the cloud in me

The Bed

a charged site because of birth, death, sex

but also the bed is where we dream

do not worry

 

I removed the white edge and am making horizontals at the base of my earth cloth.

I replaced the greens that deteriorated with flesh tones in my cloud cloth.

I used a flesh colour because this show is, after all, about the body and its healing.

apologize to your body. maybe that's where the healing begins.

             Nayyirah Waheed

more destruction, more repair

 

I washed the Cloud In Me because it was grubby.
I always wash my work to embed the stitches.  It's part of my proces.

I washed it in hot water in full cycle - and it came clean but things fell apart.  Also some bleeding from the 9 dots in the center.  So, I washed it again.  Warm water full cycle - and it came cleaner yet but the velvet frayed out of the reverse applique holes.

That green silk velvet is a gift from Connie.  It was the skirt of a Christmas bridesmaid dress she had made for her daughter.    Connie is very frail these days.  I am mending it today by replacing that old velvet.

Can't help but think that this is another metaphor.

even as I continue

 

no false glamour
rather the dark glamour of time and its relentless attrition
like scar tissue
full of liminal moments
full of secrets
James D Campbell (about artist Marion Wagschal)

artists and children  by marion wagschal

it's OK it's OK it's OK

 

I washed my long cloth

the red wool inner stuff bled through to the off-white linen

I think it's Ok

oh sappho

 

some sweet song
in honey voice
piercing breezes
wet with dew

goat herd       longing      sweat

roses

all at once
blossom
desire
take delight

now don''t
right here
now again

holding the heart

youth       queen
me     you
shall love

Sappho translated by Anne Carson

complex beyond knowing

 

art is as close as humanity will ever get to nature....
things that are complex beyond knowing

Roni Horn

erasing red marks

 

My hands are giving out.
Last night I quilted 6 hours in a row before going to bed - from 8 pm to 2 am.

I began to bleed from the fingers onto the white cotton and had to repeatedly lick an un-pierced finger with my own saliva in order to erase the small red marks.

This seems like it must be a metaphor for something.
Waiting perhaps,
suffering,
and immediately deleting the red evidence of that
with my own inner water.

Bid Well

 

 

Bid Well
as if to say Be Well
I bid you fare well

A sense of loss, a sense of beauty, a feeling of landscape

This is a piece about place.
This is how Manitoulin feels for me.

Soft and rural.  Comforting.  Safe
refers to Bidwell road, on Manitoulin - but also refers to my inner place.

my inner cloud

back home

 

 

I am just going to write down things to do.

Courage is an important factor in any creative effort.  (Anni Albers)

The piece I've been stitching since the middle of July is so beautiful, heavy.
3 more big hoops to fill with stitch before I can really evaluate it.

The stitching empowers it.  Each big hoop is 3-4 hours.

Eros

 

 

In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes spoke about how human beings were originally round, perfect spheres - and were exceedingly happy.  And ambitious.  They thought they could roll up to Olympus!
So Zeus chopped each of them in two.

The result is that everyone must go through life in search of the other person to round him or her out.

learned by reading Anne Carson's book Eros the Bittersweet

grandmother's earth cloth

 

 

the serenity of this piece  belies the amount of time and labour it has taken to make it

a feeling of timelessness

 

I aim for simplicity, but it's complicated

The work looks simple, but it holds a lot of thought and a lot of work.

deep knowledge

1 2 3  1 2 3 4  1 2 3  1 2 3 4 5

5 4 3 2 1  3 2 1  4 3 2 1  3 2 1

scale fingering for 'normal' scales

idea wall

 

a landscape
a cross

my body and time

back in my high ceiling studio

 

 

 

 

Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief.
The privilege is the access to the unconscious.
It i a fantastic privilege to have access to the unconscious.
There is something very special in being able to sublimate your unconscious....and something very painful in the access to it.

I'm a complete loner.
It doesn't help me to associate with people.
It really doesn't help me.

Louise Bourgeois