20 Year Celebration

a sea of covers that i painted black then stenciled on

My art group celebrated it's 20th anniversary this month.  We celebrated our 10th with various members making items for us all to keep.  I wanted to do something like that too-but something that would stay together and not be "misplaced."  So I proposed a collaborative book and hunted down every person i could that was ever in our group.  Not all participated but those who did will have a book to treasure for the next 20 years.

 I can still remember the first meeting I went to.
Sitting in Maggie's living room with other like minded women I had never met.  A fledgling group.  No one really knew what to expect as "stamp groups" were a thing you only read about in RubberStampMadness back then.   None of us charter members had any idea that this would become such an integral part of our lives.
 20 years later we've been through birth, divorce, death, marriage, graduations-everything life could
throw at us and here we still are.  In twenty years of meeting once a month we have missed ONE month. That is 239 meetings.  That doesn't count the 'art days' or retreats or other get-together's we have had.  Who can forget "after the meeting's?"
Oprah had nothing on us!
We have laughed, we've cried, we've laughed until we cried, we've cheered for each other and said "what the hell were you thinking?"    My life would not be the same with out all of my art friends.     So here's to the next 20!

books with covers before the "20th" added

Patti contributed a few pages of photo memories for the book

a day that will live forever. GYUTAKU  only a few, myself included braved the awful smelling fish to do these paintings

The members who were able to attend our lunch~