midwinter, surrounded
some are not creative,
by snow-covered trees
talented or artistic has
and trails searching for
squelched and stran-
rare standing dead high
gled the best of ideas
desert juniper, my hus-
for thousands of years.
band and I were once
Judgment is the thief of
surrounded by a herd
our joy and creativity
of what must have been
because it interferes
hundreds of elk!
with our ability to listen
Sweating in the
to and trust our selves.
low desert in dangerous-
That judge is always
ly high heat, wondering
yabbering away on our
what the hell I was do-
shoulders. “That’s so
ing there and swearing
stupid, you’re going to
I’d never do this again,
ruin it!” It never goes
the rarest of translucent
away. Invite that voice
purple alabasters sighted
to keep the noise level
out of the corner of
down.
my eye revealed itself!
If this all sounds
That’s what I was doing
theoretical and stodgy,
“Illumined Earth.” Sitting in the dark, the glow of this hand-carved fluted
there!
here’s what it feels like
White Arizona Alabaster bowl invites us to enter the stillness within.
I am so grateful to
viscerally. Say this out
be doing what I love, to
loud, or shout it from the
be working with these magnificent
hills: I am a free person! The very first
piece so that its highest integrity and
materials and to bring beauty into
moment I started carving, I realized
beauty can be revealed.
the world. This doing what we love
that I could do whatever I wanted and
Once we step into the process of
is available to all of us. It is the portal
no one could tell me it was wrong... no
fulfilling our dreams and doing our
through which we learn and experi-
one could tell me it didn’t look like a
own work rather than someone else’s,
ence the breadth and the depth of
horse. The possibilities were and still
we create our own job and quite often
life’s great mystery. How fortunate
are endless. Being on a roll with your
jobs for others. Be self-employed or
are we? When we do what we love,
creative process, even through what
do your own work within the con-
whatever that is, we grow in peace
might seem like a block, feels like an
text of an organization, business or
within ourselves and bring peace to
exploration, a discovery, a revelation!
institution. As human beings we’re
the world.
The doing is the teacher.
not made to be doing or competing
From the moment I set eyes on
Alabaster’s beauty, elegance, sub-
stance, feel, translucence, palette and
figure, it moved and fascinated me.
I love working with my hands and
playing with the extravagant beauty
of natural materials. They have a life
of their own. It’s not all my idea. Ideas
are cheap—everybody has them. It’s
the actual work, the interplay of the
elements between the maker and
the material that imbues life into the
32 IMAGINE l Spring 2017
for jobs machines can do. Each of us
has the opportunity to create our own
dreams and to follow them. Making
them manifest will create the jobs of
the future.
Doing what I love, I have been
so fortunate to trek into some of the
most magnificent wilderness areas
in the United States, unearthing
crystalline and brilliantly colored
alabasters from high canyon walls
and craggy canyon rubble piles. In
Suan Zalkind is a wild woman. Unable to
follow directions and finding herself unem-
ployable, she had to reach inward to uncover
her path. When she began carving she found
home. By revealing the beauty of Alabaster
she was given the gift of fulfilling her own
vison of beauty. Susan was chosen the 2017
winner of the the National Association of
Women Artists’ Direct Carving Award. PBS
featured her work which can be viewed at
her website: www.alabaster.net