Silk Paintings at the Green Spot Tea House and Gallery

The spiritual journey is one of continually falling on your face, getting up, brushing yourself off, looking sheepishly at God, and taking another step. 

- Aurobindo

After hanging my silk paintings at the Green Spot Tea House and Gallery on Wednesday, I was fried! The show didn't look right. Silk paintings that were ironed when I left the house were wrinkled by the time they were hung. Silk paintings that hung well in the studio looked all wrong on the Tea House wall--at least to my eyes. And I forgot labels. 

But, the show was hung, and it was too late to iron. I went home and made labels and hoped for the best, knowing that about 8 people had promised to come out of the 500 email invitations I had sent.

Today was the opening. No one showed up, at least no one I invited. Thank goodness the Tea House owners friends came!

silk painting,  Madrona by the Beach

Now I know the kind of panic I was feeling is natural, the pre show jitters, and the post show depression, but today after the reception, I was in tears! Do I even go on? Eighteen paintings on silk represent a year and a half of work, and none of my friends came to see it! Not even the ones who live in Tacoma!


And yet, I have a show scheduled at the credit union here on Vashon Island in September. I started thinking about the new large silk paintings I want to do for that show, for their big bare walls. It's the place so many Vashon folk took their money as soon as it opened up. We were fed up with Chase, that mega bank that took over our Washington Mutual Bank. My work will be seen there, and people will come to the opening on the first Friday of September, because that's what Vashon folk do.

Tea With My Friend, a silk painting

Tea With My Friend

This silk painting, Tea with my Friend,  is about those intimate conversations with a close friend over a cup of tea. It is hanging in the Tea Shop with several of my newest paintings.

I'm planning to get a gallery on line of the Tea Shop paintings and other painting that go with the theme Stories of Loving.

Save the Dates!

The Vashon Tea Shop
Presents silk paintings by Suzanna Leigh, based on her experience in China and the Chinese folk tales and poetry she learned there.


Sunday, February 21st, 3pm
Presenting photos and discussion.
Chinese New Year’s treat and Dragon Well tea
$10. Limited seating.

Traveling with Xiao Ning gave me the opportunity to hear her stories of the cultural revolution, and family stories from that time and before. I met her sister, Li Xiao Yen, and her parents. Li Xiao Yen was a communist party chairman before she retired. Xiao Ning’s father was on the Long March, and her mother is a descendant of the Qing dynasty. Wonderful people, all.

My vision for this time is that some in the audience will have been to China and will contribute to the discussion, so that we all can develop a better understanding of the people and culture of this great nation—and perhaps of ourselves as well.