interior life / lived experience

visions

Hildegarde of Bingen had visions in childhood and entered the convent at age 7.
Her work: Scivias, begun in 1142 documented  26 of her visions.
Barbara Newman identifies Hildegarde as the first Christian thinker to deal seriously and positively with the idea of the feminine.
A female mysticism.

the above text is from a page from one of my notebooks (1999) that is now cut up and is being stitched to the black wool in the photo.  The idea to do this came to me in a dream.

These two cloths: part of my ongoing body of work dealing with my journals.

mother

women make
nets for carrying
nests for protectecting

Catalogne

 

the catalogne

quebec textile tradition of bed spreads / carpets/ woven from strips of recycled fabric, cotton warp

French Canadian

3 million immigrants came to Canada between 1896 and 1914.  for many, easily portable textiles were the only reminders they would bring with them from home.

Ash and Rose

I am back at my town studio and it is wonderful.
Full of wool blankets, wool threads and the energy of sunlight.

Ash and Rose is on the design wall.

the path

We have to do what we have to do.
Responding with joy is the path.
The joy counts.  Nothing else does.
Know your own response to your own work and to the work of others.
To recall in one's own mind past concrete experience is not circling.  It is the path.
Experiences recalled are generaly more satisfying and enlightening than the original experience.
It is in fact the only way to know one's response.
The straight forward path is extremely hard to maintain.
Only joyful discoveries count.
If you are not making them then you are not moving.

Agnes Martin

some things that are broken can be repaired while others cannot

 

 

It is not always within our power to fix things.
Ask.  What do I need to do to make it OK?
Even a good repair leaves a scar.
The time taken to stitch these small repairs
gives occasion to reflect on the damage and the process of mending.

Katy Bevan - about Celia Pym's work in exhibition What Do I Need To Do To Make It OK