Then someone said to us, “If this turns out to be as long as Now What? you’ll have to start a third publication to be the quick and spontaneous one!” - so we hurried that issue out the door. But, a lot has happened since then, so here we are again with more “whatever” . . .

Anyway, while fixing the typo, I was reflecting on how important feedback really is when you offer a “soulwork” to the world. I think creating art is soul work because it is the proferring of that which resides very deep inside - our essence really - and it is so important to be accepted for who we really are. That is why the tiniest negative comment at an art show can weigh in against two whole days of praise - and win the match. Or why most of the artistic abandon we feel as children is drained right out of us by the first teacher who tells us that a house doesn’t look “like that”.

It is the rare artistic soul that can stand up to negative criticism and depend upon their internal critic to know the work is good regardless of what others think. Confidence is only won after years of encouragement and positive feedback - and the pounding of that internal critic into submission. And still, it is a fragile and delicate prize indeed.

Thank you for your amazing, positive feedback - it keeps the ball rolling. (And, in case anybody ever says anything bad, I’ll have it to fall back on ;-)

This whole subject reminded me of a “Dear Me!” cartoon I did the 70’s that says it all, so I unearthed it to share. Some things just never change! (Her/my hair and demeanor were a little more subdued then, however.)

Those of us who are devoted to unmounted rubber stamps throw away heaps of rubber trimmings regularly.

And right there is the best tool for cleaning away excess embossing powder that sticks where it doesn’t belong due to static, dampness or whatever.

We usually use a brush to clean up the powder in the open spaces, but the stray powder doesn’t just stick in the open spaces, and sometimes, the brush creates its own static (here in the dry SouthWest anyway).The small tip of a rubber trimming is just the thing for getting the powder out of tiny spaces without damaging the stamped image.