3:30 a.m. Visitation (it's never my plan to rise this early)

davidtripp

Sep 23

Dawn view outside Suite 207, Redlands Hotel. Carnegie Library undergoing extensive renovation.

When the muse stirs and awakens me, I find it necessary to rise, no matter the hour, open my journal, and listen.

David Tripp

With the arrival of fall, I am sensing more than ever something fragrant in the air. Artistic souls in East Texas are stirred with new activity as the art season begins to revive. The Eyes of Texas Fine Art Gallery magazine is approaching deadline for the holiday season issue expected the first week in November. There has been a flurry of activity as this goes to press.

Next weekend, October 1, I will teach a watercolor class in the Redlands Hotel conference room from 12-2:00. The seats are already filling with a limit of sixteen participants. All materials are provided. Cost is $35, with students and seniors over the age of 55 discounted at $30. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. If you are interested, you must register through me and pay in advance. Credit cards are accepted. My phone is (817) 821-8702, or email dmtripp2000@yahoo.com. We will paint an 8 x 10" bison in bright Southwest Art colors.

The Edom Art Festival is fast approaching, October 8-9 from 10-5:00. This is one of my biggest festivals of the year, and they are marking their 50th anniversary with this one. If you have not yet attended one of these, you're in for a real treat. The festival nestles in rolling pasture land with rustic outbuildings serving as a headquarters. The town of Edom is little more than a crossroads, but people pour in from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, McKinney, Plano, Tyler, Palestine, Austin, Waxahachie--thousands of people flood the festival grounds to enjoy the art, food booths, and live music from two stages. My excitement grows as festival time nears.

And finally, I'm hoping this fall for the chance to visit art galleries scattered all over East Texas that I didn't know existed. Some of them are new, yet some have been in business for years. I'm also grateful to join recently the art family in neighboring Tyler, Texas. As I've said before, I'm eyeing this region as a "New Byzantium" much as the poet William Butler Yeats spoke of 6th century Constantinople under Justinian. Yeats wrote: ''in early Byzantium, maybe never before or since in recorded history, religious, aesthetic, and practical life were one.'' At this moment in our history, I'm enriched by the flurry of visual arts, live concerts and performance art that East Texas is experiencing.

Saturday evening, I'll attend the artists' reception for The Fall Art Exhibition at Lake Granbury Art Association. One of our gallery artists, Cecilia Bramhall, has had a painting accepted in the show, and I have as well. We're proud to represent the Palestine art circle as we participate in this event.

Thanks for reading.