Perhaps.

As shown in the photo I have completed a wooden post card for auction and fundraising at ESSA's Incredible Edible Fundraising event. This Sunday we will also celebrate the organization's first 20 years. As I suggested to my co-founders 20 years ago, we did not need to start big, but we did need to get started. So we started as a school without walls and had only a few scheduled classes.

No we have a 60 acre campus and a number of buildings and are growing in service to our community. We are growing, not only because of our new wood shop, but because of a wonderful staff and volunteers.

Please join us at ESSA on Sunday, March 25 from 3-6 PM for our celebration. Unless I'm mistaken, I'll be demonstrating some simple wood turning techniques.

When I went to the Eureka Springs post office to select a stamp for my "work of postal art," I went through all the stamps available and selected the "celebrate," stamp to represent the celebration of our 20th anniversary. The card is made of layers of veneers. The outermost veneer is birdseye maple, and the inside of the curved form is burled and quilted cherry. Bid on it and it may become yours.

This is the third one in a series of cards done for Incredible Edible events over the last three years. It was hand cancelled by a postal clerk at the Eureka Springs Post Office. She told me, "you'll need more stamps if you plan to mail this." I told her, "this is art, and not to be mailed." Is it art? What is art? Is it something that touches us in some way that we cannot fully grasp or comprehend? Perhaps.

I have been working at ESSA, getting it ready for the spring and summer classes, and finishing walnut boxes in the home wood shop.

The plastic garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean is now noted to be 16 times the size it had been previously thought. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastic_us_5ab3bba5e4b008c9e5f4e5b7 

"Around 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year – the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck’s worth into the seas every minute for a year. Once in the ocean, much of this waste is pulled into huge areas known as the five “gyres” – one of which is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – where circular currents allow the trash to accumulate, circulate and slowly break down." 

It's a shame more useful stuff is not made from wood instead, and of sufficient beauty and quality to be treasured for generations. But that would require that we train fresh generations of American craftsmen. Are we ready? We don't need to start big, but we do need to start.

Make, fix, create and inspire others to learn lifewise.