Friday, February 17, 2012

wrapped

birch branches, fabrics, wrapped, 2008-2011 about nature the fragility of it

6 comments:

Deb Lacativa said...

ooh honey. that scares me. I hope you can't see that from a window.

Ms. said...

Deb's comment is understandable, the wrapped body-like form in sarcophagus snowy woods by itself is an alarming visage if one has no context. But, having the context, the image is starkly promising of a hidden future thing, a chrysalis, pupae of something waiting emergence.

Judy Martin said...

It is a scary thing to see.
No, I can't see it from my window.
And also, thank goodness, we have no neighbours close by.

These pieces have been very difficult for me.

chrysalis
nurturing babe
bound and tied

All those things. Emotional things.
Beauty? Not.

Jeannie said...

It reminds me of my hydrangeas who are usually bundled that way right now. With the mild winter, they are on their own. I tell myself they are winter snowpeople. :)

Sweetpea said...

Judy, this was wrapped by you, yes? Would you mind sharing a bit of your inspiration to do so? I've participated in a wrapped project of my own so I'm extremely interested in process...thoughts & otherwise...

Thank you for posting.

Judy Martin said...

I began wrapping just after my mother died in 2007.

The first things I wrapped were clover stems. I also bundled fabrics together and wrapped them decoratively with cords. That year, I bundled up some of my mother's clothes with some human height clover from our beach with layers of cloth and pieces of lead. I lay this life sized bundle on our property and covered it with leaves. It's still there.

I also wrapped a dead tree. Still have not shown that on this blog, yet. So wrapping for me has been very emotional and personal.

The birch branches were chosen because they were so lively. They still had their leaves on them when I wrapped them in sheets. I made four of these, and they can be seen in my 2008 archives. I was inspired by Magdalena Abakonawicz's embryology bundles.

These acted like armatures for me to wrap with quilts and my own clothing, which I drew and turned the drawings into collages, paintings, stitchings.

I unwrapped two, and we burnt those branches, but I kept two and continued to work on them last year. I knew that they were raising so much emotion in me - and they do in my viewers as well. Not necessarily pleasant emotions - more like fear, anxiety, distaste, ...and that is what is difficult for me.

It's difficult to make something that you don't really love. That's not beautiful.

And so, I put the two birch branch wraps in the bush, and let them get covered with snow. The taller one is lying down - can't be seen in this post.

Also in the snow, are several balsam branch wraps that I did last year as well.

I know that many people are wrapping trees in hopes of connecting directly with nature and having the tree print itself like an eco print on the fabric. These were not done for that reason. I think that these were done as therapy.