Unexpected Gratitudes

You never know when a newsletter in an inbox ... perhaps yours ... might strike a chord that leads to a new insight, a new gratitude

Sometimes life feels like the tides moving in and out, up and down, directed by a far away something that I don’t understand. It’s the same waters, but sometimes they’re here and sometimes they’re there. Both their comings and goings tend to be a surprise to me.

Art is one of those waters that has ebbed and flowed for me. Childhood was a long, low tide state where making art was not even a conceptual glimmer. One day in early adulthood, however, a friend took me to an art supply store and demanded that I buy stuff to paint with. Years of frustration and disappointment followed until I discovered digital collage. 

After that, the tides alternated between making art and writing, until Covid sparked  the idea of creating a words-and-art book about that strange time. (Since there wasn’t much else to be done anyway.) The result was Corona Wisdom and I was hooked on “little books”

That began a love affair with little books and magazines, until I discovered Substack and writing took over again. This morning, the tide rolled in a bit when I found a newsletter (not Substack) in my inbox from Clara Nartey, an artist I discovered when I was creating an art-and-words small magazine called The Granary Tree. 

Clara shared a new piece of art from her “Joy of Living” series and it reminded me of how much joy I found in discovering new artists, and how much joy I’m finding in discovering the voices of new-to-me writers on Substack. Suddenly, pieces started falling into place. More of that in just a minute. First, I want you to meet Clara. Here are the pages I wrote about her in The Granary Tree:

Embroidery and quilt artist Clara Nartey

To see the new piece she shared this morning, please click here. Her work is exquisite regardless of medium, however, it should be especially interesting to fabric artists, quilters, and embroidery artists.

Back to the tides. Clara reminded me of my love for combining words and art which suddenly put the new work I’m doing for Substack into a different light. I’m on the second issue of a small magazine titled: Substack Field Guide.

The intent of this Field Guide is to help newsletter writers integrate the inner workings of Substack into a simple marketing process. The process of creating this guide includes integrating words and images. And, once again there’s the joy of finding, as well as encouraging and inspiring, creatives, whether they are artists or writers.

It suddenly struck me that I’m doing the work I want to do, living the life I want to live.

Gratitude Mojo strikes again!