Finally! A sunny day with temps above freezing. Stella (my English Bull Terrier) is enjoying the warmth, and I'm sure it makes her feel better. My studio companion had a couple of bouts of pancreatitis and surgery to remove a chunk of rawhide chewstick from her intestine in February, and she's lost several pounds, so I'm sure she feels the cold sharply. With the offending chewstick gone, she is on the road to recovery. We are hopeful!

Her illness made it difficult for me to work in the studio last month. This was in part because the studio is on the lower level of my house and she wasn't allowed to do stairs, and in part because we were on nursing duty 24-7. (I did get a lot of knitting done while I was sitting with her.) Needless to say, the few hours in the studio were precious, even as they were challenging. I find that it is easy to get sidetracked, and easy to lose focus. Sometimes, when I have a painting on the easel and am unable to work on it continuously, I lose the energy/connectivity that I have with it, making it easy to forget the intentions I have for it. This can cause me to get off on some technical rabbit trail, and can result in a weaker piece. My challenge, then, is to hang onto the intentions I had for the painting, and to get my momentum going in order to finish strongly. Life has a habit of getting in the way of my intentions, so I get a lot of practice in hanging on and keeping some continuity. In the end, I will hopefully be a better artist!

I am please to present one of the pieces that I finished up last week. To me it signifies breaking forth, and I named it "Creation." It is 12" x 16" and will soon be available on my website: www.juliamevans.com. As always, I look forward to your comments!