Packing up the studio and cleaning the cottage was a good time to think about the experience of being away from 'real life' for three weeks. The first Thursday evening there, time was spent with a group of artists in the Garden Studio talking about our work. That experience has stayed with me and I am most thankful to have had the company of such welcoming artists/people.
Marcy Brenner---writer, musician Ingrid Magnuson---visual artist (poet)
Carol Lea Clark---writer David Simpson and company---poet, musician, playwright
Donna Mintz---visual artist Thomas Bell---writer
Catherine Reid---writer
"...In the three days that followed, breaking bread with all of you was a joy and a reminder that grace is still among us. The moon was moving at this triad, ripe and going through the timeless revolution of darkening and lightening, and the culmination of that Thursday night was the sharing of thoughts, feelings, and the varying words each had taken to arrive. Small things revealed about and among us and we all gelled, in my mind, in a moment of magic. Goodbyes were said that night and the next, and people returned to daily lives, far different from the intimacy of solitude and creating.To all you writers with whom I spent such a short time, you reminded me of two small projects of line and words done quietly years ago when clay was not at my disposal. Each is now wrapped in old clothing, packed away in moth-balled boxes, residing in the damp closet of my current home, I think of them and consider pulling them out for another look. That, though is just a fancy as clay now will take the center stage for a while, but one day the influence of listening to your words may give those projects new life.
...To each of you present that night, my heart-felt thanks and maybe one day, soon, we will chance on one another on this winding road". ...