Life from our window at Bird House

We have dedicated 23 years of our lives to a little patch of ground in Manhattan MT.  The back yard has morphed into a work of art.  The birds, houses and feeders have become incorporated into the art.  My canvas over the course of years became wherever the creative process took me. And as time allows in the life of Caregiver that creative energy has taken me in so many directions.   Between surgeries and recoveries, winters and summers always calling me in different directions.  Making the garden a beautiful retreat for my recovering husband during summer as the fenced yard gave so much privacy.  

 

And in Winter creating to be humored and amazed

Our Nativity...oh, look, I see the camel.

Life is always about the art, even composition in gardeners lives.  I watch and wait to see how the plants faired over winter, and watch and hope to see the gardeners renewed vigor with the warm smells of Spring. 

Oh My!  Another 2 years went by.  Huh!  Must be time to post again.

Life as an artist and caregiver, looking back through the years of these job titles, I see how life fractured effecting all of who I was to become as woman, artist, family member and friend, but always ultimately Caregiver.  The moments to create become little bits and pieces to a "Fractured Life".  Ahh, but the creative response is huge to the stimulations through observing what we have been given...Certainly not by what we feel we don't have.

Oh, I'm so sorry....my husband is always saying I come into conversation in the middle of my story, makes me a little tough to follow... as the beginning, of course, has been going on in my head for an hour or more.  Artist brain.

Lee and I moved to Manhattan, MT in 1991.  We became involved right away with a little gallery on Main St. in Bozeman called LePetite Gallery owned by John and Eleanor Crank.  Eleanor started showing my work right away, and soon I had my first show.   The next 20 years, my work continued to be shown in this Gallery, though it weathered 2 more owners and a name change to Grey Fox.   I continued to hone my skills as a Traditional Landscape painter.  Classes, Plein Air painting, and gallery commitments kept us both busy.  I also opened a gallery on Main St. in Manhattan, which doubled as my studio.  I kept it open for 6 years.

Lee's heart problems started in 1992. But as it happens in Fractured Time and Space, all things come to a halt, existence is redefined minute by minute.  In 2011, Grey Fox Gallery closed it's doors, my husband needed another radical surgery, I was no longer able to keep up with gallery demands.  But, lemons to lemonade.  With no demands, I was able to care for Lee after each surgery.   Hospitals, Drs., waiting rooms, nurses, stats, meds, home recoup...this time 6 months, the next time 4 years , then another 6 months just waiting to return to normal, only to get pneumonia.  Through Lee's 7 surgeries and 23 years later, we are still in Manhattan, Mt.   Happy Birthday 80th my love 5-29-2015.

Next post, I promise will have pictures of our fractured, beautiful life, alongside the Birdhouse.