The first time I saw an image of Tasha Tudor, I thought I was looking at someone living in a previous century.

Tasha, named Starling Burgess at birth in 1915, was a New England illustrator and writer. She died in 2008, a woman who had dared to live authentically in the face of changing times.

I am forever on a quest to live as close to my soul’s calling, but Ms. Tudor has shown me that I can do more.

Sterling was re-christened Natasha shortly after her birth as her father, for whom she was named initially, was a great fan of the character Natasha in the book War and Peace. Tudor was Tasha’s mother’s maiden name and after her second divorce, Tasha took that as her legal surname.

Tasha illustrated nearly one hundred books over her career, spanning from 1938 to 2003, some of which I have in my library from when my own girls were little.

That first image I saw of Tasha was of her standing in a field, wearing a dress that one might have worn in the 1800s, looking as composed and happy as anyone could be.

I was intrigued by this woman whose artist’s heart was brave to live in the century of her choice, in a house built for her by son Seth, in the hills of Vermont. Pictures of Tasha at home reveal her painting by candlelight, kept warm by a roaring fire, tending goats and chickens in the midst of a garden that I am in desperate awe of.

More here…What I Learned About Authenticity From Tasha Tudor. | elephant journal