About the Artist, Helen Midge Baudouin: I live in Viera, Florida. I work in my open floor plan apartment with lots of natural light. This is where I do most of my wet work, painting, collage etc. A separate room for sewing, storing supplies, and displaying my work. Depending on my level of creativity, I can go from very neat and organized to a complete explosion of activity with materials everywhere. A bit about my background and how and when I started my creative practice. I’ve been creating since childhood. That first box of crayons. The first package of clay. Scavenging in empty city lots and construction sites for wood and nails to make go carts, wood box scooters, and forts. Summer school: learning popsicle stick art, embroidery, lanyard braiding and potholder weaving ... selling what I made in alleyway bazaars, or door-to-door at 8 years old. At 19, I learned macrame and decoupage in a creative craft adult ed class, making a 40-year career from that one class. 
 
 
 My first apartment was full of old things made new again. Mad decorating skills.
 At 25, April 1973, a friend and I opened “Fresh Air” – a local artisan shop in Rhode Island. I made, sold, and taught macrame, beaded jewelry and silversmithing. We highlighted local RI and New England artists. In the ’80’s, I worked for a RI textile company as a macrame designer and quickly found myself as Director of Design, Sales and Marketing in the Arts and Craft Industry – traversing the US, Canada, and the UK promoting some form of art or craft. 
 
 
 
 I continued this trajectory for 30+ years, breaking many glass ceilings and going head- to-head with giants in the Art and Craft Industry. There was always an element of art and entrepreneurship. In retirement I have devoted myself full time to making and creating fiber art and paper collage. Fearless Surface design combined with Grunge Raw edge patching and hand- stitching, teaching, supporting, admiring art, and learning more ways to make art. I love making something from nothing and I love working with scraps ... the smallest of scraps. When and how do I make my work? I have a daily morning practice that usually lasts about 2 hours. It’s a meditative and quiet time. I might go back in the early afternoon and, sometimes, again in the evening, depending on how pumped up I am, if I’m “in the zone” (or my OCD is off the charts), I basically spend most of my day doing some type of art. Since Covid, it is Life to me.