Flood Recovery

     The Patapsco River, in my painting above, tried to destroy Ellicott City last July. About 6 inches of rain burst from the clouds uphill from the town and the Tiber, a small ankle deep tributary that normally runs under one side of the street, became a raging torrent that not only overflowed it's banks but ripped it's way through Main Street taking cars, people, and the contents of stores with it. I was actually amazed at how well the town looked given the horrific YouTube videos I had watched of the flash flood. Most of the stores were open, and the ones that weren't had painted the plywood to appear as if they were open.
    In Mid July I headed south with Cora (age 12) to paint in Ellicott City.  As I got settled in, I was reminded of why I had skipped this one last year because it lacks natural subject matter. The paint area mostly consists of historic architecture, and I'm more a woods and water gal. Cora and I made the best of it by sticking to the river in town. Actually we sat in the river itself during some of the hottest parts of two days. I had no sales or awards for this one and with no free housing I will probably have to cross this one off my list for next year.
    Cora, however, was interviewed by the Baltimore Sun and she sold two paintings. My kids are starting to show me up.
     While waiting for the show to be hung we ventured into Baltimore and hit some cultural, and really not cultural sites. I convinced her to go to Fort McHenry to see the fort that inspired our National Anthem. She convinced me to go to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum to see things like a Niki Minaj portrait made of lipstick.