It wasn't long ago that the furthest south I'd been was Maryland. Then about 11 years ago I met Jannette who lives in the Knoxville area of Tennessee. Jannette is a warm and sunny person who worked very hard with me as the editor for "Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones" and more recently on "The Big Book of Soul." Yesterday, I was looking in an old sketch book with Nepalese handmade paper in it, when I discovered this lovely landscape of the sacred grounds at Cerren Ered in Cosby TN. Cerren Ered , a pagan community in Appalachia, is home to many pagan festivals, it holds a camp ground, magickally charged trees and natural formations, a bubbling brook that seems to want to speak to you, and for a touch of whimsy, the infamous castle. I went there at not such a good time in my life. What I found was a natural environment that has a strong spiritual energy, almost every where you walk and I made the nicest friends ever. I spent as much time as I could sky cl...
The virtual studio of author and artist Stephanie Rose Bird brings together artistic process and reflection with the literary arts, in a manner that is designed to be instructive and inspirational.