I’m excited to invite you to a surprise art pop up hosted by my dear friend and fellow artist Paula Hawkins in her studio at Winter Street Studios. Come see us for Second Saturday this Saturday September 14th from 12-6pm in studio C-140! I will be there from 3-6, while Paula and her vibrant magical paintings will be there for the entire event.
I’m very excited about the opportunity to show my art in Paula’s studio, because ours is a friedship that goes back to 2018 when we both met and became instant art sisters during John Ross Palmer’s Escapist Mentorship Program (see nostalgic throwback picture below, featuring one of the great loves of my life, Bobby the English Pointer. Please note that Bobby and I match). The mentorship program was set up a bit like a competition, but Paula and I decided from the get go that we would not compete! Instead, we wanted to help each other, have as much fun as possible, and paint together every chance we got. We both faced challenges, but over the years we always touched base with one another and gave each other support, feedback, and the opportunity to laugh and occasionally vent.
One of the things Paula has always done that I’ve always appreciated immensely and that has meant the world to me is she has always read my novels. She’s posted reviews too, and done other things to support my writing journey. This year, when I published Ana Martinez Has No Shame, I was particularly in need of support. This book is very personal, not because I am Ana (I am actually all the characters in the book including the feisty goat, the spooky black cat, and Louise’s ghost.) but because I wrote it as a fantasy of sorts to fulfill my own emotional needs during a time when I was feeling even more unmoored than usual. It’s a book about a creative person receiving the support she needs so she can actually thrive as a creative – something that rarely happens as society tends to push women into nurturing roles where their creativity is stifled. Anyway, this is a book that means a lot to me in all sorts of ways. And I needed someone to get it! Paula read it and got it. Please read her review below, because it goes right to the heart of this novel and what I wanted readers to take away from it. It made my day, my summer, my year!
But it gets better. I feel like maybe I manifested something and Paula helped me manifest it. I basically wrote this book about a creative woman receiving the support she needs, and wrote it at a time when I was deeply questioning the things I myself do to present my own creative output to the world. For a while now, I have wanted a change, an opportunity to reach a wider audience with my art and do this in a more fun way. Running my own gallery space hasn’t been feeling exciting and inspiring lately. I have been feeling like I’m spending too much time and energy on pesky logistics when I should be doing what I love, which is make art and enjoy the process. So I was looking to branch out a bit, shake things up, put my art on walls that are not mine and show it to more people, get to socialize without hosting, get to experience new things, and ultimately be able to be more playful and free. Anyway, in the midst of all my soul searching about how to get back to having more fun in my art journey and in life in general (because I am the kind of not serious person that prioritizes fun, and I highly recommend this outlook), Paula took the leap to becoming a full-time artist (insert applause, congratulations, loud cheers, and an outpouring of support please!), moved her Winter Street studio to an even more generous space downstairs (Studio C-140 is one of those swanky studios with the little outdoor patios!) and invited me to come have an art pop up in her beautiful new space! How cool is that?
This is, by the way, a collaboration we are considering extending. So please come out to see us, congratulate Paula on her new space and taking the leap to making art full time, maybe buy some art and/or books, and show us that you enjoy seeing our work together in the same space and our creative energies feeding off each other!
I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!
