Stretching Your Soul

"Not everything you do is going to be a masterpiece, but you get art there and you try and sometimes it really happens. The other times you're just stretching your soul."
---Maya Angelou

And isn't soul-stretching a good thing? Sometimes soul-stretching doesn't feel real good; in fact, sometimes I grow the most from failure. One thing I have learned during years of creating--don't throw away the "failures"---many times I have incorporated parts and pieces of older "failed" artwork in a new piece I am creating. Someone once told me that the Russian artist Kandinsky said something like this: "There are no mistakes in art, because art is free." This struck such a strong chord in me, I never forgot the saying...art is free! yes! Now I'm off to go cut up that "failed" small quilt and sew the "good" parts of it into the current quilt....