Notes from a "Hanger-On"

Friday I was able to go to the opening of Salon International at the Greenhouse Gallery as the guest of my friend Susan Carlin. If you are in San Antonio, you should go to this show! It is almost 400 paintings--almost all of which are brilliant.

Here is Susan with the painting she entered in the show: "Gentleman Traveler. "

Anyway, I have spent the past several days  posting a poem a day on Facebook for National Poetry Month. It has been great submerging myself in the word. I've also had the opportunity to work several times at Susan's gallery, to purchase new music (and even to receive some as a gift--thanks Cheri), and to puchase new art (a painting by Bonnie Mann and a cup by Gary Rith). I love creativity. I love being around artists and supporting their work.

And it is important to support art, I think.

But Friday night, as I was being introduced to people as, "my friend Karen," I joked with another friend--the lovely artist Patty Cooper-- that I should be introduced as "a hanger-on," an "art groupie," a "sometime clerk" and "book keeper." I realize that I want to do more than that.

It is no longer enough to share other people's poetry. I need to write my own again. I need to sing. I need to create things of beauty (photos, jewelry, something). I want to be an artist--I want to think of myself as an artist.