the Y’s locker room, I quickly gather references for physicians and a dentist. All are excellent choices.

Leaving my first dental appointment in Carthage, I notice a small limestone church across the street. With time to spare before I’m due at my next destination, I decide to try the gothic scarlet doors on the chance they’re unlocked. They are.

I wander in to find rainbow prisms of light dancing over the walls of the vestibule and throughout the sanctuary, too, for brilliant sunshine is flowing through the stained glass windows, leaded with exquisite skill to celebrate biblical motifs and those of the region’s native prairies.

I’m venturing into a wonderland of worship where the air tells of incense and liturgy in a setting of lifted prayers seasoned with reverence and awe. I am transfixed and enfolded by wonderment—a foretelling of the joy and love I discover among the parishioners of Grace Episcopal Church, the many good people who fill the well-waxed pews.

Becoming a part of this community is among the greatest and best of my Carthage beginnings. Included in Grace’s evening outings to Marion Days, I learn of the favored tents for dining. With figs plucked from the labyrinth’s garden, I garnish many of my meals. Snacking and sharing stories with Friends Anonymous, my heart is opened and filled with encouragement and affirmation.

For an Encore Lunch, Father Steve Wilson invites me to share my travels—from Arkansas to NYC to the wilderness, a mountaintop and then Carthage. Father Ted Estes helps me with the logistics of projecting images to illustrate my talk about painting my way through my journey I call “The Beauty of Change”. I enjoy exhibiting my art here and for the Olde World Christmas Market and as a commissioned painting for the chapel with a companion painting still to come.

I’m delighted with the number of artists I discover at Grace Church—souls using their talents to express and celebrate the inspiration and pleasure they find in the diverse dimensions of our wondrous world. I know with all my being, their art-making must be shared. The time is now!
 
This Friday, 6-8 pm, November 4, in the galleries of artCentral’s beautiful Hyde House, more than two dozen Grace parish creatives will be celebrated at the Opening Reception for “Artists of Grace”.  The public is invited. Admission is free. Donations are welcome. Information: (417) 358-4404.

Like every other space in this place I call Paradise, there’s art all about—hanging on the side of my beau’s framing shed and as fallen limbs he’s stacked like sculpture in the fire pit waiting for the first bonfire as this season grows more chill with every evening.

​The gloriously overgrown back fence—haphazardly dressed with wild vegetation and the last of summer’s deep purple morning glories—is thickly lined with an assortment of native textured trunks topped with colorful leafy canopies. A favorite among these I call the “candle tree”, for the top branches all grow straight up like candle adornments ready to celebrate a birthday.

Beyond the “candle tree” and the festooned fence, a pasture stretches to a far distant gnarled apple orchard that welcomes our arrival at the old churchyard cemetery.  We like to visit the community’s history laid to rest here, especially at this time of All Hallows’ Day dedicated to remembering the saints (the “hallows”) and all departed.

Recently, in a nearby town, we attended a memorial service for hallowed Pat, a beloved elder remembered by many.  Mother to a musician and nurturer to all his music-making friends, Pat was sent over with the singing of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” accompanied by strings and drums and keyboard. As tears flowed the air was light with laughter, remembering happy times before Pat was laid to rest in her special place.

There are many hallows remembered and laid to rest in our churchyard cemetery beyond Paradise. Here aged grave stones are beautifully etched. Many are so weathered their words are fading but still telling of their saints long passed—infants and children leaving too early, as well as beloved spouses gone over, some nearly together and others decades apart.

The old markers, scattered across the drying grass look like random miniature stanchions blown by time to leaning and tilting, some even falling over.  In the midst of this quasi-ordered chaos, a massive limestone rectangle supports a monumental slab topped with a few lichen-encrusted stones gathered, reverently lifted and placed like offerings to be cherished.

Together, grand and small, these make an altar as massive, semi-abstract and forever as a Henry Moore stone sculpture drawing an analogy between human bodies and the landscape that supports them—reminding us that from this earth we are brought forth and to this earth we shall return, while hallowed seasons come and go and celebrate the art of going over.
​

For a wonderland of artist created gift items, artCentral’s second annual Hyde House Holiday Boutique—the ultimate shopping venue—is in the making for your pleasure and delight. Mark your calendar for December 1st, 2nd and 3rd and plan to visit our elegant setting filled with beauty, inspiration and pocket-friendly presents for everyone on your list. Admission is free for all three Holiday Boutique days. As always, donations to artCentral are welcome and greatly appreciated.

Featured again this year, in addition to artCentral artist creations, are artCentral’s signature potted and bowed scarlet amaryllis, planted to bloom at the peak of the holiday festivities. Each modestly priced amaryllis in this limited edition is presented in a sparkling gold container. Perfect for your own home, these beauties make perfect gifts for friends, family and business associates, as well. Reserve several and prepay by calling (417) 358-4404 in advance of the Boutique.
 
