​Continuing this tradition this year our timing is a little behind, as David and I are caught up with the twirl of our wedding and moving to our new home.

​When we finally hang our feeders above our porch railings, we’re not so late after all, for the hummers are slow to come. Come they do—singles and couples and families, too! Our first summer on our new porch embraces their sweet, animated presence as though they’re here for our entertainment—all the humming and the buzzing, the looping in courtship and swooping in fun.
 
This year the hummers linger longer past the first day of October when the feeders are usually cleaned and put away. We’re sad the early autumn morning when we no longer hear and see the humming wee ones, not even a single appearance.
 
With the transition of our seasons, our visitors have all flown south and left us with heartaches for the loss of their familiarity. C’est la vie! This is life. Life is good. Though unseen today, we know to trust that with change and their recent leave-taking, their return and more goodness are on the way.
​
For today we are comforted by simple gifts like the hummingbirds still on the walls of artCentral. Foretelling the promise of a spring return, beautiful depictions of our wee winged friends tenderly linger with us in the exquisite paintings of Michael Steddum.
 
Michael’s exhibition: “unleashed! DOG SHOW” continues through November 12, 2017, generously underwritten by HOMETOWN BANK. Paintings in oil and watercolor, as well as prints and note cards are available for purchase. Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12:00-5:00, Sundays 1:00-5:00. All other days call (417) 358-4404 to schedule a visit. Admission is free. Donations are welcome in our support box. 

You’ll feel artCentral’s inspiring hospitality as soon as you turn up the gentle drive beneath the colorful canopy of towering old trees. Pause to take in the happy art on the Great Wall outback. Delight in the transformation my husband, David, has made with his painting on the well house. Oh, and watch your step! Be careful to walk around the backyard’s little box—the wee wooden comfort station David’s crafted for the “little people”. (artCamp legend tells us they’ve come up from downunder to adopt artCentral as their home away from home.)
 
Entering through artCentral’s cheerful green door, prepare to be amazed by the simple elegance of this foursquare farm house given by Katherine Hyde to the City of Carthage for the exhibiting and fostering of fine arts. Breathe in the serenity and feast on the art.
 
Michael Steddum’s exhibition: “unleashed! DOG SHOW” continues through November 12, 2017, generously underwritten by HOMETOWN BANK. Paintings in oil and watercolor, as well as prints and note cards are available for purchase. Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12:00-5:00, Sundays 1:00-5:00. All other days call (417) 358-4404 to schedule a visit. Admission is free. Donations are welcome in our support box.
 
When you next make your way to the square, see if you can find four little boxes recently updated.
 
David and I arrive early the last Friday morning we paint a hydrant on the square. We spread out our drop cloths, paints and brushes. We set up our canopy for shade from the sun. While I begin to apply colors to the hydrant-of-the-day, David departs for his library gig intending to return late afternoon to help me with last details.
 
I’ve been painting less than an hour when, halfway down the street, I notice the old, red, not-so-attractive citation box for depositing parking ticket payments. I remember the topic of the citation boxes came up some time back when I attended a meeting with Wendi Douglas, Carthage Convention Bureau’s executive director. The plan under discussion then revolved around giving the boxes a new look with art.
 
An idea pops: “Don’t delay. Paint the citation boxes today!” I feel an overwhelming urge to paint the little boxes and make them as pretty as the newly painted fire hydrants. As sometimes happens when unexpected inspiration strikes, I follow the impulse immediately.
 
I pick up my brushes and paints and walk over to the little citation box in front of City Hall. I apply the first coat of blue background which needs to dry before I can add leaves and clouds like those decorating the fire hydrants.
 
Back at the hydrant to be finished, blissfully painting away, I ponder: “I just altered city property. Maybe I should ask permission or at least forgiveness.” I do. I ask permission after the fact of the deed begun. I text Wendi Douglas inquiring, “Do you think it’s okay to paint the citation boxes while we’re finishing up the hydrants?” Quickly she replies, “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Chief Dagnan. We’re both really busy with all the details of today’s Food Truck Friday. I don’t know when I’ll be able get back to you.”
 
Oops! I’ve gotten ahead of protocol. I’ll just have to bear the discomfort of waiting to know how much trouble I’m in. Then a miracle happens. Wendi immediately texts back, “Chief Dagnan says, ‘Tell those artists to knock themselves painting boxes!’” Whew. I’m off the hook.
 
Now all I have to do is tell David what I’ve done. We always consult each other before making decisions about how we’ll spend our collaborative art time. After our already investing sixty hours painting fire hydrants, I have to confess I’ve taken on more work without consulting him.
 
When David makes his afternoon return I tell him what I’ve done, because I want folks to be happy and smile, if they need to put their parking ticket dollars in one of the little citation boxes. He smiles, forgives my faux pas and pitches in painting.
 
