I recently returned from a teaching trip to Morocco. When I teach workshops, I encourage each individual to use their own voice and style; to draw inspiration from the location and experiences. I don’t teach a project that will look the same. I share techniques and help each person fit that to their own story. I also talk a lot about art as a visual form of storytelling. What I rediscovered through watching everyone work together and share the travel experience was the various stages of travel and how it relates to creating. These stages can occur over different time frames. [...]

I bet you remember the day when you saw the news about the fire. My heart lurched and it reminded me of other international catastrophes. The day was April 15th, 2019 and I was recently in Paris at the 4-year anniversary of the Notre-Dame fire. On that day back in 2019 I watched and hoped that the rose window would be spared. It was even though the spire and the lead roof fell to the ground. The restoration is proceeding, and the cathedral is expected to open in late 2024.   As I walked around the cathedral reading the information placed on placards [...]