a language of care

The quilts I make are not clever.

They are not intellectual.

The quilts I make are love stories.

Remember this. 

Remember that quilts are love stories. 

Often, quilts are gifts. 

We sleep with them.

They touch us.

Quilts are a language of care. 

Quilts are not about the things that happen out in the world, 

Quilts help us recover from that world,

Quilts protect us when we sleep and dream.

Quilts also comfort the ones who make them.  

That is the language of care.

Your Fragile Life 

 old damask linen, natural dye, silk batting, silk backing and borders, cotton thread, 

entirely hand stitched, 70 x 68 inches,  2024.      

magic safety net

 When I need to feel better, I make patchwork.

Attaching nine-patches to each other creates a kind of safety net.

When people ask me what I'm doing, I tell them I am sewing magic squares.

This quilt top has been in the works since 2014.  Now it's done.

It was with me during the broken leg.

It helped me get me through 10 days of this still rampant global pandemic.

The ice has started to go out on the bay in front of our house.

I sat for a while yesterday and listened to the ice cracking

and found a heart-shaped rock.

the healing machine

the healing machine , individual component, baling wire, aluminum foil

This post is about Emery Blagdon's Healing Machine.

the artist believed that his art could cure people

When Emery Blagdon was 48, he started building the healing machine and continued for 31 years until he died in 1986.  He lived in Nebraska and created an environment in a shed creating sculptures made of baling wire, aluminum foil, hand-painted lightbubs, salts, and bright paintings of geometric shapes.

Blagdon believed he was sensitive to electrical current and was investigating the curative powers of  this unseen force.  He hoped that the objects he made might ease human pain and suffering.

Portrait of Emergy Blagdon with his works in progress by Sally and Richard Greenhill 1979

In 1979, a couple from England, Sally and Richard Greenhill, came to Nebraska to photograph the artist.

view of Emery Blagdon's shed with installation of more than 300 hanging and standing sculptures made from bailing wire and aluminum foil

After his death, Emery Blagdon's work was collected together by his friends, including Dan Dryden.  The Kohler foundation acquired the work in 2004 and after conservation, it became part of the John Kohler Arts Center's permanent colleciton.  This includes the workshop and 400 constructions, paintings, and other components.  It is on view until July 1 2018.

It is fascinating that he had the idea that static electricity and its emanating aura would cure those who experience both physical and emotional suffering and so created these fantastical objects.

painted light bulbs

painted wood with nails and thread

His paintings of concentric circles and angualr lines seem to generate power and reflect it outwards.

the healing machine indvidual component, baling wire, wood, aluminum foil sculpture by Emery Blagdon

Astonishing
Here is another article about this artist, and an audio.

a visionary art environment

I was most attracted to the sculptures that used masses of repeated small and interesting shapes.  These were carefully placed within each of the "pretties" (his word for the individual components) so that they channel the earth's natural magnetic energy.  Read more here.

I had to go experience this exhibition twice and still walked away in awe.