Sometimes in Life we have a dream that we know may take some time to achieve… But at the same time we know we Can do it… indeed the kind of Dream I am talking about we certainly feel like we MUST achieve! If it’s a painting for me then usually it is that I have to become a better painter to achieve it… I have several paintings in my home/studio that fall into this category. Some recent. Some have been waiting 10 years or more for my self-realization to come alive! I always have them close at hand so the visual understanding remains incipient.

I think it was about three years ago that my extremely supportive and kind friend Adrienne suggested to me that I might want to engage in the enterprise of an online painting project in which I produced  work at intervals and sold them in an ongoing auction! She made a great case.

This is Adrienne! Ironically this picture was taken about the time she made this suggestion!

I tried several times to at least start this project but various things got in my way.

I think maybe self confidence might have been the largest prohibitive factor in the beginning.

I have a champion. Someone I really LOVE. Someone whose basic goodness screams so loud that all other factors feel slightly irrelevant. That would be my son Walker. I am not sure exactly when he started ‘taking care of me’… maybe from birth. He has always been the most precocious soul. Most recently Walker has used his personal success to help me achieve mine as well. Taking care of things that put fear at bay, helping me to identify the things that hold me back, and working WITH me to overcome obstacles. From editing and proofing to encouraging and promoting… There is no way this would be happening without him!

Here is Walker in the car with me driving from New York to Montana! That is another worthy story for another time but I think this picture shows the exuberance and delight Walker brings to each project.

However there was still an element that was stopping me from being able to get this online auction idea off the ground. As much as Walker and Adrienne were instrumental, I actually needed a point person who could work internet magic. And it had to be a person willing to grow with the project. A person with great empathy and understanding who could listen and interpret as I threw out all the stops and tried to communicate what I had in mind. Enter Solina!!!

Solina is a barista at Coqui Mountain Coffee in Bozeman, Montana. This coffee shop is adjacent to The Western Cafe where I work as a waitress. The enterprises are a mother/daughter compendium… highly successful due to the expertise of both… inspiring as an example of how to make any enterprise work… and just how much work it takes.

Solina is a favorite of us all. She is authentic in the sense that a good bartender is. I think we all who work here view her as a friend and confidante. She understands difficult interpersonal scenarios and she is diplomatic, funny, even handed and a hard worker. Which quite honestly we all are who work here. A successful restaurant and coffee house are not for the faint of heart.

Imagine my surprise and delight when Solina shared with me that she wasn’t sure what her future plans were but that she liked to code!!!!!!!

More than any other element in this success… i.e, The complete overhaul of the website & most recently the actual Painting A Week auction taking place right now… there is this charming, self sufficient, and forthright person, who has tackled each task with the mantra::: We Will Figure It Out!!!! And we (SHE) did!!! IT IS HAPPENING!!!

This is the first painting of Painting A Week ! Being auctioned right now! People ARE bidding! I am so psyched!