not sure

(These leaves are called gunnera and I love them)

not so sure about my work
not sure if it is necessary

yes, it gives me reasons
to get up
to dream, but
it will not save the world

when I was a young mom
I took my first fine arts degrere from Lakehead University

I wrote an essay about Kathe Kollwitz
and Henri Matisse

( I thought it was a rhubarb plant when I planted it 25 years ago)


My thesis was that Kollwitz made her work
because she wanted to change the world somehow
She hoped to make a difference

She was against war
and her paintings and prints about human sorrow
about mothers mourning
and women raging
moved me

they moved me a lot

I was irritated at that time
when I was young
by Matisse
who went to the south of France
and said that he wanted to make
art that soothed people

he wanted his work to make them feel
as if they were sitting in an armchair
and could forget about the trouble out there in the world

(it's sometimes called Dinosaur food)


my teacher at the time criticized me
for these ideas
She was right
I based my argument on nothing
but gut reaction

I looked at Kollwitz's work and saw her clear message

I loved Matisse, but didn't know why
and his words
made me

not sure

now that I have matured as an artist
I understand Matisse

My own work
is about finding heart in the inner world
not the outer

but these days
Kollwitz comes to mind

and I'm not sure 

Gunnera

I love these rubbings of giant gunnera leaves that I made a couple of years ago. Today I painted over them with hot wax. They have become more important. They're older. Wiser.





View of swing bridge from studio window.

She makes cold things warm.

I taught my first ever class of Art Quilting today. We made prints of leaves with oil based printers ink and also did rubbings on cotton with oil pastels. (example pictured) These were heat set and overdyed. We also spent quite a bit of time talking about the history of the Art Quilt. I based my talk on Penny McMorris's essay from her 1986 book, The Art Quilt and chose Barbara Todd to be tonight's featured artist. I selected her because she's Canadian and because her Security Blankets are such a strong example of active pacism. She disarms.

Gunnera

We seem to have the ideal growing conditions for the perennial plant, Gunnera and I am astounded by it's dramatic size. Only four rubbings of the leaf fit on a double bed sheet.

Thanks to Chrissy, the writer of the lively and warm blog, Life on Manitoulin. Chrissy chose Judy's Journal to receive one of her five "reflection" awards. I'm thrilled by this and have begun to reflect on my own list.