So, I mentioned in my last blog, the one about my insane dog, that my cat had kittens recently. Well they are about 2 months old now. There are six of them. My house is a circus. CONSTANT entertainment. The little fuzzball’s names are Rocky, Foomf, Elf, Per, Panther, and Fred. The momma’s name is Persia, that’s where Per gets her name. She was the first one we met.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and my husband was taking a nap. Persia had been wandering around and I was in the bathroom playing with my hair. Suddenly I heard the funniest little high pitched squealing sound. I walked out into the living room and there was Persia with a tiny little ball of wiggly fuzz in front of her. She had brought a kitten in from some hiding place outside! Mind you, we weren’t even sure if she’d had kittens. We had suspected since she went from fat to really skinny all of a sudden but it was such a surprise! Persia came with this house you see. We moved here in December and Persia was living in the yard. The previous owner passed away recently and the cat was left alone. We started feeding her and gave her the name Persia and she slowly warmed up to us and eventually started coming inside a lot to visit. We thought she was pregnant because she was so fat but weren’t really sure. Then we went out of town for a week and came back to a skinny cat. We totally thought at that time that she’d had kittens but couldn’t find any sign of them anywhere and eventually gave up on the idea. Until of course 2 weeks later when all of a sudden one appeared on our living room floor.

Persia spent the rest of that day bringing kittens into the house one by one, taking the time with each one to comfort and feed it and make it feel comfortable in it’s new home. She’s such a good momma.

Our household has been blast ever since. We are constantly laughing our heads of at the antics of these lively little characters. From climbing up window screens to stealing butter off the dinner table. They are always into something. And the wrestling! If they’re awake, they’re wrestling. It’s just a given. They are wrestling right now. At my feet! Hahaha!

My sister in law asked me to do a painting of Captain Moroni from the Book of Mormon. I finished one and then the next night had this awesome dream about a totally different painting of Captain Moroni. I think it worked out pretty well because now through the two paintings you can see two very different parts of Moroni’s life, two very different aspects of his personality. In the first one Moroni is teaching his children about the Title of Liberty and in the second he is going to battle to fight for his freedom, his religion, and his family.

My husband Mark and I love to take walks, especially up the side of a mountain. We spent this afternoon wandering around the base of the mountains by our house. It was a beautiful spring day, a little cool but beautiful none the less. We had a great time. Here are some photos from our adventures.

My husband and I are working on a collaborative project. When he takes a photo that inspires me I do a painting of it. The last 2 peices that I blogged about were part of this project as well as 2 others that I blogged about in the past.  I thought you might like to see the photos next to the paintings. We’re going to present our idea to galleries and see what they think. It’s a cool idea because the photos are art in and of themselves and the drawings are art in and of themselves. When you see them side by side you see the beauty and uniqueness of each piece and each style of art. They compliment each other and together become a new and original form of art. So here you go. The photos next to the drawings. 

It’s been forever since I last blogged! Sometimes life gets so busy that you forget to do the little things, you know?

I’ve been getting ready for the show at the DeZion gallery lately. Today, my Dad and I drove down to my grandparent’s house to drop off a bunch of pieces that will be in the show. My grandpa has agreed to make the frames for all the art. Normally my brother Jake would do it but he’s kind of on his honeymoon right now so he’s a little busy . Anyway, Grandpa makes fantastic frames so I’m really excited to see how they come out. I’m sure they’ll be amazing.  It was fun to see my grandparents reaction to the art. They’re so proud! Grandma’s eyes just lit up as she was looking at it. Man, it always makes me feel so good to make my family proud of me. After all, family is what it’s all about.

This site is dedicated to the art of Maria Hathaway. But in addition to that, we like to support others who are close to Maria. Maria’s brother, Chas Hathaway is a very talented composer and musician.  He has already released an album called “Dayspring” containing all original piano solo music and will soon release a second album. We really want people to hear his music. It is inspirational, soothing and very thought provoking.

We want to support him, so we have a favor to ask.  He has entered a contest with the hope of being able to become a finalist and participate in a major concert in front of a large audience.  We need your votes.

The online contest is being held by MormonTimes Music & Videos.  We are asking you to go to that site and register.  Then you need to sign on and go to the SHOWCASE section and select Chas Hathaway and vote for him.  Actually, you are allowed to vote once everyday if you are so inclined.

If you can take a few minutes and listen, I know you will see that he is trully a talented artist and needs to be heard.

My brother has just created the prettiest song clip I’ve ever heard. I know you’ll all think I’m being prejudice because he’s my brother but I have to tell you, I spend a lot of time looking for beautiful music and I’m rather picky about what I like. This little bit of song (only 25 seconds long) actually brough tears to my eyes. It brought tears to my Dad’s eyes. Anyway you just have to listen to it. Decide for yourselves whether or not I’m prejudice.  Just click this link to listen: Chas’ song.

Hey everybody! My blog has just been updated to Ria’s Fine Art Studio. From now on I won’t be the only blogger. I am a partner in a family business called Willowrise and the other partners (my family members) in this business are going to start blogging on here as well. I’m excited about this because it’s always good to have more than one perspective on things. They will probably start discussions about things that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought about and it will be fun to hear what they have to say. We’re also going to be doing podcasts on here once in awhile which will be a blast. I hope you all will enjoy the new format. We’re going to be doing the same thing on a couple of the other partners blogs - Chas‘ and Shelly’s so if you’re interested feel free to join discussions and comment away. We’re pretty open to new ideas and perspectives so don’t be shy. Thanks for reading!