daily practice

I make large hand stitched drawings.  
My work reflects upon the place I live, a sparsely populated island in Lake Huron, Canada.
I use the aesthetics of simplicity, time, labour, and repetition in combination with the sense of touch.
I spend quiet time with the work, and make repeated, interesting marks.

At the same time, I keep hand written journals (about 200 so far) where I document my daily life, my thoughts, and notes on what I have read. 
Perhaps because I am a parent of four children, I’ve been interested in how mother artists and writers manage their creative lives.  

I have a daily practice of journal-writing.

This year I am paying even more attention to my journals.
I'm re-reading them.
I feel as if I'm really knowing my self.

I'm reminding myself about who I am, because its hard to stay true when one is easily inspired.

On New Years Day there was a super moon.
I stood outside and looked up at it around midnight.
It was awesome, large and bright, with a large ring around it.
The air was super crisp and cold.

I'm starting a new daily practice of stitched collage, using up a piece of contrary felt that I purchased in Alaska in 2009 as a base to stitch into.

A new thing here is that our daughter April will be based out of our house in January.
Her energy is sure to influence how I spend my time.
I look forward to being with her a lot, but I also want to hold on to my self.

My own work.

I feel that these collages will give me a place to play with patterns.
I will allow patterns.

We are given these shapes or archetypes or patterns and we just need to record them.

It's destiny.

In most of my work I try to pare extra shapes away, in order to give more empty space for dreams,
but in these collages, I will let them come.

The first shapes.   

Learn all I can

Soulskin: Seeding the Prairie  created by Susan Lordi Marker 1999, nylon, iron, copper, pigment, 76"x41"x3'

Three things make a good painter
1.  love to do it
2.  look closely at paintings by others
3.  learn all you can     

(above text found in 2000 journal copied from somewhere unknown)

When I teach, I show my students excellent examples by other artists, such as this piece by Susan Lordi Marker

I have written more about this artist on Modernist Aesthetic.

the townline

bundled 

early spring

raw accumulation

 

Infinite relationships - Topkapi Palace

We were in Istanbul last September, and visited the Topkapi Palace.  I was not prepared for the immersion into pattern that we experienced in the harem. 

The twenty foot walls were covered with decorated tiles.  Although each tile is gorgeous by itself,  it is the larger pattern of the multitude that is memorable.

Our eldest, Oona (shown above), was with Ned and me in Istanbul.   The whole family was in Turkey to celebrate Grace and Asan's wedding.  His family lives in Turkey.  

Oh yes, the ceilings were decorated with tiles as well. Shown here are two of the many domes.

Time and labour of many skilled hands created this treasure. 
Think about the scaffolding that must have been necessary!

Hand made beauty.  Each tile created, and then placed, one by one by hand into this larger vision.

Being in this powerful place was calming.   Spiritual.

pattern

pattern attracts me
grid of branches,
palm-thatch lined up edge to edge

repetition
pattern

it occurs all the time,
all the time.
growth in spring and summer
death in fall and winter
repeat

we live a pattern,
we live repetition.
perhaps you will say that I am attracted to patterns and repetition because I am a quilt maker

But maybe I'm a quilt maker because there is pattern in our world

 images:  the thatched outside kitchen in the Cayman Heritage Garden in Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park

protection gifts

Embroidered patterns such as triangles, zigzags, hands, eyes and horns have tremendous power. The force of a pattern is strengthened by repeating it, and by adding tassels. For Eastern European countries formerly under Ottoman rule, unfinished patterns are especially powerful. They symbolize the continuity of life. The triangle's sharp corners have the power to ward off evil. In many religions including Christianity, the triangle symbolizes the trinity. Red represents the blood of life and of death and is the most powerful and exhilarating of all colours. Red threads are associated with spirit worship, marriage, and secret powers.
I gave each of our adult children one of these amulets for Christmas. For protection yes, but also for beauty. Tassels hung on wrapped cords confuse and entrap the evil eye. White beads that finish their edges are typical of Uzbek embroidery. I'm not sure, but I believe that these small hangings were used at thresholds, or on walls across from the quilts, or between the piled quilts. I hang mine in my window. So cold here today. The ice came in.

I'm grateful to Sheila Paine who writes about ilgitsh such as these in her books about world textiles. These ones were purchased from the Textile Museum of Canada.

hermitage

Seen on Little Exuma, this poetic ruined building. dots of lightstripes of light marks, human touch

More photos of Normandy - patterns

Normandy, stripes
Cathedral, Caen, spirals, Low tide, Arromanches beach, spirals, dots

Connecting

rejoined the SDA (Surface Design Association).
joined a-n.co (art network)
subscribed to Crafts (UK).

All online.