mexico

 

spirit is invisible, but present in all things

what we admire about spirit

the spontaneity
the vitality
the surprise

in daily life

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

reparation cloth

 

 

 

The Melanie Klein idea that the work of art is like the act of mourning.

Mourning is a way to work through feelings of loss.  There is reparation.

All creation is a re-creation of a loved and lost object.

When the world within us is destroyed, it's then when we must re-create the world anew.

Hanna Segel  ... Andrea Fraser

exist

 

 

I exist.
What I make exists.
It exists along with everything else in the world.

mystery

 

If,
when we work,
we can look once a day
upon the face of mystery,
then our labor satisfies.

Lewis Hyde

longing cloths

 

 

Because the velvet is not wide enough.
to cover the piecework or fit neatly with the dot border

I make more.

longing

 

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

pay attention

 

It is important for the child to feel that the mother is present.

It is also important to give the child enough space to be in its own imagination.

a D.W. Winnicott idea

figurative

The Muslim style in Ethiopia

The most beautiful example belongs to the urban women of the ancient walled city of Harar.  Marriage dresses are long, full smocks of indigo-dyed light cotton sewn up along a central longitudinal seam to form a V shaped neckline.

A piece of imported satin or damask of contrasting colour is sewn on to cover the shoulders, neck, breast, upper back.

All the edges of this applied fabric, and the neckline are outlined with delicate restrained  floral embroidery in satin stitch, which forms identical patterns on the inside of the dress.

It is therefore possible to turn the dress inside out.

A practice carried out at various stages during the wedding ceremony.

John Gillow
african textiles

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

metaphor and beauty

 

 

I've been interested in metaphor for ages.
I want my artwork to be all metaphor and beauty.
The kind of beauty that hits you hard, in the heart first, and then the mind.
That causes you to remember your own deep secret life, and also my work.
Together linked.

Susan Rothenberg

murmuration cloth

destruction and repair

looking at the sky

I start

 

 

I make a lot of starts

I have too many ideas

I like to open them up and see and feel if they will be the great idea rather than wait until I have extra time but before I can finish another idea comes tapping and I have to put the first aside so that I can touch the next.

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.

night

night with full moon

night with no moon

a gift keeps going

 

the smell of winter apples

of hoar frost, and of linen

these are nothing but gifts on this poor, poor Earth

Czeslaw Milosz

horizon

the horizon line

sky above
reflections below
distract me just enough

a view of a lake gives me back my own self                                     

be true

the way through?

be true to yourself

but this is too difficult

no one knows herself

I need to trust

I am working on a piece with a rough velvet grid in the center.  Today I made velvet yo yo's for it while visiting dad.  I just want to say that each day, I do NOT know what is going to come into the piece.

It is growing with it's own life.
It is showing me.

yin yin was like this......I just had to be attuned.

I need to trust.

wabi sabi

nothing lasts

nothing is perfect

nothing is finished

inner rawness

the inside of the black dress
the reverse of the embroidery

inner rawness vs outer shell

the stitches are constructed marks
each takes a second
each goes in and out of the cloth like a little wound that's then mended
over and over
piercing and mending