Change – sometimes it takes looking back, to see where we have come… As many of you know, dear followers and collectors, in the past three, years I have changed my art medium. I’m still creating the figure, but instead of the plethora of materials that I used before, I have simplified.

Later than usual this year, my first outdoor show in many months was early June in Iowa City.  After my 5+ hour drive, unloading and setting up my tent in the full sunny 98 degree day — all by 5PM, I opened my heart and art to the dauntless art appreciators (thanks Iowa City for showing up and making a great show happen!).

Earlier this month, I again participated in the amazing “Art as Journey” group lead by artist Elizabeth Erickson at Grand Marais Art Colony. Held in a converted church uphill from the harbor on magnificent Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota, it is an opportunity to have guided focus and explore personal art practice for four days.

All month, snow and cold, and cold and snow had tried our collective spirits. Because there is really nothing we can do, waiting becomes a kind of surrender. I watched my daughter, Antara surrender with grace and wit as her “spring” wedding day was slammed with a historic blizzard with snowfall over 15 inches! Rich with stories, it has become even more magical and memorable.

Art can change the world is a bold statement, and in my heart of hearts, I know it is true. Can I prove it? There are many instances where an image, a story, a book or music has galvanized protest or revolution. But just by asking for “proof”, I am invoking the objective, fact based mentality that is so prevalent in our culture today.

It was a good old fashioned snow storm — over 12 inches of snow in one day! White blanketed everything: schools closed, skiers whisk by on unplowed side streets, gleeful kids sliding in the park, everyone shoveling or snowblowing, cars stuck, even buses in a snowbank. What is this strange and tenacious frozen stuff?

As I look back on this last year, it has been filled with struggles and also many blessings. It is heartbreaking to witness the frightening and unpredictable decisions of our misguided leaders. It is galvanizing to act, resist and sometimes see change.

Back in the familiar, those traveled, far away lands feel like a sweet, strange dream. So I bring back the memories and images to enliven my daily life so that I still carry that sense of adventure, where everything is new, unexpected, up to interpretation!

My studio is a smallish, cozy 1/2 of the upstairs of our humble home in South Minneapolis, with skylight, and windows overlooking the neighborhood. I have been creating here for 25 years!

I love my hands, so grateful for our common prehensile possibilities. I rejoice in all that hands can do — and yet, there is a point where our original tool needs some support. That is when I reach, almost automatically to extend my hand, for one of my favorite tools.

I have been contemplating the line: a moment better than this is impossible to find –and found myself wondering, which moment is this? Is it the moment when the moon, like deep awareness, reveals meaning of the unknown? Or is it the darkness itself? Or is it just being alive, and present to every moment — no matter what that moment brings…

Breaking seems to be the “theme” of last month. It started when my dear daughter fell and fractured her ankle in three places, followed by my niece and two friends also falling and “breaking”. While not on the same level, for the first time was the sad sight of my one of my clay pieces — broken!