Show Schedule for 2026

May 1-3, Brookside Art Annual, Kansas City, MO

June 13-14, Old Town Art Fair, Chicago, IL

July 3-5, Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, CO

July 16-18, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original, Ann Arbor, MI

Labor Day Weekend, Show at the Farm, Fredonia, WI

Oct 2-4, St. James Court Art Show, Louisville, KY

                     

Changing Gears

Hartford, Wisconsin

On December 14, 2025, St. Mary of the Hill Parish held its' dedication Mass. I was thrilled to be there and witness the rich ceremony and enthusiasm of the congregation as it moved into a new home. 8 weeks prior, I had begun working on the mural pictured here. I know it's not what you normally see from me but portrait painting and murals are part of my artistic history.

I relished working on a large scale and with oils instead of miniature watercolor paintings. The bold colors came right away and the brushstrokes were immediate. Once again, I was romanced by oils: which I used to paint with all the time. I had assumed there would be a learning curve but it flowed out of me pretty naturally. Maybe it was the tight deadline, maybe because I knew the clients could see my daily progress, but the mural came together much smoother than I thought. All of this leads me to think that oils will resurface again in my work. I did not go and put them back into storage. Instead, I put them neatly in my studio so I can easily access them if and when the time comes. I do feel pulled more and more to paint people again and I wonder how it will be different that how I left off. 

I loved being in the Catholic world of the church. I grew up Catholic but had fallen away. You've, no doubt, heard this narrative before. But I love ritual, the history of religious art, the tactile quality religious spaces, artifacts, all of it. Catholics love their 'things' and so do I. Luckily for me, the relics of St. Therese  of Lisieux were on a world tour and I got to attend Mass with them. I forgot to bring something to get blessed, so I held up my winter hat to the reliquary. St. Therese is one of the saints that I painted in the mural, so it was an all-enveloping experience.

 

Last show of the year. St. James Court Art Show. Oct 3-5

 

Oct. 2, 2025.

We set up our booths at our final art fair today on St James Court in Louisville Kentucky. There is a large curb right in front of my booth because the street was once occupied by horse and buggy. It was easier to get out onto the side walk that way. Behind our booths is the historic Conrad House that is open for tours with their mimosa bar out front (very dangerous to one sitting all day just 20 feet away)

My late summer booth often features paintings I’ve done of our garden’s harvest. People here must think that I paint tomatoes all year long, just like how my June shows always feature fern fronds and violets. My  subjects come in waves that follow the season. 

At home, our kitchen is smothered in tomatoes and peppers. Nightly, I chop, roast, freeze and can the veggies. Tomato juice and seeds splatter and drip down the counter and our dog licks the floor around my feet. Together, we do a dance that signals the height of garden season.

It is difficult because it all comes to a crescendo at the same time; the garden and our art fair season.  And then it just ends. All there is to do is clean up the mess, which is no fun. I’m tired from keeping all the fires burning at once, that is true but it is sad when the music stops. 

So, come down to Louisville and buy me a mimosa while the band is still playing!

Up next, Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair and thank you Ann Arbor

 

Oy. I totally missed posting about the Ann Arbor Art Fair! It has come and gone. Shame on me because it was the most successful art fair I ever had. The folks that come to that show and support me are the most loyal crew. As the years go by, we grow a little further into each other’s lives. I am so touched. The connections that are made are better than sales, really. The individuals that annually come through my booth feel like characters in a well rehearsed play. Every year we add more thorough and thoughtful lines. When I don’t see them, I am concerned. And new players are always welcomed.

Up next is the Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair on Saturday, August 9. 9am to 6pm More info

Next Show: Des Moines Arts Festival. June 27-29

 

Summer is speeding by……. which is too bad.

We will be at the Des Moines Arts Festival. 

Booths LS18 and LS19.

June 27-29

Visit Site for Details

First Show of the Year, Brookside Art Annual

 May 2-4, we will be set up in the heart of Kansas City at the Brookside Art Annual. 

The winter was long and harsh, for many reasons. Now spring blew in and brown gives into green. All the cliches are right. Life has been renewed, l have thawed. It feels wonderful. It’s a real shame that the world outside of the flowering garden has to be so unstable. 

Every artist I know is worried about selling their work in this political and economical climate. We are no exception. I am sticking strong to my values of making quality, personal, sensitive paintings no matter what happens. If people have the means support art, I want them to know that I do my best to be self sustaining and community minded. We grow our own food, use recycled wood for frames and give back to the land with a 15 acre pollinator habitat prairie.

Thank you for doing your best and helping me do mine.

I promise I will update my Available Works page soon.

Grief and painting.

      I've been gone, in a way....figuring out how things work without my mom. She died on November 9, in the hospital. Yet, it was sudden and without much build up. It was a death I'd been bracing for, on and off, over the years. Of course, the hit came just before the holidays of family gatherings, followed by the bleak solitude of a Wisconsin winter. There wasn't much to cushion the impact.

