Be true to yourself...always

Jane Austen wrote" We all have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person". Some how these words were comforting after self doubt and a loss filled my soul with the nonacceptance, rejected or denied notice in the mail. Today I realize with rest and a little time to catch up on priorities Jane Austen's words soothe the savage beast. I went back to work and that is the magic four letter word. Everything comes from the work! I heard these words today from an artist who I have admired for the years.

I participated in another web cam hour with the mixed media artists around the globe, a wonderful artist: Lesley Riley. We had a rough start due to technical difficulties I really didn't understand but patience is a virtue and today it paid off. Lesley Riley has written three books and is beginning the negotiation for her fourth. I love and I am sure you have reviewed her 2006 book Quilted Memories. Her fragments explore journals, quilt making, and creating keepsakes in fiber. She has a child like approach; playful and a discovery journey employing your images, photos and possible drawings. Learning to see, exercises, examples and wonderful thought provoking quotes to inspire the artist to reach inside themselves and believe in yourself. We spoke briefly about the actual getting started and making room for making Art every day. Her visual journals excite the viewers and remind us to remember in our collecting our evidence to create our personal mementos. Shared creative influences and photographs and exciting colors all were universal inspirations if we give ourselves the time to make our sacred marks. Lesley informed everyone about artistic transfer materials ATP and a material called Lutradur for an improved photo image transfer that can be used on all kinds of materials. As soon as I was completed with the conference I ordered new books and the new materials . They may be familiar for some of you out there but to me they sounded like a wonderful new art material. I even won a prize in a silly contest but all the more reason to be thrilled about employing some of her advice and techniques in my on going work for my meaningful exhibit new Spring.

I began making my rustful pieces this afternoon and will know more tomorrow how successful I have been and already found another source of rust transfer to try.

A dear friend brought me a new day lily to plant outside my backdoor and hopefully protect from my nightly visitors ...my ever growing herd of Ohio White tail deer. Thank you Vicki for your kindness and consideration...I love my friendship perennials I have gathered over the last 23 years. I have smaller tick seed to put into my limited borders and a beautiful promise of color to greet my new morning start. I need to go to continue my quilt as she slowly reveals her own spirit with one stitch at a time! Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart