For the first half of my career, keeping my best pieces was a luxury I couldn't afford. Some artists have that option and some take advantage of it, holding on to what they feel are their strongest works as the market value of their oeuvre in general appreciates. At least that's how the story goes, though I've known only a couple of artists who were actually in a position to do that. Like most artists, I needed to sell my production to put food on the table, pay the mortgage, and help to keep the household afloat.

Had I been in a position to hold on to favored work, to maintain an artist's collection of off-market pieces (as opposed to "unsold" works) Dawn Nebula would have been in that group. At about a quarter the size of its larger sibling Aurora, its more intimate dimensions and scale prompted a quieter and more personal conversation with its viewers.

I recall only two opportunities when I was able to share Dawn Nebula publicly before it entered a private collection, never to be seen or heard from again (at least by me). I finished it in 1979 in time to include it as an invitational piece in the first "Quilt National" exhibition in Athens, Ohio, for which I'd served as one of three jurors. A couple of months later I included it in a small group of then-recent work, in a show featuring four or five "craft" artists, myself included, who'd that year received fellowship awards from the Massachusetts state arts council. Mounted from September to November at the Worcester Craft Center, the show brought my work and that of other early career makers to a statewide audience. It was a valuable opportunity that, like others in those first years, reinforced the sense that it would be possible to build a real career around this practice.

Installation view of the "Craftsmen's Fellowship Exhibition" at the Worcester (MA.) Craft Center in the Fall of 1979. Dawn Nebula is at the left on the far wall, with Aurora at right. This was the second of only two occasions when Dawn Nebula was shown publicly.

A commission negotiated by a Connecticut-based art consultant led to the making of another of the "sky" quilts, Moonshadow, that same year. When the consultant saw the in-progress Dawn Nebula during a visit to my studio to check on the progress of Moonshadow, she put a "hold" on it, with the corporate client's personal collection in mind. I still wish I'd been able to do the same, with my own "personal collection" in mind. Not long after, she confirmed its sale and the client's agreement to allow me to show it in the Worcester exhibition, in exchange for a 10% discount on the purchase price. So I was paid $2250 after the discount, not a bad price in 1979 for a quilt this size by an up-and-comer. It eventually went to its big city home, and over the years I've wondered often enough, what the rest of its life has been like. Well cared for and appreciated, I hope.