Alexia Scott's Studio Gallery Grand Opening & the Power of YES!

"Things happen for a reason" is a constant mantra in the Stifel household. Of course sometimes you have no idea what those reason are until LONG after the fact...

When I moved into Falls Church with Stifel & Capra years ago I went next door to the doctor with the friendly reputation and asked him if we could "borrow" his parking lot for our after hours events.   I held my breath, not knowing how he felt about artists.  

Tom chuckled warmly and invited me into his office where on EVERY wall was the most amazing art painted by his highly talented wife Alexia.

Yes! we could use the lot. Yes! we carried Alexia's art at S&C.

Yes! years later I started taking drawing lessons from Alexia.  Yes! I am totally paranoid about my lack of ability there.

Fast forward a year and a half, Dr Scott retires and he & his wife decided to turn the building into a teaching studio and gallery.

Yes! I would be delighted to help market and manage this new venture and show my work there.

Yes! we put together a gang buster initial show for Alexia's Studio Gallery Grand Opening.

The weekend of April 13th to the 15th was truly wonderful.

Believing in giving back, the opening was a fund raiser for the local Arlington Philharmonic.

The artists included some of the most caring folks around and I am delighted to work with them again.

Yes! Things happen for a reason.

(See anything you like? Let me know- I have keys!)

The camera does not lie, or does it?

Kind hearted people keep asking "How are you doing?" in that polite, hushed tone usually saved for funerals and cancer diagnoses.  My old unenlightened self would have answered "Fine" but my newly 55 year old, tell it like it is self generally answers "Tired"!  I still have not reconciled with the VOLUME of  merchandise, display items, projects that could be awesome if you just worked on them, jars full of pens and just plain stuff that is still loitering around my house.

I DID reach my self proclaimed goal of getting the storage pod out of  our driveway in 30 days.

I HAVE sorted, donated, packed and stacked goodies so that parts of our home look positively normal. I posted a photo on Facebook about my mantel's uncluttered horizontal surface and was teasingly busted for that fact that MY uncluttered surface still had a dozen items on it!

But LOOK- my house looks better than it has in MONTHS.  Unless of course you pan past the camera viewfinder and look in my dining room and basement. How is it possible that I have done this business without a garage????

The scariest part? There are piles in not one but TWO homes! (Ignore those nasty valances from the 90's I have never taken down in our cottage...) God bless my husband and children for not setting fire to it or even making comment.  When I apologize for the chaos I hear "Mom, you can't clear out 10 years in 10 weeks".  I love my kids.  What a fine Mother's Day gift they both are! Even more astounding to me is it doesn't stop them from having people over.

When I hear stories about teenagers that simply can't function unless they have a particular car or even a specific brand of make up, I count my blessings when I realize that we have raised "kind, strong and smart" kids who would rather do their homework and pile in to introduce the Son to "Beyond Thunderdome" on a Wednesday night then worry about what craziness their mom is getting up to with a mid week trip to Delaware to restock her one fifith the size shop and she comes home with more than she left with.  They unloaded the car with nary a comment. 

Of course I am running out of room, so if you see something you want, just let me know!

I am writing this while literally waiting for paint to dry, You see I signed up to participate in an art show next weekend so I will "have" to paint.  

It's the Grand Opening of my friend and teacher Alexia Scott's Studio & Gallery. Hope you can stop by and see what I am up to. Details are here.