pARTake \ pär-ˈtāk \ (verb) to take part in or experience something along with others
Welcome to pARTake, the newsletter about art, books, food, and middle-age badassery.
Who am I?
Hi, I’m Maureen, an artist, cookbook author, liposarcoma survivor, concerned climate citizen, wife, and mom to Cooper, a feisty, loveable wire fox terrier. I’m passionate about food, curious about nature, obsessed with watercolors, and sometimes create whimsical sea creature art to support plastic pollution awareness.
I also producing a sixty-piece multi-media exhibition, Wild African Adventures in Art. The show runs from April 12 to May 16, 2024, at Glema Mahr Center for the Arts in Madisonville, Kentucky.
My art studio is a small room with big windows overlooking the woods. When not painting or writing, I enjoy the Kentucky wildlife surrounding our home and walking the trails at the local arboretum with Cooper. I play the piano and acoustic guitar (badly), and I love to cook and kayak. I wear colorful eyeglasses, practice yoga, and bake a righteous fruit galette. Since 2019, I’ve been battling a rare, incurable connective tissue cancer, dedifferentiated liposarcoma. Let me tell you, I am winning.
I’m on the third draft of my memoir about how I manage the life I was dealt with rather than the life I planned. The central question I’m asking in the book is, Who am I without my decades-long food and cooking career?
Why pARTake?
As an artist and writer, I want a place to share what inspires me — a stunning piece of art, great reads, seriously delicious easy recipes, and tips about the creative life with hopes to inspire you. I want a safe place to talk about midlife issues. I want to share poems. Specifically, on the third Sunday of the month, I share MONTHLY VIBES: inspiration on art, books, and food with a personal update on my work and life. MIDWEEK MISSIVES are casual, off-the-cuff essays, memoir pieces that won’t cut my work in progress. I’m considering posting a series from a novel I’ve been working on, The Fish Thief. Chapter One is here.
All issues of pARTake are free. But your generous paid subscription (see below) keeps pARTake sustainable, supports my writing, and helps me buy art supplies.
Become a Paid Subscriber
There are three ways to become a paid subscriber to pARTake:
$5 per month buys me a cappuccino or goes toward the cost of a new paintbrush.
A $50 annual subscription (on average, $1.66 per letter) gets you two (5x7, matted to 8 x 10) watercolor prints from my Vulnerable Wildlife series. Species include Grevy’s Zebra, Leopard, Rothschild giraffe, and Wild African Giraffe. Signed limited edition (only to 25) while supplies last. Art ships flat, and shipping is included in your paid annual subscription. Once these limited edition prints run out, I’ll offer another cool art benefit.
The Founder Level is $300, and you get an art commission, which includes a 30-minute Zoom and three passes on edits. Art ships flat, and shipping is included in the US. Additional shipping rates apply for International destinations.
Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me and my work. If you’d like to learn more, discuss my art for a gallery event, or buy my salmon cookbook, email me at maureencberry@gmail.com. Let’s connect on socials: I’m on Facebook, Instagram, and occasionally TikTok, or sign up for pARTake now and never miss an update.
XO Maureen
Stay curious. Stay safe. Make an impact.
