One of My Favorite Moments of the Whole Year

My son dutifully holds onto his littlest sister's hand. (She's fast!)

In Norfolk, VA we're fortunate to have The Chrysler Museum. This is not a particularly large art museum, but it has a stellar collection, inventive, thoughtful exhibits, and awesome staff. I LOVE this place. I would live there if I could. I would go every single day and just sit, or draw, or paint, or study. I don't go very often because the bulk of my life right now is taken up by raising these three little monsters. (I say that with the utmost love - I'm blessed to have such great kids, but now with No. 3, my husband and I are officially outnumbered and exhausted!)

Chiaroscuro and a Drawing Dictionary

One of the things I take for granted when I talk about art is terminology. I've been around it so long that it feels like I absorbed it by osmosis rather than someone actually explaining anything. I'm the kind of person that gets the gist of most things simply from context, which is not a good thing when you want to teach others. And I often feel like proclaiming to the world, "I'm an artist! If I wanted to have to explain everything with words I'd have been a writer!" However, my husband, a music teacher, has said to me on more than one occasion that if I can clearly explain a concept to someone, then I'll have a solid understanding of that concept. The stubborn, lazy side of me has always hated that saying but it's absolutely true.