Kristin Osgood Lamelas Follow me on Instagram Follow me on Facebook
Studio (and life) Update
Good Morning!
I hope this finds you happy, healthy, and sane. This Covid-19 quarantine is enough to make anyone stir crazy! Thank you to all of the healthcare workers and essential employees for all you do. Thanks Venise for the fun photo shoot and photo (below).
What's new? What crazy times we're in right now, huh? I really think the whole world just needed a damn break. Hopefully, some good will come out of all of the upheaval on all fronts. Transplant Thank you to everyone who donated blood or swabbed your cheek to be on the National Bone Marrow donor registry like DKMS or Be the Match. Did you know every 3 minutes, someone in America is diagnosed with a blood cancer? You can save someone's life by getting on the registry with a simple cheek swab. Lance210 interviewed us on his YouTube channel and he brought in over 300 swabbers. Molly from Clean Food Dirty Girl ran my story. Clearview Regional High School allowed us to run a swab drive. We had over 700 people swab for me in person and online and were even featured on Channel 6 News! My husband, sister, family, and friends have been so supportive. I'm truly blessed. If you've been meaning to swab, you can get your free swab kit here. Thanks! I was fortunate to find a perfect match in Germany of all places. It's required to be on the bone marrow donor registry there. My donor is a 25-year-old woman who is studying to be a doctor. I am so grateful for her selfless donation. I checked into the University of Pennsylvania Hospital on March 6, 2020 and they began killing off my diseased bone marrow with heavy-duty chemo. This was right at the beginning of the pandemic when they were shutting everything down and banning visitors to the hospital. My anxiety level was ridiculous, as I didn't know if my donor would catch COVID or if Trump would cancel all of the international flights, and I would be left high and dry. Fortunately, all went well, and on March 17, 2020 they gave me a big, juicy bag of her cells. The transplant was a success. Thank God and everyone for all of your prayers and well wishes!
Since then, I've been home in isolation (like many of you) recovering. Because my donor's blood type is A- and mine was O+, it is taking a while for the new red blood cells to catch up, so I've been relying on blood transfusions every 2 weeks to stay alive. We are hopeful that, as I come off the immunosuppressants, my new cells will start functioning as they should. Fingers crossed. Artwork While recovering, I've been working on finishing up the Endometrial Hyperplasia series and some new paintings, as well as updating my website. I'm excited that my work "Outbreak" (below) was juried into Penn Radnor Hospital's permanent collection.
I love to learn and so I'm doing Art MBA with Bridgette Mayer. I highly recommend it!
Also, I added some drawings from an Irish castle to my new shop. You can see those here. Thank you Laura for your purchase. I hope it looks great in your new home! I'll be doing a studio clear out sale soon. Stay tuned! Family It will be bittersweet to not go back to teaching in September. I am officially retired. I'm so thankful, as I can't imagine having to go back into the classroom without an immune system. I really feel for the teachers, students, and parents dealing with this situation. Sophia will be doing 100% online classes.
Occasionally, we have playdates with her friends and they wear masks to keep everyone safe. She Facetimes them and they play Barbies together. We've been playing lots of board games, going on short hikes, and checked out Great Adventure's Safari again. I haven't been to that place since I was a kid! It really hasn't changed too much.
I've been eating lots of plants and doing yoga. I've also been decluttering my home and just donated lots of things to the local Animal Rescue, Angels of God charity and GreenDrop (Purple Heart). How are you doing? I'd love to hear from you. Sending you lots of love, Kris Check out my work here! Thank you for receiving my newsletter. I'll update you periodically. Please email me any time. I'm excited to hear from you! Contact Me krisosgood@me.com 856-371-9133
Photo of me by Sophia Lamelas (age 7)
