April, 2020 - P Buckley Moss | Canada Goose Gallery

Inspiring Home Spaces

WORKING AT HOME INSPIRATIONS

A dedicated work space in your home helps you set aside household distractions and focus on work. This is a tough thing to do in recent weeks but we have just the inspiration you need to create a space that is bright, colorful, and keeps you working productively.

Why add art to your home office? Because art in the workplace can reduce stress and improve productivity, according to results from a new study from Home Beautiful Magazine.

Commissioned by leading art experts, the study found that 50% of people who work at home have no artwork! But almost a third of the people (29 %t) believe that artwork should be installed in workplaces to improve productivity! (and this came ahead of sleep pods, ping pong tables or beanbag chairs).

Today, we need more than productivity. In this study, 27% of those with art in their office said it makes them feel happy, and another 21% said it makes them feel peaceful.

Is it time to rethink your home office space? Here is some inspiration!

Brighten Up Your Home

The Value of Community

Jigsaw Puzzles Improve Your Memory! Solving puzzles helps reinforce existing connections between our brain cells.It also increases the generation of new relationships. This, in turn, improves mental speed and thought processes. Jigsaw puzzles are especially good for improving short-term memory.

So clear off the table and exercise your brain!

P Buckley Moss art United in Faith 500 piece puzzle. Rainbow of colors with bold black tree in the foreground.

United In Faith Jigsaw Puzzle by P Buckley Moss

History Repeats Itself

Over 100 Years Ago: The United States was dealing with a similar flu pandemic. Masks, sheltering in place, school and business closures–they were real then and now! I think it is is good to look at history so that the present can have some perspective. As I find new images I will share them here.

COMFORT FOOD

Comfort Food Beef Stew suggestion from Canada Goose Gallery in Waynesville, Ohio

BEEF STEW

Ingredients

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 lb. beef chuck stew meat, cubed into 1″ pieces

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds

2 stalks celery, chopped

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c. tomato paste

6 c. low-sodium beef broth

1 c. red wine

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. dried or fresh thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

1 lb. baby potatoes, halved

1 c. frozen peas

Comfort Food Beef Stew suggestion from Canada Goose Gallery in Waynesville, Ohio

Instructions

In a large dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, heat oil. Add beef and cook until seared on all sides, 10 minutes, working in batches if necessary. Transfer beef to a plate.
In the same pot, cook onion, carrots, and celery until soft, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook until garlic is fragrant and tomato paste has darkened, 2 minutes.
Add beef back to dutch oven then add broth, wine, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaves.
Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer until beef is tender, 30 minutes.
Add potatoes and simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender, 15 minutes.

Remove bay leaves. Stir in peas and cook until warmed through, 2 minutes. Garnish with parsley beforE serving.

The Lessons of Art and Faith

in Blog, Inspiration

Christianity In Art

Art brings to life something that cannot be expressed with mere words. The visual experience of the forms and colors expressed by an artist can evoke emotions felt deeply in ones soul. For Christians around the world, and throughout time, art is a moment of reflection on our faith. The deep and profound expression of our inner voice is spoken as we look upon an artist’s vision of their deepest beliefs.

Art is so much more than paint on canvas or figures chipped from stone. Men and women around the world have stared at statues and paintings for centuries in rapture. It is not uncommon for us to be moved to tears by the inclusive colors and textures. Art somehow finds a way to enter into the purest part of our faith. And surprisingly, this was part of the original Christian thinkers intention.

In the time of Christ and the early Church, art gave a voice to a world where few people could read and write. Its colors and subjects were a voice to the masses of people in communities who struggled to understand their purpose. Art gave them a roadmap to their faith!

Christian art is also very much about the artist. For P. Buckley Moss, her faith is at the core of who she is as a person, a mother, an artist. As Easter approaches this week, during this shelter-in-place reality that we are all a part of, art can bring to us the community we all crave right now. To look upon the crucifiction and celebrate the sacrifice made for us is something somber and refreshing.

My All is a limited edition print by P Buckley Moss featuring Christ on the cross. Colors are turquoise with a splash of gold and white blank spaces.

This week let us all celebrate our faith. Take a moment to reflect upon our beliefs and embrace the beauty that only art can share with us in such a deeply personal part of our lives.

And share your reflections with others, with me. Just as Pat painted her vision with deep, heavy strokes of color, so should we share the beauty and blessings that come from a life of deep faith.

Be safe everyone. Reach out to as many people as you can to check on them and give them a moment of community. We are all in this together–what better lesson can Easter week give us?

