​By mid-afternoon we’re all dressed up for getting married. Granddaughter Sophie says I’m “Fancy”. My groom, her new grandpère, she declares as “Handsome”. Her self she calls “Pretty” in her lacey ivory frock.
 
The rains cease, the skies are lightening. Our new, big old house is sparkling—bursting with love and art. Looking wedding-day-splendid, our guests arrive early enough to take the “grand home tour” before we’re off. Caravanning, David and I lead the way north to Avilla and the oldest registered farm in Jasper County.
 
Simon, Liko, Wayne and Susan have gone before us to place broad boards over the mud and puddles and around the paddies leading through iron cattle shoots and gates to Jan Stukey’s huge white barn.
 
David stands high up in the open loft door draped with Buddhist prayer flags dancing in the breeze. He raises his alabaster conch shell. Into the blue sky, above farmyard, treetops and fields, he blows his strong and steady call to our loved ones. Over planks and through gates they wind to climb a ladder one by one and sit on benches, hay bales and rockers.
 
The space is cavernous, dark and sacred. Rafter-high ancient hay creates the backdrop, illuminated by twinkling lights on graceful strands and tiny trees. Wayne plays his indigenous flute. Ed and David add their guitars as flower girl, Sophie, threads the serpentine path to the fence rail altar. She scatters her pink rose pedals in two massive handfuls, shakes her basket upside down then bends to rearrange and insure her scattering is just right.
 
Tapping the rim of our Tibetan prayer bowl, David sings me to him: “Oh my love, my darling, I’ve hungered for your touch a long, lonely time…I need your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me.”
 
Together we ring our prayer bowl lifting our joined hearts to the heavens. We speak our vows as our lifelong intentions to love, cherish and honor each other forever. Onto my heart’s finger David slips the family stone-studded band of our design exquisitely crafted by Garrett Baugher. On David’s finger I place the vintage gold ring worn by his grandmother for over fifty years of married bliss.
 
Our wishes do come true! The art of manifesting brings miracles. At 4:44 brilliant sunlight pours through the loft door catching the crystal heart left to David by his mother. Rainbow prisms spill over us all as Reverend Jan declares, “By the authority vested in me by the state of Missouri, I pronounce you husband and wife.”
 
With chicken scratch flying around us, old boots and tin cans bang beneath “Just Married” as, Jan, driving and honking her grandparents’ 1951 Chevy and sporty in her French gendarme chapeau, takes us for a spin around the section.
 
You’re invited to catch up and celebrate with us this coming Friday, June 2, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at artCentral’s Annual Membership Exhibition and picnic, underwritten by McCune-Brooks Healthcare Foundation.

​For the last two weeks we’ve been in full-on-get-ready-for-the-big-day mode, and for two weeks well-meaning friends have been asking, “What are you going to do about Saturday’s weather?” Following an extended stretch of fair and pleasant days and nights, the wedding weekend predictions are for heavy rains and severe storms. Not ideal for an outside-inside venue.
 
In spite of foreboding information shared with concern, David and I resolve to stay calm and focused, for we’re learning the art of manifesting. This tried and true practice teaches that the best way to attract what you want (fair weather) is to not worry about or agree to the unwanted, especially troublesome forecasts. We carry on as though the skies will kindly bless us when on our wedding day we climb a ladder to speak our vows before our loved ones.
 
Two days before our Saturday wedding, David cuts the grass. In spite of flight delays, my son and daughter and their families arrive on favorable winds. David’s sisters, Chris and Ginny, bake and deliver festive foods and beverages to be enjoyed at the after party in our new home. They decorate the dessert buffet for the European style cake constructed in tiers of tiny cupcakes.
 
Friday morning begins beneath heavily overcast skies. Ever-darkening, rain-laden clouds are rumbling and roiling. By the afternoon, as tornado sirens begin to blare, the radio’s weather man is shouting “Take cover immediately!” We go single file down the basement stairs. We sit in a family circle on folding chairs. Singing “Happy Birthday” we cheer as four-years-old granddaughter, Sophie, gleefully unwraps her gifts.
 
Steadily monsoon rains outside are pouring a deluge through a new found crack in our foundation. There’s comfort in watching the delight of this magical child, safe in our circumference, while rising waters creep ever closer.  Though the sump pump is struggling, the lights stay on. The sirens cease. We climb up the basement stairs to finish getting ready for our Saturday wedding when more storms are predicted…to be continued.
 

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​In the meantime, we’re appreciating artCentral’s exhibition pause, for David’s and my life is very full in this week leading to our Saturday nuptials. We’re twirling fast like dancing Sufi dervishes as we complete our move and set in order our new old house.

Most all the boxes are unpacked and delivered to the Crisis Center for recycling. The sliding envelope doors, made of vintage beveled glass inserts, framed Mondrian style with dark mahogany trim, are unjammed to slide gracefully between foyer and salon and spacious dining room.
 
Our art is now on our high-ceiled walls, up the stairwells and everywhere! Our Paradise is throbbing with creative energy.
 
Though our secret destination wedding and at-home after-party are to be simple family affairs, there are plenty of special day preparations to make before our east coast, west coast and Joplin/Lamar/Verona loved ones arrive and join in our festivities.
 
Our wedding invitation to them reads, “Gather to Caravan. Dress up, but leave your stilettoes at home and be ready to climb a ladder!”
 
