15 years of blogging -- 15 Gratitudes

Before the Dance

Acrylic on canvas

4'x6' 

Barbara Muir © 2008

(One of the many things I've learned

 in 15 years of blogging is how
to take better photos. But this
 is the original painting I put on
 my first blog.)

I started this blog 15 years ago today -- which seems completely
unreal.  It actually feels like yesterday.  My friend Flora Doehler
was blogging, and tried to get me into it, but I resisted. Thank 
goodness I did begin it on this day -- the blog has been huge in
my life!

Today's blog gratitude list

1.  Thank you Flora for suggesting that I start a blog. You were so right.

2. Thank you to my son Christopher for getting the blog
going, before he and his girlfriend (now wife) Megan went
to teach for a year in Korea.

3. Thank you to all of my blog friends, many of you remain
blog friends after all these years, and we meet on other social
media.  Plus I have met some of you in person, and it has
always been wonderful. And some of you I talk to
on the phone once a week if at all possible.

4. Thank you to Howard Wolinsky who saw my blog in
2008 and interviewed me on YouTube about blogging.  His
interview got me on the Oprah Winfrey show.

5. Thank you to Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz coach, who
calmed me down before I went on the Oprah Winfrey show
with excellent advice.

6. Thank you to Oprah Winfrey for letting me draw her
via Skype in 2009 live on her show, and changed my art life.

7. Thank you to the art collectors and galleries who have 
supported me along the way. Amazing.

8. Thank you to all of the artists out there blogging, using Instagram,
YouTube, TikTok and Facebook, for your exceptional art, excellent
ideas, and inspiration that has kept me going in the art world.

9. Thank you to the wonderful event organizers who have
found me through the blog and invited me to show in Florence,
Italy, Paris, France, New York City, Niagara Falls and
my home city of Toronto, Canada. You have made my art
life miraculous.

10. Thank you Alyson Stanfield for your wonderful book--
I'd Rather Be In The Studio for the book's excellent advice.

11. Thank you to the Don Valley Art Club in Toronto for
its weekly drawing group sessions, where I've loved 
painting and drawing with fellow artists on Tuesdays and getting 
material for my  blog. 

12.  Thank you to the Heliconian Club in Toronto for its
wonderful exhibition space, and for having me as a member.
My work will be in the second show this year -- Woman --
in March.

13. Thank you to the beautiful young women who posed
for the painting in my first blog, which you can see tonight.

14. Thank you to my early art teachers at OCAD who got me
working in a way that could make the art I wanted to create, and
to every in person, and online art teacher I've had since. You make
a huge difference.

15. And first not last thank you to my family -- My husband, immediate
family, and a wide group of people here in Toronto, across Canada,
and in the United States.