I like to work at night in my shop.                I like the strong directed light                spreading evenly in the grain                of the work at hand,                and in the patient glittering edge                followed                through night toward radiant                foothills.   —Derek Lamson, 1982 [more]

It’s fascinating for me to describe how a quilt comes to being: it begins as a subconscious collection of four or five fabrics, usually, and then I start to become aware of the collection that’s been swelling, and begin to do it more consciously. The quilt you see in the picture is a collection of fabrics from many sources: fabrics acquired on trips, fabric cut from clothing that didn’t fit after all, clothing bought at... [more]

Modern Ark (watercolor) by Margaret Kellermann [more]

I am alone in a small town in Texas, working for the Company, an introvert, living in a hotel, eating alone in restaurants, defaulting to invisibility rather than seeking out relationship.  The last thing I want to do is call attention to myself.   But still the creative spark burns.  Creativity and ego have been locked in an uneasy dance for over 40 years.  Sometimes there’s just a nanosecond between the spark and the thought,... [more]

Considering Water:                                 I settled deep into my body                                              feeling my way into prayer                                              for the waters of Japan.                               And the waters there, so injured                                              by the radiation they have absorbed                                              while helping humans harness atomic energy                to  power all manner of uses,                                                             both good and of dubious value,                                              echoed my prayer for their healing                                                             back to me, still in prayer, in my body.  ... [more]

Once I went to a birthday party. We were invited at this party to engage in a process called Soul Collage. We found images from magazines to use in collage that represented the journey we were on at this time.  I was happy to be there. This was my kind of party with my Friends- symbolic, process oriented, artistic, and metaphoric. Yes, I was ready and happy be there.   My husband had been recently... [more]

I’ve heard that there’s nothing new under the sun, and that’s certainly true of Minding the Light. Our Collective Journal is a recent offshoot from a river of Light that Quakers have drawn from and written about for centuries.   Here’s what I know of the story.   When I came to West Hills over 20 years ago, my faith in God was based largely on personal experience, and I was thrilled to hear the story of George... [more]

When I read the query for this chapter, I began thinking about my artistic and creative journeying.  I love to paint, collage, sculpt, perform, write, speak, assemble, weave, design, sew.  I wanted to tell a great story of something I had created and how it had been in response to the Light.  But while trying to narrow in on one specific creation, I realized that all of the creative work I do is in response... [more]