Turns out I am not really a "blogger". Hmm, who knew?  The passage of 5+ years seems impossible but here we are.  I debated on whether or not to delete this page entirely from my website, or to attempt to update it. Obviously I'm updating it, FWIW.  

The good news is, I have been painting.  Some months or years more than others, of course, as is my pattern. For various reasons, my creativity sometimes falters or halts completely, depending on what's happening in my real world.  Sometimes the spirit/muse and I am unable to reach one another, and I cannot try to force the connection.  Many times I have tried with disastrous results. It has ever been thus.  The spark will return eventually and I am grateful.  Fellow creatives will understand all too well; I know you empathize.  

More good news:
-I have recently been experimenting* with new techniques.  And old techniques :-) For example: yesterday afternoon I created several small watercolors in a Zoom class exercise with Marie Natale and 6 other students.  It was such a relaxing class and has inspired me to do more.  Photo shows 2 examples.  It was a monochromatic exercise and I chose to use Sepia color;  we used credit cards, water spray, brushes... I had so much fun.
-Sometimes (especially lately) having FUN is the goal - it's enough - this is an important lesson I learn over and over.  
-I still enjoy painting with watercolor as much as I have since the beginning. 

When I locate and gather photos of interest (more recent work, or photos of stuff I haven't shared before) I'll upload them to various pages around the site.  

Thanks as always for being there for me.  Your support and friendship mean so much and some days you help by encouraging me to keep pressing on.  You are appreciated and I am grateful. 

xo

Maxie 

TL; DR If you are reading this blog entry, the new version of my website is up and functioning!   Many thanks to you, my friends and family, for all your support and encouragement through the years.   I am really looking forward to spending more time in the studio and being able to share photos of my latest projects with all of you. You have all made a difference in my life and I’m grateful for our continued connection.

Well, I am getting a bit ahead of myself here by writing my first blog entry to post to a website that is still in development!  Let us say it is more of a diary or journal entry, to remind myself of where I’ve been and where I am going. 

Although it has not been updated in many years, I’ve had my own domain name and website since the mid 1990’s.  In the early days, there were no companies that I knew of that produced websites for artists.  Well, if such existed, I could not find them. But I wanted to have a website, and I decided that I wanted to learn how to do it myself.  I went to New Horizons Computer Learning Center - a computer technical school - and took courses on HTML coding, CSS, Microsoft Front Page, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, MS Access Database Management, and a few other classes specific to web design.   Eventually I was able to design, code, and publish my own website. At around the same time, I also freelanced and produced and maintained small first-generation websites for businesses and for friends and family. For about 10 years I was able to update my website frequently, which was ideal since I was participating in art shows and exhibitions during that time.  The company hosting my website (and two of my client’s sites) needed to be changed several times for various reasons. In 2004 I signed on with LunarPages and was happy with them for many years (Host Papa acquired Lunar Pages in 2019). 

My website was originally created using Microsoft Front Page, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editing program, quite easy for IT novices like me to use.  Microsoft discontinued it in 2006.  The replacement web design products were way too expensive for me to consider, and quite frankly difficult to navigate as well (turns out both replacement products were also discontinued, in 2012).   Luckily, Lunar Pages continued to support sites published in Front Page for a while after it was discontinued, and I was still able to squeak by and refresh my site’s content...until I wasn't.

My site has needed a complete overhaul for some time, and finally I have more free time to do it. Thankfully, I have recently discovered FASO and their website templates are fabulous - just what I had in mind when I thought about redesigning my site.  I am excited to begin this project and have already started on my to-do list. My goal is to work on the site a few hours at a time.  Work continued with researching and choosing a template, editing my Artist Bio, and categorizing photos of my work.  It is important to be able to show my more recent work (I hope there has been some improvement – hah!)