3 Months gone by fast!

It's not like nothing has happened since February's last post. Last Sunday I was Swing dancing in Indianapolis, a city I lived in for 25 years. Downtown looked both new and familiar as I have been away about 16 years. Enjoyed meeting old and new frends and eating some amazing smoke pork seasoned collards. I posted a lot of pictures on my facebook page, Tommy D Jenkins.

House and garden things kept me busy as I recovered from an early February surgery. I did the monthly Swing dances. Last month I was feeling good enough to take a one-week trip to Turin, Italy for Slow Town Blues festival. The music and dancing were both amazing. Star Hotels Majestic lived up to its name and I enjoyed walking about this lovely center section of the city. Also see my FB page for pics.

Coincidentally I also posted a lot of older art on my new FB artist's page: tommyj.art. I don't recommend it. I can't find anything there for the countless advertisements. I photograped and added the Fragments gallery to this website.

I continued my open figure drawing sessions at Sawtooth School, but now I'm looking for a new figure model as they have stopped their sessions.

I have a couple of long weekend domestic trips planned for July (dance) and August (family). And in mid-September, I'll be going to Europe again. The first weekend I'll be dancing in Bern, Swizerland. The third weekend I'll be dancing in La Garriga, Spain. The middle weekend I'll be showing three of my more recent pastel paintings in Monaco's circus pavilion. There's was a lot of work getting ready for that event entry. Fortunately I'm better with the photography now. I plan to replace all the photos in the Recent Drawings gallery with new ones.

This month I plan to address here the questions abstract artists face. Can you draw/paint realistic images? If so, why don't you? And more important, what makes your work valid?