Cumberland Gap 1879: A Study in Umber. 5″ X 5″ on museum canvas. January, 2015. Debra j Reed

    This has been a very humbling and different ‘vacation’ for me this year.  First of all it is the hottest summer on record since 1871 which has led to problems with my plants in my garden and the fact it has grown up.  I now have to do an Indiana Jones trek through my garden with a hoe before I plow it!  My momma has gotten worse since her episode of falling outside and I dare not leave her alone for any stretch of a time unless my angel of aunt, who takes care of everyone, keeps her for awhile.  We have lost some very good and dynamic folks here in Hancock County this month.  T.S. Eliot says ‘August’ is the cruelest month;  I beg to differ this June 2015.  June has been so hard on everyone here in my home county and in our small town. We are hoping for better days ahead and things seem to be teetering on upheaval like someone throwing a basket of eggs into the air.  Everyone of my profession is walking on eggshells already, but this is comparative to having a new Roman Emperor and waiting to see if he is an Augustus or a Caligula.  We will see.  We are in a constant stressful stretch that I see no sign of letting up any time soon.  Change can be good but change is also a destructive act that can and does leave stress and scars everywhere it happens. New is not necessarily BETTER.  Having said that, I will say that through birth pains the Patchwork Playhouse is being slowly brought in into our narrow world view.  Another creative endeavor struggling to survive here with no employment, drugs rampant and the hopelessness of poverty.  But also, like Pandora found, hope is a little broken winged creature, clinging to the inside of our box here.  He may hobble a bit, but he is active and alive. All this leads me to my exhibit at the Morristown Hamblen Library this August and September.

This exhibit will show the history of Hancock County through my eyes, heart and hands.  It will show my love of my family and places that I have grown up loving.  It will show the pain of living here also and the sense of stress and furtive hope that resides in our hearts.  It will show the emotions of dreams I have had, people I have liked in entertainment fields and things that have inspired me through my artistic media.  In fact, it will be a look inside my brain as well as my heart and being fiercely private in things people who do not know me well, this will be revealing in a very true sense.  This blog does not delve into my psyche as much as the raw things portrayed through guidance by my own muse in my art.  They are not just buildings or things.  They are things that register with me on an emotional level that I can not put into words.  I hope you come and see the exhibit. I am excited to chose which paintings I shall display that are still in the possession of people I have done commissioned work for and from my own private collection.  Let me know what you think when you see it too.

Now to pick up my brushes, open my paint box, put that canvas on my easel and make my visions a reality through them.  May the summer get better than it has been and the stress balloon pop for all of us with gentle landing on those eggshells.