Tuesday, October 19, 2010

home again

How it is when one comes home, after living out of only a suitcase and a sewing basket for two weeks.

The house seems so full of stuff. I spent some of yesterday eliminating, clearing, giving myself some space to breathe. We were away for so long that I finished the seventh journal panel and have begun an eighth. Each holds about two weeks. I had planned to show the diary-like effect of the stitching, but I still have 7000 words left to write for my dissertation, due in December. The topic is the "roaring silence" (John Cage) feeling that I see in some contemporary artwork, specifically that from Japan and Finland, specifically textile art. Some of the essay will be in a pared down style, but the rest needs to be more scholarly.

Not minimalist

More earthy, more hand crafted than that

Not expressionist

Quieter, more spiritual than that

Not sublime

More personal, more nature based than that

Something alive

Something spare

An aesthetic of simplicity


Touch precedes language

Textiles are about touch


intimate

slow to make

repetitive processes

made with the body

4 comments:

Valerianna said...

I like your word-list... and stones, and the magical looking Aladin lamp! And, yes, how is it that we accumulate so much stuff we think we need. It complicates life so...... but then again, I LOVE beautiful things.

Mnemosyne said...

i greatly enjoy a more simplified style and a nod to it in art
and in life

my mil was a clutter freak and when i married my husband he made me promise we'd have no knickknacks.
it was hard but keeping the house more functional has been wonderfully helpful.

you're doing such wonderful work.

arlee said...

resonation echoing!

wholly jeanne said...

Um, yeah. Know what you mean about coming home to what was cozy when you left and overstuffed when you return. I just got back after several week's worth of travel, and I just want to open the windows and start chucking stuff out. Cool temperatures are the only thing standing in my way. That and knowing that I'd ultimately have to pick it all up. Love your plan for your thesis. Cloth was part of mine. Wish it had been a larger part.