Won’t you smile, too, please, when you see the cheery little citation boxes on the square?

Each year, surrounded by an array of glorious fall colors, the city of Carthage proudly welcomes 80,000+ visitors to this wonderful fall celebration.
 
Annually, on the third Saturday of October, the biggest day of the festival begins at 9:00 a.m. and ends around noon. Starting on the Carthage Historic Square the parade route finishes at the Carthage Middle School.
 
Numerous events are scheduled throughout the day to entertain young and young at heart including a marching band festival, arts and crafts vendors, car and tractor shows, wine tasting, a quilt show, food vendors and live entertainment.
 
The rest of the festival is filled with a variety of activities including art and museum exhibits, lobster boil, bike tour, Latino festival, carnival, circus, evening 5K, beauty pageants, baby and toddler contests, dog show, gospel, sing, cruise-in, bake sale, costume ball and a lip-syncing competition. Celebrating its 51st year in 2017, the Maple Leaf Festival offers family style fun in a home town atmosphere.
 
Sixteen artCentral artists have worked long, and they’ve worked hard, and they’ve accomplished something amazing in anticipation of this year’s Maple Leaf festival. All the fire hydrants around the square and down the Grant Street-Grand Avenue-Centennial Avenue parade route are newly fashioned and beautifully dressed in colorful celebration chic. Treat yourself. Take a drive and be awed by this marvel—fire hydrants bedecked with brilliant autumn leaves in all manner of yellows and golds and oranges and reds twirling against a blue sky lightly dappled with puffy cumulus clouds. What a lovely wonder!
 
Tenaciously and generously applying their talents in wind and rain and punishing late summer heat, the dedicated members of artCentral’s plein air hydrant painting party, have logged about three hundred hours brushing marine quality paint onto twenty curbside stanchions that not only keep our city safe but also add special year-round beauty to this sweet town we love.
 
Inspired by Jason Choate, CW&EP Director of Water Services, and coordinated by Meagan Milliken, CW&EP Customer Relations Manager, the hydrant re-do project has been months in the planning and making. Before the artists began to create their magic, David and I created the design and templates. CW&EP crews sandblasted, power-washed, primed and background painted the hydrants. Artist supplies were purchased and divided into artist kits. Lora Waring, artCentral volunteer extraordinaire, cut out hundreds of leaf and cloud patterns, making up a set for each artist.
 
Here is the roster of marvelous artCentral artists who’ve made art to lift our hearts in every season at their assigned parade route locations:
 
Alexandra Burnside at Grand and Macon; Teri Y. Diggs at Grand and 13th; Liz Foster at Clinton and Centennial; Olivia Givens at Grant and 5th; David and Alice Lynn Greenwood-Mathé all around the square, at 11th and Grand and at 1163 Grand; Sydney Hartless at Grant and Chestnut; Tom Jones at 738 Centennial; Tyla and Chris Reed at Grant and 10th; Emily Rose at Grand and Paradise Alley, 1131 Grand and Centennial and Fulton; Sierra Russow at 1700 Grant; Brenda Sageng at Grand and Centennial; Linda Swatsenbarg at Grant and 6th; and Elizabeth and Joel Wallsmith at 1431 Grand.
 
This Saturday the Maple Leaf parade route will be lined four deep with Carthaginians and their guests cheering the floats and cars and bands and horses and all the other marchers passing by. To get your best view of the hydrants, take an early walking or driving excursion before the big day. Tour the route, admire the beauty and be sure to say “thank you” to every artist who participated in giving this lovely autumnal gift to our fair city.
 
Though artCentral will be closed Saturday, October 21st, to join in the Maple Leaf parade day celebration, Michael Steddum’s exhibition: “unleashed! DOG SHOW” continues through November 12, 2017, generously underwritten by HOMETOWN BANK. Paintings in oil and watercolor, as well as prints and note cards are available for purchase. Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12:00-5:00, Sundays 1:00-5:00. All other days call (417) 358-4404 to schedule a visit. Admission is free. Donations are welcome.

​Every chance she gets, Lasyrenn’s hopping into her wee carrier and making her way onto our Carthage arts and music scenes, for Lasyrenn (“la-se-wren”, the siren) takes her name from Haitian Creole legend which identifies her as the patron of artists and musicians. Her most recent appearance is at Michael Steddum’s artist opening for his exhibition “unleashed! DOG SHOW” at artCentral.
 
Michael’s exquisite oil and watercolor portraits of dogs have turned the Hyde House galleries into a land of two-dimensional magic. As artCentral’s prepitor David Greenwood-Mathé observes, “The paintings in this show are certainly exquisite renderings of dogs, but they’re so much more. Even without the dogs, the landscapes of the paintings would still be beautiful on their own.”
 
