Come party with me!

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
—Mae West

During the opening show at the Pierro Gallery I stood next to my portrait of Carol Lane, “Behind The Lens.” Carol was a wonderful photographer and terrific person I met through Studio Montclair.

Saturday night, we blew the roof off the brand-new Baird Center during the grand reopening of the Pierro Gallery of South Orange, New Jersey. The place was packed to the gunwales! I'm honored and humbled that my painting hangs with the work of other incredibly talented artists in the show. 

Our mayor, Sheena Cullum, was there along with Judy Wukitsch, who co-founded the gallery in 2001 with her late husband, Lennie Pierro. Pierro was a fine artist and longtime South Orange resident. He sought to create a cooperative effort between fine artists and the town. The celebration continued upstairs to the cafe, where a jazz band entertained as folks enjoyed a fantastic spread of food and drink. The entire building has been reimagined and updated beautifully. The evening was a wonderful and vibrant celebration of South Orange, our community, and our artists. The gallery is state-of-the-art, and it's spectacular. The show is running through June 12th, go see it!

I have so many wonderful events coming up. Come party with me at all of them. And reach out here to meet me at any of the galleries and I’ll show you around. Life is short, lets have fun!

• THIS WEEKEND!!!
  THE ART OF COMMUNITY #1
  Sunday, April, 28th, 3pm – 6pm
  488 Summit AvenueSouth Orange, NJ, 07079

• THE WARREN COURT ART WALK
  Saturday, May 11th & Sunday, May 12th 11:00am – 5:00pm.
  36 Warren Court, South Orange, NJ, 07079

• THE CHATHAM LIBRARY SOMA STUDIO TOUR ARTISTS SHOW
  Opening reception, June 9th 2:15 – 4pm.
  214 Main Street, Chatham Township, NJ, 07928

• PAINTERS IN THE PARK
  Saturday, May 18th, 10am – 3pm
  Memorial Park, Maplewood, NJ, 07040

• THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
  Opening reception, September 19th 7pm – 9pm.
  Gallery Roshana, 120 rue de la Boétie 75008

• WILD CHERRY ART PARTY
  Saturday, Oct 26, 2024, get on the A-list for the information

Stay tuned, more to come! Make sure you’re on the Wild Cherry Art mailing list so you don’t miss a beat!

Do you need to know, like, and trust someone before you sleep with them?

"A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love."
—Mother Teresa

“Return To Love” This is the commissioned series I worked on last year that created a shift in my beliefs around love. Set up a free 15 minute Discovery Call with me to discuss manifesting your vision. Discovery Call

My friends and family helped me through the most challenging experience of my life, losing my husband. They've also been with me to celebrate my great joys; connections, art, music, travel, and all my milestones. It has been nine and a half years since Chris is gone. Recently my peeps have been encouraging me to date.

I believed that my days of romance were behind me. Then last year, I worked on a commission for a client who wanted to manifest love. My commission process goes far deeper than putting paint on a canvas. For many weeks, I listened to guided meditations for opening to love every day before working on her pieces. A few of those days, I found myself sobbing when I experienced all the available love. I listened to love songs and love frequencies, surrounded myself with rose quartz, journaled, used essential oils, and read about love. I noticed a shift in myself after completing "Return To Love." My collector loved the process, adores her pieces, and has them hanging in a prominent space in her gorgeous apartment. I know she's experiencing more love.

I'm drawn to paint with pink and red. Pink represents friendship, affection, harmony, inner peace, and approachability. Both red and pink represent love. So I'm already on the right track!

I realized on Monday that it's been 9 years since I had a Valentine. I now think I deserve love just as much as the next guy. So I put myself on a few dating sites, and I'm putting it out there to the Universe. I'm available. And because I'm living as my authentic self, I will make decisions and take actions that support my own values. For me, this means that I'm interested in making friends first because I need to know, like, and trust someone before I sleep with them! Lol! I've been this way forever; it's how I am. I would always be the one back at the hotel on vacations when my friends would find romance for the evening. I'd often go home alone and meet my friends for brunch to hear about their evening's escapades. People often thought I was the "wildest one" because, as my son says, "Mom, why did you dress so slutty?" I wasn't slutty! I was Rock'n'roll. Anyway, there is no such thing as slutty. And while casual sex has never been my bag, I know that sexual pleasure is our birthright, and consenting adults are entitled to do whatever they want behind closed doors and sometimes discretely in public spaces. I'm all for it.

This is the photo that made my son ask why I dressed so slutty!

So at 57, I'm on a few online dating sites. My life is already very rich and filled with so much love. When I find the right person, I hope to get invitations to dinner parties, travel, and outings again from my couple friends. It will be nice to have a companion and more physical affection. I'm open to meeting someone who will love, appreciate and respect me. Someone kind, compassionate, fun, intelligent, engaging, inspiring, open-minded, adventurous, passionate, optimistic, that I'm wildly attracted to, and we have fantastic sex. I know as long as I am being my authentic self, they will see the real me, and the people who will love me will see me from a mile away. I expect to make many new, wonderful friends and find my next greatest love.

Cheers to love, intimacy, passion and great sex!
Love,
Leslie

Wanna conquer the challenges and get more wins this year?

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.”
–Erma Bombeck

I did a lot of painting, performing, and writing for you! I also volunteered, made contributions and always had a lot of fun. I’m leaving everything on the table. That’s my jam. 🥳

Happy 2022, beautiful friend! I'm wishing you and yours a wonderful year ahead with an abundance of blessings. So many people were eager to say good riddance to 2021. Of course, it had its ups and downs like every other year, but all along the way, I always found so many things for which I'm thankful. 

Towards the end of every December, I do a formal year-end review and set goals for the year to come. If you want something to grow it helps to measure it. I did this last week with two partners. We took inventory and evaluated our progress. First, we wrote everything down, and then we shared it. These were our categories:

• wins

• challenges

• gratitude

• eliminate stress

• dream

I had a significant challenge this year with the loss of my father. Although, I feel so incredibly grateful to have had him in my life for so long. Sadly, my children don't have this gift. But they have so many other blessings in their full and exciting lives. All of us survived another year of the pandemic. We were resilient, resourceful and remained connected. I painted, performed, socialized, volunteered, and celebrated! Exercising, enjoying nature, making music, and art helped me eliminate stress. And honestly, I've just begun to dream! So stick around; we're going to have a lot more fun!!!

I’m grateful I had my dad present for so many milestones in my life, like walking me down the aisle.

After our evaluating exercise, I write my goals down in the form of a positive Life Statement, as if they've already happened, and give thanks for my abundant life. I create one statement for each of these areas:

• Health

• Spirituality

• Personal Development

• Relationships

• Business

• Finances

• Recreation and Fun

I use these same statements in my daily gratitude practice. If you’d like to create your own gratitude practice, or want to do a year end review, let's set up a Zoom call. Just click the button and I'll help you.

Things keep getting better. Evaluating my progress and setting goals helps me feel more purpose and meaning in my life. I move forward with the intention of serving in the most joyful way I can. Life really can be a bowl of cherries. It's all in the way you look at things. As an artist, I look for beauty in all things. I'm grateful that I can always find it.

A modern metric is our Social media stats. I'm astounded that I have over 11K followers on Facebook and Instagram, and I received almost 53K likes in 2021. That freaking amazes me! Thank you for being on this incredible journey with me. I count you as one of my blessings. If I've inspired you along the way, please tell your friends. If you have any questions about why or how I do anything, ask. I'm here to share. 

Let’s crush 2022! This year can be the best yet. Unward and upward!
Love,
Leslie
xo