Nancy Paul

Made Under Threat of War: I hadn't intended to enter this challenge. Vietnam was my generation's sad war and I thought it best to leave it at that.. But one morning I listened to an interview with an Iraqi farmer--the family owned an orange grove. His concerns were exactly the same as those of any grower in, say, Florida. He wanted to make a living for his family and maybe
enjoy a bit of life along the way. It seems that's what most people want: to have enough food, enough laughter, and a time to create a bit of beauty--not necessarily extraordinary works of art--just pleasing, comforting objects to enhance one's daily routines. And yet it seems that creative urge is periodically thwarted by war and beauty is laid to waste. The story repeats over and over throughout history. You'd think we'd learn, but we don't seem too. The stylized doves are reminiscent of a motif from a quilt I made for my young sons years ago, in the hopes that their generation would be spared the horrors of war. Yet here we are again.