New this year is artCentral’s Holiday Boutique Silent Auction featuring 4x4 canvases created and donated by artCentral artists. Visit the Auction early to select your favorites and make your initial bids. The Silent Auction will continue until 3:30 pm on Saturday, December 3rd. Last minute bids may be phoned in to (417) 358-4404. All fund-raising proceeds will go toward artCentral’s continuing work on behalf of art and artists.
 
December 1, Thursday, 5-8 pm, is the Holiday Boutique Preview, Silent Auction launch and your first shopping opportunity.
 
December 2, Friday afternoon and evening, 3-8 pm, your shopping and Silent Auction bidding times continue.
 
December 3, Saturday, 9 am - 4 pm, is morning and afternoon shopping with the Silent Auction bidding concluding at 3:30 pm.

Behind the Holiday Boutique scene the call for artists is happening now!

Our first night’s welcome meal is a late dinner at Habaneros on Central.  In spite of our just-before-closing arrival, the service is impeccable. Our perfectly presented selections are satisfyingly pleasing, especially the à-la-table fresh guacamole, served in family portion crockery.  

​Next evening, a drive to Lamar brings us to our eating adventure at Cap’s Cabin fish shack where the nautical décor is enhanced with art featuring pigs, steers and chickens suggesting menu items in addition to the fish offerings we favor.  This intimate local venue is tiny and fills up fast. Perhaps as the Cabin’s first ever reservation, we are wise to request a table for five at six. We delight in bread-bowled tomato bisque followed by brimming baskets of lightly battered and fried flounder, clam strips and onion rings passed around with sides of tasty slaw, okra, garlic-parmesan fries and hushpuppies. We complete the evening just a few blocks away on the porch of a home called “Paradise”, rocking, visiting and indulging in dark chocolate laced with chips of espresso beans.
 
Friday night’s Opening Reception is definitely the height of our community culinary samplings. Over autumnal-toned gossamer cloths trimmed in velvet, the table is lavished with magnolia leaves and lotus blossoms assembled by artCentral’s Prepitor, David Matthews. Judy Goff’s delightful salmon paté in wonton wrappers accompanies David’s East-West catered creations of cream cheese and peanut butter filled sweet peppers, Asian taquitos and water chestnut rumaki. For a sweet finish, Lora Waring’s too-good-to-be-true cookies pair perfectly with David’s pecan bedecked pull-apart monkey bread.
 
The final evening of Mr. Lee’s Carthage stay is special, for together we celebrate his ninety-seventh birthday beginning with oven-baked pies at Cave Gang Pizza & Pub on Garrison followed by an outing to Red Oak II for Saturday night downhome gospel picking and singing. The tiny church is filled with flickering shadows and the glowing golden light of kerosene lanterns lit to dispel the darkness of a random power outage.
 
Accompanied by a plethora of instruments, celebratory voices sing “Happy Birthday” as celebrity guest Mr. Lee stands holding a large piece of potluck chocolate cake topped with lighted candles, shaped as 9 and 7, illuminating his face radiant with joy for yet another year and the pleasure of having his beloved art on the walls of Hyde House.
 
Mr. Lee’s “East Meets West” exhibition continues at artCentral through October 23rd.

We exchange gifts of our own creation. I give one of my heart-full images. Mr. Lee presents me with a white porcelain vase, painted with his delicate lotus blossoms and set on a scrolled and lacquered wooden base.

Both of us being artists, we have an easy, instant rapport. As we celebrate the blending of our families over the weekend’s festivities, we visit and enjoy Chinese order-in and elegant wedding meals. Our sweet beginning friendship deepens with each conversation.
 
Since our first meeting, Mr. Lee and I have continued to exchange gifts and appreciate family meals both in Seattle and in Carthage, too. During a recent Carthage holiday, Mr. Lee introduced me to a tradition he’s long explored with his eastern friends. As our feast was cleared, we brought paper, paints and brushes to the table to begin our progressive painting. Taking turns, we each added our interpretation to the strokes made by the other, until an expansive landscape appeared with a foreground tree of many branches and flowing roots mutually conceived by our complimentary artistic visions.
 
Visionary Mr. Lee, sharing a family home with Simon and Liko, first in Ottawa and now in Seattle, has the perfect set up—a full floor and living quarters to himself includes a spacious, light-filled studio where he paints and creates without interruption. His days begin with his personal Qigong practice and a brisk walk followed by his first studio session of the morning.
 
Evenings that are not full with Seattle art community activities, include dinner with Liko and Simon. Fortunate for all, Liko is a superb gourmet even when concocting her famous “Whatever Soup” named for the act of opening the refrigerator door and selecting randomly from whatever ingredients are on hand, often an east meets west medley.
 
I’ve enjoyed many Seattle family visits with memorable highlights including kissing the giant troll under the Fremont Bridge and spending a week primitive camping on top of Mount Saint Helens. Among the best is the entrancing, extended time spent in Edward’s creative space.
 
Mr. Lee’s “East Meets West” exhibition comes from this sacred place. His Opening Reception and splash-ink painting demonstration is this Friday night, 6-8 pm, with eastern delectables and dulcimer music by the talented David Matthews.