Our daughter-in-law Carrie is an artist and was a teacher of senior high school level art and head of the fine arts department at the Dubai American Academy. The year before the move to Oman Carrie was the Assistant Principal of the school.  She is a talented and very eclectic artist and has had her work shown at The Smithsonian and The Kennedy Hall of States in Washington DC, at galleries and cafes in Dubai and here in Oman; galleries or museums in Tennesse, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio and New York. In 2013 she was shortlisted for the Sheikha Manal’s Young Artist Award via Dubai Ladies Club and had to get all spiffied up to attend the presentation ceremony.  Joseph even wore a suit! Carrie would tour construction sites in Dubai and take photos of the interesting items and shapes and from her photographs she did these two colored pencil pieces.

She holds a BA in arts and art history from Colgate Univeristy (a top Liberal Arts University in New York State) and a Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.  Since her and Joseph’s move from Dubai to Oman a year ago she has been ‘a kept woman.’  The year as Assistant Principal took its toll on her health and she chose to take a year off and work on her art and her blog: Artist Think.com.  As I mentioned in a previous post Carrie has been working very hard on a new project and is about to launch a five-week online course on Creative Play (The Art Detox).  She is brimming with ideas for her business and her blog and makes copious notes in her many journals to keep track of all the things she would like to do.  On Artist Think Carrie posts interviews with other artists and does personal commentary that is aimed at encouraging others to actively pursue and make time for whatever creative outlet they enjoy.This is a photo Carrie took when visiting us in BC and she had it mounted onto canvas.

Carrie loves to take classes. She would sign up for dozens if she had the time.  Because of her interest in all things creative she experiments with her own creativity.  She works in many different mediums from oil to acrylic to colored pencil to pen and ink or charcoal and mixed mediums.  In the five years since she met our son she has worked art in yarn, taken courses in jewelry making (she designed and made Joseph’s wedding ring), pottery and photography.

 Carrie says she does a lot of self-portraits because she doesn’t like asking other people to sit for as long and as often as it takes to do a painting, or in the case of these pieces, work the yarn.

Many rooms in their villa have samples of her art hanging on the walls.  Since today was an ‘at home, do nothing day’ after I got royally beaten – again – at Agricola I went around and took photos of her work.

I love this one.  If I had a place to hang it in my house it would be going home in my luggage. Unfortunately, our son also likes it so I suspect it’s absence would be noted.

Here are some closer details of the mixed medium painting (upper left photo) that hangs in our bedroom here at the villa. Another favourite of mine is this painting of “Heather,” Carrie’s childhood rabbit.

Carrie changed into her co-ordinating running pants and running shoes and went for a run before she goes out to visit with some friends this evening.

John and Joseph were busy trying to figure out why the TV in the downstairs living room shorts out whenever the air conditioning comes on so it was a perfect time for me to write my blog.  (The washing machine shorts out regularly as well and has to be reset a time or two during each load.  Again….they live in a brand new duplex villa.  Obviously there are some competency issues among the electricians in Muscat.)