A best friend of mine is the genteel repository of her family's precious history and heirlooms.  Over the forty years we've been friends I've watched (and appreciated!) as generations of jewelry, silver, china, diaries and letters have been entrusted to her.  Of all the precious items passed her way my favorite is a collection of letters, written in the 1840's to her great grandfather.  They were from his family in England after he had immigrated to America.  In this day of cell phones and email it is humbling, and somewhat soothing to imagine the efforts once put into communicating with loved ones flung afar.  The handwriting is exquisite...flourishes galore.  The language is rich...poetic.  And then there's that red wax seal... But the light that makes this eye shine is the planning and execution of a simple letter.  Because postal rates were expensive a single sheet of paper was used.  That one piece of paper was folded in such a way as to have a block of space for the 'envelope'.  The rest of the sheet, front and back, was covered in writing.  After they covered the space writing in one direction they turned the sheet 90 degrees and wrote across the words they had just written.  The image above is one such letter.  On some letters they even turned the page again at a 45 degree angle and wrote some more. 

I love these letters, and pictures I took of them have been in my "Inspire" folder for a long time.  When cleaning out that same leather trunk in which I found the beads I came across some studies I had done for a planned, but not realized, series of paintings...a tribute to these letters and what they represent.  Just as I did with the beads I pulled the studies out, and now find myself revisiting past inspiration. 

There's a muse calling my name.  Spring has arrived, the easel sits on the newly cleaned and organized screen porch.  The time has come for a new series.  I have a feeling this one is going to be different from any past, and I'm excited to see what grows.  Stay tuned...the thumbnail at the top of the journal is the beginning.  I will post images as the work develops and use this space to hear what it is saying to me.  Come on along...the journey may be fun and interesting.  I'd love to hear what you have to say, too.