On February 6th I attended a benefit in Sioux Falls for the Avera HeARTS in Healing. It was an interesting day for me, a homebody happy in sweats or jeans. Stableboy and I had to dress up, he even wore a tie! *gasp*. Too bad we didnt' get a photo of it for proof!
Held in the Behavioral Health Building, it was to help those in need of their special sort of services. A woman gave a short talk, which I found to be extremely moving, about her son, about being his mom and what that center did to help them.
Miss South Dakota also spoke, as she had been a patient there once. She spoke of how the stigma of using services of such a place was ok, nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. I heard a lot of that sort of talk that evening, and I couldn't agree more.
The evening also had food, oh my, the food! They called them hors d'oeuvres, but that seems a bit of a loose term for such a nice feast. Stableboy was especially fond of the nice girls who kept coming by our table with trays of meat! And the dessert table was so very pretty....
I donated an 18x24 landscape I created just for the event. The center deals often with loss, something I know far too much about, so I did this as a sort of personal art therapy. My piece was done for my Cheyenne, whom I lost almost 3 years ago. Titled In Her Honor, its a portrait of her of sorts, as it exemplifies who she was...sunshine, flowers, nature and beauty.
I am happy and honored that it went extremely well, a very nice man bought it for his newly remodeled room. We had a bit of a chat, and I walked away feeling very positive about the whole thing.
Ebay can be a source for low cost pastels. I bought this little set
well over a year ago and haven't used them much at all, due to that
irritating wrapper.
So I put on a movie and went about stripping them. Using a razor blade, I sliced the wrapper enough to peel it off. These pastels are pretty old, this brand now is a larger sized stick, and this set probably has been banged around some. Due to this, when the wrapper came off, some of the sticks crumbled.
As you can see in the first photo, I put the bits into piles of like-colors, then I crushed them up, added distilled
water, and made new, whole pastels. I added other pieces to change the
color as well. Then formed them into shapes I like and let dry.
Now this set is fully usable, and after all this time, its almost like having a new set! Although not original to the set, it came to me in this sweet little wooden box, which I will more than likely make into a pochade box at another time.
