My Edited Life: Seventeen Quilts

Something More Magical than it Ever Was  1991  re-purposed family clothing and silk, traditional dark and light log cabin arrangement quilt, hand quilted,by Judith e Martin  90 inches square

The first quilt, Something More Magical Than It Ever Was (shown above) in this edited life story was completed the same year I turned 40.  It is a memory quilt about the early years of our marriage.  The traditional dark and light arrangement of the log cabin pattern reminds us that we need both darkness and light in order to grow, just like a seed does.

Quilt 2:  In the Centre of the Body is the Soul.  The first quilt that I started after our move to Manitoulin in 1993.  It was on Manitoulin that I learned that hand embroidery adds emotional power to the surfaces of my quilts.   Go here for image.

Quilt 3;  I began a series of Velvet Journals in the late 90's.  The idea behind them was that all of us present ourselves to the world, but that our inner self is more interesting and  true.  These ideas continue to surface in my current work. This particular piece is entitled The Rescuer because art critic Lucy Lippard once wrote that quilt makers rescue a woman's life from oblivian. Click here for the front and here for the back of this quilt.  The piece is English Paper Pieced with hand written journal pages and magazine papers.

With Quilt 4, I marked the turn of the millennium with the Millennium Journal Project.

Millennium Jounral (84 days shown of 850) a record of the turn of the millennium in personal code of symbols, 2001 by Judy Martin

For each day between November 1998 and February 2001 I recorded the weather and what I did each day with a code of personal symbols.  I represented my four children with coloured triangles.  Green for Oona, Blue for Jay, Pink for Grace and Multi-Coloured for April.  Those colours seemed to get truer and truer as the kids get older.

Quilt 5:  I began a series of three Amish -style Diamond in Square quilts during the climate of fear that took over the world after September 11, 2001.  Each Stitch is a Prayer (here) was completed in 2003 and was the first of the Protection Blanket series.  Ned and I currently use it on our bed.

War Diary (detail of volume two shown)  2003, set of two cloth books.  A record of 180 TV headlines days during the build up to the invasion of Iraq by Judith e Martin

Quilt 6 is not a quilt actually, but two cloth books.  War Diaries.  Each book holds 90 days (ten 9-patch pages).  Black paper is stitched to each patch and contains the headline of the daily news during the build up to war and concerns about weapons of mass destruction (detail shown above).  Also in each of the books is personal journal text that shows how normal families had to just keep going on.  Two more details of volume two are on my website here and here.

Quilt 7:  Protection Blanket.  Another of the Amish quilts, this one employs sequins to reflect the bad energy as is done in many world cultures.  See here.

Wrapped Form 2008 by Judith e Martin

Quilt 8:  Not a quilt but two bundles, one of which is shown above.  I began wrapping just after my mother died in 2007 and still continue to explore the feeling of well being that repetitive wrapping gives. Not only the baby or the sore finger or leg being wrapped feels comfort, but also the person who is doing the wrapping.  The second bundle can be seen here.

left: self hug 2015 , right: red  sweater 2008, silk hand embroidery on Vintage linen pillowcase by Judith e Martin

Quilt 9:  shown above.  Not a quilt but two embroidered pillow cases.  Wrapping myself in a favourite garment makes me feel better.

Twenty Four Hour Care  2010  cotton and velvet quilt, hand stitched by Judith e Martin  78 " square

Quilt 10:  Making this traditional quilt was healing for me after the loss of my mother, the title reflects the amount of care that she needed for quite a long time.  Ned and I add this one to our bed in the winter.  Twenty Four Hour Care - shown above.

Quilt 11;  Canadian Pioneer.  With this piece, I look back on what it must have been like for my settler anscestors to come to Canada and make a life.   See here.

Quilt 12;  Lake.  The aesthetic of simplicity occurs in my newer work.  I am consciously trying to reflect the awesome sky and water that is my daily view.  I want to make art that gives the feeling of being alone in nature.   This piece is from 2014 and can be seen here.

