This week I found myself in a church in Milwaukee for a mass celebrating the life of Father Mike Hammer. Father Mike bought a painting from me, conducted the funeral for Katies dad, married Katie's mom and dad, remained lifelong friends with the Musolff family, oh and by the way, founded the Catholic AIDS Outreach Ministry. He was a legend, and the capacity crowd at St. John The Evangelist Church in Milwaukee testified to that. Words like compassion, love, empathy, mercy were not merely lip service, they were lived. I liked hearing those words, I miss my family's matriarchs.
My life has been abundant, and after the last few months I feel haggard. I was too busy to update my website, weed whack, fix my van, exercise, floss, or stop drinking. And yet life went on, big changes sprang forth and we are almost over the hump. We got half our land planted in prairie(some rain would help), and the grainery is being turned into a gallery. So as of now we are NOT represented by a gallery. We feel free. Being represented by a gallery so near the farm ended up being more and more of a conflict. We want to do work that is at times more difficult to sell, and we don't need the added stress of dealing with a gallery. So we are representing ourselves. The gallery itself will not be ready until probably next spring, but it is lookin' awesome. If you have ever bought work from us, this is where the money has gone. The circa 1900 grainery and other outbuildings all are resided and reroofed and good for the next generation or two. The foundations all got fixed too. This place has felt like a construction site. Whenever we get time to clean it all up this place will be looking sharp and I am very proud of that. This has been a lifelong dream of mine, and it feels damn good to live the dream.