All through the week leading up to Michael’s opening, Lasyrenn hangs out with David and me at artCentral beneath the sparkling eyes of the canines shining on our walls. She learns how to climb the steps up to the front porch and how to navigate her way on the stairs leading to my second floor studio-office and above to David’s attic studio. She shadows David as he installs the exhibit and adds final details to the beautiful manicure given by Mike Burken and his crew to our expansive lawn and gardens.
 
While I place the wall labels by paintings and prepare for the reception, Lasyrenn scatters and chases her chew toys through the downstairs galleries as though Hyde House is her second home. Nighttime puppy potty training is going extremely well with Lasyrenn sleeping long and deeply dreaming sweet puppy dreams after her busy days and evenings.
 
As David and I complete our opening night preparations, many others attend to their own. Since Judy Goff, our beloved reception impresario, is fully booked preparing for the fundraising Lobster Boil for the Carthage Historic Preservation Society, Jackie Boyer, our board president, steps in. She plans the evening’s menu then purchases and delivers the table fare before leaving town for an east coast family visit. Board member Gail White graciously takes up from here prepping and plating a lush array of savories and sweets with the help of board member Brenda Sageng and former board member Miriam Putnam. Another bountiful table greets our guests dressed with velvet-trimmed sheer cloths in rusty autumn hues topped with vibrant citrus colored mums and flickering candles nestled in wreaths of puppy milk bones.
 
Opening night and Lasyrenn rests tucked away upstairs until time for announcements and celebration of our artist when she makes her artCentral debut evoking “oh’s” and “ah’s” for her puppy adorable-ness which inspires David to rewrite a familiar song for the occasion. While playing on his classical acoustic guitar he sings:

How much is that puppy in the window?
The one without any tail.
How much is that puppy in the window?
I bet that pup’s not for sale.
I might take a flight out to Seattle
To see how far I might roam,
But if we had that pup back here in Carthage,
I’m sure I could find my way home!
How much is that puppy in the window?
The one without any tail.
How much is that puppy in the window?
You can bet that that pup’s not for sale.

That puppy in the window, our puppy Lasyrenn, may not be for sale, but the dog portraits at artCentral certainly are! They’re waiting for you to come make your choice. Prints and note cards are available, too.
​
Michael Steddum’s exhibition: “unleashed! DOG SHOW” continues through November 12, 2017, generously underwritten by HOMETOWN BANK. Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12:00-5:00, Sundays 1:00-5:00. All other days call (417) 358-4404 to schedule a visit. Admission is free. Donations are welcome.

With the onset of fall at artCentral we’re planning and looking ahead to winter’s act—our December Holiday Boutique filled with artist-made giftables and the exquisite scarlet amaryllis that will again be available for purchase. Already board members Jackie Boyer, Betsy Flanigan, Judy Goff, Jane Van Den Berg and Gail White are preparing the beautiful containers that will be planted with bulbs in time for holiday blooming. Stay tuned for information on reserving yours for decorating and gifting. Availability will be limited.

In the meantime, have you noticed? The theatre of our Carthage autumn is making a fine beginning. Hints of transition are starting to show in treetops. The hydrants on the square and down the parade route are all lavishly costumed for our Maple Leaf celebrations, while an array of colorful chrysanthemums adds seasonal delight in gardens and on steps and stoops and porches and sidewalks.

​For me personally as an artist, October is a month for theatre with a fully packed playbill. The drama began mid-summer with phone calls and requests from two very unique venues—Stone’s Throw Theatre here in Carthage and Urban Art Gallery in Joplin.

Answering a request call from Bryan Springer at Stone’s Throw, I learn the theatre isn’t just a showcase for thespian arts. On the theatre’s gallery wall visual artists are welcomed and on display for each performance run. Bryan asks if I’ll install an exhibit. After checking calendars with David, my husband and colleague in all-things-art, I delightedly I say, “Yes,” and begin to assemble a collection from my œuvre. 

My exhibition, "Alice Lynn Greenwood Mathé: Paintings" is now on view during Stone Throw's run of the delightful comedy, "Mind Over Matt" written by Scott Haan and directed by Tom Brown. Performances take place Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays: October 6, 7 and 8 and 13, 14 and 15, 2017. Stone's Throw Dinner Theatre is located at 2466 West Old Route 66 Boulevard, Carthage, Missouri. For theatre information/performance reservations call (417) 358-9665.

​With the art of autumn theatre dramatically unfolding for all around us, David and I are exhilarated by this season’s high intensity energy. We continue to work our day jobs and simultaneously create artworks to be exhibited in future collaborative exhibitions through every season of the coming year. With the spirits and ancestors of Les Morts et Les Mystères, “Àshe! May this be so!”