Monday, February 06, 2017

wounded

contemplation and vulnerability
interior and exterior
dark and light
every single piece
damaged in some way
torn ripped collapsed

to be whole one must be wounded
the realtionship between my body and the scale of my work
the physical gestures of my arms and hands
the way the viewer needs to move back and forth to experience it
the network of large scars
the small repetitive piercings of the needle
I begin with cloth
ripping
pinning, touching, holding
stepping back from
looking at
feeling, remembering
the body is a way of knowing
and cloth is like the body

Phenomenology is the lived experience of the world for both maker and viewer.
the raw edges, the stitches,
literally catch the corner of our eye
this is a level of abstraction that you need to slow down for
the marks are made one at a time over a long period of time

I'm building on work I started years ago
small,nearly identical marks

slow down to see it
yearn to touch it
fragile cloth
monumental scale
phsyical repetitive activity

It is our senses and deep memories that connect us to our emotions,

(a post about my new work for exhibition)

9 comments:

Mo Crow said...

this deep response to the wounding, mending into a sense of wholeness with words and images reflecting,sharing, you are such a bright light

KAM said...

your words, your images, the stories..all deeply touching the very core of my being. You are a master of communicating a look at where we all walk in the world today. Thank you for this gift.
Kristin

Ms. said...

Illuminating...one has to slow down to read and see. Then slower still, imagining the process over years and every gesture, every stitch, and the passage of light from day to night over countless revolutions of suns and moons. I remember when it ws a path that traversed the landscape. Oh, to walk barefoot along that path!

Judy Martin said...

The piece that I am desconstructing in most of the photos in this post is called Cloud of Time - a stitched 'path' that held 365 days that I completed in 2014. Photos of it can be seen in my New Work blog, linked to this one under my portrait. More like a calander than a journal, it holds one year of time. Each day is represented by an entire skein of embroidery floss. Just a container. Just an attempt to show something invisible - time.

I am currently re-configuring it into a large 9-foot square of stitch - a cloud of time that I hope ill be easier to exhibit. I believe that it will also look more like a cloud.

The 220 foot long stitched journal that I named Not TO Kno But To Go On - is still in a crate. NO plans to re-construct it, I would like to show it again.

just to explain x

Velma Bolyard said...

thank you. i realize that makers like you, judy, are the people i continually thank. you open my eyes, prompt me to think and to see. thank you.

jude said...

you have such depth, i fall in.

Linda said...

Thank you once again. Your work is so beautiful and your words feel like they accompany it so well.

Val Hearder said...

Thank you Judy. I'm revisiting old work and your approach of re-working old pieces is so encouraging.

Lorie McCown said...

Sometimes that's all i have. The stitch and the cloth.