I am so happy to write that I am able to manage long work sessions again. It has taken a while.

Healing from illness and then treatment is indeed a long journey but mine I can say has at last turned the corner into good health.

I wish I could hold these feelings forever, contrast is the most apparent when it begins and comes after its opposite.

A few months ago I was able to complete two new pieces of larger work.

Intense hours are part of this process and fine details made over and over to get them right requires a large amount of concentration and patience.

The ability to immerse into the work brought a sense of timelessness and a deep quiet that fills my soul. I had forgotten how deeply I enrich my life from this place.

This, for me, is making art.

“I remember this” I found myself saying, but to recognize it as having not been there made it all the richer and more profound.

Recovery is my gift of this time.

The story might have gone so many ways, but now, as I feel and see myself returning to a place I lived before the illness I find the ending worth all the time and struggle to arrive.

I can only say this is far more than I expected. A surprise and a reveling in what I took for granted.

The sweet little characters I loved to make are also back.

It was something everyone told me “to do” while I was (let’s call it) “away” and as much as I heard this and wanted to make these guys, they were not available to me … I am grateful that I never questioned this, I just could not do it.

One cannot turn the “genuine” switch on and off, it is a mix of energy and heart that I dedicated this work to when I began to bring them to life. Ridiculously sentimental but true.

I am again working with this gracious gift and more than before, must treat it with respect and gratitude.

Life is so precious.

Here are the new little pieces “in process”, if you click on any of the images they will open in a slide show

They are not completely finished but are far enough along to post and let out for a test flight into the big world of blogger sky …

The series I have called “FLYING LESSONS” as I relearn the skills of attending to the work. I am simply the navigator and delighted maker, and they once again are asking to fly.

I hope you enjoy these new characters.

You will recognize them.

Growing in ways I had not known I would … let us take lessons

xo