The Path of the Heart: Lenore Tawney

To be an artist, you must be brave.

You can't let yourself be scared by a blank sheet of drawing paper or a white canvas.

But what you put on that paper or canvas must come from your deepest self.

To discover this place is our aim and our goal.

Your attitude of openness toward this place in yourself can be like the thick layer of leaves on the forest floor, in that it is always there, no matter what goes on above.

Our instinct drives us downward to the source; there we have visionary experiences made visible.

This can be what motivates you to keep on what I call The Path of the Heart
This path and the seed of your own work are within each one of you.

(her work smock)

One thing I must tell you: what we most try to avoid in life is, in fact, our greatest teacher
- that is pain, anguish.

This pain and this anguish, take us off the surface of life and into the depths where the treasure lies.

This is your life, dear friends.
Meet it with bravery and with great love."   Lenore Tawney

(the black coat she wore to her openings)

The text in this post is Lenore Tawney's commencement address to the graduating students of the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1992

The images are from my visit to the exhibition Mirror of the Universe at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin.   The main exhibit remains up until March 7.  Cloud Labyrinth comes down January 19 2020.    I have written about this exhibition with more clarity on Modernist Aesthetic.   go see. xo

Our daughter and her art work

Windy  (detail)  mono print with textile collage

from left:  Pink Hill ceramic, April installing the mono prints with textile collage, Windy and Breezy,
 and Royal Mountain ceramic sculpture

April and I spent a couple of days in Sudbury this weekend.  She installed her work at the Northern Artist Gallery at Artists on Elgin on the Friday, and then Saturday, January 6,  was the reception.  The exhibition, Effloresence, will be on view until January 30.

 This is her third exhibition in seven weeks.

foreground:  three of the twelve untitled factory sculptures made entirely from clay glazed with oxides, each sitting on custom made plinths from welded metal, background:  found linen with custom wooden stretcher

The first opened on November 17 at Roots and Culture in Chicago, the second opened December 1 at ACRE Projects in Chicago.  We were so pleased to see both of those shows when we went to Chicago in mid December to pick up April and bring her back to Canada.  I've written about them on Modernist Aesthetic - click here for direct link.

The people that we worked with at the gallery (Lauren and Stephanie) were very helpful.

left:  Untitled Factory clay sculpture, middle: Breezy monoprint with textile collage, right: Royal Mountain ceramic

For myself, it was a real treat to see my kid with her playful and brave art.

She has made art all her life, knew about Vincent Van Gogh when she was three years old. 

reflecting again

In 2005, I made several stitched collages using leaves, photographs, an embroidery that I cut up, paint,  book binding cloth and thread.  2016 is a year of reflection for me and I hope you don't mind me using this blog as a place to keep things together.  (It's also a year of making...but that's another post)  Occasionally I'll share some journal text.  For example, here is a journal entry from June 2005 about these collages and self doubt.

Friday June 24  4:20 am
Finally I get up from the horizontal and face the demon.  It’s really really difficult to keep going against the self doubt – the who do I think I am-ness, that is heavy all around me.  One of my collages with leaves was accepted into a Toronto juried exhibition.  It’s at the Propeller gallery on Queen St W.  It cost $35.00 entry fee for them to look at my 3 slides.  It cost $100 to frame it.  It’s going to cost $100 to ship it after all is said and done.  Ned has been great.  We drove together to pick it and its two pals up from the framer and he’s found me a huge shipping box.  He tells me that it would cost more for us to drive it down (though in my mind, it would be less pretentious to appear carrying it in a leather portfolio rather than this cardboard box arriving from afar. However, at least by shipping it, I can delay the artists and curator actually seeing me in all my gray headed heaviness.  I wish I could take more comfort in that small blessing.
I still have to write the artist statement and label the piece.  I spent 2-3 hours last night on the computer shortening my resume to one page.  Why  torture myself this way?

And here is one from July 2005.  In celebration of Canada Day (July 1) the exhibition had been placed into several different locales around Toronto and Ned and I found the restaurant where my piece was installed.

July 10
The owner of 93 Harbord where my Slow and Diffident Words collage was on show for ten days told me that my piece was his favourite in the show.

 To see more from this series, click here.

like a bird in the darkness

henri matisse goache on paper, cut and pasted on paper 1946  Oceanie, le ciel

Oceanie, le ciel 1946 by Henri Matisse detail  with glass reflection

Henri Matisse continued with his quest for innovation into old age and made monumental cut-outs while bed-ridden
detail of Oceanie le ciel 1946 cut and pasted paper

Oceanie, le ciel 1946  Henri Matisse  goache on paper cut and pasted on paper, 169cm x 395cm each section
 collection of the musee departmental Matisse, Le cateau Cambresis.
Matisse made this design into a screen print on linen in 1948

included in The Oasis of Matisse exhibition, Stedelijk museum Amsterdam until Agust 16 2015

our life is such a little thing,

 like a bird in the darkness 

 finding its way into a banquet hall

 and flying through it

and looking at all the banqueters 

and then flying out the other side

the venerable bede  7th century

Peace Noel

 

Linda Finn is a remarkable artist, mentor and friend.  Nearly a neighbour, she lives north of highway 17 in Eliot Lake.  Most probably she is not aware of how much it helps me to know that she is also in northern Ontario, working in her studio. I'm sharing just two of the hand made angel cards we have received over the years from Linda because they are life-affirming.
Love and Peace
xxx   

juxtapose

framed by intellect grounded in emotion a haunting quality a knowing anxiety voice of reason voice of madness

Piles of my work are all over the house. I picked stuff from the framer for the two exhibitions in April and placed everything next to each other. I've included works still in progress in the mix and the juxtapositions delight me.

