Hi..this is a bit for Carol. My son's girlfriend has a 13 yr. old son who needed some art lessons. So he comes to my studio one day a week and we play! First we made these background papers with fluid acrylics, wax paper and plastic wrap. Then we decided to go a block away from my studio and draw the South Salt Lake water tower. After a bit of sketching..we decided to choose a background paper and go for it! Voila...this is my result. The boy's result got posted on Facebook..which you can see if you friend me at Kay E Hale. I was happy with this version and have since beefed up the bottom sketch of the weird little building at the bottom of the tower. I did take it to the ISA meeting where it could be peer critiqued. A new thing they are doing. I got 2 critiques and they were good. Although I purposefully did not put in every detail of the water tower and surrounding trees and buildings. One peer thought it should have more detail. Another felt the background colors competed with the drawing. I am a firm believer in letting the viewer "finish " the drawing or painting themselves...but I have discovered my penchant for bright color has muddled the focal points in many of my paintings. Not that I will stop doing paintings with bright colors..but maybe being more conscious of contrast and shadows ought to help. I do get carried away with what the colors are doing! That said I am pretty satisfied with this drawing and will post the updated one as soon as I take a picture of it. In the meantime I have done no art. I really have wanted to but I have been feeling really unwell lately and joint pain and depression have "dogged" me for several months. I finally broke down and found a new Dr. (one block away from my house!) and visited with him yesterday. Blood was let and Monday will reveal what issues I might be contending with. Years ago I had gastric bypass for weight loss. I would never recommend this procedure to anyone unless they were so morbidly obese that they could not move. Because if you can move..you can lose weight. But I believe I was in the throes of a major depression and instead of looking into that, I was told I could get this surgery and all would be well. You would think that I could have seen through this claim but in a dark depression I was grasping at anything and felt if I could lose the weight I would feel better. Actually I did lose 100 lbs. and looked terrible and felt even worse. Since I could no longer absorb nutrients the same way I became anemic. I also had little or no support from the staff at the medical center who was making gazzillions touting this as a weight loss miracle. Once treated for the anemia..I began to feel better but my skin was something else!! Losing 100 lbs. means your skin has no where to go!!! So to counteract the turkey neck and other skin issues..I decided to eat things I should not. I was more active though and had a better body image but gastric bypass does not work if you do not change your whole life. And have money for plastic surgery afterwards! Over the years (20+) I have learned more and have gained back much of what I lost and lost it again a few more times. The losing of weight is easy if you decide to do it..the keeping it off is harder. Now that I am older I have come to some amazing revelations. The biggest is that I no longer focus on weight loss. I focus on being active, eating properly and feeling good. That can be easy if my depression is under control. But if it isn't then I struggle. So back to the Dr. visit. Once he found out about the bypass surgery from over 20 yrs. ago..he is suspecting anemia again and that I might be deficient in several areas of vitamins and minerals. He does not suspect diabetes..since gastric bypass usually eliminates the threat and has even "cured" it in patients who submitted to the bypass surgery for weight loss. Something about the rerouting of the digestive system. Then we discussed that I will be on my anti-depressant for ever and to quit being stubborn about it and just take it. Since I have no side effects..well yes I went and refilled the prescription and that should help! So with a proverbial kick in the pants to get moving again..I seriously felt better after getting home again! Even without knowing what is physically wrong..I am not too worried. I am feeling hopeful. I also have decided that the garden is not happening this year. it was simply the one bit too much for all my plans and was making me worried since I could not get the energy up to do it. The plants I have as seedlings will get planted probably in the small gardens out front as soon as they get weeded and trimmed and I will plan to get gardens ready in the fall. Funny how relieved this decision makes me. And I can go to farmers markets and get fresh produce. If this is "too much information" for most of you I apologize..just look at it as a cautionary tale of learning to care for yourself and knowing what you can and cannot do. There is no shame in having limits to your plans as long as you are happy and healthy. Have a great weekend