Finding Inspiration at the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

Wow, it’s really hard to stay on track when life throws you curveballs!   Metaphorically speaking, I’ve been off my game the last few weeks.  Among other things, my youngest spent five days in the hospital with a skin infection and allergic reactions to antibiotics. Needless to say, I spent the week fretting over him, sleeping on a foldout hospital chair, and arguing with doctors.  I could write a whole blog of advice on how to advocate for your child in the hospital, but I’ll cut to the chase:  If you can go straight to a specialist, do that!  The pediatricians didn’t know what to do with my son, and it took a few days and transferring to another hospital to see the specialists who knew how to treat him.  If I had taken him directly to a dermatologist’s office instead of to the emergency room, chances are we would have greatly shortened the hospital stay or avoided it altogether.

After being so strong in the hospital, I promptly fell apart as soon as we got home – migraines, back spasms, etc. – and spent the better part of the following week in bed.  By this past weekend, it had been two weeks since I painted, felted, blogged or exercised. (Have I mentioned I’m an exercise fanatic and that it keeps me sane?)  I needed to turn things around and get back to doing the things that make me feel good.  Luckily, it was Mother's Day weekend, and I could get the family to do something artsy with me without too much complaining.  So we headed to the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival for some fresh air and inspiration.   And it seems to have done the trick.  I spent all day yesterday needle-felting and remembered how therapeutic it can be to poke soft, colorful wool with a barbed needle.  I even managed to do a little photo shoot, even though that's not my favorite thing to do.  And here I am today – writing again. :-)

Here are a few examples of the wonderful work by the talented and inspiring artists we saw this weekend:

I absolutely flipped over this table by Douglas Durkee of Infinity Furnishings!

Tanya Tyree's Raku sculptures are so beautiful!

The black and white photography of Chris Coffey is simply breathtaking.
My husband has a few of these on his Father's Day wish list.

We actually bought some beautiful photography by Edward Holland and Mark MacKinnon. I'll share those too once I get them up and take some photos myself.  Thanks for looking!