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Sometimes art has both the meaning it creates for the viewer and its little extra meaning for the artist. I think Lost Hat works quite well for a viewer with no narrative necessary. You have that feeling of a beautiful wilderness with a trace of human presence left behind. There is a nice little triangle of significant objects, the wonderful relationship of the colors blue and orange, and blue and white contrast of the hat draws attention. I hope that people who see it will be reminded of some of their own treasured experiences outdoors as well as enjoying the combination of shapes and colors.


For myself there is the added knowledge that the lost hat was lost, found, and lost again. Years ago when my husband and I were running on a levee next to agricultural land near our home, he spotted a muddy hat in the field. He picked it up and we took it home and washed it before we could really see what it was like. I claimed it, and it went on many camping trips and hikes. Eventually I lost it after taking it off to lie down on a big rock and look at a meteor shower. In the dark, I didn't think to pick it back up, and since it was quite windy the next day, we weren't surprised that it was gone when we looked for it. I missed it and eventually I created this painting with my own little dream of where it had wound up until the next owner found it.

I'm sitting here on a blistering hot June afternoon thinking about my penchant for painting coffee mugs. Mugs, being ever present in the life of a coffee fan, are often in view and do tend to turn up in on-the-phone doodles and other such images, but perhaps the first deliberately painted and sold mug image I made was while experimenting with bright primaries. That yellow mug on a blue surface with red background, though small, was an attention getter and an image that I used on my business cards for a time. I continue to enjoy painting coffee mugs and tea cups, and buyers seem to like them. While most of my coffee mug including "Steaming Cup" paintings are from imagination, I enjoy my own collection of actual mugs, and I tend to be rather fussy in which one suits my mood when I go to pour that delicious steaming cup!