This year was hard. I lost both of my remaining Grandparents within 3 months of each other. My Grandpa Wally wasn’t well so it wasn’t a shock, but my Grandma Donna going shortly after him was unexpected. She was an extremely creative and unique woman who lit the flame of creativity in me as a child. But even as this year seemed to drag by so slowly in the hard times, I’m reminded that although their flames have extinguished, they live on. Through the flames they lit inside me and the people they touched they continue to bring light to this world. In my work and everything I do and create, they are a part of it. Their blood flows through me and their light shines wherever I go. And whenever my candles have melted and my flames go out, I’ll live on through the people whose lights I’ve lit, and so will they.
So this one is for Donna May Ulmer, Walter Edwin Ulmer, Frank Joseph Thomas, & Rosalind Marie Thomas: My Grandparents. They shine through all of my work, whether they like it or not.