Monday, April 22, 2013

how it feels

art reflects how it feels to be a human being in this world
it just exists
it projects mystery, dignity, completeness

I made this in 2007
it still exists
it still reflects how I feel
how I feel tonight
and also how dad feels tonight

a survivor, but exhausted

11 comments:

Margaret said...

A hug in the quiet; a prayer for sweet sleep, comfort, peace. Stitch it out with prayer.

Ms. said...

Intense. That it is attached to some organic thing--a tree perhaps--that ivy is growing up it--very moving. I hope the sun rises warm in the morning, that there is a breeze for you and for him.

Nancy said...

Margaret and Michelle have said it beautifully. Thoughts to you for the right now.

Unknown said...

layers rising
art that makes me think
of the good red road
wishing you
and him
well
-sus

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

this work invokes thoughts of Ana Mendieta's "earth body" sculptures, especially her Silueta pieces, which typically involved carving her imprint into sand or mud, making body prints or painting her outline...so much meaning in the filling/healing of an earth "wound."

Ann Knickerbocker said...

Edgy, but soft at the same time... definitely alert, receiving and sending... very intense!

Valerianna said...

Sounds intense, but, you've survived... and maybe a new, green leaf or two will offer its sweet medicine and you will feel renewed - as it does for your red bundle.

Judy Martin said...

Just to explain a bit. I made this bundle in 2007 just after my mother died. Inside are life-sized wild clover stalks - as tall as she was, and some of her clothing. Wrapped with variety of colours of linen and cotton, each one a separate layer. I think there were seven layers, one of them being quilt batt. You can see the quilt batt layer becoming exposed in these photos.
I made the life sized crippled bundle and put it in the woods near our house and left it there through all seasons. It's still there and it has been 6 years.
These photos are from when it was only there 3 years.

I have these photos in my laptop, and don't believe i have ever put them onto this blog before. To me, they look like I feel.

Dad was discharged from 2 months of hospital stay on Monday. He is under a HOME FIRST program which is adding in a lot of community and nursing support at home, but he is very weak. It's been really draining for all of us - especially him - to make this transition. I have had to pull from a strength I haven't needed for years, but am glad to know that I still have.

Thank goodness for the nightly phone calls with Ned.

Thanks for all of your good wishes and support. It helps.

mansuetude said...

To scan down these images...
the intention within
walked right through me, haunting.

.
"life-sized wild clover stalks - as tall as she was,"
some deep honor(ing here--deeply beautiful. Thank you
.

Wish your dad gets some helper people with a spark he can grow to enjoy. Makes such a difference.

Warm Peace

jeanne hewell-chambers said...

and it's its own kind of exhaustion . . .

Anonymous said...

well it's more than a month since you posted this, and I hope that things have settled down and you've had a chance to rest (though with the wedding so near, I doubt it!)

but what I really want to say is I love this wrapped bundle. the intention that crafted it. the decision to let it weather. the way it reflects your inner state (at least some of the time).