"Your whole past was but a birth and becoming." Antoine de Saint Exupery

January 2008

I have been packing and sorting, an artist in the studio - me - is like a magnet for saving things. At this time in my life! I am finally getting light, ready to leave this big house and so have finally decided what I love to do is make books and work small. Change and alter life, just like with mixed media - the art process is the same, whether your working on a huge canvas or the page of a book.

We are moving to a small cottage in the center of Lancaster City. Paul has been renovating it for quite some time, he is building in bookcases and it will be compact like a boat. This house reminds me of our first small house, even though it is nothing like it - go figure. Must be the small part, at a different stage of life, we are ready to downsize and see what the future brings.

Maybe simplicity, or living simply holds all the answers today. It is to live more purposely, and deliberately. I think it involves a new consciousness. It is paying attention to the things that are important to both me and my husband. Having a relationship with all the many aspects of our lives. consuming less, eating healthy foods, nourishing body and soul, living in a city and walking around. Going to market, seeing friends and neighbors, all the things we need are just a short walk away.

Art making and creativity is confronting life clearly without distractions, each and every day. My collages are being incorporated into the books and the page becomes a surrealist balancing act. I collect and images and objects the visual personal memory of the present. Sometimes the books are covered in wax, more like artifacts from another time and place.

I am writing more and more poetry and today, I put paper white bulbs in bowl on the sunny ledge in the kitchen and I will watch them bloom...like the bulbs, it is an unfolding balance between the inner and outer aspects of life.

Altering the page of a book is like a recipe for living. A person never knows what will be, and then the page turns. I imagine all that goes into an altered book also goes into daily life. I will try to update these pages more frequently so you can see what art I am making in the process.

My work has been exhibited in the UK, Jamaica, Germany, New Zealand and in many cities in the United States. In early December 2007, I had a solo show at Gallery Bolivar in Kingston, Jamaica -- The Possibility of Zero, a collection of paintings and poems.

In 2007, I won Best in Mixed Media in the Manhattan Arts International "HerStory" competition. The piece was an altered book cover, and maybe this was the beginning of my new direction. Changing Sky was mixed media on antique book cover with wax and found object. It was part of a series -- using old book covers, wax and found objects. Each book cover was a political statement, maybe the novel is yet to be written. My people are gazing toward the sky, hoping for answers to the mess that has been made on earth, with war and the continued destruction of the environment. I hope you will join me in working to be that change, which will add hope to the future! For our children and their children, for generations to come. Maybe then, one day in the near future we will become a civilized society, caring for the earth and all those who live on our planet...in peace and hope for a changed tomorrow!"

My books are included in the Jaffe Book Arts Collection, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida; The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete & Visual Poetry, Miami, Florida; Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Free Library of Philadelphia, PA - Jump Start - Launching an Artist Book Collection.

A file on my work exists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in D.C.

Check back every month or so, there will be new pictures of my studio and our house. And my offer still stands, if you need an idea for dinner, send me an email and I will send you a recipe. I love cooking, the way the aroma goes through the house...it brings up good memories...and memories are truly what life is about.