I have been stitching Monumental Simplicity for days and days. Every time that I pull a length of thread from this ball, I remember my daughter Grace. Grace's life decisions were huge when she helped me to wind this silk yarn from its skein into a ball. The hour or so of our hands moving in sync during that visit is recalled every time I use this thread.
I had a phone call with Grace yesterday. She's living in England, she's engaged to marry the scientist, and she has a new job in her field. She's very far away.
My four children are grown up. They are each so independent, partnered up. It makes me think about this blog and how I rarely mention my family here yet the back story of motherhood is a crucial part of me.
Writing this blog has given me space to speak about things that I am passionate about. What I reveal in this journal is very inner and even private if that can make any sense in such a world wide web context. My voice has developed.
I'll have to think more about this blogging thing. What is really real?
16 comments:
judy, one of the things i think of about you/your work is your deep connection to your family, woven throughout your textile practice, your studies, even the watercolors you show from time to time. it makes for rich work.
no, you really don't mention your family that often but somehow enough to know that they are part of who you are. they seem in the background...the under layer. i know of them when you are riding in the car stitching your diary cloths. or looking at your older work. you give a good sense of balance and i like that so much. family is important and really comes first in my life though they are grown up as well. we never stop being a mother like we never stop being a woman. and you show how to never stop being an artist. thank you.
what you are saying makes so much sense. & as Velma & nandas have said, your deep passion for your family does come through.
Ditto.
This post just demonstrates how much we as mothers are all the same.
Experiencing family and life in similar ways.
You are not Robinson Crusoe.
Strange, but this post makes me feel more connected to you in ways other than stitch.
All the way from the other side of the world.
I find this feeling exciting and reassuring.
Cheers Jan
i tend to be somewhat protective of mine
also
i have a well-founded suspicion
they'd prefer not to be "up for discussion"
which is only fair.
your stitching is simply lovely.
and it reveals much of the maker [although i guess, the perceived revelations might be subjectively interpreted...] who ought not to feel obliged to tell more than she wants!
hoping this makes sense. it's well meant.
I agree with those who've commented before me. Your love for your family and their importance in your life comes through in your posts. They are real, as are you and so are we...those of us who follow your blog because we've felt a connection to you and your art. Your wonderful threads connect us all. Thank you for that.
You've not said, but somehow I have known. But this post and the comments feels good.
your thread
is one I look forward to
and cherish...
these
are ties that bind,
xox - eb.
I'm protective of my family too. I don't share their names or pictures of them since I don't have their permission. For me, blogging is a way to be connected to colleagues both near and far. It is a way to share ideas and to break the isolation. Thank you for sharing as you do.
i try my best to be real. still certain things cannot be shared. i think you have managed to tell all without risking too much.
it's a difficult balance....and not one i've always walked well. i think it's both hard to be honest and as broad as one needs to be in order to adequately capture people...
all about lighting.
so while for me writing what's honest really matters...i've also learned it's not always read and seen in the way i've meant it to be.
compound that with the fact that while i read mostly stitching blogs i've always considered myself just a writer...with as much daily living thrown in as stitching.
i've come out on the side of they really don't belong but they are always there.
it does make me sad that often sharing intimately leads many to comment on my appropriateness as a person.
i've always thought blogging was deeply personal. and consider only websites professional...nothing about push button publishing reads professional to me.
I love that you are so available to the essence of things; that the ball of thread "keeps" that time with your daughter. You pick it up, pull a bit of it, use it in your life. All of your work seems "very inner and even private"
I think you have chosen a beautiful path.
we are all Variations on a Theme..
Women~Makers
the cloth here breathes...so
very very beautiFully full of
Life
this is (yet again) an inspiring and moving post, thank you Judy and to all those who have already commented,
I love your pure stitching and the sense of your family-connections in the stichting; being a mother has changed me so much I cannot remember who I was before, I mean how great is it to get the chance to Love other people so Much and for them to love you Back!
Monumental Gorgeousness, Judy. Motherhood, memory, revelation, circle of makers ... and so true, we make things and show them to the world even while they spring from the depths of our most private selves. So many special things all bundled up together. Thanks for this thought-provoking post.
I keep coming back to look at that top photo. I love that it is simple, yet not. And how the colors glow.
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