Winter Solstice, 2017

My dear friends, I hope you’re having a joyful holiday season. Late dawns and early sunsets invite glorious candlelight. Winter is a good time to rest, and even hibernate some. Darkness brings people together. It doesn’t get much cozier than mulled wine by the fire with friends and family.


WORDS
Here’s a wonderful poem by my friend Lee Upton, called The Major Holidays. Her new collection of stories, Visitations, is described as “poignant, exquisite, and endlessly witty.”  

The talented poet, BJ Ward, taught a creative nonfiction class I took this fall. Check out his poem called, Christmas Eve: In Defense of the Overly Exuberant Lawn Decorations Around Washington, New Jersey🙂

In other news, I’m headed to the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities for a one-week writers-in-residency stay. The main character of my new novel is a furniture maker and so I’ve been spending time reading up on the craft and hanging out with my friend Bob in his shop trying to learn a little more about making stuff out of wood.
ART
My friend Barbara Bjerring has an art studio (called Deeply Flawed) right across the road from my house. I visited her there recently and had camomile tea in one of her handmade mugs. About making art she says, “The artwork comes from an interest in the existence of two simultaneous realities; what we choose to show of ourselves, that which is safe, and what we obscure, that which is dangerous.” More of her ceramics, prints, and fiber art are here.


Another of my neighbors in town is the gifted artist and art teacher Sharon Ferguson. She did these chalk drawings on a blackboard. I’m completely in awe.

My series of narrative paper quilts is coming together and will be shown from March 2 – May 11, 2018 at Nurture Nature Center in Easton, PA. This project is inspired by six women who, like me, are both artists and scientists. At its heart, the quilt series is about identity gained through breaking barriers. Here’s a sneak peek at one of the art quilts in the series:

(I’m grateful for support of this project from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.)

This newsletter comes out four times a year on solstices and equinoxes. If you haven’t already subscribed, you can do that here.

Warm wishes to you and yours,
Kate