more softness

I feel awe every day
when I look out at the sun glittering on the water
and every night when the moon does the same thing.

I live in a lonely beauty.
Manitou means God.  Manitoulin Island is Spirit Island,

and this spiritual place is embedded in my stitched art.

This work also is based on the ideas of destruction and reparation

and more softness.
honesty.

More humility.

Life changes in an ordinary instant.
We bleed.

My work is done in a rush of slow.

It gives me self-healing.
I hope that it communicates something to the inner inner of my viewers.

This piece arrived for me without too much thinking,
in a rush,
It came out of an almost erotic inner dreamworld
very sensuous and intuitive,

and then my hands touched and touched it.

I stitched and stitched
through the spring
throughout the summer
and now it is September

and all the while i knew it was art and yet it was also something else.
A healing cloth.
I felt myself becoming whole.

inner symbols
cosmic
circle-heart
almost a mandala

My work holds the whirl of each day
the rush of time
the emotions of life

I'm just doing the best I can.

island self

how wonderful are islands

vivid and pure

people are like islands,
self contained, whole and serene
respecting other people's solitude   (Gift from the Sea)

I am my self.
My self does not need a lot of interaction with others.
It needs its own self
It needs solitude and quiet

I am not anti social
I love to hold my grandchildren close and interact with them through creative imaginings
I love to watch and listen to my beautiful daughters, all 4 of them

It's easy to lose myself though,
and not give my SELF honour and respect

Studying  Agnes Martin, Luce Irigaray, and Pema Chodron has made me more OK

I am me
I am intelligent
I am sensitive

I take care of myself by making art
I take care of myself by stitching

in and out
soft caress
in and out

be still

that's all there  is
all there is

patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches.

patience and faith

one should lie empty, open as a beach, waiting for a gift from the sea

women give and give and give

everyone, especially women, should be alone for some part of each week - each day

the most important times in one's life are when one is alone

we need solitude in order to find the true essence of ourselves

our state of grace

our inner stillness

(these thoughts from gift from the sea)

time is a feminist issue

and time alone brings us close to spirituality

I am using my usual techniques
reverse applique
eyelet stitch,
back stitch
french knots
tucks
couching

repeating favourite stitches

over and over

I use a lot of repeated marks

I learned this from my mother (nature)

this post is the second in the series Sunday photos

Sunday quilt photo

I am doing a lot of stitching these days.
I start early in the morning and continue through the day, into the evening.
I have an exhibition in Toronto in October and have designed 8 new pieces, none of them small.

Several of them are white
Four are made with old linen domestic damask..
I think that the title of the exhibition will have the word cloud in it.
I am still inspired by Luce Irigarary's poem 

especially the line "how do I make earth out of air, and protect the cloud in me?"

I am a bit worried that this blog will be boring as I work on these same 8 quilts over the summer.
I hesitate to show them here actually.
Isn't there a rule somewhere that artists must keep the work secret until the big unveil at the opening?
But then what would I show in my blog?
Rule, shmule.

This post is the first of Sunday quilt photos showing the progress of this body of work.
It also will document the advance of spring and summer here in my yard.
Today it's the middle of May and the new green all over is really fresh.

It's mother's day.
I share this lovely portrait of my mother Pauline in her mid-30's.

Mother's day was her very favourite holiday.
She didn't allow us to celebrate her birthday.

It is also my father's birthday today.   He turns 94.
He's been alone for ten years now.

These new quilts are journals of my spring of great happiness.
I feel as if I have a cloud of love in me.