what does Rothko mean?

Then Rothko would sit and look for long periods.

Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, considering the next colour, considering expanding an area.  He worked on more than one painting at a time.  The veils of colour were  actually applied quickly and spontaneously.

Most of the time in his studio was spent sitting silently on his bench and looking.

Dan Rice, Rothko's assistant  (quoted in James Breslin's biography of  Mark Rothko)

I don't know if he knew what he was doing.  I don't think artists always need to know what they are doing.  Artists often do more than they know they are doing.

David Antin art critic  (also quoted in Mark Rothko: a biography)

This post is a copy of the one I wrote when I studied Rothko for my UK degree.  Click here to see another 2007 post about Rothko that contains a self portrait of moi.

Click here for my post about Rohko on the modernist aesthetic blog.  

what is it that I do?

new sleeve for Awakened Heart

You have to do work that's meaningful to you, and then you have to keep on doing it.  (Ann Gillen)

new sleeve for The Forever

I try to do only what I want to do.  

I try to do what feels necessary to do.

I do what I love.

view from the door of my town studio 

I got back into my town studio this month.  .

The Forever on the town studio table, side b

I was able to complete the sewing of a new sleeve for the largest of the blanket pieces, The Forever.

The Forever on town studio table, side a

I am returning it to it's original design - a horizontal swath of marks.  click here

The Forever on dining table at home

It's nearly 14 feet wide, 10 feet high.  It's larger than me.  

Moment to moment, day after day.

I stitch it.  My body touches it.

Eternity and the kitchen rug

The work I do takes a long time and I like that.

new sleeve for Eternity

My work is a statement about life itself, in a way.  About lived time.

Every day, we have to just go on.  Waking up and getting dressed and looking at the sky and being gentle with those we live with and touching them and moving out the door and interacting with the air and greeting strangers and getting in a car and hearing terrible news and picking up the bread and turning the key and putting on and taking off our coat,  zipping and unzipping, buttoning and unbuttoning and returning home and starting dinner and petting the cat and pulling the quilt up and kissing our loved ones and turning out lights. 

It's energy.

a new sleeve for Eternity side two

My work holds all that time.  That energy. 

My Heart and Her Arms Wrapped Round in the rocking chair

Time is my subject and my method.

new sleeve for Noble Tenderness

The images in this post are of some of the pieces that I'm getting ready for the Kenora, Ontario exhibition of In The Middle of the World that begins on March 30.   This exhibition was shown in late 2021 but I continue to improve some of the pieces.    

It's what I do.

My awakened heart / noble tenderness : A two-sided piece. 

 Time is packed into what I do

breath, care, time

New floor quilt for the twins, scrutinized by Ursa.

Just a quick post here about the sewing I did for the new babies. 

First, I made lots of flannelette pads with cheerful dotty bindings.  

I also put binding on two receiving blankets.

Useful and practical.  Easily cleaned.    

I made some for Oona and Jay's first babies too.  Click here to see 2006 ones, and here to see 2014.

They just fit a new baby.  

Ned and I also cleaned and repaired the bassinet that we used for our babies and took it to Grace.  

We rented a little house six minutes away from the couple  and moved into it just before Christmas.  Our other kids take turns visiting and helping out.

      

I worked on the floor quilt I started in December.      

I was able to finish it!.  

It's hand stitched with sashiko thread.    

Breath, care, and time are all contained in a gift of handmade cloth.  Welcome to our beautiful world, sweet and tiny but also huge miracles. xoxo 

Precious

Juniper Judith and Daisy Marie 11 days old

born in Ottawa on December 28 2022 to Grace and Tim

Ned and I are grateful that we were here over Christmas and into the New Year to witness this miracle, and support this new family.  Twins are so much. We are blessed.