Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Do you know what a symbol is?

I've been absorbed with assembling a piece from vintage funeral wear.
Doing this helped me come back to and appreciate ordinary daily life.
The time before this pandemic crises seems like from another world. 
What was important for me at the beginning of March seems trivial now. 
My priorities and concerns have completely changed.
I've been having scattered disjointed thoughts, moodiness, despondency, weeping, and anxiousness.
Stitching into pieces already in progress (such as this one) helped immensely.
I reasoned that if I died, finished quilts would be easier to deal with. 
I'm still not able to do my real (usual) work - but I will someday.
This project was cathartic.
There was no warning that I would make this artwork.
It came all of a sudden and was a release.

17 comments:

Mo Crow said...

a memento mori for the 21stC

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

no warning.
i LOVE that this happened.

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

it fills me with a very deep sense of Power of Life and Death.
With how it might be for me
in these days...how i might suddenly be Finished...almost
without warning

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

there is a majesty to it

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

Love this. so much. particularly coming from you

Judy Martin said...

I am humbled by these words xo

raz nev said...

your words and work represent our deep feelings and concerns as well, thank you for sharing this majestic image. it is most inspiring.

CF said...

This is beautiful and powerful. It reminds me of an old photo in my family collection of my great-grandmother's casket laid out in the "parlor" in front of the piano with her bicycle alongside, and a cloth draped over the casket. So somber, yet powerful.

CF said...

Also love the blanket onto which its stitched.

Patty said...

The sacred things that save us as we save them.

Judy Martin said...

That blanket is vintage - hand-woven I believe xo

Judy Martin said...

Thank you for the affirmation. I am trying not to delete this post xo

Judy Martin said...

Thot ank you for all your beautiful responses Grace. The piece is now folded up and I am going for a walk. xoxo

Judy Martin said...

Objects hold so much, time and humanity and emotions .... xo

Unknown said...

Judy, I read your posts regularly and find so much beauty in each. Your inspire me with your words and your creations. Beauty gives us a respite from the tragedy of the worlds and you are creating--genuinely bringing into being--beauty. Thank you.

Camilla G. said...

Your post is honest and true, Judy. I hope you don’t delete it. Do you know Wendell Berry’s poem The Peace of Wild Things?

jude said...

it's always like this for me. suddenly.