Hello Dear Ones,

 

I did a fancy bathroom job. First, I had to remove the wallpaper, luckily it was vinyl so it was not too bad. Then I painted the ceiling and primed the walls. You should never paint over wallpaper glue, always prime first. Then I applied a paint-in-plaster finish. The texture was in between Mediterranean and Venetian finishes. Not too smooth, and not too polished. Then I primed and painted again. THEN for the piece de resistance - a metallic  'champagne' glaze with a texture brush effect. It took several steps over a few days. Basically I painted the room 4 times. It is subtle and elegant, exactly right for this client.

 

Two dentists advised me to get crowns to replace my 4 front teeth. One tooth is turning black due to nerve damage from a deep cavity, another has a large 'hairline' split right down the middle, and my two front teeth were getting so jagged on the bottom, it looked as if I'd been chewing on piano wire. I have not. My regular dentist quoted over $5000 out of pocket. Ouch. But then she proceeded to give me temporary fillings which solved all the problems. She said they could last two hours, two weeks, two months...or two years. Whatever it is, I'll take it. For me that was a good dentist day.

 

Mom's friend, Rita, started a weekly writing group. Our first topic was 'Speak Out'. My mom (Elsa) wrote an amazing comparison of modern times and Hitler called "Speak Out for the Truth", citing freedom of speech and suppression of truth. I wrote a  mini progressive manifesto called "A Plea to Our Leaders". Originally it had the tagline 'in a nutshell', but I decided it was better to leave NUT out of the title. It was actually something I already had in mind to write. For me writing is cathartic and definitely helps organize my views on a topic. Especially something big like saving the world and democracy. HAHAHA! I touch (or 'rant' as my husband says) on climate, healthcare & drugs, education & work, social justice, income inequality, safety, infrastructure, voting, politicians and military. Can you believe it's only 2 1/2 pages long? I'm sure I left something out. I'd love to have feedback from anyone that can tolerate wading through it all. **I attached both documents as downloadable files from the bottom of my ArtByAnita website link page. Speaking Out now is so pertinent since Putin has invaded Ukraine. Most of our Latvian friends are terrified, along with many Russians and the rest of us. As The Dude said, 'This aggression will not stand'. The Ukrainian people are incredibly resilient and courageous, and President Zelenskyy (BBC article) impresses me more every day. I pray for their safety. And hope we have people smart enough to find a solution without getting us into WW3. I say it's time to arrest a dictator for crimes against humanity.

 

Beegie Adair, one of my favorite jazz piano players, passed away last month. She was 84 and fierce. Still playing recently. Here is her YouTube channel. LINK Her style is lyrical, with a solid drive. She plays all my favorite standards and is just so enjoyable to listen to. We lost another local jazz legend, trumpet and piano player Neal Chandek, from Covid complications last week. For the last 10 years he had a steady gig running the house band at Transfer Pizza. He was known to be quite a character. I found him to be very intelligent. He went through a lot in life and came out better for it, I admire that. Over the last few years when we reconnected I exchanged quite an array of texts with Neal about religion, insurance, politics, social justice, flowers and sometimes even music. RIP pal, you were one of a kind, and very kind. OBIT

 

My large MILWAUKEE art installation photos are still waiting since the client has not picked up the art yet. I hope it will be soon! In the meanwhile, you can order your very own MKE poster style art here > LINK

 

Spring is coming, hang in there. Pray for Peace.

Anita