Joseph Campbell wrote that the goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. What the artist must render, he wrote,  is a living moment somehow, a living moment actually in action or an inward experience.

This is the remarkable thing that Maria has done with her new quilt, the “Goddess Intuition Quilt.” She assures me that this is a quilt that will not sell, it is much too  different, I bet her $5 it will sell, and quickly. It is, to me, an amazing act of creation and personal evolution.

The creative act is not hanging on to one notion, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward. Awe and fear and authenticity.

Art and creativity are often the manifestations of the spirit and inner life of the artist. That is true of my blog, my photos, it is true of Maria’s quilts, potholders and hanging pieces. This morning, I went into her studio to get a photograph of her latest creation, the powerful result of her own efforts to find her strength, voice and freedom.

Maria has been on a powerful hero journey as long as I have known her. She was once voiceless and afraid, her very powerful artistic impulse shut down, she wrestled with depression and lived her life according to the visions and demands of others. Goddesses have a lot of meaning for her, so does the ability to trust one’s own intuition. She speaks about it in her own words on  her own blog.

The quilt is a triumph of personal expression, Maria is always yielding to a new creative movement, she is always seeking to understand her life, her pain, her evolution as an artist, and that work is always appearing in her creations. This one is important, it is very exciting thing for me to see. This one is different, it somehow marks the evolution of a frightened and suppressed female spirit into a true goddess, into an artist who never stops growing. I’m happy to share it with you, and scoop her again.