    I dipped in and out of my studio. It was disheveled from the last fall's final push of the art fair season. Everything was in heaps. My head could not handle the chaos and my body was too exhausted to restore its' order. I hurt. On top of that, we had my mom's apartment to empty. Painting had to wait for me to catch up.  I had tried to paint right away. I felt pressure to encapsulate my fresh grief. However, the attempt was overthought and lame. Then came the numbness. I'd push paint and water around on the surface of my paper but it was without passion, only something to prove that I was being productive.

    Slowly, I began noticing pockets of clarity and genuine patience. For me, winter is a time to paint bones, feathers, nests, eggs and other such static subjects. But these things seemed too stagnant. They just lay there. Then, I got a blue jay. A friend had given it to me, after they found it newly dead. It was so perfect and undamaged and this allowed me to position it any which way. Unlike the other things, this bird had vitality, depth and soul.... even though it was perfectly not at all alive. 

    Touching the blue jay, combing back its' feathers reminded me of my mom. I was gentle with it like I was with her.  My mom's body was her enemy and she fought it hard for a long time. I was one of her back ups. I caught her as she stumbled, helped guide her arms into and out of coats, scooped her off of the floor, hitched up her socks, her pants, fixed make up, buckled her in. I examined her arthritic knuckles to see if the swelling had gone up or down. My mother's hands made me nervous, because one day, they might be mine and they looked like trouble. I'd do the mental math to guess at how many more years of competent brush holding I have left on the timer. "Don't dawdle." I thought. "Get to work."

    The paintings are starting to come together again. It has been slow but productive. I am searching more, planning less, and letting things reveal themselves. I ask for patience and will not be posting much available work because I can't handle the pressure of making a product right now. 

Favorite Paintings of 2024

A year goes by too quickly to post all of my paintings as they come into being. I often frame, hang, and sell them with out giving them a spotlight on my website. So, here is a small collection of my personal favorites from 2024 that you may not have seen. They are sold and hopefully loved.

Tracing Back to the Roots

Nothing Stays the Same

Let it Begin

White Bass Run

The Last Bite

 

A Full and Furious Spring

Suspended Harvest

Spare Parts

 Art Fair Schedule, June-August 2024

Old Town Art Fair, Chicago IL, June 8-9

Lakefront Festival of the Arts, Milwaukee WI, June 14-16

Des Moines Arts Festival, Des Moines IA, June 28-30

Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original, Ann Arbor MI, July 18-20

Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair, Charlevoix MI, August 10

Snooooooowed In

 

The farm is layered in roughly three feet of snow. There's not much to do but eat, sleep, drink, eat, play records and paint. Under the snow, our 15 acres hold new prairie seeds that are sleeping too. Soon enough, they will start their next phase of life and I'll have a lot more to paint. New things are happening. This is the time when I start the new crop of large work. It can be a tedious time strung together by many a late night in the winter darkness.  So, reach out and see what's heating up. 

Happy New Year.

Last Show, Louisville Kentucky

 Okay, here it comes.... 

The last Art Fair of the Year! St. James in Louisville Kentucky, Oct 6-8. Booth 209.

When people ask how this year has been, I always pause. At first I think of all the loss we experienced during the first part of the year, and then I think of all the positive things that have happened as we try to move on. Then I realize that I have been taking too long to answer. The person inquiring gives me a look of concern and I have to decide how much to actually say. It's different every time.

But

Things are better. The shows have gone great. Everyone seems so supportive and I feel like I've grown especially close to some really extraordinary people in my life. The farm is coming along. The barns are now yellow and our first prairie plants have begun to flower. Also, I have buckets of sweet peppers coming out of the garden. Things are good.

Also, we are now on Instagram @paintingisdeadgallery

Moving On

 This spring has been like no other. Our poor family suffered a lot a pain after loosing a few key members who were the heart and steadying forces of the Fletcher Family. For weeks, we stopped painting to give ourselves completely to Andy's mom, who came home for hospice care. She passed on Easter and shortly after that we lost our brother in law in the most tragic way. Andy and I hadn't been in our studios for the longest time. But in late April, we returned to settle in and get ready for the summer show season. When you see us, we will look a little ragged, I am sure. So be patient and gentle - we are doing our best. 

For my part, I will have less work but it's been made with the same about of love, curiosity and strength.

Also, we are now on *sigh* Instagram under Painting Is Dead Gallery

We have a hectic Art Festival Schedule:

Old Town Art Fair, Chicago. June 10-11 website

Lakefront Festival of Art, Milwaukee WI. June 16-18 website

Des Moines Art Festival, Des Moines IA. June 23-25 website

Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original, Ann Arbor MI. July 20-22 website

Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair, Charlevoix MI. August 12 website

Plaza Art Fair, Kansas City, MO. Sept website

St. James Court Art Show, Louisville KY, Oct 6-8 website

Show at Tory Folliard Gallery Opens March 4th, Milwaukee Wisconsin

The last time we showed at Tory Folliard Gallery was in February of 2020. Then the world shut down, so it's awfully good to be back with a new perspective and new work. Andy Fletcher and I will have side by side solo shows. The opening is Saturday, March 4th, 1-4pm. Details below.

