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Nesting Season
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”George Eliot Early in 2024, while enjoying New Year’s with our family in Jackson, Wyoming, I stumbled upon a gallery shop and was instantly wowed by the artist’s vibrant paintings of animals (Amy Ringholz). Since I don’t have the wall space nor the budget…
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Why So Many Flowers?
“I must have flowers, always and always.” Claude Monet Sometimes I wonder, why do I paint so many flowers? In 2019, very early in my art journey, I took a drawing class at Harrisburg Area Community College. As a mid-50’s working mom, I walked into a classroom full of 18–19-year-old young men and women. They…
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“The Delivery!”
My One Little Word in 2024 has been PLAY and what a joy ride we’ve had together! With PLAY as my lens, I have seen clearly and appreciated deeply the moments when I am happily engaged in the things I love: when I’m interlocking jigsaw pieces into a neat, colorful puzzle and when I’m smudging…
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60 By 60
Five years ago, in November 2019, I was listening to the voice of Stacy Julian on her podcast, “Exactly Enough Time.” Stacy is a colorfully bright, positive and passionate memory keeping creative. For many years I’d been an avid reader of her magazine, Simple Scrapbooks (sadly, no longer published), as well as her books, The…
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Coffee Shop Writer
Have you ever wandered into a coffee shop, placed your order and then, while the barista was brewing your beverage, looked around? Not a quick, cursory glance before your attention turns to your phone to solve the mystery of today’s Wordle; I mean an unhurried, inquisitive look around the café. I have, and I’ve noticed…
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Miss Rumphius
My father was a salesman – gregarious personality, boisterous laugh, firm handshake and all – he thrived in conversation. We joked that he could talk to anyone; sales came naturally to him. I inherited some of those traits, for sure. Every time I opened an exam room door in the Emergency Room to greet a…
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A New Way of Seeing
“One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.” (John Steinbeck or Henry Miller – I’ve seen this quote attributed to both) Our children are fond of telling me I married well, and I wholeheartedly agree! Art is a wonderful man and, lucky for me, one of his passions is travel.…
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“Om Mani Pae Mey Hun”
The Secret Lies in the Lotus It’s sweet summertime in Pennsylvania: a season for marveling at lightning bugs; reminding myself a bajillion times to watch the ball when I swing a golf club; drinking iced coffee; enjoying a vacation or two; and writing shorter blog posts (I hope!) I find magic in all four seasons…
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Good Enough
Years ago, when scrapbooking was my creative outlet, once or twice a year I would spend the weekend with a small group of friends in a craft store north of Pittsburgh. One of those women was an unrelenting perfectionist. If she could not find the perfect shade of seafoam green paper or decide which photos…
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Where The Magic Happens
I love gazing at photos of artist’s studios, studying the little details of how they store their materials, how they organize their space to maximize their creative flow, and how they express themselves within their space. Yet I rarely open my own studio for others to see the same. Despite the many visitors we’ve had…
Melissa Stephens Art 