I was thrilled to learn that my painting "Allen's Dress Boots" was selected by the jury for the 87th Annual Springville Museum of Art Spring Salon (April 22-July 3). Out of over 1,000 entries they selected only 250, so I am humbled and honored to have my painting chosen. My dad, Philip Barlow, also had a painting selected. Now it's back to the studio to try to delve deeper and paint ever more beautifully.....

I've been working on a new series I am calling "In Their Shoes." These paintings are "portraits" of people I know and admire -- but the paintings are not of my subjects' faces -- they are of their shoes. I am fascinated by the idea of shoes carrying us on our journeys through our lives -- of the choices we make when we select the shoes we wear -- and of the life stories that are reflected in the crevasses and wrinkles of our shoes. I feel that shoes can illuminate who we are -- or want to be. This painting is called "Allen's Dress Boots." Allen Fletcher died in 2010 at 99 glorious years of age. He was an Oregon cattle rancher and worn these beloved boots to the Pendleton Roundup every year.