MORNINGSTAR STUDIO

Kwai, Nidobak

Over the past year I have felt old beyond my years with all the aches and pains, surgery and challenges of rehabilitation and healing.  But the past few days have been the kind of days I always look forward to.  The fall air, crisp and clear, has been right for encouraging yard preparations for winter.  And it comes as I enter a new state of my life.  I will turn sixty-five on November 9th, but my husband and friends surprised me with a party on Sunday.  We don't do a lot of parties and I had absolutely no clue that this was coming.

With the grace of the museum, I was lured there to return something and maybe pop in on a seminar on the Northeast Woodlands.  Of course, it was a ruse and I was taken completely off guard to see my friends and family there.  We were so surprised that we completely forgot to do prayer before the meal. I do hope Creator will understand.

It was a much needed reprieve from the many hours alone, working or sleeping through painful periods alone.  I am currently working on a long project.  It is a larger gourd then I have done before and has much more burning on the surface.  The challenge is always to push oneself further with each piece and this one certainly is further then I have gone in the past.

The most recent news was that my hands have advancing arthritis.  While this wasn't unexpected news, I did not expect it to have advanced as far as it has, so now I am going to stop doing the small decorative pieces and concentrate on the larger, more meaningful pieces I have been trying to get to for the past three years.  Once I began to hear the clock ticking on the use of my hands, I decided it is now or never.  I have worked all my life for this moment and it is now time to put forth my best. 

I hope people will like the work.  It will still incorporate Northeast Woodland designs, but will begin to illustrate the life ways and more as time goes by.  The research has been done; I have learned about wood burning and working on gourds.  Now, it is time to bring it all together in larger pieces.

It will take more time per piece, but I hope people will patiently anticipate each piece as they are completed. 

Morningstar