Along the Silk Road...

   I had always heard about the "Silk Road" but it wasn't until I returned to school in 2006 to study Textile Surface design that I understood the deep impact it had on human civilization. Not only were material goods transported along the Silk Road but cultures, religions and languages were also exchanged along the way. And even as today, there were times when traders could travel safely and at others they could encounter great danger.
   Isn't it amazing how history continues in such a predictable cyclical manner? How empires and governments rise and fall? How we humans continue to migrate, adapt and settle? How our creativity for survival affects the growth of us as a species on this our beautiful tiny blue planet?
  Why am I writing about this today? For the past year I have worked part time at a major department store and each day I am surrounded by a tiny sampling of women from around our tiny blue planet. I love my co-workers. I love hearing them talk, their words tinged with a hint of their country of origin. I love hearing conversations easily flow back and forth in two languages. Like a beautiful dance, both languages turn and swirl, laugh and tumble. We have so much to share...we have so much to learn from one another... and so much joy to create.
Enjoy and share my new website: http://www.maryanita.com

Turkish Garden /watercolor & gouache on paper 2007
For comment or information contact: mwinklea@gmail.com