Do you know what a symbol is?

I've been absorbed with assembling a piece from vintage funeral wear.
Doing this helped me come back to and appreciate ordinary daily life.

The time before this pandemic crises seems like from another world. 
What was important for me at the beginning of March seems trivial now. 
My priorities and concerns have completely changed.

I've been having scattered disjointed thoughts, moodiness, despondency, weeping, and anxiousness.
Stitching into pieces already in progress (such as this one) helped immensely.

I reasoned that if I died, finished quilts would be easier to deal with. 

I'm still not able to do my real (usual) work - but I will someday.
This project was cathartic.

There was no warning that I would make this artwork.
It came all of a sudden and was a release.

growing is what life is for

  A tree in the forest doesn't keep looking around at the other trees

wondering if its right to be putting down roots so deep
instead of using its energy for making acorns

it just grows

that is its job, to grow
only people drive themselve crazy asking
'what's this for?"

Am I doing all right?
am I doing better than someone else?
Is it all right to be doing this?

I copied this out and taped it inside my kitchen cupbaord ...
the one I keep the salt in, beside the stove

Learning my craft and then practicing it for no other reason than for itself
is one of the first steps I took in my life towards learning that

growing is what life is for

hand made paper by moi
type written text
text about taping the text to my kitchen cupboard where the salt is by moi
all the text about a tree in the forest, growing, is for by Beth Gutcheon  an early influence.

I'm getting ready for the Perivale gallery's 2018 season..
I will be showing stitched pieces mounted on linen-covered board, framed. 

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.