With new green technology and products making their debut practically every day, more options are available than ever before, not only for the hidden elements of a home but also for the visible, aesthetic ones. (See pdf here)

Valarie James and the Las Madres Project
Originally published in Sculptural Pursuit, Winter 2007

Valarie James’ Web site: lasmadresproject.org

A diaper bag stuffed with infant’s clothing and a birth certificate broke Valarie James’s heart. That break  moved her to create a new sculpture technique that reveals the heart of the migrant experience.

James, a sculptor and arts educator, often walks  her dogs in the desert around her home in Amado, Arizona, an area near the U.S.-Mexico border  that has been a migrant path for centuries. She sometimes meets undocumented immigrants in  heart-wrenching encounters during which she can  do little except offer food and water to the frightened, exhausted travelers. More often, she comes across items they have left behind in the unforgiving desert. One day in 2004, she found the cast-off diaper bag on the ground, surrounded by the mother’s scattered clothing. Who were this woman and her child? she wondered. What happened to them? These thoughts haunted her, creating “a question mark in the sand,” she says.  She carried her poignant treasure back home. (See pdf here)

Making Life Simple: An Interview with Don Miguel Ruiz
Originally published in Pure Inspiration, Summer 2007

Since the 1980s, Ruiz has dedicated himself to imparting his wisdom to students around the world, a modern-day nagual guiding people to personal freedom by sharing his ancient Toltec knowledge.  (See pdf here)

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