When we talked about the galleries, we thought there should be one focusing on children. What I found in going through my work was that I’ve done a lot of images about children and a lot for children, particularly in the children’s books, but I have done relatively few images of children. There is the silhouette of a godchild that I’ve worked with many times, seen here twice, reaching out to embrace or greet the world. There is the enchanting child in the labyrinth pointing to the very center. The tintype in the cabbage is from a series on where babies come from and explored the idea that they come from many places and land in many circumstances but that the generations that follow us are all our precious responsibility, our teachers and our delight.

A dear friend who wrote for children, Joy Anderson, once said that,“We seek the child; the child seeks us; the time is short; the time is now.” This mysterious thought has stayed with me as we care for our children and god-children, the wider circles of children and as I try to stay in touch with my youthful concerns and touchstones of truth. The reference to time evokes for me a sense of urgency I feel about the environment and political climate. At the same time I want to create work for children and adults that offers a resting place and a sense of the expansiveness of time that characterized my own childhood,a time when the neighborhood was safe and we drifted toward the warmth of home when the streetlights came on.