Monday, October 13, 2014

key note

I take my work seriously.
I take it everywhere. When the kids were little I took it to playgrounds and ballet rehearsals.
Now I take it to doctor appointments and on air plane trips.  People ask me "what are you making?"
That is a difficult question for me and I answer very carefully.
Sometimes I avoid giving an answer.
Because the what is not as important to me as the fact that I am making.
I am a moving thread.
I am in the process of becoming.
But that is hard to explain.
We are here to begin a fibre festival.  We have come to this northern ontario town at this period of time to be with other people who get it.  Who understand how much we love to do it. We love to stitch, weave, spin, dye, felt..all these things.  We love the process.

Remember what the key is.  Fibre.
And what the note is.  The process itself.

......................................

(this post is a hint of the key note address I will be giving this coming Friday evening during the opening ceremony of the Espanola fibre festival.  The Manitoulin Circle Project will be on display, still room in some of the great workshops here)(wish you could all come)

20 comments:

audrey said...

Your work is so fascinating! I LOVE your message.:)

Ms. said...

Like I say again and again, you are the real-deal Judy. How fine it is that you will be with your tribe awhile. I'd love to hear that address....maybe someone will make a soundcloud you can share.

kathyd said...

love this post ... sometimes i do not know what i am making ... it has not revealed it's self to me yet . sometimes i answer. " i don't know "

Marti said...

Someone once asked me what I was making with my naturally dyed cloths. It took me a long time to answer and when I did, I said, "I'm doing it" and by that I meant that my making was the dye process. To read a sample of the words that comprise your keynote address Judy is to understand more fully, the connection of why we do what we do, each in our own unique way, with cloth.

Eventually as the cloths piled up my journey took detours that led me to pick up needle and thread and learn a few basic stitches. These stitches transformed many of my cloth piles into simple landscape collages that anchor me to my sense of place, wherever I have lived.

Still for me, it all begins, centers, and ends with the joy of foraging for windfall, creating my dye bundles and using my assorted dearly loved dye "cauldrons." Those repeated steps on the road to dye discovery are a never ending joy and why I do what I do...

Judy Martin said...

Writing this speech made me reflect on who my audience was - all lovers of making.

Believing in the doing enough to keep doing it and doing it and doing it - and loving it and loving it and loving it - just for the doing. For how we feel when we create. There's nothing more nourishing in my opinion.

thanks all for these supportive comments, and for the story you told, Marti.
x

Vicky aka Stichr said...

My 2 neighbor ladies only think of 'fiber' as a dietary necessity, but they love that I sit and stitch with them because it's who I am. Explaining any of it to them is so hard, I keep it simple. But with someone who knows?? 1000's of words would tumble out. So I can imagine your speech was fairly easy to write.

Els said...

Mmmmmm ... and the FEEL when all that fibre and process has ended ;-)

Valerianna said...

I am sooo much a painter, I LOVE LOVE the feel of a full brush sliding across paper, and the magic moment when the bleeding happens. I so get this, though I would say I am also a storyteller and the great, mysterious forest is my story. Have a wonderful time with your tribe!!

Unknown said...

So feeling this. Fiber is everything to me. Your works are so beautiful! <3

Mo Crow said...

love your well wrought thoughts on process backed up with such a deeply beautiful body of work (((Judy)))

Judy Martin said...

I am a nervous speaker. My voice cracks, I often have to sit down my legs shake so much.

I am looking forward to when this talk will be over, if you want to know the truth.
xx

Lesley Turner said...

All the best with your presentation. It sounds as though you will all have a wonderful time together.

Chris said...

Wish I could be there at the festival if only to hear to talk about your work. Loving the endless stitch!

Mo Crow said...

this circle of women from all around the world love and support your work stand on our strong shoulders and know our hearts are holding yours as you make this talk bravely with poise and grace.

Barbara Casillas said...

The process, the making, the doing…that is art.

mansuetude said...

Sending love and peace over you during this beautiful talk.

As the powermoves through you let it fly through the thirsty. ')


Ps rid body of xcess adrenalin by walking or jumping before.

Jennifer said...

How I wish I could be there to lend support (public speaking is a nightmare for me...my brain shuts down even my mouth forms and utters words), listen and learn, meet you, and just take in all the art. Perhaps next year. It was planned that Pam and I would attend this year, but plans changed as they are apt to do. We'll be there in spirit though.

Judy Martin said...

update saturday october 18

The talk to the Espanola fibre festival went really well, better than one could ever have thought. At the end, several of the participants of the community project spoke about their experience within it, and that added an element of authenticity and joyfulness that I am still holding on to.

The support I have received here did help. I felt all the positive energy you sent along.

Thank you v much.
xx

Unknown said...

Lovely evening last night at the Espanola Fibre Arts festival!
Thanks Judy for inviting me to participate in your talk, and in your journey. I really enjoyed both.
♥♥

Ginny said...

Your work is extraordinary--as is your process. Thank you for reminding me to value and be in the process...