believing

 

 NOT that the art object is inherently significant

 

 meaningful or beautiful

 

 BUT THAT the value

 and meaning of art is actively constructed

 

 by the viewer.

 (Marcel Duchamp's belief)

sincerely

I'm obsessed with the stitching I'm doing these days.
I fall into it.
I need to hold myself back from doing it all day.
Diagonal marks with wool thread,
alternating straight lines with curved,
I consciously attempt to make an eye bending experience.

I want to reach
a place of texture
that is untethered to conscious thought
like a dream is

like when you close your eyes
and retreat into your own body
and slow way down

"I want to get to non art.
non geometreic, non anthromorphic, non-notthing.
Another kind.  Another vision.  Another sort.
From a totally other reference point.  Is it possible?"
Eva Hesse

this stitching has driven me further into solitude

I feel guided by something ...

its out of my hands

The piece I'm working on is the second daily practice.  The other two are shown above (their backs)
(see here for story)  (also here )

I'm also reading old journals again

and then wrapping them gently with wool cloth, stitching them shut

I read today that:
interiority
reflexivity
craft
sincerity
are what makes Canadian art what it is.

"Something in me loves works of art that have within them the sense that they have only just survived their making.  In the end, you shouldn't know what is fiction and what is not. " Robert Frank

how to love

I am writing this from Georgian Bay Canada.
Where the rocks are ancient spirals.

And folds.
And they have been here forever
and they shall continue.

And I've been working on the same pieces for months
And I shall continue.

And April and Jordan arrived on my birthday all the way from Chicago, and then they made a cake.

And we went for a sunset boat ride to celebrate.
And the sun continued its journey
And it too shall continue tomorrow
and the next tomorrow too

 

And then the next day April began to work with  a remarkable quilt top
Rescued from a flea market in Wisconsin

And finally,
the centerpiece that Jordan crafted for the birthday dinner
using wildflowers that have grown here forever
and they too shall continue

All these things fill me with gratitude
and tenderness
and wonder
and love.

inner horizon

Again and again I pull this piece into my lap.
She's un-finished.

When I get close to finishing her, something makes me re-think and un-do and today I mended her again.  Those slices I made last August opened her into a female figure
but she's no princess.

She's been through a lot.
She's been generous with her time.
Listening and holding me thorugh a winter of doubt,
a spring of uncertainty and travel,
and a summer of family.

I like to say that I approach my work as if I have all the time in the world, but the truth is, I don't.
This moon is waning.

I worked the stitches from the back, the distortions and un-planned marks guided me.

This is me.
This old moon.
My surface smoothed out and easy, hiding that inner turmoil on the inside.
Not very well.

This old emotional moon.
Patched and stitched with circles.

Why do I keep coming back to blue circles?

It's not just me - we all do.
We all go back to where we started eventually.
That is who we really are.

When I draw a circle quickly on paper, I start it at 12 noon and go counter clockwise.  I go against time when I rush like that.  But when I stitch circles, I can go either way.  Stitching is a slower way of marking a circle and it encourages stepping not running.  Breathing in a considered manner.
In order.  Kind of.

She is just as interesting on either side.

When I worked on paper, I never worried about what the back of my painting looked like.
It didn't seem important.
But when I stitch into cloth, there are two affected sides.
I noticed this first when I made the quilts and the backs became as important and beautiful as the fronts.
There are two sides of everything.
All things contain their opposites.

Works in cloth are full of metaphors.
I love that.

The deer made their small heart marks in the snow just before I went out for my walk.
They didn't think about it.
I love that too.

side tracked

In 2012 I wrote myself a mission statement that went something like this:  "I wish to create immense cloths that are beyond my reach in any direction and from afar seem to be empty, but, like nature, are actually covered with unique and repeated small marks."

Since then I have only completed one piece that fulfills that mandate.  Beginning with Time.  Side tracked by bubbling ideas, I've made smaller pieces ( Starry Night.  Yin Yin  ) that are ideal for group exhibitions,

and I made teaching samples. (shown in this post)

When I was invited to teach a design workshop at Fibrearts Newfoundland based on the  meditation panels of the circle project , I went into a flurry of producing art works that expanded on the stitches we used.  These 'samples' show how basic stitches and simple design principles can be used to express an original voice.

Both the blue moon folder (above)  and the dark dream cloth (below on left) were made to demonstrate how the archetype of a circle within a square can be a starting point for design.

 They a-wait finishing.

French knots were used in grid formations in both Earth Ark and Layers of Time.   To show a different way to use it, I made a murmuration of stitch.  (above on right)

 It a-waits finishing.

To expand on the reverse applique dot that makes up the lower half of Precious Water I worked up a whole cloth piece from organic cotton and commercial batiks.  It a-waits finishing.

The velvet sample shown above (the smaller piece) was made to demonstrate stitch and flip over foundation,  the main technique for Mended World.   It still needs to be completed.

Although I enjoy the connections I make through teaching and love sharing my passion for these easy techniques with like-minded individuals and I am pleased with the samples I made this year. (I would not have thought of them without the prep for teaching)  I want to leave behind a body of work made up of large pieces that communicate my ideas about intimacy of the hand's touch within the immensity we feel when alone in nature.

If I were younger and the days were longer, I believe that I would say yes more often to teaching.

family traditions

The walk on the ridge when the turkey is in the oven

Pie. Baked by Oona with Charlie's apples,and archetypal markings

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!