On Saturday night, under the full moon, Jeff and I attended the monthly Jerome Art Walk. It happens in the early evening of the first Saturday of the month, and we try to get up to the ghost town’s event whenever we can. We visited the galleries that were open for the evening, checking out the new pieces and enjoying the works we’ve seen before.

Eventually, we made our way down to the Jerome Artist’s Cooperative. As we wandered through the store, we simultaneously turned around, and said, in unison, “Wow!” The artist, Mary Jardine, walked up and replied, “That’s what I like to hear.”

We discovered that she’s the featured artist of the month at the Coop, and  creates landscapes from fabric. I’ve seen this done before, using fabric sewed together to make lovely tapestry type pictures. But what Mary does is unique and innovative. She uses paper mache, fabric and recycled materials to form 3-dimensional landscape hangings that stand out and look amazing. Her work, and the other artists from the Coop, can be viewed at JeromeArtistsCoop.com.

While we were at the Coop, I also bumped into my writing teacher and former neighbor, Bennie Blake. I hadn’t seen her for several years. In 1983, a couple of months after I moved to Sedona, I joined her writing class through the local community college and studied with her for several semesters.

Her class was wonderful, enlightening and educational, and I met many people there who became my friends. It’s where I learned to edit my work and to freewrite (or what’s also called “journaling) to break through blocks. Every time I write an article for my newsletter, magazine, or write a chapter of a book, I send mental thanks to that class and to Bennie for what she taught me. It was such a gift to reconnect with her again.