm offering 5"x7" prints for both "Faith" and "Violette", as well as ACEO art card prints.

You Should See the Other Guy!

After a long and arduous night of waiting and worrying, we were so relieve when we received the surgeon's phone call at 7:00am. Dr. Cuilla had been successful in gathering together a team to perform surgery and we would need to be at the clinic at 9:00 for Dale's 10:00 surgery. Now, I've had a total of three surgeries in my lifetime and never have I been so excited to go to the hospital... but then, of course, it wasn't me who was about to have my eye cut open. Several family members met us at the facility to sit with me during Dale's surgery, and for that I'm grateful. Talking and visiting kept my mind occupied for the hour long surgery.

Not too many years ago, a procedure such as this would have required a lengthy hospital stay. These days though, unless you've just had brain surgery, they pack you up and send you on your way. While it's nice to cut down on the medical expenses, it's also pretty scary, especially for the caretaker. The patient is generally so tired and medicated they don't really care to do anything but sleep. The caretaker, on the other hand, is left with a long list of "dos and don'ts" to figure out. What connotates "unusual looking incision"... "extreme tiredness"... or "excessive bleeding"? Awwwhhhh, hellllp!! I'm not a nurse, I'm an artist! It all looks bad to me! Most days, choosing the perfect paint color is the biggest decision I make! I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep or eat for the first five days after Dale's surgery. I'm certain now I would never want to be a doctor or nurse. The responsibility of someone's eyesight (or life) on my shoulders is more than I could handle.

The worst part of this surgery was not the bruising, not the swelling, not prying my poor hubby's eye open four times a day to put in antibiotic drops. The worst part was the requirement that he stay face down for five days! When I say face down, I don't mean lay on your stomach and turn your head to the side, I mean it literally, as in "parallel to the floor" kind of face down. It's kind of hard to breath with your face stuffed in a pillow so one has to find a comfortable face down position that also allows one to breath! Not only was it required to lay face down, but Dale needed to sit face down, and walk face down. Conversation with visitors became somewhat amusing. They would talk and he kept saying, "uh huh, I'm listening". Of course, if he did look up, the moment they saw his eye they'd tell him to go ahead and look back down.

We both got used to looking at his nasty-looking eye which was all back and swollen. The swelling and blackness didn't go away for about four to five weeks. Dale insisted that our sixteen year old daughter (his little photographer-in-training) photograph his eye every day so he could see the progress. He wanted to send his co-workers an email to let them know how he was doing while he was off work, so he attached a photo of himself. The subject line was: "A few bad nights in Mexico". Upon opening the email you saw the photo and it read: "You should see the other guy!!" Always the funny guy, he is.

So I'm sure you're wondering how his sight is and if the surgery was successful. Well, the surgery (per se) was a success, in that the retina was reattached. He can now see light and movement and has fairly good peripheral vision, which greatly helps with his ability to drive. However, it's been a little over two months now and his central vision is still recovering. He can see a minimum of things which are very blurry and distorted, and still can't see the "Big E" on the eye chart. Actually there is another letter above the "E" on these charts. It's a giant "H" about twice the size of the "E"... he can't see that either. His doctor said it could still be several months before he regains more vision and then would need a very strong lens in his glasses. When we were at the doctor a couple weeks ago, the surgeon talked about the possibility of another surgery to remove "junk and debris" from inside his eye. It didn't sound very exciting to us, so for now we're doing the 'ol "wait and see" (no pun intended).

I hope that in reading this story, you will take a moment to click on the links above and here in order to familiarize yourself with the symptoms of potential eye problems. We all know the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. We hear about early detection of breast cancer. We get checked for high blood pressure and diabetes and skin cancer. We just don't hear that much about diseases of the eyes and early detection. It is such a devastating thing to loose one's eyesight! Not only for the patient, but for their spouse and family members, as well. So please, have your eyes checked yearly. Ask for a dilated eye exam, as this is the only way your doctor can see all the way to the back of the eye and check for retinal tears or damage.

Again, thanks to all of you who have sent your thoughts and prayers. Rest assured, I've passed your comments along to Dale and he's so appreciative of your concerns. We have faith that his vision will continue to improve and I will keep you posted on his progress. Blessings to you all, and have a safe, happy, and very thankful Thanksgiving!

