Peaceful

What I do know is that I do not know.

My path does not already exist, it comes into existence moment by moment and at the same time, it drops away.

My father passed away very peacefully early yesterday morning.

He always always gave me unconditional support and love.
never criticized me, taught me how to drive.

I've written about him many times over the years.  Here is the first time.
I shared  his mantra here.
For more about him, and our relationshiop, click on the dad link in the side bar.

I am feeling something but can't quite name it.   I suppose it is grief.

May 14 1923 - July 17 2017 

 Paul Elmer Johnson

full obituary here

the tenderness, the beauty

We drove north on the back roads

 I stitched.

Our new baby :three days old above, six days old below

art is not about art.  art is about life.
Louise Bourgeois

our hands

Jody

Anne

Bonnnie

Jackie

Jane

Katherine

Laura

Michelle

Shawn

Hand stitching.
Evidence of time.
Evidence of thought.
Evidence of connection.

The workshop went very well, I enjoyed our time together in Newfoundland.

quilt making

Did you ever think, child, how much piecing a quilt is like living a life?

Life gives you the fabrics, the scraps, the colours, the time...

but it's you who gathers them up, arranges them, and stitches them together.

 

I read Aunt Jane of Kentucky's story when I was about our daughter April's age.
(when I was learning about making quilts, and so busy living my life)

It's lovely to watch her continue the long tradition,

sensual experience

"cherry blossoms" detail by Ana Galindo, linen, thread and cherry stems, 2015 

The exhibition Sensorial Objects continues until May 2 at the Craft Ontario gallery 990 Queen Street West, Toronto Ontario.

Here, cherry stems are couched with thread onto re-purposed linen by artist Ana Galindo, arranged without altering their beautiful naturally curved shape.  The viewer recalls how cherries taste, how the stems feel in our fingers.  We understand blossoms.

"cherry blossoms" from the series "of the everyday and its leftovers"  21 3/8 " x 64 1/8" x 2", linen, thread and cherry stems, 2015 by Ana Galindo

"In a world of materials, nothing is ever finished.  Everything may be something, but being something is always on the way to being something else.  We can call this re-cycling, but from a materials centered view it is simply life."  Tim Ingold

Accompanying the exhibition is a publication that besides double spreads of each of the artists' work, also contains an introduction to the exhibition by Craft Ontario Curator and director of programs Janna Heimstra, a curatorial statment by Kathleen Morris and Monica Bodirsky, and an essay entitled A Continuity by artist and educator Judith Leemann.  Leemann reminds us that the viewer's own life experience with familiar materials acts as the way to understand not only these artworks but also allows us to imagine further possibilities of the artworks and/or the materials and/or ourselves.

"jaryu" detail.  Chung-Im Kim  2012

For example, Chung-Im Kim (above) uses a familiar material in an unfamiliar way and Dorie Millerson (below) uses unfamiliar material in a familiar way.  Kim prints the felt, cuts it up, and through careful hand stitch, manipulates it into a kind of distorted animal hide while Millerson creates anew something recognizable and nostalgic that references un-locking, opening up, crossing thresholds.

Key  by Dorie Millerson.  Needle lace, cotton, wire  2" x 7.5" 2011

All of the work in the exhibit address the sense of touch.
History and possibility.
The work of the hand.
The aesthetic of time.

Return To the Next by Eva Ennist.  reed, concrete, hand made paper, recycled fiberglass.  72" x 27",  2014-15

Experiencing artwork made from materials and through our senses encourages deep reflection.

Return To the Next detail  Eva Ennist 2014-15

The ten artists in this exhibition are faculty at OCAD, Ontario College of Art and Design.
Their names are:  Monica Bodirsky, Eva Ennist, Ana Galindo, Lynne Heller, Chung-Im Kim, Rachel MacHenry, Dorie Millerson, Kathleen Morris, Meghan Price and Laurie Wassink.

In the language of landscape by Kathleen Morris.  56" x 24" x 1", wool and fleece, 2015

Each of these makers have manipulated things from the real world into new things that have never been seen before..  The act of making new objects from materials that already have a history and a language, places both maker and viewer on the same path.  One of the curators, Kathleen Morris, (whose work is shown above) states that "the act of making becomes an invitation for my body to reunite with the living landscape."

