“Jan is an extraordinarily talented acrylic painter who has been perfecting her art for over four decades,” says Doris Galvin o the Chelsea Gallery.

“She paints on paper and occasionally includes collage for special textured effects. Her current work is conceptual in nature, however this show includes work from Dorer’s private collection, never shown or for sale before.

“This is also the first time that the Gallery will be featuring Jan’s giclee prints both framed and unframed.”

An opening reception will be from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday Nov. 14.

Chelsea Gallery is located at 115 S. Main Street in Chelsea.

This is the beginning article in the area newspapers. We are thrilled to be doing a Chelsea Gallery feature again. I have reserved the down stairs room, 32 seats, for any of you who wish to dine or take a break and talk to other of our friends and artists or whatever. We do so love to chat with all of you. Jan and I will be eating about 5:00. The Chelsea House B & B is our recommendation for those wishing to stay overnight. Jim Myles is the best in town.

It’s 8:00 and Jan is in bed watching 10th Anniversary of “Les Miserables”. She absolutely loves it and won’t be interrupting me for a while. Last night we watched a Georgia O’Keeffe documentary. We saw some unbelievable paintings. She was an excellent artist who left greatness to mankind. Some not so great but that is as it is with all. Excellence is achieved by talent and hard work. I wish that I had directed Jan to do a number of 8×10 foot canvas paintings or larger in the late 80s. We had the money to survive and it would have put her in the different category. Might have destroyed our life as it was but they would be a part of her history. She did do two 4×6 foot canvas paintings. One was purchased by Koger Properties. The other one sold is in some suburb of Dallas. She fought doing large work. Didn’t have the right self image to tackle the challenge. She was shy, ya know. She would raise her head when frightened and people would see her as stuck up. It was really shyness. Anyway Georgia was great. “Les Miserables” is great. When attending Central Michigan a friend said that Louie Armstrong was a living ledgend. He was right. While living in Georgia, I’d stay up to 11:30 or 12:00 to hear “Georgia on my mind” sung by Ray Charles when PBS went off the air. I just had to hear it one more time. It is such a great gift to mankind. I’d love a CD of that recording. Bought one but not the recording I remember hearing nightly.

October is Halloween month. I must tell you a story that has been with me since I was probably four. I was young but don’t know how young. Four might be right. Don’t think I knew of Halloween before this one that was stamped into my memory by the following story.

Halloween was coming. I was to go with my brother trick or treating. Had no idea of what this meant, but it was noticeably something special. Hitchen’s Drugstore sold masks. The children’s masks were 10 cents and the adult ones were a nickel. I got an adult mask for times were tough in the late 30s. That’s 1930s not the 1830s you know. We got goofied up and took our grocery sacks with us. Jack, about 5 years older than me, had the duty of taking me treating. We started out. I with my Buckle Artics and heavy pants for it was cold out. Buckle Artics went over shoes and were very warm and kept slush out well. Don’t know if we have them today for I don’t do shopping. Jan did it for me but none is done now. Jack and I would walk hand in hand and when I hit some steps, I knew I should lift my feet to get to the porch and the reward. I was taught to say “Thank You” when something hit the bottom of the grocery bag. If it was a real heavy thud, I knew it was an apple and said thank you even tho I didn’t want apple but only candy. We did our Chestnut Street to the corner and up and down Delhi. Now Delhi had six street lights in about one mile. We only passed one on our way west and again back east to Chestnut. The two street lights were the only thing I saw from our house to home again for the eye holes in my adult mask only allowed me to see up. My shins were scraped from missing the steps. I didn’t like the houses with cement steps. They were tougher on my shins. Halloween was not as much fun as the excitement of waiting for it. Guess the moral is that all the sweetness in life contains some unexpected pain.
Next month I’ll really get you excited about the Chelsea Gallery showing. Jan and Gil are now excited and energized. Now we’ll be needing you.
Love gil