till it shines in the sun like gold leaf

So we have these fabulous gunnera plants in our garden

and sometimes I make bundles - the two above are from 2007

this post is about these things

and about PK Page's poem,  Planet Earth

It has to be loved like a laundress loves her linens

the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins

like a  lover coaxing or a mother praising

It has to be loved as if it were embroidered with flowers

and birds and two joined hearts upon it

it has to be stretched and stroked

it has to be celebrated

O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it

It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet

the trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses

they have to be polished as if made of green brass

the sheets of lake water smoothed with the hand

 smoothing the holy surfaces

time is a beautiful whirl

Not To Know But To Go On by Judy Martin at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery 2013, Canada

Q:  Can you please describe how to do the couching technique that you use on your big journal-sculpture, Not To Know But To Go On.   Thank you.

Not To Know But To Go On at the World of Threads Festival 2014 Oakville Canada

Lately, I have received several emails with questions and this post contains a brief tutorial about the technique in Not To Know But To Go On, and also some exciting news about it. 

Not To Know But To Go On at Mary Black Gallery Halifax Canada with Penny Berens in exhibition Cloth of Time 2016

First the news:
Not To Know But To Go On is part of the new SAQA global exhibition, 3-D Expression.  This show opens in Grand Rapids Michigan in September and travels until 2023.  I shipped it to SAQA at the end of May.

To make it:   

It's so simple.  Tear strips of fabric and couch them to a base of heavier weight cloth.  

Q:  What type of material do you couch onto?
 A:  I cut panels from artist cotton canvas to measure about 13" x 22", and then later stitched them together with cotton tape.

Q:  Are you using regular quilting fabric cut into strips?  If so, how wide?  Do you finish your edges?

A:  The type of fabric varies.  I use cotton quilting and dress-making fabric, linens, silks, polyester sheer fabric,  and re-purposed clothing. The fabrics were collected over my years of being a quilt maker and a mother, and I only used fabrics that I love.  I tear strips of the fabric about 3/4 inch wide and do not finish the edges.  Rather I roll it into itself and lay it on the base cloth. Once I decide on a piece of cloth, I use it all up.

I couch the cloth to the base with the thread in a wrapping stitch.  This stitch looks as good on the back as it does on the front.  (see below photo)

First and foremost, this is a piece about time, three years of time.  That’s 1068 days.

Q:  What kind of thread do you use?
A:   I use ordinary cotton embroidery floss.  One complete skein for each day all six strands at one time.  I closed my eyes when I chose the thread so that I would not select something to match the cloth.  I had to trust that the threads and the cloth would be OK.

It resembles a rag rug, and actually, I was inspired by the narrow Finnish rugs of my heritage, but it is hand stitched, not woven.

Q:  What is the difference between a couching stitch and a wrapping stitch?
A:  They are the same thing. 

Every day for three years I threaded my needle and attached the strips of cloth to the canvas with a wrapping stitch or couching stitch.  An extra benefit is that the wrapping gesture of this stitch is very meditative and healing to do.

Time is a beautiful whirl.  Time is both the subject and the main material in this piece.  Day after day, time rushes by no matter the family event or world crises.  Time is relentless, and we have to trust.  We have to go on.  It will be OK.

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) has many global exhibitions touring at this time.
And wow, there is a call for all Canadian SAQA members.  Click here to read the Call for Entry.  

Judith and Sheila and bundles, oh my

Judith Scott  Untitled

 

This post is about two exhibitions I viewed at the end of October 2017 during a visit to Toronto.
First:  Judith Scott at Oakville Galleries

I admire this artist's exploration of wrapped form.
This exhibition satisfies as the maze of large plinths display the work well and invite the viewer to come close to the pieces.  A chart on the wall of their drawn outlines informs us that they are all named  "untitled" and were made between 1991 and 2004, the year before Judith Scott passed away.

 This one reminds me of a book wrapped shut.

 

My body understands these objects better than my mind does.  When I look at them, my arms feel the familiar gesture of wrapping, repetitive and large, a healing motion that carefully covers something mysterious with threads.  It all makes me feel better.
The exhibition  of Judith Scott's bundles continues until the end of this year.

