One of Sandra Brownlee's tactile notebooks

In this post, photos of just one of the many notebooks Sandra Brownlee brought to the workshop last week.  Click here to see a photo of her suitcase of journals.

"I love fabric.  It has life in so many dimensions: practical, structural, literary, symbolic, cultural, personal, visceral.  It's been my ongoing avenue for expression and exploration.  Weaving, drawing, and writing are synonymous for me."  Sandra Brownlee

"For thirty years I worked at the loom, fascinated by the ritual and orderly building of the fabric.  Initially I wove cloth and explored textile traditions.  The loom subsequently gave me a place to allow my intuition to guide me as I created intimate black and white fields of patterns, marks, and figures." 

"At the same time, there were also my notebooks."

"Working in my notebooks has always been a vital part of my creative life."

"Since childhood, keeping a notebook has been my way of making the physical world and my responses to it more vivid."

"There is both discipline and liberation in this commitment to documenting on a regular basis a moment or experience."

"My notebooks have increasingly become sensory delights containing expressive studies and inventions, objects in themselves."

"Now, inspired by my notebook practice, my work is moving in new directions."  Sandra Brownlee

"I trust the intuitive and the spontaneous.  Through my senses, particularly the tactile and visual, I come to understand words."

"Through touching, stitching, gathering, and working in my notebooks their meanings become clear.  The tactile component allows me to respond and improvise."

"It focuses me so that the rest of the world falls away, and I become engaged in the creative process."  Sandra Brownlee

grand daughter Aili 6 weeks old on mother's day

dad 91 years old on May 14, 2014

Photos of  Sandra Brownlee's notebooks are by Judy Martin with permission from the artist.  Photos of my hand as a bridge across generations are also by me.