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Dear Friends:
Marlyn De Waard, who serves on the Board of Directors for the P. Buckley Moss Society, escaped the bone-chilling temperatures of Michigan and is spending a couple months in Florida. She came to my studio to see the painting I’m working on for the 2005 Junior Members Only Print. Like the adult Seasons of Love Series, the junior members are also getting a seasonal series. The 2005 print will be titled Fall Friends.
Fall Friends, a scarecrow and his family of cats, is the Junior Members Only Print for members renewing in 2005.
Some of the other paintings Pat has been working on. Bottom left is The Walk, which will be released as a print on March 5th when Pat will attend, as a guest of honor, a walk sponsored by Hy-Vee grocery stores to benefit juvenile diabetes research in Des Moines, Iowa. That same weekend Pat will appear at a show at Kenneth Paul Galleries.Marlyn and I went out to dinner and then saw the movie Phantom of the Opera, which we really enjoyed. Dinner and a movie provided just the break I needed—I’ve still been painting most of the time.
My museum staff has been having lots of fun in spite of the wintry weather in Virginia. They recently hosted a lock-in with a local Brownie Troop. Troop 337, comprised of first and second graders, apparently had an exciting experience at the Museum, according to Museum Administrator Bonnie Stump. Bonnie sent me a wonderful write-up on the lock-in, and I’ll reproduce it for you below:
“For some [of the girls], it was the first time they’d slept away from home. Others were veterans with many sleepovers to their credit. We had a pizza dinner, made sun catchers, and painted T-shirts. They also had a pajama tour. Their leader Connie Caldwell said she was surprised at how well they listened and stayed with me during the tour, since it was about 45 minutes to an hour long (a long time for little people!). The girls were really happy to see Pat’s Lifetime Member Certificate from the Girl Scouts (displayed on the Main Floor). They noticed it right away.
Members of Brownie Troop 337 and their leaders make sun catchers and paint T-shirts at the Museum.“Their favorite paintings in the Museum were the horse titled Free Spirit (a perfect example of Pat’s use of negative space) and the Yellow Crucifix. They were amazed at how the painting changes when you look at it close up and then at a distance.
Free Spirit was one of the children's favorite at the Museum.“The girls also counted the mice in the dollhouse. You should have seen their little faces light up when they walked down the stairs and saw this big dollhouse. Only one girl had ever been to the Museum, but she kept the dollhouse a secret so she wouldn’t ruin the surprise for the others.
“We cut off the lights [on the lower floors] and went back to the third floor for a snack. After the snack, the girls were in the bathroom brushing their teeth when the unthinkable happened—the lights all went off! Yes, we had a blackout! Apparently, there was a wreck of some kind about a block from the Museum and we lost power. A lot of little squeals erupted from the bathroom, but the emergency lights kicked in throughout the Museum so it wasn’t really too dark. However, there was no emergency lighting in the bathroom, and one little girl told Corrado [Museum Director Corrado Gabellieri] the next day that even though she was afraid of the dark the worst part was that she lost her ‘baby’ and it was the ‘baby’s’ first sleepover! This is the first time we ever had this kind of ‘emergency’ during a lock-in, but in true Girl Scout fashion they managed just fine. We all snuggled down into our sleeping bags and went to sleep, even though the lights came back on during the wee hours of the morning and disturbed everyone. The night was very, very short!
The Brownies hunt for the mice that live in the doll house at the Museum during their sleepover.“The next morning they had a little ceremony before they left the Museum. They invited Corrado to attend, and he told them he wouldn’t miss it. Apparently, there is a tradition that, if you lose something and it ends up in Lost and Found, you have to ‘do’ something to get it back. Two little girls had lost objects and were required to do the ‘chicken dance’ to get them back. Then the girls did two skits that represented the artwork they’d seen the night before. One was a roofless house, three trees, and a horse (all typical images in Pat’s iconography) and the other, a gaggle of geese (based on the silkscreen they’d seen hanging on the main floor).
“At last, they awarded Corrado a special ‘Lock-in’ Girl Scout patch, which he said he’d wear proudly. We made them certificates saying they’d survived the ‘Blackout’ of the 2005 Museum Lock-in.
“Their leader gave them a homework assignment to find out what their heritage is (they learned that Pat’s is Italian and Irish, and the troop leader used this as an example) and to bring a recipe to reflect that heritage to their next meeting. All stemming from the tour they took!”
Bonnie also told me that, like all the other Girl Scout Troops that have visited the Museum, these Brownies left the Museum cleaner than the way they found it! Girl Scouts are always welcome at the Museum!
Before I sign off, I’d like to ask everyone to say a prayer for Ginger Cloonan and my sister Mary Martin. Many of you know Ginger as the owner of The Country Framer in Libertyville, Illinois. She will be having surgery this week. My sister Mary was just released from a month’s stay in the hospital. They are both looking forward to going on the Society’s cruise to Hawaii in September, and I’m praying that they’ll be ready!
Until next week…
Love,
PatP.S. SOCIETY MEMBERS: The deadline to purchase the current Members Only Print (Seasons of Love, Summer for adults and Summer Celebration for juniors) is rapidly approaching. You must submit your redemption card to your local Moss dealer (or The Moss Portfolio if you do not have a local dealer) by February 18th.
The Moss
Portfolio
74 Poplar Grove Lane
Mathews, VA 23109
(800) 430-1320
©P. Buckley Moss 2004