Sheila Hicks    Perpetual Migration 

 Sheila Hicks Material Voices was on show at the Textile Museum of Canada.
Again - wrapped forms.  These tall narrow bundles are bamboo wrapped with cotton, wool, metal wire, linen and coins and are a small section of Sheila Hicks' large installation from 2015's Art Basel which dwarfed viewers at 14 feet x 40 feet.

Lares and Penates
1990 - 2013  Sheila Hicks
Wrapped Memories
This method of displaying small circular bundles across a wall is very inspiring.

The textile museum has audio clips of Sheila Hicks speaking about her work throughout the gallery.
Her voice as so full of joy.  You can hear her passion about the materials she explores.

Mandan Shrine 2016
Linen, cotton and synthetic, Sheila Hicks
This piece uses 'pony - tails- her own method. The artist puts long pieces of soft linen threads together and then binds them tightly and neatly with bright threads.

Dotted here and there within this exhibition of large sculptural pieces, are some of Sheila Hicks' miniatures,  woven experiments that she has continued doing for her entire career. (50 years).  The two shown here are very recent.  A book devoted to this body of small works is precious.
Above,  Sentinel des Sentiments 2016
Below,  Cour de Rohon 2015

Say yes before saying no.
Include rather than ignore and exclude 
Always carry a pencil, paper and camera.' 

Sheila Hicks

This beautiful exhibition is on view at the textile museum of Canada until February 5 2017

more beautiful blocks of time

 

 I wrapped eight more journals this morning.

That makes 37 so far.
Only 163 or so left to go.
Wondering if I like them multi-coloured like this, or if I should paint them white (after wrapping them)

They are true diaries in that I write every day.
First thing in the morning,
I begin a new page with the date at the top, and then I write whatever is at the top of my mind.
The best ideas are right there when I wake up.
Problems I've solved in my sleep.  Answers to questions.
New decisions that seem urgent.

Journaling is a daily art practice.

When I wrap the journals up like this, they lose the personal moments and become more about time itself.  The exterior textile wrap twists around the book and mimics my rapidly changing mind. Somehow, when the emotion of the interior is represented this way with fabric on the exterior, the book transforms into a textile covered block of time.

If you are interested, the history of this project can be seen first here, and then here.

To what do our lives cling?
Our lives cling to their narrative.        Helene Cixous

luminous halo path

This post is about the piece I made for the Elemental festival on Manitoulin Island 2016.
Curator Sophie Anne Edwards invited me to create a piece about the daily walk I've make along my country road.  I've done this walk for 23 years,  sewing myself to this place.

The theme of this year's festival was "walking".  It took place in the village of Kagawong, about a 40 minute drive from my house.  My piece would be installed along the river and to make it easier to transport, I wrapped it.

Friends from Nova Scotia were visiting for the week and helped with the installation.  Above, Margi Hennen assists 4 element's Patricia with the un-wrapping.

The festival offered a rich mix of activities and entertainment around the walking theme.    
We attended Marlene Creates' presentation of the walking she does to help her learn more about her 6 acres of boreal forest in Newfoundland and also her poetry walks.

My daily walk to Cricket Hill is one km - 1250 steps. (one way)

I sewed strong chains of cloth I have collected for 40 years, a luminous halo that represented my life.

Virginia Woolf said:   Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.

The chains are connected to wrapped clover that represents my foot steps.
A life of stepping over and through hurdles and burdens, joys and unexpected visions

Above, Valerie Hearder helps with the installation.

The path has something to do with mortality and summing up and about stitching my self together.

Using the colourful cloth as soul medicine.

Van Gogh believed that colour has power over line.

Line may be the language of reason but colour is sensuality itself.

Every day I sewed a little more, working towards one km of cloth.

Consider cloth.
It is such an important and enduring tactile presence in all our daily lives.
Cloth is what touches our skin, cloth is what we sleep with.
Cloth is tangible, the most intimate and familiar material construction and touching it makes current thought and past emotions visible.
The materiality of cloth is generous, allowing memories of beauty or love to come up to the surface and be a halo or aura that holds each of us.

This project shows faith in the future and faith in myself.

Working with materials reveals me to myself.

I understand my life and my healing through making.

In Eastern cultures the act of joining small pieces together embodies a wish for a long life.

Above, Patricia Mader and Penny Berens help with the installation.

As you walk this path, go slowly.
Match my gait.
Notice your own experience of walking along the river.

Step step step.

My body – spirit steps into the future.

Who knows where?  Answer, the same place.