Friday we went to Deception Pass beach. It's the third absolutely stunning Washington State Park I've spent time in lately. It's a rock beach (and I love those) with a gorgeous view. We walked and rock hunted, and I sketched two quick watercolors. I'd love to go back on another nice day. Part of the joy was just sitting in the sunshine after so many rainy and cloudy days.

Jude Dippold took a photo of me sketching that captures the color and pattern of the place, as well as the peace.

As well as Rockport, my early love of a park here in Washington, I've been taking walks at Rasar State Park. It's about 8 miles in the other direction from Rockport, so both are quite easy for daily walks. Rasar has more changeable scenery and is flatter, which lets me do my brisk powerwalking without as much danger of turning an ankle.

The topography goes from wooded trails to river beach to mountain meadow, all of which are lovely. I stopped and sketched along my walk the other day, and I will definitely go back to paint further as the weather allows.

I got a perfect afternoon in the Badlands of South Dakota today. I'm heading across the country to Washington State, and it was a gorgeous afternoon to stop. Plus it was early enough that almost no one was there. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful afternoon. The place is transporting. It's hard to believe it can exist even as you're standing in the midst of it. To top it all off, and afternoon moon was hanging low over the rocks.

Mr. Darcy has been unsure about this whole traveling thing, but he's decided he likes having his own hotel bed, and he was utterly fascinated by the prarie dogs today. He also just looked good against the backdrop of the Badlands.

I got to spend one lovely night at one of my favorite places on earth recently and catch up with old friends there. It was great to sit and paint the mountains before breakfast with a pot of tea.

My friend Mark Goshorn Jones was shooting a movie short at the Annesdale Snowden mansion in Memphis not long ago and invited me to sketch on site. I submitted a sketch for my sketch feature in the Daily News, but I stayed a while and had a good time doing several sketches. Here is the full set. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the cameras and working action with the grand old house.

I've had rotating house guests lately, plus my sister has been in town, mostly for our annual dance weekend (which explains my recent silence here). I managed a hat trick of teas/chai out being festive with people and sketched all three. It's nice to have happy memories in my journal.

WKNO fm, Memphis's local npr station, hosts a daily arts interview show called Checking on the Arts. They are kind enough to host me to talk about my shows even when I'm not exhibiting in their lobby, but they certainly saved me space on the calendar for this show, "Autobiography," and Kacky Walton interviewed me last week. She and Darel Snodgrass both do serious homework for these interviews, look at work, read websites, and come in prepared to have a great discussion, which is a huge boon for those of us not professional at being on the air. I had a great time with Kacky, and I appreciated her kindness talking about this much more personal than usual work I've been doing lately. Here is the interview with some back story about the exhibition in case you'd like to listen.

It took me all day Wednesday to get the show on the walls the way I wanted it (and to tape the radio interview about it, which I'll post in a day or two), and it took another two days to recover. But I'm really pleased with the result. The space is lovely -- high and clean with tons of natural daylight. It's a lovely space to have art. And it gave me a natural flow for the show, which has a bit of narrative element built in.

The show is open to the public at WKNO during business hours, and there will be a closing reception on Friday, March 31st, 6-8pm.

I'm off to dance and celebrate this weekend, but here are a couple more pieces that are in the show, as a preview.

I'm hanging the show "Autobiography" tomorrow at WKNO, and it will be up for the month of March. There will be a closing reception Friday, March 31, 6-8pm.

As part of the preparation, I'm preparing an artist statement to go with the show, and it's been interesting to think about. This is a much more personal show than I have ever mounted, and the statement reflects that a bit. I've always been fascinated by other artists' self portraits, and it's exciting to get to show my own series at this point in my life.

Here is the statement I've written for the show:

I live a solitary life, which is not the same as a lonely one. This series of work examines my solo world in times of loneliness but also in times of fulfillment. My life is rich with art, music, canine company, and periods of romantic company, but it is still in essence a life lived alone. Society does not give us good images or models for women navigating life alone. There is tremendous pressure to couple up as the only truly appropriate state of being. The word "spinster" contrasted with the word "bachelor" speaks volumes. Society's image of women needing to be coupled ignores the demographic realities that at some point or another in their lives, women are likely to live alone. Women benefit from being able to find happiness and fulfillment within themselves. This exhibition portrays me in moments of varying success at that endeavor. I make art, dance, play music, and walk in forests regularly. Sometimes I do these things alone and sometimes in company. 

I go for years without painting any self portraits, but I find myself doing them again when I am in periods of self examination, upheaval, or transition. Self portraits can feel like the most self-indulgent form of art, a feeling made only stronger by selfies, Facebook, and the proliferation of the appalling selfie sticks. However, they are a centuries old art form. Artists tend to make sense of the world around them by examining it and distilling it onto paper or canvas through the lens of their art. It makes sense that we have the same urge to make sense of ourselves in this literal and tactile way.

This show began with me looking at portraits by Odilon Redon, Edward Hopper, and Andrew Wyeth. It contains not only traditional self portraits but also scenes and places that are deeply personal to me.

One friend told me that the more particularity there is to any story, the more universal it feels. These paintings show me in my own particular world. What I hope is that they are personal but also deeply recognizable on some level to others. I want them to reach and touch and give a feeling of solidarity to others who are navigating solo or examining their places in this enormous, crazy, heartbreaking, magical world that we all live in and have to make sense of for ourselves.

I've been working on two more self portraits this week since getting home from Washington. Here's one inspired by a poem called Polka-Dot Sky. I've always loved those cloud shapes, and the poem made me think back to those Redon portraits in the Orsay I saw last summer with people placed against clouds.

It started off well. I always struggle with faces and almost liked this level of finish better, but I pushed on. Here is the partway through version.

I'm also finally back to working on the self portrait at my easel. I hate the Arches gessoed paper it's on, which sucks down paint, and I had gotten discouraged weeks ago and set it aside for a while. But I finally decided to use my figure painting momentum and pull it back out again. It's close to done but still needs some finishing. The show hangs Tuesday, so I'm racing to both mount and prep everything and also finish as many of the ones in my head as I possibly can in that time.