The Writer and the Artist, Mary Montague Sikes
Farrah Ferand, the heroine of my latest novel, Evening of the Dragonfly , is attempting to recover from the tragic death of her mother as well as the sudden death of her grandfather that traumatized her years earlier. A teacher and an artist who lives in Jefferson City (the same small town in Virginia that was the setting for Daddy's Christmas Angel ), Farrah has been invited to have a one-person exhibition of her paintings. Since I am an artist as well as a writer, I decided to create a show of artwork for Farrah. As I painted, I realized she was working through her troubled emotions in the art she made. For me, creating this work brings a great deal of depth and meaning to Farrah's exhibition that is a major part of the plot of this book. During the month of April, I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge and made a painting, or a portion of a painting, for my post each day on my blog, Notes Along the Way . In the end, I had 19 paintings for her show...