Timing is Everything

Thank you to all who have sent your thoughts and prayers! Please bear with me and my slow postings. I honestly haven't meant to leave you hanging, but it seems my life has been on a fast track for the past couple of months! It's amazing to me that anyone would even bother reading about someone else's troubles, as we all have so many of our own. I know we aren't the only family who is going through difficulties. There are so many other situations that are far worse than this and we recognize that. However, no matter what one goes through in life, it's still important and relevant to your life. Writing about this has helped put into words the emotional rollercoaster I've been feeling. I promise I will soon enter more uplifting posts about art and life, but for now I feel an obligation to finish the story I started.

When Dale finished recounting the events that had unfolded over the past few days, and my heart began beating once again, we were anxious and concerned. We had no idea what was happening. The only thing that came to our minds was the condition his step father has been going through for the past twelve years... macular degeneration. This progressive eye disease creates large black spots in your central vision, eventually leading to permanent blindness. To date, there is no cure. Fearing this debilating disease had also come knocking on our door, we were both very afraid and held each other tightly throughout the night.

Since Dale had already scheduled a vacation day, we called our eye doctor the following morning and explained the situation. The doctor worked him in as her first patient of the day at 2:00pm. After a careful examination, our opthamologist confirmed there was a definite problem and he would need to see a specialist immediately. She personally called and scheduled an emergency appointment with a specialist. We left the office and drove across town to his next appointment.

After a thorough examination, the retina specialist gave us some very good news. Dale's condition was not caused by macular degeneration. Even though Dale still couldn't see anything out of his right eye, this diagnosis was a huge relief! The bad news was Dale had a completely detached retina. This is sometimes caused by an injury, such as a blow to the head. Athletes who participate in contact sports are prone to incurring a detached retina. Although he hadn't had any head injury that he could remember, the doctor said this can also happen to anyone, especially as we age.

Dale would need emergency surgery in an attempt to reattach the retina to his eye. A partial retinal tear or partial retinal detachment can generally be fixed using laser surgery, with a 90% positive outcome. If the retina is completely detached and involves the central vision, a more complicated procedure is necessary. The longer the retina is detached, the more damage occurs, as cells begin to deteriorate and die. The possibility of vision restoration becomes increasingly compromised. Time was of the essence. If only so much time had not already been lost while he was out of the country!

The surgeon said he would be willing to perform surgery the following morning if he was able to pull together a team to assist him. It was now 4:30pm on Friday of Labor Day weekend. He would need to find four nurses and an anesthesiologist who would also be willing to work on the spur of the moment on a holiday weekend. If not, Dale would need to wait until Tuesday morning when the eye clinic reopened. The surgeon said he would call us by 7:00am the following morning to let us know. Needlesstosay, we spent another sleepless night waiting and wondering what the outcome would be.

Random Acts of Blindness

Upon arriving in Mexico later that Tuesday, he noticed some black spots floating in front of his right eye, obscuring his vision. There were also tiny flashes of lights, like when you close your eyes really tight and then open them. Thinking he was just tired from the long flights, a layover, and getting through customs, he shrugged it off. It was just exciting to be in a beautiful and picturesque city in Mexico with several of his coworkers for the week. They had the rest of the day to relax at their elegant hotel, sample lots of Mexican beer and find a good place to eat dinner.

The following morning the guys decided to squeeze in some sightseeing with a quick tour of the beautiful countryside, prior to the scheduled business meeting mid-afternoon. They did make it back in time for the meeting, but just barely! Although the meeting was progressing nicely, Dale was having difficulty focusing on the outline which he'd printed out before he left. He didn't really need to refer to it, so he just winged it and continued on... business as usual. Another balmy evening was spent hanging out with the guys, sampling more Mexican beer and enjoying the 75 degree weather on the hotel balcony.

On Thursday morning, check-out was early so they could drive to the airport, get through customs and catch their flight back home. As the plane took off and made its ascent into the sky, the passengers began doing what we all do on long flights... watch the movie, pull out the laptop, settle into a good book. Dale chose the later. Much to his chagrin, words on the printed page were not only blurry, but wavy and dark as well. Rubbing his eyes and trying to refocus only exacerbated the problem. The flight was going smoothly, but the anxiety he was feeling was mounting by the minute. By mid-flight a black veil started to drop from the outside of his eye. Dale was alone with his thoughts and could no longer ignore what he feared was happening. Not knowing what to do, he closed his eyes and forced the disturbing thoughts back down. A nap was all that was in order.

