Christmas in July

Anyone who works with art materials knows that they are expensive and keep getting more and more expensive. As bad as it is to shop for groceries (defribrillators should be stationed in every aisle) going into an art supply store is an exercise in sheer terror.

So it was with extraordinary glee that I listened as my sister-in-law offered me free art supplies during my recent visit. The supplies were leftovers from a store she had opened in another town and had to close. She pulled four large, plastic boxes from underneath a bed and we carried them into her dining room.

“Take one of each” she announced. And so I sat at the table like a child at the greatest birthday party ever, carefully rummaging through tubes of paint, brushes, bottles of medium, boxes of charcoal. Everyone else was in the next room. I was alone with my glittering field of riches, happy as I could possibly be.

Shelley’s generosity was enormous and for an artist, especially one as financially challenged as this one, being given free art materials was/is an infusion of life-blood, a gift of the magical stuff that allows ideas and imaginings to become visually present.

Thank you.