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| Pots of Flowers 1860-80 81" x 81" cotton quilt |
by Janet Catherine Berlo and Patricia Cox Crews (page 53)
It was real. I knew it, even in the dark. Raised yellow streak of paint in the wing and feathers scratched in with the butt of the brush. I was different, but it wasn't. And as the light flickered over it I had the queasy sense of my own life, in comparison, as a patternless and transient burst of energy, a fizz of biological static just as random as the street lamps flashing past.
above text from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (page 1078)
11 comments:
Life seems a pattern of some inner mandala or sacred spiral playing itself out -- formless and bursting as it may be or seem, also
Your work on previous post seems ritualisticly elegant, delicate quiet powerful.
Janet Berlo's writing about American quilts and the women artists who made them echoes my own thinking. Quilts have always been art. Authentic art.
The Goldfinch is a novel about a 17th century painting and the boy/young man who becomes attached to it. Apparently this painting is so powerful because of some quality - I think we would say authentic.
Maybe there is a pattern in life. My hand made objects are as honest and as beautiful as is possible for me to make. It may seem like I know the pattern, but I don't know it. It is unknown...but true.
I find that my own work is most authentic when I trust that even though I don't seem to know what I'm doing or where I'm going, something real is happening.
It's hard to believe in that sometimes.
every time I sit with the idea of making too long I get scared by it. what am I making? is it meaningless? but having lost so much, I can tell anyone who asks, the only thing I keep waking up for is creating. I happen to enjoy stitching, fabric, quilting. it's been an act, an artistic act, that's been with me for over half my life...it's second nature.
I visit here to recharge. I always feel I am walking into your studio and sitting with a cup of tea.
it's serena. sorry. I forget this thing is permanently logged in through the college as Michael
Hello Serena
So good to hear your strong voice.
"Maybe there is a pattern in life. My hand made objects are as honest and as beautiful as is possible for me to make. It may seem like I know the pattern, but I don't know it. It is unknown...but true."
I am ruminating your words, Judy.
The quilt is lovely. The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize, I believe, so I will have to read it, especially if it's about a painting.
Beautiful quilt, beautiful quote, beautiful words from you, as always. I agree with Serena, your blog is an oasis of peace, serenity and inspiration.
your work and words inspire and give me hope in this secular 21stC world, where the things made with great love and care and attention to detail are so often undervalued... whatever that means!
Isn't that exciting about The Goldfinch winning the Pullizer.
Now I'll have to get it back to the library...it will be in demand.
thinking more about art & making & heart & edge ... it's in that rare glimpse from out past the corner of the eye of the elusive ineffable that we spend a lifetime trying to describe...
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