On Changing through Art

W. Somerset Maugham wrote, “We are not the same person this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.”

I have changed so much in the past two years since I started quilting again as a serious artist. The amount of dedication, maturity, self-awareness, effort, time, and diligence it takes to do this work was not known to me before. Of course, I love what I do so it doesn’t (often) seem like work to me. But even those times that it does feel that way, I still love it.

I am a different person today than I was two years ago. I would be different anyway, without my art. However, it would be a different quality of change: neither as profound nor as mature. I have changed. I love whom I have become. Even better, the people around me also love this changed person. I thank my art every day for this.