as if we were all immortal

There is a room in Paris filled with the lady and unicorn tapestries.  I thought about it the other day when I came across an old journal entry.    I’m sorry that now I’ve misplaced those exact words, but maybe I can get the essence here.  

The famous unicorn tapestries are in The Musee de Cluny, a haven within the busy centre of Paris.  Last year when I visited Paris with our middle daughter, we looked in the gift store of this museum for two matching pillows, each with a unicorn done in needlepoint for her twin toddlers.

I took a few photos of the tapestries and am sharing them here.  The now lost journal entry was about hope and the human spirit and how the handmade object is an expression of resilliance.    

These tapestries are so old, yet there is something forever young about them.  

as if we were all immortal in some way

ourselves enormous

in the plumed fields of light are the shapely deeds of our flesh

what grandeur

                 (words by Al Purdy, Canadian poet)

Click this link to view Rebecca Mezoff's visit to the Cluny museum in 2019.  She describes and gives images of each of the tapestries.   

wedding

Our daughter Grace married Tim on Saturday June 21 2025.

A beautiful event. 

Paris

Dear blog friends,

I went to Paris last week.  

The weather was really quite mild for middle of February.  I love the avenues of bare winter trees in front of the elegant buildings.  Above is the Hotel des Invalides.

Our daughter Grace came with me.  

We figured Paris out together. 

Even in February, people sit outside to have coffee.  In the above photo, we are at the cafe attached to the famous English bookstore,  Shakespeare and Company.  We could see Notre Dame.

My friend Marjan came from The Netherlands for a day.  We have been friends for over 50 years.

The reason I went to Paris was to view the estrelas of Olga de Amaral (above).  I will soon write about Olga de Amaral's large retrospective at the Cartier foundation in Paris in Modernist Aesthetic.  

On the last day, I walked from our hotel to the Jardin du Luxembourg.  

I found a bench there and watched people walk past, children play football, elders play petanque or chess, and several sets of friends share picnics.

I had my stitching with me.  Stitching always helps me to feel at home no matter where I am, and as a bonus, it holds the time and the memories.  I will always think of Paris when I touch and see this piece.

Wish you were here.

love, Judy

Remembrance

Floating World by Linda Finn   acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches

This post is dedicated to the memory of Northern Ontario artist, Linda Finn.   (1945 - 2025)    obituary here

It's also about some other late artists from northern Ontario Canada, a place I have lived for over 30 years.   I feel that each of them worked very hard to support art and artists in our beautiful, spread-out community.  I’m writing this post to  sing out their names with respect.  

Linda Finn's paintings, prints and assemblages were a constant at the Perivale gallery  here on Manitoulin. I sought out her innovative work whenever I visited the gallery.  

The War Letters Project in the Art Gallery of Sudbury  
'April 1917' is on the back wall.  Screen print on bible pages, acrylic on paper , photo etching and lithographs on paper, assembled in 2007 by Linda Finn

In 2017, Linda Finn had a solo show at the  Art Gallery of Sudbury and displayed The War Letters Project. an ongoing body of work that she had begun in 2007.  The project included a wide variety of art pieces; assemblages, paintings, prints and book-works and toured to eleven Ontario galleries over a period of years.  

detail of Linda Finn's assemblage of bible pages printed with repeated images of a soldier 

Each piece in the project started from letters that Linda's grandmother Essie received from soldiers over the two world wars.  The artworks are all shown with better photos on Linda's website (here).  While there, you might be interested in the 20 minute video (The Old Tin Box) that tells the story of this project.  

Essie's letter, monoprint with chine colle on paper, 2008 (detail) by Linda Finn

Now, I want to take a moment to mention three other artists who I personally mourn.  Each of them reached out to me and made me feel part of the art community of northern Ontario when our family moved to Manitoulin from Kenora in 1993.  I looked to them as mentors, although they were only a few years older than me.  They developed their careers before the internet which means that online images of their work are rare.  I’ve provided each artist with two links however, and more information and some images can be found if you click. 

 I apologize if this post seems too personal or dark.  Death is not talked about much.  But you know, I feel that I’m not actually saying enough about these friends of mine when I consider all that they have done for Canadian art.  I’m just naming them.  

Ann Suzuki   (died 2021)   her obituary here

ear hear earth heart by Ann Beam, acrylic on paper, 24 x 30 inches

Ann Beam     (died 2024)   her website here     

Ray Laporte   (died 2022)   his obituary here

My friends.  Remembered here.   I miss them and continue to be inspired by each of them.  

Now, in the spirit of memory and joy,  may I show you the prayer cloth that I finished last night?  

Perhaps it is more of a play cloth.  The transferred painting was done by my middle daughter, Grace, when she was five years old.  She painted the mermaid and the merman on paper which I then transferred with a hot iron to polyester fabric. I was teaching this kind of art in the schools at the time and we used the technique at home for birthday party t-shirt-making and the like.  The heart at the bottom was painted just once, then ironed three times onto the cloth, each time getting a little fainter.  I will be seeing Grace this weekend and will give her the quilt.  I think that the twins can use it for their dolls.  

Mermaid Quilt by Judy Martin,
heat transfer on polyester, dyed velvet, hand stitched, 28 x 33.5 inches  2025,
original painting by Grace Martin when she was five years old

two trees at fifty years

Ned and I celebrated our 50 years married at a resort in Mexico over New Year's.  Our four children and their families celebrated with us.    

There were eighteen in our party. It was a blast and I am so very thankful.

A note about the t-shirts we are wearing in this beach photo.  Created as a surprise for us, the youngsters marched into our room in a large group and they each wore a t-shirt.  The one year old twins, the school age sisters, the teen boys, the adults in their 30's and 40's.  They had a playlist from their childhood / our marriage.  They brought shirts for us to wear.  

The design is of two trees:  a white pine for Ned, referring to the Georgian Bay family cottage and an Elm tree for me, referring to the Elm tree on my parent's farm near Fort Frances.  Each tree is growing form its own root system, tall and strong, side by side.  

I've written about this 50 year thing before and I promise that this is the last post about it.  Shall we go on into the new year?  Best wishes to your family from mine for 2024.  xoxo  

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.  

my ordinary yet dramatic life

The life that I am living through right this minute tumbles forward, all around, and is stitched into the work in my lap.

Fabrics from a challenging project become mixed in a personal lived way with my present. 

I spend quiet time with them, hours of time, using my body in gentle gestures,

to make something forever mixed with my ordinary yet dramatic life.

creativity and confusion

This post consists of photos of my work and life during the last few confusing weeks.

Creativity has returned for me and I am grateful for time spent with new work.

I have several new starts, and if they were all pinned up side by side, I think we would see that I am following a new direction.  I don't quite understand it yet, but you know,  that's OK.
I just want to get this work out of me.
Although it makes me calm to do it, I am also in a kind of panic.

Our two youngest daughters are with us.
April has been here since the beginning of April and Grace arrived on June 4.

 I've been going into my town studio since June 1 - every week day.

 

When I'm there I use the large work table to support a piece I'm working on that is based on three old blankets.  It's immense, and each day's stitching is only a tiny mote.

Sometimes I listen to the podcast Sandy and Nora talk politics while stitching. 

 Just as often, I enjoy quiet.

I won't lie.
This pandemic time and this white fragility time  are very confusing and very heavy.

"There is no such thing as good painting about nothing." Mark Rothko

Take care of each other my friends.