It's been an interesting year. As someone who tends to be shall we say slightly overactive (ha ha) I tend to overextend myself sometimes… So last year when I went to help my brother build a boat dock in New Zealand I ended up having some pain in my neck after running back and forth for several hours with wood on my shoulder. Of course, I ignored it, and then continued to do my daily trail runs. The pain only got worse and it turned out that I had herniated disc. I waited and tried to ignore the pain, but eventually realized that I was not able to function as I would like and that things were not getting better. The arm and shoulder that were bothering me were on my left side, so I was not able to paint let alone take my art gear out into nature to paint as I would've liked because I could not carry a backpack. So I ended up having spinal surgery in February and am on the mend- although initially I was like Weird Ojai Barbie (turning en bloc and not able to look down). I prefer painting in the wild but ended up painting at home. I now have a greater appreciation for smaller things and slowing down generally. I am excited to share my work at the upcoming second Saturday 6.8- as well as my garden which has helped inspire me and was recently given the Habitat Hero award by the Ojai Land Conservancy Rewild program.

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