wonder

It is a given fact that there are two purposes for textiles. Either they protect and nurture or they demonstrate social status and cultural belonging. These purposes continue, regardless of the time or the culture.

But art textiles do a third thing. They enable Descartes’ first passion, wonder.

We are surprised by wonder. Wonder is beyond intellect, an aesthetic experience that takes us to the brink of our senses. It is when wonder happens that we experience the existential condition of immensity within ourselves. Nature can give us this feeling. Art can give us this emotion.

Art made with textile materials or technique has texture, rich material, repetitive gesture and many nearly identical marks. Even the simplest and pared down minimalist examples of textile art have those things. When the art is pared down, the touch of the hand and even the movement of the maker’s body are embedded in the work. The intensive labour, the many considerations and small adjustments, and all the time it took to make is embedded in the work. When these things are combined with the aesthetic of simplicity, the result is a space for contemplation. It's similar to what we feel when we are in nature. These images are from the 'motherly advice' book I gave April last Christmas juxtaposed with my essay writing.

rhythm

I've been reading and writing in the mornings, usually until noon. Then I go outside, to walk or do yard work before driving into town. First, I stitch the Earth Ark panel alone in the church hall and then spend another chunk of time in my studio with Mended Planet. It's rare to get into this kind of rhythm and I am loving it.



The circle project has been meeting in the church hall every Thursday for a year now. Sixty eight have participated over the past year, some every Thursday, others only once. I've made a cake to celebrate and look forward to seeing who shows up today.

Two from Finland, Two from Japan

I have made the final selection of artists that I want to write about for my dissertation.

I kept changing my mind. At first I wanted to write about artists whose work was similar to mine.

Then I wanted to write about artists whose work was similar to Agnes Martin's.


Then I decided to go with my own emotional pull to the work.





the above image is by Noriko Narahira from Japan
from her Scenes of White series 1999
machine stitch, felt

Aino Kajaniemi from Finland
Memory 2008 tapestry

I found that there just is not enough information about some artists, and this discouraged me. I would find an image of them in a book, but nothing online. Especially artists of the generation before me - still working, but not as digitally savvy as we need to be today. This made me realize how important the Internet is. I imagine that the Internet is changing how young people learn about art. Merja Winqvist from Finland
Tree 2002 paper, shellac

I prefer books, but was introduced to many artists from my two chosen cultures, Japanese and Finnish on the web. Kyoko Kumai from Japan
Blowing in the Wind 1999
stainless steel filament

These four are my final choices, selected because their work is simple, emotional, rooted in labour, grounded in nature, based on repetition, and expresses concern for our world.

Feel my touch

I produce my work slowly over a long period of time, allowing it to change along the way. I am really interested in making as a way to express how I feel and think. So much is embedded.
Time, for one thing.
Touch, for another.
The marks are each unique, individual, sometimes close together, sometimes not. Like ripples on the lake retreating towards my friend, the horizon line.

I'm interested in producing something very very simple
and quiet
and marked repeatedly with the human hand.
Not because it's a metaphor for anything, but just because it's an object that says, unequivocally, I was here.

I made this.
I spent time with this.
Feel my touch.
Remember me, my darling.

it was a dream world

I look back fondly at our time in the car. teaching piano today

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

stitching in car day 10

Couching old domestic linens to long pieces of an old tablecloth is one of the stitch projects I've been doing in the car during our trip. Yesterday we were reminded that we are going home to winter when we drove north through the Adirondrack mountains in New York state. Snow! This kind of work goes through a lot of thread and I ran out in Wisconsin, so re-stocked in Illinois. The perle cotton weight no 5 is half the price in the states to what it is in Canada. I brought five pieces of this project to work on during the trip. Four others were left on Manitoulin for the circle project women. Julia volunteered to keep it going for the past two Thursdays. I've refined the technique a bit over the last few days. Instead of working in long continuous strips of cloth, I sew shorter ones together as I go along. The results have a comforting texture that pleases me. They have a calmness.

Amish Quilts

Today we visited the quilt and textile museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is in the centre of town in what used to be a bank. The spiritual quilts inside made it feel like a church. These photos highlight the two most important, and for me influential, design elements. Unusual colour combinations and intense hand stitching. The pieces shown here were made between 1910 and 1940. These are details of 'center diamond' quilts. The large shapes used give serenity and a space to contemplate to both maker and viewer. I appreciated seeing the wool twill fabric and the tiny stitches made with black thread. The ideals of the Amish people appeal to me. A retreat from this hectic world, a focus on what is really important in life. an aesthetic of simplicity

blue ridge

We are heading north. We drove the blue ridge parkway, or rather Ned drove while I tried to capture the immensity of it through the opened car window. Journal stitching was interupted constantly, but I did get some done. Although the fall colours were lovely, this post is about blueness.
Blueness and vastness and repetition. This trip is making me understand the united states in so many levels. I haven't processed them all yet. The original experience is a pale reflection of its repetition

A series of small disconnects

Moment after moment

The differences are endless

A new habit of looking

A way to organize the world

A way to integrate our fragmented selves

A way to heighten our experience

A way to set up an interior monologue

Infinite patchwork

nashville and micanopy

We had a wonderful visit with Ned's cousin Mary Martin in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a music producer/talent scout and this rather funky award from the Gibson guitar foundation is just one of the awards she has received for her work with legendary musicians such as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and others. I've linked to her grammy award (2002) here and the Louise Scruggs award (2009)here.


Mary took us to the Cheekwood to see an amazing exhibition of Dale Chihuly's work. We went in the evening so as to most appreciate the lit glass sculptures. Pictured is Chihuly's saffron tower, neon tubing

We also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.

As Mary would say, "tra-la"
In Micanopy, Florida we visited Ned's aunt and uncle. That little town is so beautiful, especially the numerous live oak trees. His aunt Diana has worked hard to restore the historic Winecoff house that she and uncle Ron live in. It is gorgeous, and won a preservation award from the Florida trust in 2002. It (and other Micanopy historic homes) are pictured here).

stitching in car day 3

In the morning we visited the cahokia mounds in south western Illinois. These were made by native Americans between 900 and 1150 AD. Shown above is the Monks Mound. The interpretive centre is awesome, full of wonderful artifacts, dioramas and information. In the evening we walked this contemporary labyrinth in New Harmony, Indianna. The afternoon was spent at my cousin Jane's iris farm near Wayne City, Illinois. The whole day was very spiritually nourishing. Well worth the highway hours.