Planet Earth

Loved as if Embroidered with Flowers, fabric and paper collage (2002)

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,
the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins
knowing their warp and woof,
like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.
It has to be loved as if it were embroidered
with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.
It has to be stretched and stroked.
It has to be celebrated.
O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it.
It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.

The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses.
They have to be polished as if made of green brass.
The rivers and little streams with their hidden cresses
and pale-coloured pebbles
and their fool's gold
must be washed and starched or shined into brightness,
the sheets of lake water
smoothed with the hand
and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness.
It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.

and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea
the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea
with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade.
And sky - such an 0! overhead - night and day
must be burnished and rubbed
by hands that are loving
so the blue blazons forth
and the stars keep on shining
within and above
and the hands keep on moving.

It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet
till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.
Archangels then will attend to its metals
and polish the rods of its rain.
Seraphim will stop singing hosannas
to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises
and, newly in love,
we must draw it and paint it
our pencils and brushes and loving caresses
smoothing the holy surfaces.© 1994 P.K. Page

I read this poem today as part of a presentation in church that included the United Church moderator's letter about the lack of action on Climate Change at Copenhagen. By Canadian poet P.K. Page, it is part of a United Nations program to foster dialogue among nations.

Bound

a limitation
a binding
rule bound
neatly bound
out of bounds
north bound
forward to the unknown, backward to memory
bound with a rope
secure

What are the boundaries of quilt making?
How do quilts bind me as an artist?

The tradition binds me - the old patterns, the layers
The stigma binds me - it's a domestic art
The labour binds me - each piece takes a year to make

Maintain a Childlike Wonder

A book for April, made during the week between Christmas and New Years. Advice, encouragement and love for a young artist.

maintain a child like wonder Try frantically, a door slams. It's good to have a general plan for your life and what you want to do yourself to change the world a little bit. The best way to teach my children to live a fulfilling life is not by sacrificing my life, it's through living a fulfilling life myself. Tis a gift to be simple.

Motherly Advice

How to think with your heart. Place your hand upon your heart. Shift your attention to an uplifting thing and hold that feeling for fifteen seconds. Think of something you love unconditionally for fifteen seconds. Take care, my child. Be brave. Live your life. Blue means faithfulness in love.

Grace phoned from the airport three hours ago, having safely completed the first leg of her romantic adventure. I stayed up late to complete this book for her.

a busy time of year

I want to thank those who have been writing me such interesting personal emails inspired by this blog. I will answer you soon once I can gather myself some computer time. Don't forget that I am still on dial-up and everything takes twice as long. It is gratifying to be able to connect to so many people who are on my wave length.

It's a busy time of year. There are gifts to be organized, a house to be cleaned, recitals or parties to give and attend, in addition to what one does on a regular basis. I remember that I'm lucky to be this kind of busy (as opposed to so many other kinds). It is a blessing to be able to give gifts, to bake cookies.

texture and edges

I've been couching yarns and fabrics onto this canvas piece and am enjoying the layering of line and texture. I love these red edges. And somehow the repetition of circles gives a meditative focus to the whole thing.

Full House

It was Ned's birthday yesterday and I baked a maple cake. We had a small crowd around the table which was really nice. April and 3 friends drove over from Montreal (they also brought their dog) and Sandy and Sue, our University era friends came from the other direction, Thunder Bay. Oona phoned and she and nearly three year old Everett are arriving tomorrow. They'll be here for nearly two weeks.

Light of the Moon (above) will be on exhibit at the LaCloche art show in a few weeks. The pamphlet and poster are out and they both look wonderful. I'll post more about that soon.

My Manitoulin

My Manitoulin, fabric, photo, cotton thread, stitching, still in progress

What is your greatest fear?

"Not being able to perform my daily work routine around the house and studio."

What is your greatest joy?

"To do the above."

Anna Torma, Canadian textile artist being interviewed.

My Manitoulin, cotton, photo, hand embroidered with back stitch and detached chain stitch, painted with coloured inks, 13" x 13", 2009

light of the moon

Unable to settle after our week away, I finally took myself off to the studio for some art therapy. I think this piece is finally finished except for a bit of hand stitch. Thanks for your suggestion, Deb.

Painting and Drawing

Save Your Passion

There's Always a Reason

She Became Preoccupied

Light of the Moon

I've been adding layers of paint or pastel or cheesecloth or block print to these four works on canvas. I have no idea how or if they will turn out.

It's elating.