a stitch sampler

 

 

 

The more we avoid standing in the way of the materials and in the way of tools, the better chance there is that our work will not be dated.

The imprint of a time is unavoidable.  our work will outlast fashions only if it embodies lasting, together with transitory, qualities.

Anni Albers 1947

some of the archetypes

 

 

 

 

 

slow design

 

  

My ideas don't occur in a specific moment.
They are more like processes.

nina canell  sculptor

sun cloth

 

Abstract design comes from inside.

It gives the work an alien feeling.
that is mercilessly intimate.

a Frank Webb idea

moon cloth

 

 

 

signal hill
st john's newfoundland

we are experiencing lovely thick fog
no horizon line
just the sound of waves against cliff
of birdsong

it is free-ing
looking at emptiness
it's like flying

not thinking

 

 

 

You can't think about things while you're painting.
The worst thing to think about is your SELF.
It gets in the way and you make mistakes.
Agnes Martin

vertical dignity

 

 

a monumental presence yet
intimate because made by hand

does this spark joy?

 

 

a young moon

tender and shy
barely there in the sky

chance

 

 

 

Chance touches the very idea of freedom.  To give yourself over to chance is to embrace freedom, the unknown, total openness.  Exactly where contemporary art is going.  Claude Gosselin, curator.

eyelet stitch

 

Dad thought there had been a huge accident.
He thought Howard had been killed.
So we phoned Howard and were reassured.

When we hung up Dad told me that he had thought both Howard and Judy had been killed.

'But when I came through the door, you knew I wasn't killed, right Dad?' I said.

'It was a clue' he said.

cross

reparation 

allows

me 

to

feel

longing

 

 the promise of perfection
the bliss that once was known will be known again
comfort, nourishment
the good mother, young and beautiful

dreams

 

dreams are like art
both are sort of a conjuring up of things we need to survive.

dreams of guilt
dreams of redemption

my dream is offering me something that I need.
my responsibility to myself is to try to understand what it means.

Miriam Toews

be pleased, you living one

the back of the mourning cloth
a long dark center
indigo velvet

be pleased, you living one,
in your delightfully warmed bed,
before Lethe's ice-cold wave will
lick your escaping foot

Goethe
from Roman Elegies 1790

Lethe is the river of oblivion.  It flows through Hades.
When one drinks the water, one forgets one's earthly life.

not working

What I wanted to do was make an amazing wall hanging to show my class EVERY technique in the meditation panels. I hoped that I could use the black and white bits I used as teaching samples over the last year. 

It's just not working.   I have learned that it's too hard to make a meditative piece with so many odd shapes, sizes, and with such extreme value contrast.

I suppose that it is good to 'discover' this.  It reinforces my thesis that repetition of mark and limited palette are the way to create a meditative piece.

It also shows me how important is the design wall.