In the language of landscape  detail, Kathleen Morris, 2015

In another gallery just down the street (NO FOUNDATION 1082 1/2 Queen St W) was another exploration of the senses, David Ballantine's installation The Remembering of the Air.  Ballantine's three well crafted and beautiful inventions were made to be handled by those who entered the gallery. He states: "Through the reverent interaction of instruments and the body, my work investigates the sensuous within a growing digital and immaterial world." read more of his statement here.

David Ballantine with one of the instruments he made for his installation
The Remembering of the Air

500 Traditional Quilts

You know, when I made this quilt eleven years ago, I didn't think of it as traditional.  I thought it was art.   Art that came directly from my insides and I was thankful that I could use the firm ground of pattern handed down to me by women artists of an earlier time.  By making this red quilt and appliqueing my own hand not holding those four flying shapes I was able to express how I felt during the time my nest was emptying and my parents were aging.  It was a poem.

There is a new book coming out this September from Lark - 500 Traditional Quilts  by Karey  Patterson Breshenhan, director emeritus of the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas. 

Two of my quilts have been selected to be in the book.
The first is Flesh and Blood (shown above).  Made in 2003 from cotton, wool and sheer polyester,   pieced with a sewing machine and then appliqued, embroidered and quilted by hand, 90" square.  The traditional pattern's name? Ocean Waves.  Click here to see Flesh and Blood on my website.

The second quilt that will be in the book is entitled Something More Magical Than It Ever Was.  It was made over twenty years ago in 1991 from recycled family clothing and new silk fabrics in a traditional Log Cabin pattern with some variation.  It's not included in this post but you can see it on the website as well, here.  That quilt was about memory and how we adjust our memories as time goes on.  I thought it was art too when I made it.  I felt that I was using a woman's art medium.

An exhibition of the 500 quilts will be in Houston this fall to celebrate the ruby anniversary of the quilt festival.  This exhibition will tour to Chicago in May 2015.  Both quilts have been invited to participate.

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Flesh and Blood is in private collection but the owners loaned it back to me so it could go on exhibition. 

I do want my work to be seen.  I offered them the quilt shown above as a replacement while Flesh and Blood is on tour.

Protection Blanket, 2005, hand dyed rayon, machine pieced then hand quilted and embellished with couched rayon ribbon and sequins, 80" square.  The traditional pattern here is an Amish one, usually made with somber or deep toned fabrics.   Diamond in a Square.   (to view on website click here)
I had recently learned that in order to keep their children safe, many mothers in eastern cultures sewed shiny things onto their children's clothing to reflect the bad energy.  I sewed sequins onto the central diamond - making it into a shield that would protect the sleeper.

I drew on this quilt,  pleased to have the spaces and symbolism of traditional pattern under my intuitive gestures.    I made this piece nearly ten years ago and it is nice for me to examine the couching again.

It's fascinating.

grounded by tradition

celebrate and cry

There was a party last Thursday August 15 to celebrate and mourn the ending of the Manitoulin Circle Project.

Thank you Heather Hutchinson for your thoughtfulness and care on that day and for all those days when you took over for me. You and Wendy Gauthier added a layer of laughter and friendship to the stitching times we had Thursday after Thursday in the church hall.  Thank you Judy Larimer, enthusiastic supporter and friend, for bringing your famous cupcakes to go along with Heather's chocolate cake and the other treats brought in by the women.  (Heather took most of the photos in this post which is why there are two of me.)

Special thanks also to Julia McCutcheon, Heather Thoma, and Joanne Lewis for your faith and support in me and to the project over its entire four years.  Reverend Faye Stevens, thank you.  You believed in the project from the start.  Without Faye and Julia, I don't think it would have happened.   Thank you everyone, all 147 of you.  Thank you Ned.

We borrowed the church china tea cups, there were cards and speeches and tears and a standing ovation.  Thank you for that. 

I continued to gather hands and draw rings/bracelets for the book throughout the day.

finishing

There remains a lot of finishing work for the stitched journal, Not to Know, but To Go On. 

The 10 to 14 days documented in thread are dated with chain stitch embroidery on the back of each panel.

Then the panels need to be stitched together.  I am using cotton tape.

Then I finish with hem stitch from the front to make a seamless join.

Once two panels are stitched together, I reach for another set of two.

Most of these panels are for the years 2012 and 2013, displayed here in sets of two.

In this work I am referencing my cultural heritage. The stitched panels resemble woven Finnish rag rugs.  Thank you Nina Marie for invitation to off the wall Friday.