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Georgia O'Keefe quote "Flling a space in a beautiful way, that's what art means to me." As artists, as painters, we are constantly finding and challenging ourselves to create - to push the bar higher or simply in a new direction. That need to produce does not always come as easily as others may think. Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to express a feeling that continues to build from within but for some reason we can't easily let it out onto the canvas. But just as likely, we have moments or periods of time when we can't stop the flow of creativeness. Artists - we are a complicated bunch! I have finished packing my suitcase, I am catching a plane this afternoon and heading back to my tiny studio and gallery in mid-Missouri - home. I'm about to leave a place that has always filled me with creativity and an extremely strong sense of renewal -Santa Fe NM. I've been coming to SF since 1982, typically once or twice a year. On my first visit I was shocked at how easily I fell in love with the landscape; to say it was in total conflict to my beloved wooded hills and patchwork fields of the Midwest is an understatement and to Texas where I lived for 30+ years with it's grandiose scale. But love it I did - every soft blue-green bush, strong yellow yarrow plant or scraggly tree with purple to red bark jutting at odd angles from varied shades of green leaves. All this and more appeared as multi-colored outcroppings or dotted objects along the hillsides or even the breathtaking kaleidoscope of colors ascending in a mesa vista. I found my muse in Santa Fe. It revives me. It makes me want to paint. It makes me want to breathe. Do I paint New Mexico images? Very seldom. I live in Missouri and even though I use a website as a business tool, sales are limited there for such images. But that's fine, I'm adaptable, I'm an artist. No trip to SF is complete without a mental nod to Georgia O'Keefe, especially for female painters. Do I strive to paint like her? Not really. Do I love all of her paintings? Not really. But I respect and admire her desire and lifelong attempt to be just Georgia. Santa Fe and the surrounding NM area were her muse and that's where Georgia and I agree completely. She was fortunate to immerse herself here. It was her salvation. I hold tight to some of her personal quotes and the hope that someday, in the time I have left on this earth, that I too can wake up to the perfect mix of blue sky and live among the beautiful palette that surrounds one here on a day to day basis. But until that day I hold fast to one of her quotes: " Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."