It’s really here. This week, my member show at Bismarck Art & Galleries opens, and I’ve been looking forward to it for six months. Well, the leadup been mostly pleasant anticipation, but it’s also been mixed with a bit of apprehension, even a touch of outright terror: see, my new studio wasn’t finished until two weeks before my dropoff date. All I can say, and the other artists in the room will know what I mean when I say this, is yikes.

When we moved to our new home in March of 2025, a year ago, I anticipated having all my studio unpacked and set up in the new space by, oh, midsummer. Maybe August at the latest. There’s no space in the new house for real studio work, and since I didn’t think I’d need it, I left everything packed. I mean, where would I put the contents of a 1200 square-foot fully equipped studio? So I decided to make do with the odd corner here and there, the kitchen table, a little drawing table tucked into the spare bedroom. Little did I know that I’d be stuck in those little crannies until the following January, nearly a year to the day after we moved in.

All of my old work was packed. Canvases, frames, all of it. All of my supplies. Books, paper, sketchbooks. All the accoutrements of my recent obsession with textile arts: looms, weaving yarn, raw fleeces. The only thing I could readily lay hands on? Pencils. Pen and ink. Charcoal, even, once I broke down and took over a corner of the very crowded garage for my easel. Paper, I can always buy, so little by little, one slow stolen inch at a time…a drawing show emerged.

In the end, I’m really proud of this show. I’m not sure where my work will be going next- the new studio is now finished, in all its bright and new glory- so I’ll be giving myself some time this year to acclimate not only to the wild beauty and vast psychic space of North Dakota, but also to the wide-open possibilities of my own new space.

Meantime, I do hope folks enjoy the results of my year of enforced drawing. It was challenging in more ways than one, but I do believe it was good for me. Drawing truly is the best palette-cleanser, and I’m not sure I would’ve had the courage to spend an entire year doing it, otherwise.

The show will be up all month at Bismarck Art & Galleries Association in Bismarck. The opening reception is March 6, from 5 to 7 pm.