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Do you ever think, I wish I would have learned how to do that?
Often, this kind of self-talk has held us back, perhaps through much of our lives. It has stopped us from learning or doing or creating or enjoying at all kinds of ages.
When I first met Mary Craik in her Louisville home, she was in the middle of a remodeling project. Her husband was in poor health, but she was building a large sunroom to hold giant sewing machines for creating artistic quilts. She was in her late 70s, and I thought then, That is how I want to live — believing that it is worth it to keep thinking big!
Mary, who lived to age 95, had done many important things in her life before she started her artistic career; she called fiber artistry her third career at around age 70. Her fiber art was sometimes whimsical and sometimes political.
I am inspired by the courage of people who keep creating, keep learning. I marvel at the 80-year-old cello student of my daughter-in-law. I reflect on my mother learning pottery and then investing in a pottery wheel and kiln in her 60s.
Not only does creating help us experiment with the world, tell our stories, or even learn more about ourselves, it also creates a legacy. Future generations can hold creations in their hands. I have a quilt that was made by an ancestor three generations before me. I hold a carving made by my uncle. I hang a painting by my mother. I have a wheelbarrow pushed (full of bulbs) by my Aunt Mary. I own a genealogy written by my grandmother.
All these things help remind me of who I am, but also of how they saw the world.
— Anita Oldham, Editor-in-chief
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