Loose-Ends

This is now my second school year in retirement. I guess my calendar will always be in “school semester time.” Without many “must-dos”, I now set my own assignments and challenges—usually leaving off any due dates! Most recently, I picked up two large art books that I have had in my possession for some 20 years, but never did more than a quick flip through. A neighbor’s wife, Sara, was an artist and after her death he asked me to come over to pick through her book collection before he donated them to the community library. Now, as I sat down with a cup of coffee and began reading and looking at these two beautiful volumes about the life and art of Martha Mood (1908-1972), I was totally mesmerized! Though she was a photographer (with some painting and sculpture) through much of her career, she turned to creating applique stitcheries her last 13 years. My pulse raced and I was so grateful to find this new “friend” to inspire and challenge me! And where did she lead me? Well, I returned even further back in my history to the mid-nineties while teaching middle and high school and working on my master’s degree. For one grad class called “Independent Studies,” I wrote and illustrated a children’s story about our dog Jake. My work from that class has been tucked away in a box since then and I began searching for it. I had created the illustrations very clumsily in watercolor, being never satisfied. But now! Thanks to Martha Mood! I am happily redoing my illustrations in my “heart-medium” of woven textiles with embroidered details. I don’t know how or when I will figure out a way to get these published, but I really do think that stage will come about in due time.

Don’t you love it when a loose-end starts finding its grand finalé?! And for now, I am totally satisfied even if the finalé isn’t grand at all!