The Value of Community

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” – Margaret J. Wheatley

Sharing Work and Fellowship limited edition print is a barn raising theme with colors of cream, soft turquoise and earth colors.

In a time when our community is “virtual” we are collectively appreciating all the things that our neighbors contribute to our lives. Pat Moss spent many years of her artistic life exploring the communities in and around the Shenandoah Valley. She loved the communities that Quakers built and often spent time sketching and painting their simpler way of life. What does community mean to you? Are you missing the moments shared? We should all take this solitude and explore the meaning of community. I have a feeling it will be far more valuable!

History as a Lesson in Hope

Headlines from The Columbus Dispatch in 1918

from October 11 on the left to November 8 on the right.

CREDIT THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH / COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY

Ohio’s major cities reacted to these closure orders at varying paces. Cincinnati had already closed most public gathering places on October 5, Dayton closed with the October 8th order, Columbus and Cleveland started to fall in line and got everything closed by the 14th, Toledo received the state order a few days late, but started closures once they got word.

No one was happy about the closures. Cincinnati theatres convinced the city to stay open through Sunday, October 6th so that their current shows could finish their run. Columbus’s Health Officer, Dr. Louis Kahn closed theatres just before the Governor’s suggestions were issued. However, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce asked that a previously planned concert at Memorial Hall be allowed to go on, because only a higher class of person would attend (and assumedly, they would not spread disease). In Cleveland, police arrested various people breaking public gathering laws, including a group of Jewish men holding religious services, a candy shop owner and their patrons, and a gambling game (the gamblers insisted that they were not gambling, but the police insisted that was not why they were being arrested).

Source: https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/collections/history/history-blog/march-2020/spanishflu

Lifting Our Spirits Through Gratitude

in Blog, Inspiration, Waynesville Small Businesses

An array of Garden Vegetables

All of us are beginning to feel the “rock-bottom” reality of a virus that has strangled every country in the world. It feels overwhelming.

My morning process is simple: I worry about my husband, my kids, my friends, and then I think about my fellow Waynesville merchants, and how we have been thrown into a holding pattern we didn’t expect, plan for, or even understand!

All of our fun events are now on hold. Our momentum was just beginning to build from the cold of winter into the lovely days of spring. Spring will pass, and then it will be the panic of summer. Hopefully!

I was visited last week by a dear friend; a fellow merchant, and a hardworking man who grew up in Waynesville and raising his family there. He purchased the local grocery store in town, Hometown Market, after working there since he was sixteen and has been serving the area for many years. He has recently refurbished this store, planned out a dedicated sitting area for workers in town that need a place to sit for lunchtime meals that he prepares in the deli area. He serves a variety of breakfast items as well as a balanced assortment of prepared foods for lunch and dinner. It is oh so handy to swing by for a takeout of their homemade soups on the days when I leave the gallery late (and hate to cook after an hour drive home.)

He always seems to look ahead for what people need and how he can better serve their needs, making everyone’s life just a little easier. Oh, how I do love that about the Hometown Market! I know that as a small grocer, he and his staff have worked very hard to have shelves filled and the store operating as usual. But these times are not normal times at all! Like every business today, they are having to reinvent how they do day to day business and often have had to search out new suppliers because their regular suppliers are sold out. Ron goes above and beyond by picking up the products they need himself when supplier delivery is overwhelmed.He never wants his customers to wait longer than they need to. I can’t even imagine the new nightmare of incorporating different brands into inventory, different pricing, different scans, and then getting all these issues solved promptly while his customers line up outside in hopes of finding food.

I know how frustrating it has been when we are trying to find things we need on the shelves and encounter empty shelves. It is surreal to walk down the aisles and see maybe one box of macaroni and cheese and then nothing!

Grocery workers have to be some of the hardest working people right now. They have taken the challenge and are carrying the weight for all so we have food. Give your grocery workers a big “Thank You” the next time you visit and on your next trip to Waynesville, stop by Hometown Marketplace and let Ron and his staff know you heard what great community supporters they are; then take home a soup of the day carry out!

Despite very long hours and even less sleep, Ron made a special trip to our gallery last week to pick up more of our fundraising History Card sets to sell in his store for the Waynesville Merchants Association. Hometown Market has consistently been our number one history card seller! Ron shrugs it off by telling me how important it is to

support one another; small business is the backbone of our country! Thank you, Ron, for always thinking about your fellow Waynesville merchants, your customers, and our community. Thank you for supporting all the merchants in your town, and for just being a great person to have in our corner—jolly and all smiles in the good times and so very supportive and helpful in times like these! Let’s all remember that supporting small businesses all over is key to keeping America healthy!