Working on the art gallery ...

Wow, what a day!  Things are really starting to happen – tomorrow Bethany (she lives in Medford and used to help us with the ministry in Lithia Park) is getting here to help with our business, to be my business partner – my brother is moving her up here and bringing me my stuff from moms.  I’ve been without all my art stuff for months!  We ended up getting 5 gallons of white paint real cheap at $12 a gallon from Metro Paints, through a place in Coos Bay – recycled paint, but it’s perfectly good.  The walls are finally covered.  We’ve been operating on a shoestring budget, like I’ve been telling everyone, and the shoestring is broke!  But God always ends up providing all that we need.  William got some gold paint which is too yellow, so he’s going to do a faux finish with some brown stain over it to tone it down.  We still need a second gallon of burgundy paint – that part still isn’t done mainly because last weekend was a terrible storm with lots of rain and it poured in from above the middle windows – we collected a ½ bucket of water from that!  Anyway, the outside got caulked yesterday, so William, once we can get the other burgundy, will finally paint that front wall and hope it doesn’t leak any more.

William painting the gold on the stairs

We’ve been in the Word a lot lately and boy has God been speaking!  We’ve been in Isaiah a lot (in the 50’s and 60’s), Habak. 3, Eccl. 2 & 5 – God’s timing is amazing.  We’ve had several prayer meetings here and are already getting a lot of positive support AND some opposition.   We have no fear since God has established this venture.  Anyway, today turned out different than I thought – several people have been coming by lately, intrigued by our upcoming opening and what I’m offering here (I’ve had signs out on my windows advertising several upcoming classes).  Kathy Cooper came by and we had an awesome talk about several things, including decorating.  She’s got several great ideas and wants to help.  We prayed together about some things.  Then Velma (I met her in Rotery club, which I’ve been attending every week) came in and brought a couple pieces of cake – she loves to bake and wants to help at our open house.  Anyway, her and I talked for well over an hour.  Seems like her and I have a lot in common.  She’s going in for surgery tomorrow, so I prayed for her.  A couple other people stopped by, asking about my upcoming classes, very excited by my opening soon.  Kathy the Mayor came by and introduced me to a friend of hers, and on and on it went.  Very busy day.

What’s especially cool, is that the local newspaper ran an article about what we are doing and I got a call from Barbara, whose husband is a sculptor – an awesome one at that!  She said that God let her to us and asked if we would like to see the sculpture she has at her place (she has dozens and dozens of pieces, from small soap stones to very large wooden ones (myrtle wood, curly maple, etc.).  We went there and were flabbergasted!  We took well over a dozen pieces in – some were extremely heavy!  God has really blessed us with our first artwork!!

A piece of alabaster sculpture

A piece of birdseye maple sculpture

I have a feeling things are going to go very well with this place – much faster progress with getting people in than I had in Fountain.  The other thing that’s helping is the weather – it’s been mostly sunny, in the 70’s and today was in the 80’s (except for that bout of rain over the weekend), for several weeks and looks to continue for the next week or so.  That brings a lot of people out and since this area is the hub of the town, a lot of people have wandered by!