01/11/2026
So I have some amazing news to share only a few people know about. A few months ago an incredible opportunity dropped into my lap. My friend Liana, who works at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk (she was one of Gage’s teachers there) forwarded me an email she got from Rawls Museum Arts in Courtland about an upcoming art exhibit they were having in January. The show is called Renewal-The Art of Healing & is centered around people who have used art to heal with. They put out a call for artwork & Liana said I should submit some art.
I had one completed piece that I used in my ART+WRITE+HEAL workshop. You could submit up to five pieces so I got to work on several more. I submitted two mixed media pieces, one fiber arts piece & a literary piece in a frame from one of my early blog posts after Kenny died. Rawls emailed me the next week & told me all four pieces were accepted into the show.
To say I was over the moon happy is a gross understatement. It’s been a lifelong dream to have art I created hanging in a gallery & it’s finally happening at 59 years old. I took a decades long break from doing art as that part of me got put on the back burner while focusing on being a wife & mother. It’s taken me this long to get back to it.
I’m in a state of awe & gratitude over this opportunity & I want to shout that from the top of the mountain that I crawled my way up for so long in my grief journey after Kenny’s death. This opens a lot of doors for me & it’s going to change my life dramatically in ways that I never thought would happen.
I’ll be at the opening reception next Saturday, January 17 from 2-4 pm. The show runs till March 7. If you’d like to make the drive out to see some amazing art from many different artists please come! Rawls Museum Arts is located at 22376 Linden Street Courtland, VA 23837
