Overwhelmed by successes. Part 2.

Saturday night - last weekend - we had a big "donor appreciation party" here. Invited were Musica Viva donors of at least $75. plus a couple of collectors that had purchased at least $500 worth of art from me.
We are not talking big bucks here. This is a grass roots operation - Marilyn Banner's art, Carl Banner's music, both of our visions and teamwork working to build an art life here and an artist friendly community. I often describe us as "under recognized sophisticates."

So why the overwhelm? Well....... as I did at my open studio last year, I put up on the music room walls (which now have track lighting to make the setting a real gallery) a few of my new marsh paintings. Two images had already gone out as Musica Viva publicity pieces via constant contact. I intend to show the best of the marsh paintings with the best of the 2009 VCCA paintings, all encaustic, at my Ceres show opening late April. The last thing I'm doing is "pushing" the marsh pieces.
Well, to my partial surprise - THREE of the marsh paintings were sold that night. THREE.

Writing this has already decreased the overwhelm feeling. Why NOT have what I want, a nice circle of my work doing its work for others and the others giving back to me in the form of money. The way it should be for artists all the time....

Art and Music

Why Art and Music? Because I decided this would be my "art blog" but first I need to write about the Musica Viva concert that took place last week.

http://www.dcmusicaviva.org/recordings/dvorak_quintet_1.mp3 -

that is the link to the first movement of the Dvorak Quintet. You can go to the Musica Viva website and hear that whole piece AND the Brahms Quintet.

Funny, if you actually listen to these, I guess I have not much more to say to you about this topic. The music is so beautiful that it speaks for itself. So what was I thinking?

I guess I was thinking that way back when I was in my early 20's I realized that I had to marry a musician. Lucky me - I already had seen and heard Carl Banner play a concerto with the St. Louis symphony. And what a catch - I actually got to MARRY him, and to have a big chunk of my life as an artist be connected to music. There's a bit of teamwork here - I don't think I could have lived with someone who could not understand and support the artist in me. Some women can do that but not this one.