journal entries from the middle of March

Sunday:  

Idea:  to work from the back, to use more colour, to cut silk in narrow strips, to couch it to the back.

I write this idea down before bed.    

Monday: 

Or, to cut holes into the circles on the back and reveal the inner black batt, and then stitch around them with black thread that would show on the front side.

To use coloured silk and chance and also holes and to work from the back with out knowing how the front will be affected.

Tuesday;

We made a trip to Lively for an 11:30 appointment for new computer glasses for me. 

I let the lady there pick them out.

The metaphysics of the ordinary.  The pared down aesthetic. Nothing strident.  Well made.  

Intensely worked surface. Not hard work, but careful work. Do not know how it will turn out.

Trust that it is going to work.

My work is about comfort and about the inner world and about the cosmic mystery.

It is not a call to action.  It is a call to reflection.

sun and moon of mine, you've come.

my sight, my hearing, you've come

ecstasy, you've come

eyes filled with sun, harvest of all my longing,

you've come.

desert bandit, penance breaker, silver moon beloved

you've come

Rumi

Wednesday: 

Went to book club today.   It was well attended.  Seven people.  We all liked the book.   Girl With a Pearl Earring.  Afterwards, I went to my studio in town.

Thursday: 

Poetry is an element in all my work.  Poems not to be read, but to be seen and touched without the need to understand them.  

Poetry arises from the desire to get beyond the finite and historical (the human world of violence and difference) in order to reach something transcendent.  (Ben Lerner )

Friday:  

Poetry comes from wanting to recognize a world where everything is connected.  Poems give a sense of prayer.  (Cecilia Vicuna)

Saturday:

We went to Sudbury yesterday.  It was a busy day.  A medical appointment for Ned.  A visit to see the gallery I'll be exhibiting in this summer.  

In my new quilt, I am couching long strips of silk around large unstitched circles.  I am loving the simplicity and the feeling that working this way gives me.  It's really slow.    I am enjoying my time spent with this piece.

I feel as if I'm painting or drawing - allowing my hands to do the thinking, not my mind.

Textiles are records of the every-day.  Textiles are records of endurance.  Textiles record the care and attention given to simple things that surround us. (Dorothy Caldwell)

Some souls have blue stars.  

Some souls have echoes of a burnt voice.

Crumbs of kisses.

Sobs from trees.

Tranquil whiteness.

Flocks of Songs.  

(selected words from several of Lorca's poems that he wrote in 1920)  

august sky whirl

Night sky whirl is the only piece I had with me while at the cottage for the month of August.  It was quite a big family time:  all four kids, their kids, their spouses, also Ned's brother and sister and also the brother's kids.

Also the 100th birthday of the building.

I returned to night sky whirl whenever I had a moment of quiet.  

There were 18 of us around the table for a few days if you include the twins who were usually on laps.

It is possible to find stillness.  Reading Calvin and Hobbs when you are 9 years old is one way.  

The Doubtful Guest when you are 6 years old is another way.  

This textile is made from soft, old, fabrics, mostly damask linens that have been dyed.  The back of the piece is in three pieces the colours of sky and water at sunset.

We made a pie.

We made another pie for the 100th birthday.

Also a cake for the 17th birthday.

We painted.

This is the most painterly piece I've made for a long while. 

the reason we are here is to grow

Untitled felt on felt 2017 by William J O'Brien

Festive Greetings from my family to yours.

This felt on felt artwork is by William J O'Brien, and I saw it on Saturday, part of his solo show at Shane Campbell Gallery,  Chicago, Illinois USA.
It has so much positive energy and exhuberance.

It feels to me like how I feel when I am in the USA.

This is my fifth trip to the United States in 2017.
All of them have been really positive experiences, full of energy.

Chicago, Lincoln, Athens and Rosendale, Anchorage, Chicago
Full of friendly people and beautiful landscapes.

Ned and I are here to see April's two exhibitions and to bring her  home to Canada.
We drove along Lake Michigan and will return the same way.  It's a big land.

Look at the circles and the hands and the upward energy in this large applique. (60 x 72 inches)
The wintery palette.   

William J O'Brien, thank you for reminding us that the reason we are here is to grow. 

art in life

anna's garden

fall all over

kristina's roses

maggie

We're into wedding prep here.  Daughter Grace is marrying Asan in late June.  I have been wondering if I could allow myself to use one or two of Alabama Chanin's beautiful stencils and embellish some cloth for the wedding.  I'm running out of time however.  Wouldn't it be a treat to use someone else's designs? It would be a gift in a way.  It would be a way to learn from an expert.   Please visit  Alabama for more information about the stencils pictured above.     

 

 Tonight I experimented with cloth rose petals, strung on nylon thread.

While doing this, I thought about life. 

Life itself is a work of art.

memory or hope?

Luce Irigaray speaks about the invisible self and how it is accessed by the caress. The caress helps humans, both genders, into intimacy with the self.

Our inner world is glimpsed through our hands. Using the senses, specifically the sense of touch, is the way to reach that temporary moment of loss and realization. The inner self does not respond to didactic thought, but to suggestions of experience, recollection, and dream. A thread, a mark, a colour, a pared down open space distract us and invite contemplation.

Le Nouveau Louvre opens today in Sudbury. An image of my other piece can be seen on Judy's update.

saving the world

We were in Toronto over the weekend so that our daughter could catch a flight to the U.S. She's will be an environmental research intern at the Smithsonian Institute for three months. Although very proud I shed a few tears when she disappeared through those security doors.

Ayako Miyawaki

I am finally returning a book that Valerie Hearder loaned to me in 2004. I have really enjoyed looking at the natural applique designs of the artist, Ayako Miyawaki, and would like to share a few of them here. All images in this post are by Ayako Miyawaki and were created post WW II.

The artist says: My husband was a teacher, and spent most of his free time painting. During vacations he attached a notice which read “no visitors allowed” to the door of his studio. I learned many things from his attitude.

In addition, my mother-in-law taught me to value a thing or the thing-in-itself. It was only natural, then, that I should think of making something from old clothes and rags, as I was living in such an environment.

Applique works were popular before this time, but they usuallly were made by using pattern papers or by copying design motifs out of pattern books. I decided to create my own designs modeled after objects I observed in nature. This resolution forced me to invent my own compositions and techniques, a source of pleasure as well as anxiety!

Valerie's excellent new book, Points of View, has taken the place of Ayako's on my book shelf.