It's the small things that count . . .

Patterns
collage on watercolor paper
collograph remnant, rice papers, silk remnant

Whooeee! This morning I found a very small thing that made me very happy -- a little red dot beneath my collage in the 12th International Collage Exchange & Exhibit! To think that somewhere in the world, someone said Yes, I would like to own that work. Whoever they are, many heartfelt thanks to you from a struggling artist who undergoes serious self-doubts almost as frequently as there are full moons and high tides!

Oddly enough, I am home today because my car was doing a shuffle at red lights and stop signs. Coming home late last night from a board meeting, I wasn't quite sure I would make it. So today, up early and driving downhill with both feet, one on the gas, one on the brake, hoping it wouldn't die before I reached the garage. Then a walk home in the rain (a light one, thank goodness) without an umbrella.

But it was one of those spring mornings when the light rains are more like a mist, the birds are carousing and the tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths and magnolias are in full bloom. The crabapples are beginning to bud forth, as well as the cherry trees.

First Light

When I got home, I went downstairs into my work area and started straightening the messes I left from last weekend, just puttering. The music was playing and incense was filling the space with a light scent of pine. Suddenly I had this sense of ease, of being "home" in this space, although it tends to be a bit dim at times. I felt that I would go back to some works I had set aside, I gessoed over others that weren't working and then decided to check my blog.

And there it was -- the little red dot. A sign perhaps? A gift certainly.

Pleasure is spread through the earth
In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.
~William Wordsworth