Dina, what can I say? You are a true friend. (Can I hire you to be my agent?)

You are truly the Mother Earth of the art world !! I love how you spin and weave the various doyennes in your life into greater things – TRUE confidence! Not a jealous or covetous bone in your body, girl !! Your motto is, “Not only will I make it good for myself, but I will bring along the whole of mine and what I find delightful of the Earth with me.”

Surely, you must be blessed amongst women and artists because you promote, encourage, champion and cheer on the inumerable talented folk of various srtipe who gravitate to you. I’ve known you to outfit, kit, and supply artists just starting and shy of experience and funds with mountains of supplies and advice and encouragement that could not have been less than dear in cost and time. “Do it! Create!” , “This is how you accomplish that.”, “The best way to get your art out there is to….”

You have promoted and endowed the unknown and upcoming and exhausted of all of us with a motherly prod of confidence. This is the real purpose of mentoring art and creativity in all forms from the guileless spirit of one who truly makes and lives art.

This is the mark of true confidence to me: “I do well and I want you to do so as well.” That you love and nurture the muse in each of the ones of us who come to you, Alabama Mama of Art that you are, is a gift and a blessing. My wish is to grow up to be like you – as selfless and talented an artist and as shameless a promoter as I have observed you to be over and over again throughout all the years I have know you.

That there must be a giant biscuit of a prize made in a Dutch oven over an open fire of confidence in your name is redoubtless. I hope to mentor, encourage and help a tenth as many on the path of creativity as you have.

You are my example, a sister, and an map of do unto others as any holy person I have known. And to the rest of you out there, when I tell you that this is a nascent being without a selfish bone in her Southern Belle body, it is accurate to a fault and to be admired as exemplar.

The Other She has spoken,
D