I never know where my inspiration is going to come from, but I’m often surprised. In a month of frustrations, where nothing I attempted creatively seemed to lead anywhere, I started noticing the parchment paper I pulled off the bread I bake each week. I thought the browning looked like the footprint of the bread, each one different. Instead of tossing them into the trash, I tacked them in a pile on my studio wall and jokingly referred to them as my pan-o-grams. The bread was trying to tell me something, and I’d wait to see if I got the message. While cleaning out some drawers in the studio this summer, I rediscovered a box of oil pastels and made a connection. These would work on the parchment! So I started a drawing exercise where I take down one of my pan-o-grams and see what I can discover in it. The process is relaxing and fun, and it sometimes yields surprising images. Just what I need to get myself out of the creative doldrums.