This is going to be fun! Last weekend our Springfield friends, Wayne and Susan, came for a day to help us with our to-do list. Just a few weeks ago, when we decided to purchase Paradise, they spent a Saturday with us driving around and around this amazing sanctuary we now call home! How sweet to have them crossing our porch for their first official welcome to our beautiful heaven.
 
We give them the grand tour, then pile in Fanny to fetch pots of ivory, wedding calla lilies just arrived at the Botany Shop in Joplin. After a quick stop for cappuccinos and treats, we head for our secret destination, north past Kellogg Lake. Reverend Jan and her faithful friend, Scout, are waiting to greet us. Jan assists us as we decorate her venue with strings of Buddhist prayer flags, strands of twinkle lights and tiny twinkling trees. In the slanting rays of afternoon sunlight the space becomes a wedding-ready wonderland. We’re so very pleased!
 
Back in Carthage, we enjoy a Cave Gang patio pizza dinner with Wayne and Susan.  Saying our farewells, we’re happy knowing they’ll be back very soon helping us focus and settle after this sweet week of our twirling fast like dancing Sufi dervishes on our way to our wedding. 

when Larry calls from the road on his way from Colorado to visit his mother in Verona southeast of us. “I’m bringing two rugs for you. Are you home?” ​“Yes! Come right on. I’ll be waiting”, I reply giving him directions to our new house.
 
Rolled around giant pvc pipes and secured with twine, the two very large, very heavy Karastans are carried up our steps, across our porch and deposited in our dining room among chairs scattered helter skelter and randomly stacked boxes in various stages of unpacking. I’m extra eager for David to come home, so together we can admire our good fortune delivered with these treasures.
 
Coming to us as wedding gifts from David’s Aunt Martha, these beauties have been stored in Colorado after years of resting in Martha’s home beside the Los Alamos River. From the stories Aunt Martha told us during our recent visit with her, these are like the long, lush and richly patterned marriage she shared with Leroy, the love of her life. Leroy became enchanted with Martha when she was two.
 
After Martha and her siblings lost their mother, while their dad was at work, David’s father, Wally, looked after his brothers and little sister, Martha LaVern. Some days Wally would take them to play at Leroy’s house where home baked treats and loving hugs were abundant. Martha and Leroy (ten years older) were naturals together. When she went to school, he walked her home. Truly childhood sweethearts, walking down the aisle was their destiny.
 
Just as my David writes love songs for me, Leroy, a writer, wrote and published poems for his cherished, stunningly beautiful wife, Martha. He obviously adored her. She flourished in his attention. Their home was filled with love and respect and caring. I pray ours may be so blessed.
 
artCentral, at home in Hyde House, is certainly blessed with the generous caring given by lovers of art who’ve donated to artCentral’s Sustaining Fund during Give Carthage Day.  Thank you for your generosity.
 
See April and Lowell’s “Dad and Daughter: Dynamic Duo” at Hyde House, 1110 East Thirteenth in Carthage, during gallery hours through this concluding weekend ahead: Friday & Saturday 12:00-5:00, Sunday 1:00-5:00. The public is invited. Admission is free. Donations to receive the doorprize, Lowell’s and April’s collaborative painting, are welcome.

As director-curator of artCentral I invite you to join with me in this one-day online giving campaign put on by Community Foundation of the Ozarks and supported locally by Carthage Community Foundation

Online donations of $5 or more will help artCentral and an array of Carthage nonprofits to raise funds and to win additional matches and prizes. Throughout Tuesday, May 9, midnight to midnight, go to givecarthage.giveozarks.org and click on artCentral to enter your secure online donation.
 
Donations by cash or check may also be made in person on Tuesday, May 9, at Cherry’s Art Emporium on the Carthage Square from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. Mother Road Coffee is generously providing coffee and goodies at Cherry’s for individuals stopping by to make a donation to support artCentral and any of the participating nonprofit agencies.
 
From the desk of artCentral’s board of directors president, Jackie Boyer:
 
“For over thirty years, artCentral has served as our community’s non-profit arts center, committed to a mission to promote, exhibit, teach and foster the appreciation of fine arts.
 
artCentral fulfills this mission by: hosting artist receptions and exhibitions; sponsoring a two-week artCamp for children with over forty class choices taught by art professionals (with scholarships available); conducting classes and workshops; exhibiting artwork at three satellite galleries for community enjoyment; publishing a quarterly newsletter with information about art in our community; and hosting a Holiday Boutique featuring artist-created gifts.
 
On May 9, artCentral will be participating in the Give Carthage Day fundraiser sponsored by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Carthage Community Foundation.
 
artCentral is reaching out to you to help us meet our goal of raising $20,000 for our Sustaining Fund. With your help we continue to grow, strengthen and sustain artCentral’s presence and programs in our community.”
 
I join with Jackie and all of artCentral’s board of directors, members and artists in extending our appreciation for your generous Give Carthage Day participation.
 
Visit artCentral soon and see the outstanding art created by two of our cherished local artists, Lowell and April Davis. “Dad and Daughter: Dynamic Duo” continues at Hyde House, 1110 East Thirteenth in Carthage, during gallery hours through Sunday, May 14: Fridays and Saturdays 12:00-5:00, Sundays 1:00-5:00. All other days call (417)358-4404 to schedule a visit. The public is invited. Admission is free. Donations are welcome.