I’ve been wanting to do a monthly blog post featuring the people I have met on my travels. I am not sure why, but it just seems like a fun idea to me.

I meet so many interesting people. Many of them have become email pen pals, or happy hour/coffee time phone friends. Some of them I see once a year for dinner at the Crow Barn or IQA. And some of them are one time chance encounters.

I have a little box full of business cards. Every month–or, you know, when I get around to it–I am going to pull five business cards randomly out of my box and share them with you. Who knows who we will meet.

This month’s selection includes some dear friends and some dear memories. First, I would like to introduce you to Margy Waller.

Margy was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Alaska State Council on the Arts Conference. We met while enjoying an amazing evening dance performance.

Here is a TED talk she gave about art in place. Margy’s CV is seriously legit. This year she is spoke at the Americans for the Arts 2015 Annual Convention. Here is what they had to say about her.

“Margy Waller is founder and Serendipity Director for Art on the Streets, senior fellow at Topos Partnership, and was recently a leader in the transformation of ArtsWave, an arts advocacy and support non-profit. Previously she was Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, with a joint appointment in the Economic Studies and Metropolitan Policy programs. Prior to Brookings, she was Senior Advisor on domestic policy in the Clinton-Gore White House.”

She believes art changes lives and that having art as a part of our daily experience enriches us all. Not only does she believe this, she has dedicated her life to making making those beliefs a reality. And I got meet her. That’s pretty dang cool. She is also a fashion icon and bike lover.

In the spring of 2013, I attended an amazing wedding celebration in Talkeetna, Alaska.

We stayed at the cutest bunch of cabins you could imagine called Chinook Wind Cabins.

The weather was spectacular, and the company was divine. I highly recommend a spring visit to Talkeetna.

I must have met Catherine Whall Smith during a speed dating ice breaker where you meet the person long enough to get a business card and little else.

Still, I kept her card. Who knows, maybe we will meet again.

Catherine creates art in Chaplin, Connecticut.

You can see more of her work here. I find her monochromatic use of color very interesting.

I met Tamryn McDermott briefly at the Surface Design Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas in 2013.

Her work was part of the SDA student exhibition in•ter•face: Linked Up at the San Antonio Downtown Gallery, San Antonio, TX.

At the time, her business card simply had an email and a phone number on it. Now, she has a beautiful website you can visit by clicking here.

And last but certainly not least, my dear friend Nysha Oren Nelson.

Nysha and I met many years ago at the Crow Timber Frame Barn where we were taking a workshop with Nancy Crow. Nysha is owner of Studio Nysha  in Memphis, Tennessee where he works on his art and teaches an assortment of classes and workshops. Nysha is a master quilter and incredible line drawer.

His latest adventure is a DVD called Explorations in Free Motion Quilting: A Fundamental Guide. Nysha sent me a copy, and I am looking forward to reviewing it here.

Some of you may have seen his work featured last spring in Quilting Arts Magazine.

He also maintains an active Facebook page and blog. I consider myself very fortunate to have Nysha in my life.

Okay, what do you folks think? Do you like meeting new people? I do.

12 Dec This entry was published on December 12, 2015 at 5:15 PM. It’s filed under Meeting New People and tagged Catherine Wall Smith, Chinook Wind Cabins, Margy Waller, Nysha Nelson, Tamryn McDermott. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.