My donation to the Wonderful Works Auction this year is a painting called "swell" from the postcard series. This painting placed first in the Mark F. Sanders Visual Arts Competition. The concept behind the postcard series was to use handwriting from old postcards and take it out of context, placing the thoughts of someone from decades ago into a painting and giving it new new life. I feel as though I've only touched the surface with this concept and will explore it more in the coming months.

I'm very excited about the Wonderful Works Auction, every year artists donate their work and 100% of the funds raised goes to help women and children who have experienced abuse in our community. The auction is at Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover. Please visit www.hnws.on.ca for details and you can forward an e-invitation to your friends, mark the evening on your calendar because it's going to be great.

My opening at The Station Arts Centre in Tillsonburg was great, lots of old friends and plenty of new ones. This facility is a wonderful space and I'm really pleased with the show and the way it was hung. The show consists of work from the past ten years, I like this type of exhibition because you can see the evolution in the work and the different directions you've gone. Some of my newer pieces are small studies (16"x16") of childhood memories, a slide or bumper cars for example.  Someone very close to me has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, this was evident to me when they asked who I was at a family wedding this past fall. It was shortly after the wedding that I decided I wanted to explore the possibility of incorporating old photos in my work. I had some fun, digging through old pics, I found some that I loved and my journey began. I was so excited with the results, I immediately began working on larger pieces. To date I've got 8 new paintings that range in size from 32" x 32" to 32"x 69". These paintings are in the Barber Gallery in The Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover Ontario. The theatre has undergone an incredible transformation in the upstairs lobby, bar area and the Barber Gallery. Sunday April 19th will be a grand opening for the public to see the amazing job that was done and the opportunity to see the new paintings. Hope to see you there.