As the flight neared its destination, the pilot announced the estimated time of arrival. Dale heard the standard announcement over the speakers, "Please pull your seat forward, fasten your seat belt and prepare for a safe landing." As he opened his eyes he was pleasantly surprised to see the overhead lights had been turned on. But as he slowly closed his left eye, the realization was brutal.

In less than three days my sweet husband, my best friend, my favorite photographer, had lost all vision in his right eye. He had randomly gone blind. At that moment, his world was total darkness.

Twenty Years of Oprah and Still Not Prepared

Sometimes it's hard to justify why things happen the way they do. We all want our lives to be perfect and to never be confronted with problems or mishaps. But alas, none of us ever make it through to the end without some misfortune along the way. I guess that's what makes us grow as individuals and keeps our faith strong.

On my last entry I mentioned there had been some not-so-good stuff happening recently and I would fill you in on the details later. Well, it's now later (much later) so I guess it's time for an update. This may also help to explain why I haven't been keeping up with my blog or doing any listings on eBay or Etsy for some time now. The story is a bit long, so I will try to break it up into several entries. The following is "Part One":

The last Tuesday in August my wonderful husband, Dale, was preparing to leave for a business trip to Mexico. After seeing our daughter off to school, we kissed each other goodbye in the kitchen. He was leaving to drive to the airport and I was leaving to go to my weekly art class at the Indianapolis Art Center. When he got back home on Thursday evening, we would have four days together to goof-off and run around before he had to be back to the office the following Tuesday. He'd already scheduled a vacation day for Friday, turning Labor Day into a four day weekend. Although I would miss him, I knew the next few days would zoom by quickly. I had several things scheduled on my calendar, as well as the usual extra long "to do" list hanging around my neck!

The days did fly by for me but I was happy to see him walk through the door on Thursday evening. Just in time to take us to dinner. He filled us in on his trip, describing in detail the beautiful hotel where he stayed. We talked about going there on a vacation sometime so I could paint and he could take photographs. There's a popular artist retreat near where he stayed and many people retire there. When we got home gave me a beautiful cobalt blue bottle of expensive tequila. He knows how I love my margaritas!

After our daughter was in bed he turned to me to say, "Honey, we need to talk"... Boy, don't you just hate to hear those words? We've all heard them before, and it's never good. My heart sank at that moment as a hundred things ran through my mind... he's found someone else, he's lost his job, he's gay, he's dying. I thought twenty years of Oprah had prepared me for just about everything. Fortunately, it was none of the scenarios I'd just played out in my mind. Unfortunately, when he finished his story of what had transpired over the previous three days, you could have knocked me over with a feather!

So Much Has Happened

I've been unable to post for quite a while and so much has happened... some good and some not-so-good. I will try to get back later this week to fill-in on everything. For now, a new collage I just listed on Etsy.
It reads: "Nadine's new bird bonnet made her want to DANCE!"

Back in the Day

I miss the good 'ol days of eBay auctions. Back when auctions were auctions. The very fist week I listed stuff about six-and-a-half years ago, I sold $770 in miscellaneous stuff. I thought I had died and went to heaven! Stay at home with my kid. Run around to sales and auctions while she was in school, picking up all sorts of neat stuff at great prices. Then list it on eBay and watch the money roll in. How cool was that?

I had this fun software which made a "cha-ching" sound every time I received a bid on something. It was awesome. I would list stuff and then sit around and "refresh" all day just to hear that sound. Made me feel like I was actually doing something.

"Back in the day", if you wanted to keep track of stuff you possibly wanted to own from eBay listings, you had to bid. That was prior to sniping software and the "watch it" feature. Bidders actually did what bidders are supposed to do... bid on stuff!!

Now you get "watchers". Watchers are really just bidder-wannabes. They watch. And watch and watch and watch. They never actually bid. But oh, how they love to watch! If a seller is really lucky, they will, from time to time, get a last minute sniper. Snipers are bidders who bid on stuff at the last possible second, hopfully for the opening bid. They use special software to do this.

