Author: Denise Hopkins

Not Finished Yet.

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]   One step at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. One foot in front of the other. A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. Like children in the backseat of car, all these little cliches chimed in at once […]

I found zen in a garbage can

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] If you had happened to drive by house this morning, you would have seen me crawled inside an overturned garbage can muttering what felt like futile prayers to St. Anthony as I slowly removed, piece by piece, those lingering bits of trash that cling […]

“People are hard to hate close up”

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I’ve been really interested in faces lately, and I’ve been drawing/painting them… in my head. It doesn’t sound very productive, I know. Stay with me. I’m trying to see where colors are warm and where they are cool. Where the lightest values reveal themselves […]

Rainy Days and Virtual Lemonade

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] For months I had been creating work for the Big Easel outdoor art show in Lafayette, Louisiana. When a bride randomly emailed and asked me to paint at her Lafayette wedding the day before the show, I thought it was fate– Lafayette and I […]

Spring is like a perhaps hand

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps Hand in a […]

How to Price Art. How to Buy Art.

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” disabled=”off” disabled_on=”|off|” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] It never fails. I can tell someone the price of a painting, and, with a look of shock, they will walk away, whispering to a friend words like “outrageous.” Minutes later another person will say things like “reasonable” and “affordable.” Ever since […]

The Art of Patience

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] The Art of Patience My son’s school is learning a new word. When I chaperoned a field trip a couple of weeks ago, I saw it accompanied by a simple, straightforward definition on posters as I walked the halls to his classroom. Later that […]

Eliminate Distractions. Feed Focus.

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I’m not sure I’m the best person to write about how to eliminate distractions, but I have been working on it. One of my mom’s favorite stories about my childhood is this: She’d send me upstairs to my room for some purpose, and I’d […]

Pay the Bills, Feed the Soul

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I heard this story of a famous guitarist recently. When interviewed and asked what he liked to play “for fun” he replied, exasperated, “Fun? This is work!” Painting has felt a lot like work lately, but last week I had the opportunity to spend […]