Quilt 13:  Turning the Air to Cloth and Above Us , a two sided quilt.  Both sides are the right side. Completed in 2015, this quilt is covered and quilted with hand embroidery.  See here and here.

In progress quilt top made 2015 by Judith e Martin, cotton, silk and light weight wool false starts gathered up  80" x 90"

Quilt 14:  At the end of 2015 I gathered up my life so far and pieced it together into the quilt top shown above. Why? you may ask. It does not follow the ideas of simplicity that I want to put into my new work, but instead used up many unfinished pieces, clearing a way.  I think of this as a break-through piece  that helped me find a path to simplification.

In progress quilt with big stitch quilting, Judith e Martin 2016

I'm quilting it with a gauze batting inbetween the pieced top and a silk back.  I'm using perle cotton to stitch multi coloured running stitches horizontally across everything.

Portfolio of Sketches for 90 inch quilts, (Large Emptiness, Small Marks)  36 sketches in hand stitched folder, 13"x13"x 3"   2016 by Judith e Martin

Quilt 15:   Not a quilt but a Portfolio of Sketches (above).  I want to make large square stitched textiles of pared down imagery that allow for contemplation of space and this portfolio holds 36 ideas.  see here

Quilt 16:  untitled in progress, 120 inch square silk quilt completely hand stitched with embroidery - shown here.

Female Figurine / Moon Cloth  2016 by Judith e Martin  Hand stitched indigo dyed wool, human sized

Quilt 17:  The final piece is also not a quilt`and is shown above.  Moon Cloth.   Worked from the inside, displayed like a vessel or ancient goddess figure - it rotates back and forth with the slightest breeze.

Apologies to regular readers of this blog, all works have appeared on the blog before over the years. I write this entry because on Friday, a women's group came to my home and I showed them these seventeen pieces primarily because they were what are in our cupboard.  Every time I speak about my work, the story becomes more fine tuned.

the left leg moving forward

I make quilts as a way to understand myself.
I start with my own experience and my own dream world.
If you find connections with your experience or your dream world through my work, then I have succeeded in something very special.

My life, my dreams,those moments hidden in every day life, all rise up as I stitch.

I consider things from the point of view of a mother.

Beauty makes us human.
Beauty makes us more aware of what we could do and be.
We are bound together by beauty  (this is an abigail doan idea)
Images in this post are of a new piece that I personally find beautiful.

I stitched it throughout most of 2017, and the handling of it, the looking at it, the touching it repeatedly, made me very happy.  It put me into my dream world then, and it still does when I run my hands and eyes over it.

The Cloud In Me.  New organic cotton with old and new velvet reverse applique.  Washed and dried seven times.  The dark velvet cloth that fills the random holes was a gift, fifty years old at least and some of it dis-integrated in the laundry and was replaced with younger stuff.  The areas of bleeding from the nine dots of pink silk have left a rosy stain in the centre of the piece.  The scribbled loopy lines that catch and distract my eye and fingers just the right amount are embroidered, yes, but they are also quilting stitches and work just as hard to hold the piece together as does the close hand stitched grid. 

(The Cloud In Me here)

On my walk today I noticed that I still need to chant my steps.

I used to be able to think about other things during this daily walk,
but I am lame since this happened.  I use a cane.  I still have pain.

The left leg moves forward and I count until I get to 100.
Then I stop and stand.  I breathe deeply, and then step to 100 again.
Yesterday I did 400 steps forward, and then came home, 400 more,

Does the huge amount of stitching I do disassociate me from my body?
So that instead of healing me, (as I have claimed) it allows me to ignore my leg
.
I stitch by my window where it is comfortable, legs up, and watch the birds.
I go into my day dream mind.
My repetitive yet very intelligent hand comforts me as it caresses the cloth
I feel at such peace.
yes, I ignore my body for a while.

The birds come to the feeder.
The snow melts.

The repeated touching of hand stitch connects to a dream world of emotions.

We each have an immensity within and quilts help us dream.

my fear

"Bravery is the power to keep on.
Having courage is not about not having fear,
but keeping on going in company with that fear"  Cheryl Strayed

I can't even imagine it, but it happened to me.  It happened to my left leg.  It broke in two.

