Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 8:23PM 
I hope you'll join us for Silicon Valley Open Studios, May 11 and 12. I'll be at Pigs Wings and Promises, 247 Velarde Street Mountain View from 11-5. We have 16 great artists displaying their craft and we look forward to seeing you.
I'll be showing paintings from my new Family series, along with some classic Monsters. And, my new necklaces will make their debut just in time for Mother's Day.
Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 10:45AM 
I don't remember him well enough to refer to him as Grandpa. I think he was a gruff man who had no patience for children and preferred his own company. There aren't many photos of him in the family albums and the ones we have are usually of him alone.
He was a carpet layer in his prime years, ran his own business in Chicago. Decades later in my Grandma's effects I found handwritten IOUs from customers who arranged his services on credit. It's a scrap of generosity and trust that I never witnessed in him. Maybe those open IOUs were why he was aloof in middle age and beyond, why he held back from his family and pushed people away.
Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 9:18PM Greetings gentle readers,
I hope you're enjoying the colors of Spring and there's sunshine in your backyard. It's been a sneezy/drippy/sleepy season for me, with allergies in full swing. As usual, the inflamation has kicked up my MS a bit so I'm moving slower than usual. Prep work continues for Open Studios (May 11-12, will post more info soon) and on my altered book for the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit. I'm pacing myself for another couple months of fatigue and looking forward to full-powered Felty!
What are your upcoming plans? How do you treat your allergies?
xxxooo
Felty
Friday, February 1, 2013 at 2:27PM 
I'm back from ten days in beautiful Costa Rica, where the coffee is strong and the monkeys are swinging. It was my first trip South of our border (I don't count Cabo, that's like going to San Diego during Spring Break) and I loved the wild green rain forests and amazing wildlife.
I went with a tour group but I was travelling solo. The group was quick to take me in and were a friendly, funny bunch of people. Our tour director was smart and experienced and led us on an entertaining and educational journey. We started in San Jose--yes my local friends, I travelled from San Jose to San Jose--and went to Tortuguero Park (my favorite stop) on the Carribean coast. You can only reach the park by boat and our lodge was sandwiched between the river and the sea, very nice and rustic. From there we went to Fortuna at the foot of the Arenal volcano and home of the hot springs, then on to the Pacific coast to the JW Marriot resort for a couple days. Lots of side trips from our base hotels, with many river cruises for critter viewings. And the coffee, O the coffee...
The best thing I did was kayaking on our off-day. I signed up for a trip through the hotel and went out with a couple from Southern California and a guide. The four of us paddled quietly through the tributaries looking for birds and crocodiles, it was very cool. No croc sightings --thankfully, I realized, after seeing this 15 foot croc the following day--but I loved being on the water and a (temporary) part of the ecosystem.
Turns out though that I'm really not the tour type. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I saw and heard things I never would have experienced off tour, but my feet itched with envy when the woman flying home in the next seat told me she and her husband spent 3 weeks hiking trails all around the country. I feel like I missed out on a great opportunity. Touring was too passive for me, I like the spontaniety of blazing my own trail and some of my best adventures (drinking wine with hobos on a French train; a tattoo in Kauai…) were things you can't plan out. I'd go back to Costa Rica in a minute, but either to go deep into a specific region on an eco-tour or on a self-guided hiking program. And I'd take a tour to see other countries where I'm not so comfortable travelling independently, but I'd go into it now looking for the opportunity to stretch my legs a bit.
The time away cleared my head and gave me space to reflect on some of the decisions coming up for me this year. It's the highest compliment to say that I came back feeling focused and refreshed, better connected to the environment and my world. I'm rested and ready to go.
Monday, January 14, 2013 at 10:43PM 
I finally figured out why I'm so giddy about today, my 50th birthday. I'm making up for my 40th and the subsequent decade of uncertainty. It's that fucking disease that turned my 40s inside out but I've come out the other side stronger.
I literally came down with Multiple Sclerosis for my 40th birthday. I was on Sanibel Island in Florida collecting shells with my best friend (her birthday is coincidentally the same day--happy birthday Pam). A couple days later I was hit with massive fatigue and I started seeing spots in my left eye. Three weeks later the spots were all I could see and the opthamologist referred me to a neurologist. 10 days of testing and a massive round of steroids confimed my diagnosis.
I had no idea what was going to happen to me, and I was terrified. MS is a progressive disease but each case is different. I was 20 when the first doctor suggested my random symptoms could be MS. It took another 20 years for a full manifestation, though in between there was the few months I couldn't get out of a chair using my legs and the ridiculous bouts of forgetting my co-workers names. And always, the underlying fatigue that had been misdiagnosed as depression.
Fatigue is insidious. Now that mine is under control I've been trying to unlearn a lifetime of coping strategies which mostly revolve around me withdrawing from human contact and throwing up roadblocks to protect my dwindling energy. The fatigue is what eliminated most of my potential, the dreams and opportunities I could have followed if I'd had just an ounce more energy. You can't understand if you haven't experienced it, it's like constantly treading water until your body refuses to move. Then you begin to sink. There were years (yes years) where I spent most my time sleeping on my couch, fatigue having defeated and destroyed any ambition or drive left in me.
So 50. I look back at where I was ten years ago and how fucking terrified I was of my unknown, disabled future. And here I am today, immensely grateful for the life I'm living. I'm still walking, though I have bouts of cane and walker assistance. The vision and cognitive problems I had early on have gone into remission. I'm still working at a pretty good job with a company that takes good care of me (and provides the cadillac of medical insurance which has afforded me excellent support). Most of my pre-diagnosis friends walked away when I was diagnosed (including my best birthday-sharing buddy) and I'm blessed now with new friends who accept me unconditionally and support me even when I'm cranky from occassional fatigue. I couldn't ask for more.
40 was dark and nebulous and out of control. I'm giddy over 50 because I can see who I am now, what I have, and the any number of directions I can choose to go now. Choice. My path isn't set for me and this birthday I'm giddy celebrating possibilities instead of limitations.