The Ojai Studio Tour is next weekend. I hope you come for a visit. My piece for the “Origins” exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum (OSA’s new Tour home), was a big departure for me. Glass artist Steven Edwards and his lovely wife Pat helped do a face casting of me. This “Origins” piece became very poignant for me, as my two sisters and I have no kids. We’re the last of our line. And this year has been full of multiple health issues for my closest family members (now all doing well, thank goodness!), but as I worked on this piece, it made me think a lot about our family.

When it came to making “hair” for the piece, I began trawling through old photographs and letters. The “hair” is pleated letters from friends from UK and Europe – Mrs. Sim, my dear flatmate and landlady when I lived in Haymarket Terrace in Edinburgh, and my dear friends, the Gobbos, from Padova. It became a poignant look back – and looking forward – with my glass cast open hand holding three orchids – my two sisters and me being blown onward – to what? To where? Whatever lies ahead….A mystery…