"Once I felt at home working with cloth, I could concentrate on everything I had neglegted.
My body.  My losses.  My anger.  My own goodness.
My yearning for tenderness.  My yearning for social contact. " Radka Donnell

"Legs have to do with personal needs and desires.
The left leg is connected to the authentic part of ourself
The left leg is related to how you feel and what you believe
A painful left leg shows that there is something askew with personal needs and desires"
Wendy Golden-Levitt

The break was a diagonal clean break . It was not crushed, rather the bones crossed over each other. The bone was healthy.  No tumors, it was not porus.  A spiral fracture.

"We have art in order not to perish from truth."  Friedrich Nietzsche

The hospital experience was all about my old crumpled heavy smelly body, and my journal helped me through it.  My journal also helped me to find my self-spirit again.
It gave me a place to just lay it out in black and white who I am.  Really truly.

Oona brought Grace and the boys to visit over the weekend and it was lovely.  Everett beat me at checkers, Jack gave me the lipstick he had helped pick out.  It was the same colour as the one I had lost in Chicago.
The nurse brought black coffee and marmalade toast to me at 6 am , a small kindness, so important.

"Poets:  give up your own will and trust beyond measure."  Luce Irigaray

The femur is the biggest and strongest bone in the body.

"Beauty is an awareness in the mind
It is not an object
It is seen through an object"     Agnes Martin

an infinite changeless reality beneath the world of change

It's raining outside.
Our driveway has a slight up hill onto the road and it is ice.
Slippery wet ice.

I began a new journal today.
I fill one book a month.
When I die, they will be able to build a small house wtih the journals I've kept over the years.

Yesterday I walked on the road.
I used to love my walk but now it's such hard work.
I want to get back to loving it again.

I want to look forward to the moving meditation that was part of my daily routine.
Now with the leg, I look for reasons not to walk.

I long for the talking-to-myself-out-loud kind of walk,
not the counting-my-steps kind of walk that I do now.

Also, about the journals, if I didn't have them and the inner life they contain,
the poetry would be gone from my work.

This week I'm finishing up the three pieces I took with me to Mexico.
It feels good to be able to stitch again as much as I need to.

I've started to read the Bhagavad Gita, a book that Gandhi used as his personal guide.

Some say that this text is India's most important gift to the world.
It tells us that we are meant to be as much at home in our inner consciousness
as in the world of physical reality.

My copy is translated by Eknath Easwaran.  In the introduction he sums up the perennial philosophy of the Gita.

1. there is an infinite changeless reality beneath the world of change
2  this same reality lies at the core of every human
3  the purpose of life is to discover this reality through life experience

Representative stuff comes from out there.
Abstract design comes from inside.
The combination is what separates a work of art from the every dayness of experience.
It also gives the work an alien feeling that is mercilessly intimate. 
 (Frank Webb, painter)

journal paper stitched to an old table cloth
the deer in my driveway
my fragile life

Irene F Whittome

Irene F Whittome  First Words  1982  encaustic, plaster cloth on wood, collection of the National gallery of Canada

I started this post because I wanted to write about the stunning painting I saw by Irene F Whittome five years ago in the National gallery of Canada. (above)

sarah nishiura  big quilt

I wanted to write about the impact of that painting on me.  I saw it just as the gallery was closing and the guards hurried me past it, so I made a quick sketch from memory.  I came across the sketch yesterday and searched out the painting online, and found it on the National Gallery site.

root connection

Thank you Arlee for helping me to get Irene's painting from the National Gallery site.

It's really large (nearly 100 inches or 248 cm square) and in two parts.
It has high contrast - red and white encaustic, and it uses the archetype of the cross.
Why do some paintings hit you in the heart?

When I see a painting or a quilt on the internet that has that kind of impact, I save it.  I don't have a pinterest board, but like to visit the site every now and then and poke around.  How else do we learn what we like?

