36”h x 32”w framed 40”h x 36”w x 1”d

Click image to enlarge

When I was in Waitsburg last winter visiting friends and having my guitar refurbished, I ran across an article in a Walla Walla periodical about a woman named Jo Shay, who in her late eighties was still playing the mandolin in local bands. There was a photo of her as a 13 year old, taken around 1942, standing in a Minnesota field and proudly displaying the Mandolin she had worked and saved for during the previous year. A separate photo showed a lonely log cabin in which Jo had been born and raised.

As a young girl, I often found company and solace from my guitar, and also from the things I could make and do when my hands and heart came together for the sake of music or art or craft. I could certainly relate to Jo Kay and her mandolin.

This is a tribute to what a girl can do with her hands and her heart.

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