Hat’s Off to Johanna Spinks!

I’d wondered in there while visiting my sis Rhonda—we were more focused on catching up with each other than we were looking at the merchandise until… I spied the hat.

Now although I love hats, they usually don’t love me back– but on this day I found a hat that liked my head and so the kid in me decided I was not going to leave without that hat.
Part of me was the happy camper kid as I carried the hat out under my arm, the other “adult” part of me was doing the mental chastising of “you’ll never wear this and you shouldn’t have wasted your money on it”.
I carried the little hat home to the Dream.Love.Paint cottage thinking that if I never actually wore it, at least it could be used as a prop for future paintings and that is how I would justify it to that nagging adult voice.

And so it did make a very slight appearance in this 8 x 8 done at the end of one my long working days at the cottage.

But it wasn’t over for the little hat.   The day came when photographer Priscilla Baierlein showed up to do the shoot for Dream.Love.Paint website. It was sunny and hot and a hat was the perfect thing  up against the lavender wall that held the Emerson quote….

and it was at that moment that I was reminded of the importance of listening– not to the adult/practical voice inside but to that other voice that looked out from a place of wonder and JOY.
Of course the story of the hat didn’t end there for when I sent out my Nov. 6 email (click here to see that) it carried in it a black and white image of THE HAT.  Dear friend and gifted artist Johanna Spinks replied back, all the way from California, with a note that simply said…”I’d love to paint this!”
So I asked my other talented friend, Priscilla, if she was okay with having Johanna paint from her pic and she said, “Absolutely!”
And that is how the beautiful piece of art by Johanna came to be.  If I had overridden the part of me, that wiser portion that may be hidden in childish desires,  the story of the hat would have begun and ended in the little shop in Glendale.  As it is, I have a feeling it’s going to turn up in many a painting and probably on a few heads as well.

My takeaway from all of this?
Use your head (for hats) and listen to your heart!

“Dreama Dreaming” by Portrait Artist Johanna Spinks 18 x 24in Watercolor, Gouache, Pen & Ink In the collection of Dreama Tolle Perry

Afterthought:

I’ve been able to think of precious little else with the opening of Dream.Love.Paint only days away.  Like having a big party, there are always those last minute things that need to be “just right” before opening the doors to your guests 😉
Consumed would be an appropriate description of me at the moment, so having this beautiful piece of art work drop in my inbox from Johanna was delightful.  It has given me a good excuse (if one needs one) to share her work with you at this link and also a wonderful opportunity to link you to ‘Cilla’s work as well (click here).  Both of these women are living their loves and their passions and it shows up in their work.  I adore each of them and love having their energy in my life!
For the next couple of weeks I will be sending out more emails than normal–to remind, nudge and inspire you to escape with me to Dream.Love.Paint land.

So much work has gone into this–I want to make sure that everyone on the planet knows about it 😉

If you would share the Dream.Love.Paint emails with a creative friend and forgive me for being in your inbox more often than is normal  I will promise to love you forever 🙂 !
Always know, I could have never done any of this without you.  You ARE the cat’s pajamas!