I've always been in favor of the proposed "continuous auction". I think that's what it's called. The gist of it is that an auction will stay open as long as there are bids. The auction has a scheduled close, but if a bid is received within the last 15 minutes of the auction, the clock is reset for an additional 15 minutes. If another bid comes in after 10 or 12 minutes, the clock is reset for another 15 minutes. The auction ends only when there has been no bids received for 15 minutes.

This type of auction is much more like a live auction in that the winner is truly the high bidder. With eBay, whoever has the fastest computer wins. Kinda like a cowboy showdown... the fastest gun wins the shootout.

Anyway, I listed an auction last night starting at .57 cents with a Buy It Now of $8.99. I was hoping it might force someone to either BID or BUY. If you place a bid on an auction that has the BIN feature, it removes the Buy It Now. If you choose to use the BIN feature, it removes the bidding feature and the auction closes out early. As it turns out, it did work. Someone purchased the card using the Buy It Now feature, and purchased another card as well. Yeah!

Since it worked yesterday, I decided to try it again. The angel card shown here has a starting price of .37 cents or Buy It Now for $6.99 on eBay. Bid or Buy?

ACEO ATC Listings on eBay

Newly listed ACEO/ATC/Art Cards on eBay... please take a look!

Posting Consistency

Once again it's been a while since I've written, but I am going to try to be more consistent with my postings. Like, maybe once every three to four months, but on a REGULAR basis... (just kidding)! How 'bout at least once a week? I should be able to keep that up, huh? It amazes me all those who have the tenacity to post every single day! How do you all do it? It seems my life is so topsy-turvy and crazy that I never have a day or week that's the same, so consistency becomes difficult. I know part of that is having a sixteen year old who is constantly on the go and running here and there; either borrowing my car, or needing me to take her somewhere and then go and pick her back up... Gotta get that girl 'o mine a CAR!! Which means I need to sell some ART! ;)

Speaking of selling art, I just listed a couple of things on eBay this evening. An ACEO/ATC art card with an oriental geisha lady, and a mixed-media ZNE collage... kind of a Parisian chic and shabby style.

Art on the Internet

It's been a while since I've written, so sorry about that. But I have a good excuse, 'cause I've been a busy girl! I've been listing my art on a new site called Etsy. This is a site for handcrafted items only, so it is a haven for all you artists out there! I actually opened my shop back in March, but never got anything listed. So the past couple of weeks I've been trying to list stuff about every day or every other day. Although I haven't sold anything yet, the traffic seems to be good.


Here's photos of some of the things I have listed, but there's lots more! Please check out it out, and if you are so inclined, you're more than welcome to make a purchase! ;)


It's really amazing what the internet has done to revolutionize the art world. There are so many opportunities these days to get your work out there so others can actually see it! Only just a few years ago artists had to rely solely on galleries and getting their work accepted into shows... and then there's still the problem of getting people to actually attend the show or gallery (another subject, another day!).

I know I'm kind of in the dark ages where computers are concerned, but I'm trying to learn. This whole blogging stuff seems to have really taken off and it's so exciting to see how artists are using it to showcase their work. I would LOVE to be able to create an awesome looking blog like so many that are out there!! So if you're computer savy and would like to help an internet-challenged fellow artist, please post or email me with some suggestions or how to's! I desperately need help!

Little Red Riding Hood ACEO ATC

Every year my daughter and all of her friends have a Halloween costume party. This year she went as Little Red Riding Hood and looked so cute! Although she's 16, she still loves to play dress-up and wear costumes whenever she gets an opportunity, like Halloween, performing in show choir, or plays and musicals. My wonderful hubby is an accomplished professional photographer and is always shooting photos of his youngest... which is good because she never stops posing! The resulting photo inspired me to paint this ACEO art card. Painted on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico Hot Press paper with Winsor & Newton artist watercolors, ink and a bit of acrylic. It's currently listed on eBay.

A New Beginning

How exciting to be creating the first page of my new blog! I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing... or even why I'm here. But somehow I've managed to find my way this far, so I will continue. Actually, I have nothing of importance to say right now, nor do I have any thought provoking comments to make. Just glad to jump into the untested waters of blogdom and will try to slosh my way through...