For anyone who has been watching my glass creations for a long time, you might remember that I love stringer work (decorating the glass by melting in very thin rods of glass in lines, swirls, even writing words) almost as much as sculpting molten glass. Lately, the sculpting has taken the form of pure form, if that makes any sense, and adding doodads or swirls or words seems to take away from the pure form. Ah, but hard as I'm trying lately to really distill my pieces down to the nitty gritty, sometimes the stringer bug bites me hard. Not hard enough to make me stop sculpting these figures and makes stringer beads all day, but hard enough to get my attention. Instead of swatting away the stringer "bug," I let loose with an upward cascade (is it possible for a cascade to fall upward?) of stringer on this lady's leg. I think if you look near the top of the stringer scrolls, close to the center of her torso, you might see why I'm calling her "Heart of the Matter". . . a subtle curve to the left, met by another subtle curve to the right, and there's a heart. The Heart of the Matter is that you have to follow your heart. Follow your heart in little matters like deciding whether or not to add embellishment to a classic torso, because it's only glass and life is too short to not follow your heart when there is nothing to be lost and no one to be hurt if you do it. Follow your heart in bigger matters like deciding whether or not to let yourself be an artist, because it's only time and life is too short to not follow your heart when there is nothing to be lost, no one to be hurt, and everything to be gained if you do it. P.S. Following your heart just might be a good policy for lots of things in life, don't ya think? Let your heart whisper to you today.