I am showing a few here that remind me (as Irene's does) to work with simple shapes and to consider high contrast.  Click on their names to see more of each artist's work.

ingrid press

Irene F Whittome is a Canadian artist who has been given one of the highest honours our country can give to an artist.  The Order of Canada.  Here is her web site but I could not find the painting from the National Gallery on it.  I did find many other really thought provoking works.

Irene's painting First Words uses the archetype of the cross.
The cross is just implied in the painting.  It is erased.
My sketch done from memory didn't erase the crosses!  In fact, my sketch was covered with crosses.
I was surprised to see the painting on the web site (see it with a quick link to here.)

ingrid press

This post is a bit of a ramble.
I thought I would also give an update on my left LEG.

I am now feeling much better, although I am still using a walker.
I had to have a second surgery on July 4 to drain what looked to be an infection.
As I heal from the inside out, I am being protected with strong anti-biotics.
Being mended.

sophie truong

Thank you for all your good wishes.

news

the yellow wall paper, 1988  hand made paper, cotton, fuzing and stitch,
typed text from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story 

I have a lot of news.
I am putting it into this single post.
All illustrations are stitched paper pieces I made when I was 32 or so. (sorry,they are scanned from slides and some are fuzzy}

"I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall paper until I felt creepy"

I am still experiencing a lot of pain and lameness in my left leg.  (bad news )

section of diptych Woman is Nurture  watercolour on paper, stitched to velvet, found text 1987

I am preparing a solo show for a commercial gallery in Toronto for this coming October.  The gallery is the David Kaye Gallery.  (good news)
I am making new work for it.  (more good news)

Grandmother's Paper Garden 1987, women's magazine papers stitched to cotton

I am included in a new book about the history of the art quilt.  The quilt that will represent me is from the 80's  here and here  I'm very thrilled to be included among such important quilt artists as Nancy Crow, Dorothy Caldwell, Yvonne Porcella, Chungie Lee, Michaael James, Yoshiko Jinzenji...on and on.  here is the entire list.  (good news)

The Mother The Child 1988 cut up watercolour painting and family photographs stitched to damask,
overlayed with ink drawing on sheer organza 

That reminds me that Martha Sileman's International Art Quilts: Abstract and Geometric came out last month.  (here)

the mother the child detail ( nine-patches made from photos of my childhood and paintings of tree branches)

 I saved the best news for last.

the mother the child 1988 stitched paper on damask , a self portrait

We have a new baby in our family.  Maia was born Thursday January 19, a little sister for Aili.

I chant my steps

I've been able to resume a daily walk.
I use a cane, I count each step, chanting in my mind
...twenty two, twenty three, twenty four.........
I don't know why I do that.
Each day I can get a little further without stopping to rest.
The act of walking has become a brave repetition of small movements
that strengthen me, ground me, and give me ritual.

I am sewing a line to celebrate my daily walk.
I've have been considering doing this for years.
Last winter, each time that I completed the walk, I moved a square of white linen into a basket, although I didn't know how or what I was going to do with them.  Some kind of path perhaps.

The repetition of day after day of stepping reminded me of stitching.  It was as if I was sewing myself to my local landscape.  I wanted to make something that referenced the running stitch I guess.
A walking step/stitch.

Then I broke my leg.
No more walk.
Instead, I looked at the horizon.  I sat on my deck.
I began wrapping those squares of white around around sweet clover.  Wrap wrap wrap.
The clover stalks grow as tall as me.  In the summer they smelled sweet.
I bent the branches, cut the stalk, and bandaged them with cloth and thread.
I thought that somehow, these could still represent me and my walk. The walk un-walked.

My daughter told me that they looked like bones.

go over, go through, go into what we already know
material objects open a door to inner ness

I spaced the white steps into a relaxed gait, using cloth that I have saved, full of memories.
My life path, a patchwork of time.

My path will measures the distance of the walk I can do now and I'll speak more about it when it is installed during the elemental festival in 2 weeks.

Gravity is measured by the bottom of the foot.                  Juhani Pallasmaa said that