Dropping Off My Piece Of Art

Last night I packaged up my work of art for its journey to Manteo, where the Molly Fearing Memorial Art Show is to be held at. Because Veronica and I had doctors appointments in Elizabeth City along with several other errands and stops along the way, we did not actually drop off the art piece until mid afternoon. I was worried the whole time we were driving around that something would happen to the piece and it would end up broken. But as I unpacked her inside the Dare County Arts Center at 300 Queen Elizabeth Avenue in downtown Manteo, I found her to to be unscathed and in perfect condition. I paid my $35 entrance fee and left Veronique (the name of my art piece) sitting quietly upon one of the display pedestals that were in the 2nd floor exhibit room.
Since is the first real piece of art of this caliber that I have ever made, along with the fact that this is my first showing in an art exhibit, I am excited to see what feedback I get on Veronique's public debut.
Here is the information about this art exhibit as written in the Outer Banks Entertainment section as seen on OBXEntertainment.com:

Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show Calls For Entries

The Dare County Arts Council has announced an open call for entries for the one of the Outer Banks’ favorite yearly exhibits, the 17th Annual Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show.

Dare County Arts Council announces a Call for Entry for the 17th Annual Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show. The annual “Mollies” features an eclectic mix of local and regional visual arts, which will be on display through the month of May. This year, we are very pleased to host this show at our newly renovated Dare Arts Center, located at 300 Queen Elizabeth Avenue downtown Manteo. 

The Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show is open to members of Dare County Arts Council and residents of Dare County age 18 and over. Cash awards are presented for Best in Show, Excellence Awards, and Honorable Mentions. Additionally, there is a People’s Choice Award selected during the opening reception. Entry fees are $25 for DCAC Members or $35 for nonmembers. Artwork drop-off will be at two locations on April 29 & 30, 10am – 5pm. Artists may drop off entries at either Studio 12 in Avon, or  DCAC in Manteo. The reception and awards ceremony will be Sunday, May 4, 2pm – 4pm at Dare County Arts Council, with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and live music. Exhibition Dates are May 4 – 31, 2014.

The judge for the 17th Annual MFMAS will be Michael H. Drought, the Director of the School of Art and Design at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Born in Illinois and raised in Wisconsin, he received his MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Drought’s paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

This show is held in memory of Mollie Fearing, one of the founders of the root organization from which DCAC arose. Mollie’s contributions to the community were numerous, from serving as mayor for the Town of Manteo, to serving on the board of the Roanoke Island Historical Association, to her dedication to the arts. Mollie’s legacy in our community remains strong to this day.

Gallery hours are 10am – 5pm, Monday through Friday, and noon – 4pm on Saturdays. The gallery is closed on Sundays.

More Of The Lightning Show From Last Nights Storms

Here are more videos from last night light show that stemmed from strong thunderstorms that came through our area.

Below is a "snapshot" obtained from above video

Last Nights Storm And Light Show

Last night we had bad storms come through our area. The lightning was non stop for quite a while and provided us with a real nice light show. I took a few videos of the lightning. The videos don't really do the lightning storm justice.

I took a "snapshot" from one pof the videos I took 

Below is a "snapshot" of a horizontal lightning strike taken from one of the videos I took

Preparing My Art Piece For A Show

I have spent the last couple of days adding finishing touches to my mixed media entry into the very first art show that I have ever shown in...the 17th Annual Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show. After dropping and setting up my art piece, it will be on display fro m May 4 - 31st at the
Dare County Arts Council  located in downtown Manteo. I call the piece Veronique...the French version of my wife's Veronica's name. Below are photos of my finished piece:

Made It Home Safe And Sound

After leaving the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area yesterday morning, we stopped in Hillsborough, NC for the evening. We got up early this morning and hit the road so that we could get home at a decent hour. We stopped off at the Post office to gather our load of mail that has collected there during our 1 week vacation and made it home around 11:15AM. Of course it took several hours to unpack the car, unpack our suitcases, put everything away including all of the extras that we brought home with us.  We had a great time on our vacation and the last 2 days were spent relaxing in our cabin. Now I will start to really focus on our next adventure....almost 2 weeks in France at the end of this upcoming October.
Below are some photos that were taken as we were leaving the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area and some really nice and colorful sunrise photos taken early this morning.

 These photos would have been so much clearer had they not been taken through the car window

Last Day Of Our Vacation

Today is the last day of our vacation. We were thinking about going to Dollywood today but decided not to. Instead we went out for breakfast this morning and came back to our cabin. Veronica relaxed and spent the day working on her art work.
I spent the day finishing preparing the photos and videos and uploading everything onto this blog. I took a few breaks and jumped into the hot tub a couple of times.
We went out for dinner and upon returning to our cabin I took several photos of the 2014 Pigeon Forge  Spring Rod Run. The main roads have been and continue to get packed with traffic as many vehicles have come into town for the Rod Run. Show cars are lined up on both sides of the highway. It really is amazing how large this Rod Run is.
I also took several assorted photos on the way back to the cabin.

This was part of the Christmas Place store

I apologize in advance fore the quality of some of the Rod Run photos...had some issues with the camera

This is one of those bungee chair rides...these folks were bouncing all over the place

Some sights from our travels in the area

This is a farm and animals get fed  in this area

I have never seen this before but it actually looks cool and it is up for rent. I wonder what room the trailer portion is

This was a ride that looked like it would be a lot of fun. It is an Alpine Coaster. You ride in this cart and get taken to the top of the "mountain" and then you get released. It looked like it had just opened up for business.