Happy New Year! 2018 was a pretty okay year (again, if you didn’t read or watch the news…) I stretched and grew as an artist, I made A LOT of art, we suffered a terrible loss and then a few months later, discovered joy again. Here are some of the highlights (and a low) of 2018.

January. I started off the year painting (which is always good!) two new cactus paintings. Clearly, I was still feeling the cactus and succulent love! We found out at the end of January that I was pregnant (WHA?!?!) I had lots of emotions, and it was a pretty wild ride.

February. February was tough. We went in for our 8 week ultrasound to finally hear our Little’s heartbeat and the doctor couldn’t find one. Maybe our dates were off and baby was measuring only 6 weeks old. I went back the next week only to hear that we experienced a missed miscarriage. Our little had stopped growing and was not viable. G and I were devastated.

March. Despite the funk and sadness of our loss, I started painting again and I threw myself into preparing for my first Gallery show/Art market at the Swell Gallery in West Dundee. This was my first Art Gallery! I also on a whim applied (and got in!) to the Spring Art Market and Gallery at Gallery 1070 in Chicago.

April. I decided to participate in #The100DayProject again. This time, my goal was to paint 100 tiny 3”x3” mini paintings. My Gallery show opened at Swell Gallery and we went to the opening artist reception. It was so awesome to see my paintings and photos hanging on the wall and on display throughout the gallery. And it was amazing that so many family and friends came out, despite the rain, to support me. In addition to all of this, I was painting and prepping for the upcoming opening of my gallery market and show at Gallery 1070. It was a crazy few weeks!

May. May was all about my 100 day project and planning and working on my patio garden! The weather was exceptionally nice, so mom and I had a chance to pick up a lot of our annuals and start planting. I think this was our prettiest patio garden yet!

June. We turned a non functioning water fountain into a super fun planter and finished setting up the patio garden only to be told that we had to take everything down in order for the patio to be refinished and stained.

July. We were finally allowed to put our patio garden back together in time for the 4th of July holiday. I also successfully complete my second #The100DayProject! Just before finishing that project, I started a new, quite large painting of one of my favorite photos that I had been dreaming about for a while. We also went on a long weekend vacation to Seattle and despite the out of character 90+ degree days, had a fantastic time! When we got home from Seattle, we discovered I was pregnant again! (WHAT?!!!)

August. I spent a lot of time resting during the month of August. While I didn’t suffer from morning sickness, I felt extraordinarily tired all the time. We kept things pretty quiet until our 8-week ultrasound. I was so worried that I would have another missed miscarriage. We did hear a heartbeat at 8 weeks, and I finally let go of (some of) the anxiety and worry and started to get excited.

September. The beginning half of September was spent preparing for an art/craft show in McHenry. We revamped my table design, whittled down my selection to mostly little paintings from my 100 day project and my best matted prints. Unfortunately, this show wasn’t very successful for us, but mom and I still had a great time.

October. I worked on creating my 2019 digital calendars and finishing up the cutest gnome photo calendar (in addition to a few other designs.) I also started one of my most favorite paintings I’ve created to date— my large peony painting

November. We had our second art show of the season and it was way better! We also made our pregnancy announcement “facebook” official over Thanksgiving and told all of our family and friends we were expecting.

December. We had our last art show during the first weekend of December. It was really successful and fun. I really do enjoy participating and exhibiting in these shows. I also found enough energy to start a new, very ambitious painting that I hope I can complete before our Little arrive in early April!

Whew! What a year!

Thank you so much for all of your love and support. Thank you for the comments, the emails, the encouragement. I could not have done this without you. I'm looking forward to spending 2019 with you!

Happy New Year!

2018 Year in Review