Denise Jenkins Dedication

When Holly and I were talking about dedicating each track on our Scottish CD to someone we cared about, Denise was the first that came to mind. Denise Jenkins, artist extraordinaire!

I met Denise a couple years ago at an Irish session at Ceols Irish Pub in Reno. From the very beginning I was attracted to her vivacious energy, child – like enthusiasm and tenacious determination.

She is the most artistically well rounded person I know and I am always incredibly impressed with her finished products. Her beautiful jewelry, gorgeous paintings, and collaborative fiddle playing are an inspiration to me.

Denise, Holly and I have shared many wonderful times together, including our yearly trips to the Grass Valley Celtic Festival and our visit to Apple hill for pottery buying, wine tasting and general cavorting. We had a trip to Carmel and Monterey planned for March which we unfortunately had to cancel due to the Coronavirus. We were going to visit wineries and art galleries and do some plein air painting (Denise and Holly painting and me reading a book with a glass of wine in hand) but I guess we’ll just have to wait till things get back to normal again.

We have spent countless hours at Ceols playing together at the Irish sessions and then afterwards shooting the breeze at different restaurants and bars nearby including Noble Pie Pizza, Death & Taxes, and the Whiskey Lounge… good times all. And Scotland!! Thanks to Denise’s amazing planning skills, we enjoyed a fabulous 2 weeks in beautiful Scotland. I’ve devoted an entire blog post to Scotland, coming up in a couple weeks.

Denise’s jewelry is to die for. Here’s a link to her Instagram: page.https://www.instagram.com/metaldreamer.denise/

And her artwork…wow. I remember going to one of Denise’s art gallery openings in Carson City, when I first met her, and was blown away by the beautiful landscapes she painted. She has another gallery opening coming up, this time of incredibly life-like animals of all shapes and sizes (see below). The opening will be on the Artsy Fartsy Art Gallery Facebook Page on Thursday May 21.

We chose the Flora McDonald and Fair Maid of Oban track for Denise because she found the tunes and brought them into the session and was soooo excited to share them. Her excitement was infectious and they have been happily adopted into our repertoire.