That's Princess Di. I didn't paint her, but Deb did and she has a show in New York right now. Here's some stuff I know about Deb Steckler: she's a highly talented and smart painter, she culls images from all over and especially from those weird little pictures that stick around in your head years after you see them in the New York Times or on tv or in Time magazine, she draws like a dream, and she's just swell. Like a lot of stuff Deb makes, this show is just small enough, just subtle enough, just smart enough to be worth seeing and coveting and keeping and treating special.

FRIDAY, APRIL 21, Reception: 7:00-9:00 P.M. The solo exhibition "Ordinary People" by Debra Stecker opens at Realform Project Space. Gallery is located at 218 Bedford Avenue and North 5th Street, walk two blocks south from Bedford Ave station (Bedford exit) on L train, in vestibule of Realform Girdle Building ("Mall") on SW corner. Thru May 21. Exhibition opens on April 16.

If you are in Atlanta, I heartily suggest you catch Club Rio at Saltworks. These kids are smart and I miss the stuff they make.

And if you are going to be in Rochester before April 30, I humbly hope you'll see my Starbucks show before it is no more.

I'm biased but then, I never said I wasn't. If we do not promote our own work, the fabulous things our friends make, and the things we believe in...well people might learn about them someday but someday is a long cold lonely future. I prefer now so that's why I tell you to see Deb, see the Club, see my pictures. See truth.

See my dreams of a garden unfurl. I had a gardening consultation with my friend Vickie on Saturday and my dad is coming to visit Sunday and the seeds continue to get ready to germinate ( I hope). Some of the little guys are popping up. Somewhere between permaculture, the square foot garden, and my dream of acres of wildflowers is the garden I'll be able to reasonably grow this year and next. I've been dreaming of a garden for a boatload of years and this time I can actually get down on my knees, put my hands in the dirt and make something happen. Even as a rank beginner, I think the tending, the cultivating, the growing and the learning is what I hunger for...though the veggies and the color have a true appeal too.

I'll keep you posted.
Rachael