Visit Tory Folliard Gallery Website

For Her Pleasure

Unfair Advantage

No Matter What the Consequences

 

End of the Year

    Well folks, here is my end of the year round up. We had the most hectic and successful year to date. In 2020, we swore that we would never return to our overwhelming schedule. We had tasted solitude and liked it. Balance became the word we worshiped. 

    And then 2022's ambitions kicked us into high gear and our good intentions faded away. Now, Andy and I are writing a book, and the art festivals were bonkers. People wanted new work. Our barns are getting redone, the prairie restoration will start, the days fill up so fast. 

    Our spirits were dampened when we lost Andy's grandma, Lenore in August. They were as close as could be, talking every day. She added a depth to our lives that only a loving, wise yet humble 90+ year German Lutheran could. We spent every holiday with her. I was privileged to cook in her kitchen. I had to pass many a test to gain proper entry. She had designed it approx 79 years ago and had been living alone since the mid 1960's. So it was HER kitchen. But in the last few years, I cooked huge special meals in it, using her 75 year old gas stove while she perched on her red chair and watched. I even made a giant steamed steak and kidney pudding in some of her stoneware. One of my favorite memories is passing her the mixing bowl to lick after I made some brownies. I snapped a picture of her puffy white hair tucked into the bowls opening. She looked like a kid.

 

    Below are some of my favorite pieces that I created over the last 12 months. 

'Sins Not Yet Forgiven' was made for the Birds in Art show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson  Art Museum in Wausau Wisconsin. I made it to reflect the division in our country due to the fact that we are so dug into our positions. It was the first time I wrote a very direct and passionate artist statement to accompany a painting and it felt AMAZING.
Here it is: 

"Don’t you think now would be a good time to admit that perhaps you were wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness? After all, can you honestly say that you played no part in just how strange things have become? Not even a small one? Pride gets in the way of so many potentially meaningful moments. We cling to the thinnest threads of it to keep from admitting our mistakes, lest we open ourselves up to criticism; Criticism that would force us to actually contemplate making a change. But a change is needed because this can’t keep happening over and over and over. It may only get worse. Everyone must agree to lay their swords down on the ground and back away slowly at roughly the same time. Only then can we look one another in the eye, take a breath and start over. Maybe you should consider going first."

I had to shoot a few pigeons this year. They refused, REFUSED to leave the barn once it was repaired. I tried everything to make them miserable first so that they would leave on their own accord, but 3 were too stubborn. Let it be known I am a terrible marksman and put many a pellet in the tall timbers of our barn. Here is one of them, right on my table. That's how the sausage is made folks. I've never shot anything before this. Actually I planned on eating it but after painting it for hours, took a pass.

I just loved this composition. I finished it on Easter and  titled it so. Death and rebirth are so real in it. The church uses butterflies as a symbol of Christ emerging from the tomb. It's sold.

This one is called 'Butt-first, the news'. I was listening to NPR when the top of the hour news came around. They actually said, "But first, the news" and I laughed so hard. Meanwhile I had these little mice already painted with no idea of where to take the piece. Then it all clicked into place. I remember holding up in front of my face when Andy walked into my studio and saying "Butt-first, the NEWS!", in my best radio voice and thinking how hilarious I was. It's sold.

'Making a Wish'. Some of my favorite paintings are struggles. They start with one idea and then come to a dead end. For this one, I found the duck head by the Mississippi River. An eagle had eaten most of it. Just the head and wings clung to the skeletal frame. I took a hedge clippers and cut through the neck. I had the head laid out on my painting table at the cabin when our neighbor, Big Dave, came by to check in. He didn't even blink an eye at the grotesque scene. Of course, the viewer sees none of this. What is left is a peaceful looking duck. I strung along the Scilla blooms like thought bubbles, melodies, secrets and then wishes - the invisible made visible.

'The Annual Vole' Every year I get one lone vole at the cabin. It always winds up in a mouse trap in December. Why only one? I didn't sell this painting until nearly the last show. I was rooting for it the whole time, it's so quirky.

'Owl Dream' I worked on this painting for nearly three years and sold it at the first art show of the year to a woman who just bought a house. She didn't have a stick of furniture but had to get this painting to go above the mantel. I was so incredibly touched and sad. I was hoping to show a lot more people this piece. I told her I'd write her a letter explaining the whole behind the scenes story on it and I still haven't done it yet. It weighs on me. I will. I promise. I'm a good letter writer.

This is a sneak peak of something in the works..................

And Finally, our granary is getting insulated and resided. It is at least 120 years old and is super solid. We hope to make it an apartment/crash pad/ spare studio.... maybe for future students.

One more picture of our Lenore wearing a hat that Andy got her.
'Under this hat is one hellava Grandma'