today is the day

I'm painting in front of people for the first time today... deep breaths.

I think I'm prepared... but being self taught and anxiety prone, I don't feel prepared.

I bought an easel at Michael's yesterday... not the fancy schmancy one I wanted of course (because it was $200) but the little tiny cheap one that cost me $7 (after using a 50% off coupon). I don't paint on an easel. Ever. I paint for such long periods of time that I don't want to stand. Plus I like to turn the canvas all different way while I'm paining and hold it at certain angles to get the right line or texture. So tonight should be interesting, to say the least. I may request a constant flow of wine to keep sooth, or shall I say, drown, my nerves.

So last night I went to the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts.

It's my favorite event in OKC and I patiently wait all year for it. It takes place at a lovely place downtown called the Myriad Gardens and has tons of art, food and music. My kind of place. We only stayed for about 3 hours last night and I wasn't able to see all the art... we did take some time to have vegetarian indian tacos and wrapped the night up with a suicide chocolate sundae....

the gardens have been under renovation for a year now and this is what they've done so far. I have mixed feelings. I had a lot of great memories of the old gardens and loved how it was hilly and full of trees and hidden walking paths... it made me forget I was downtown. Now they've taken down all the trees and shaped up the pond so it has cement around it... what kind of pond is surrounded by cement?!?! and now that the trees are gone, you have a clear view of the big tall buildings... not very garden like. But it's all fancy and modern now... it is what it is, I guess.
I'm going to include some before pictures and then the pictures from last night....

the old northwest view

love the turtles! and I didn't see any last night!

southeast view

south view

and here's the after......

northwest view

west side view of the gardens (it used to be a full of trees and turtles)

one of the stages

I love the water that runs alongside the walkways! (it's new)

crystal gardens (eastside facing west)

my favorite part... lots and lots of art

Ok well I'm off to do some last minute preparing... I'll take some pictures tonight to share with you all tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes (if I survive!)... hope you all have a wonderful day filled with sunshine (if so send it my way... it's been raining all morning!)