pay it forward

I'm all for simplifying my life, but I would definitely suffer without my online connections. First of all, my January garage sale has been tons-o-fun and though not everything is sold (I updated the post today with current stats) I want to thank those who did buy work because the gas bill arrived today! :) Secondly, without these connections I would not have discovered Ed Maskevich's blog. He posts very infrequently but each one is a gem, full of insights and anecdotes, not to mention his vibrant artwork. Though he focuses on the three more traditional genres (figurative, landscape, still life) his work is far from traditional with a focus on pared-down composition and colour relationships that is a cut above -- and links the three subject genres in such a way that it would never occur to me to divide them up like that. Take a look:

These arrived on my doorstep on Friday and I'd totally forgotten that I'd discussed participating in Ed's artists' pay it forward project, so wasn't quite sure what I was signing for. I was definitely impressed by his packing skills, too:

It was like an extra birthday present. I have already packed up something for the first person on my pay it forward list, one of my very oldest blogging friends ~ someone who has a hard time calling herself an artist, in spite of her obvious creativity, and who never forgets to send me a Christmas or birthday card. She knows who she is!

And while on the topic of passing artwork around, I struck a great deal with Angela Wales Rockett recently. We swapped paintings. She got this one from me and I got this 10" x 8" abstract from her:

I'm pretty sure I got the better deal!