The mangle board was a fun piece to create at a pivotal time in my life journey. While reading the history of the mangle board, I was struck by the idea of “Women’s Work” and the tools of that work. For me it is traveling, making and teaching. I was also struck by reading that the mangle board could be an object to state desire toward someone, an object of longing. I interpreted that as desire toward a kind of life. Recently I have been thinking about moving my studio to Saint Petersburg, Florida, thus the paddle board and road sign imagery representing forward movement. Long Journey Home is a self-portrait, with the telescope eyes representing all places traveled and all considerations for my future decisions and destinations. The writing on the piece is a symbolic alphabet I have created to journal on my art work. The writing expresses my desire to have no fear of the future and always think how my personal woman’s work can fulfill my life mission of making and teaching, but also my need for security. The symbols on the back exclaims, “No Fear”!