Hello! and thank you for clicking on my Newsletter post,
2026 has been a year of slowing down, caring for myself, our family and our pets. We lost Roxy to cancer this summer, which broke our hearts.
But Ringo has always been a gentle, affectionate companion. We are so grateful for his love as we continue to miss his sister.
Also, Bob and I have been attending family sessions to learn how to support loved ones with addiction. I wish everyone could know what we now understand about this disease, which causes such suffering in families.
I plan to create some Zines to help this cause. Stay tuned…
I did not exhibit this year, other than a Spring Art Fair at The Bottle Shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where I offered my hand-painted notecards & prints. I have pulled back from the stress of doing exhibitions in recent years, preferring to focus on offering my artwork on my Etsy shop and GrantviewStudio.com.
But I may be more open to exhibiting again, because while participating at this venue I met interesting folks and had lots of fun demonstrating how to make zines; in some cases introducing children and adults to Zines for the first time!
This is what I’ve been doing a lot of in my studio these days: making tiny booklets, creating and playing for hours, oblivious to time passing.
Recently my sister, Rache, inspired me to learn how to write poems in the style of Haiku!
This is her latest ⟶ ⟶
about the tree Mom gave her – just a sprout from her garden in Peoria. It has made an heroic struggle to survive over the years in Rachel’s unforgiving but lovely Colorado landscape.
Mom’s red bud tree
Now upright strong
Heart shaped leaves
🌱
I stay connected with the “OddBall Artists” group via Facebook, Zoom and (on rare occasions) in person in Illinois. My colleagues began meeting on Sundays after we graduated from Northern Illinois University. Our bond was made strong by surviving our toughest professor, John Rooney, depicted in this framed compilation entitled “As Per Course Handout”.
Sometime before Professor Rooney died several of them, by chance, ran into him at a Chicago gallery reception. Decades had passed since college: marriages, children, divorces, life… They described to him that through all of that (in some cases, because of that) our group, his students, had stayed together and kept making art, individually and as a group. They told him how his influence enabled us to continue on with passion.
When Bruce and Mike tell this story, I love picturing the scene and how gratifying this must have been for Rooney to be told this in his old age. It would be nice if he could look down on this group that began with a few passionate souls and see how it has grown over the years to include others with the same need – a small community that supports each other in their creative endeavors. I’m so proud of them, and they continue to inspire me.
On most Saturday mornings the “Urban Sketchers” of Milwaukee meet at various places in the area to draw and paint. This is a group of devoted artists, kind and generous individuals that feed my soul. Also this group allows me to sketch out in public without feeling anxious – strength in numbers!
On October 24th, we attended the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration at Milwaukee’s Historic Forest Home Cemetery & Arboretum. I talked Bob into joining me for the festivities and to bring his camera. He captured many awesome and colorful photos, including this beautiful celebrant sitting on the curb. He held up his camera with a sort of, “May I…?” look in his eyes, and she smiled and posed for him!
Amazing!
And. . .
… how ‘bout dos Brewers!
After winning the most regular season games (103) in the National League, they swept the LA Dodgers in the League Championship series, then they went on to win 4 out of 5 games in the World Series with the American League Champions, the Tampa Bay Rays. 750,000+ fans came to their downtown Milwaukee parade on October 30. Go Brew Crew!
🥎⚾🥎🧢⚾🥎🧢⚾🥎🧢⚾🥎
We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving. Let’s continue to stay in touch!
Barbara & Bob Grant ~ ~ ~ Grantview@iCloud.com ~ ~ ~ StraddleTheTurtle.com ~ ~ ~ in tandem with GrantviewStudio.com
Important note to subscribers:
My last Newsletter was posted at the end of winter, December 31, 2025 to be exact. When I signed into my MailChimp account to compose this one, I was informed that I need to upgrade to send more than 250 emails at a time. Now that my mass mailings have dwindled to once a year, this doesn’t make sense. So I’m sending this with my personal email in small batches with hopes that it doesn’t end up in your spam! Going forward I plan to post Newsletters on my website and blog, StraddleTheTurtle.com, which is the trusty umbrella over all that I share online. I hope you find something to feed your soul there.
🙏
