I spill, I overflow

I am large and empty and naïve and beautiful and raw and nowhere and everywhere and as if I am dreaming all the time.  I visited my kids in Toronto last week.

 Above bird drawings are collaborations by grand daughter Aili and grand mom Judy

I also saw some art.
The bird sculpture above and the wire wall piece below are by Kai Chan.
Showing now at the David Kaye gallery in Toronto until December 23, 2018

 The wire sculpture is entitled 'The tragic Venture of an Ant in my Bathtub 2018'

Maia, who will be 2 years in January, made the circle drawing above.
The barns are between Spring Bay and Gore Gay on Manitoulin Island

I live on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, Ontario, one of the largest islands in a freshwater lake in the world.

I have lived my entire life in northern or north western Ontario and its rural emptiness is held in the work I make.  We raised our children here
The two grand daughters and their art live in Toronto. 

I was in Toronto last week.  Now I am home,
The final two images in this post are wall sculptures by Kai Chan
Above:  In the Early Morning: The Lake
Below:  'the artist as a young man'

I am an ocean in a bowl

I spill 

Overflow

There is too much of me and at the same time there is not enough

I am dreaming and mindless at the same time

I am here and there

nowhere and everywhere

I am

I am

                                                                    I am still more                                                                       

 Jim Morrison

my work with me

I am on vaycay with my husband. 

We had ten days in Mexico with our Anchorage family.  Now they are back home.
They survived the earthquake and are still experiencing aftershocks, but they are safe.

Then we had another week and Canadian friends arrived.

  I brought my work with me.

I don't do it all the time, but some times.

It holds the heat and wind of this place some how. 
Each stitch wraps time snugly.

This slow time in Mexico
is threaded to my heart and will remain.
Somehow. 

Motherhood

Time is always ticking for women
Whereas men, apparently, live in a timeless realm.
In the dimension of men, there is no time, just space.

Apparently, during thirty years of a woman's life - fourteen to forty four- everything must be done.  She must find a man, make babies, start and accelerate her career, avoid diseases, and collect enough money in a private account so that her husband can't gamble their life's savings away.  Thirty years is not enough time to live a whole life.

How could I have been so naive about how time acts in the life of a woman?
How it is the essential realm in which a woman lives.

You women who wish to live in the realm of space, not time -you will see what gifts the universe has waiting.

Will I?
Yes
Just look around
But some women are happy!
But some women are not..
How do I know which I will be?
You cannot know until it's too late.

Sheila Heti - Motherhood

People are dominant in either thinking, or feeling - and psychic health is using all one's faculties.
I have to use feeling more.
Yes
In my body?
Yes
In my senses?
Yes
Should I try to sense more things?
No
Should I try to sense what I do sense, more consciously?
Yes
What does that mean?  With more discernment?
No
More love?
Yes
Is consciousness love?
No
Does consciousness create love?
Yes
In every case?
Yes

Sheila Heti  - Motherhood

I have a heart full of sadness and wishes.
Everything feels like tears.
He makes me feel like tears
But without stress on the mind, there is no mind.
Is what I am feeling the hormonal sadness?
Yes
If only there was some good in it.  Is there?
Yes
Is the benefit that one stays away from other people?
Yes
And one is also more sensitive.
Both of these things are good for writing.
Will my sadness be gone by tomorrow night?
Yes
Why do couples have so many problems with each other?
Has anyone ever adequately answered this question?
Yes
Was it a woman who did?
Yes
Did a man give a good answer too?
Yes
Was the man's answer basically blaming the woman?
Yes
And did the woman's answer blame the man?
No
She blamed herself?
Yes
Did the man blame the woman for her frailities?
Yes
And did the woman just guiltily condemn herself?
Yes
would things work out better for men and women if women didn't guiltily condemn themselves?
Yes
I'm sorry.  Are my frailities to blame?
Yes

Sheila Heti    Motherhood

World of Threads festival 2018, some highlights

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Integration
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

"Tree rings record time and events in the life of a tree by building layer upon layer of fresh cells, leaving the marks of its life forever preserved within.  Similarily, we move through our lives, collecting and sometimes burying our own memories"  Lorraine Roy

 Lorraine Roy (Canada):  Call of the Heart
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Through the Woods
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

The three circles above are 36 inches diameter.
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Defragmentation I: white  and Defragmentation II: black
two hand woven tapestries, jute wool nylon
each about 7 feet square

Included in the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads 2018  Oakville Ontario
curated by Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate

masterful tapestry weaving

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Butterfly Days
hand woven tapestry, jute, wool, nylon
part of Botanical Realm exhibition, World of Threads

Hazel Bruce (Northern Ireland):  Space Pattern Place  2
Linen and silk
machine embroidery, applique, hand stitching

part of the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads this year (2018)

Anna Lefsrud (Canada):  One Full Stride
24 horses, woven copper wire
part of the Fibre 3D exhibition at World of Threads

World of Threads Festival (Canada) opened October 13 2018 and continues until December 31.  However, the group exhibition in the gallery space entitled FLOW will close November 25

Elise Vazelakis (USA): Enlightenment

woven steel and wire, about 9 feet x 8.3 feet

included in FLOW exhibition World of Threads

The World of Threads festival is a biennial exhibition that has grown over the years.  The two curatoris, Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate, allow the work that is submitted by the artists to guide them.  They do not begin with pre-determined ideas, and each festival is a blank slate that is formed from the newest and best work that the artists send in.

Elise Vazelakis (USA):  Repetitive Stillness
woven fiber, steel, and copper
about 10 feet high, 7 1/2 feet wide, included in FLOW exhibition at World of Threads

The festival is hosted in Oakville Ontario at a single venue, the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre

Sun Young Kang (USA):  In Between Presence and Absence
cast paper - hundreds of vessels from everyday life
The main INSTALLATION at World of Threads festival this year

Sun Young Kang explores themes such as emptiness, the visible and the invisible.

Sun Young Kang (USA):  Freezing Moments to Turn Them into Eternity  Study 1 - 18
canvas, cotton thread, artist's hair, glue  wrapped
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

"I try to visualize the invisible ideas in our life in a very minimal but obsessive way.  I question how past experiences and forgotten momemories become the strong force that connect individuals in different times and space subconsciously."  Sun Young Kang

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Entangled   and  Nesting - Commit
cast resin,  reed, steel, wood, paint  120" x 21.5"and cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint 84" x 20" part of the 3D exhibition at World of Threads

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Tolerance 
cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint
77" x 21.5"

"Nests, fish traps and spires are forms that shelter, confine and contain.  I am drawn to the conical shapes of these things, some of them open and some of them closed, acting as metaphors for either an abundance of faith, trust or survival - or the absence of it."  Eva Ennist

This post is the first of two
There are 365 pieces of art at this year's festival and 65 artists from around the world
All exhibitions except for the FLOW exhibition will remain up until December 31, so if you are close to the area, it is well worth your time. 

the tenderest thing

 softness

 honesty

 humility

 bleeding

 our bodies are a way of knowing

 and cloth is like the body

 life experience

 wisdom

day dream