The Importance of Feeding Your Brain

I love to work in my studio. I draw and sketch ideas in a journal I keep with me at all times. I revisit the journal while I am in my studio surrounded by my fabric, thread and the instruments that help me turn that into art. There are times I think I never need to leave the room, everything to keep me alive is in here.

And then there is famine and drought. Weeks will go by and the layer of dust on my Janome 6500 grows thicker. The fabric cries out for love and attention and yet I walk by the door to the studio again.

This week I fed my brain by singing at Sedalia Park Elementary School's Multi-Cultural Arts Day. My husband is a professional musician and we have crafted a clever hour of children's songs.



There is nothing like singing and playing to children. They watch in wide-eyed wonder, they laugh, they sing along even if they don't know the words, they clap, they sway and they enjoy.



The adults always seem a bit confused when I ask them to move to the sides of the room so they are not in my sight-line. But when you are performing to a room full of children, the last thing you want to chance to see is an adult with her arms crossed, or grading papers, or talking. The contrast between the colors of enthusiasm, and the drab of cynicism is jarring and makes me fumble my performance.

Sounds like a quilt doesn't it?

And that is how my brain shows me that it has been fed. It comes up with more ideas than I can possibly execute. And to begin, I need to sign-off, turn the light on to the studio and dust off the Janome.

P.S. One of the two joys of our life was selected to dance on stage on Multi-Cultural Arts Day and her picture is in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. You Go Sarah! http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/0514sedalia.html