A Journey of Mystery

Experimenting with fabric weaving as taught by Jude Hill

I could not have understood at my core what I had come to believe about 'art' and specifically drawing if I had not lost my ability to draw.  And, like any belief, these beliefs directed how I interacted with myself and others.  Of even more importance I was able to understand how these deeply held beliefs once known, actually were preventing me from growing in artistic expression as I had seen a number of my friends grow and flower.

I realized that 'art' for me had become linked with my understanding of and expression of "me".

I had developed strong convictions that the ability to draw was equivalent to being an artist and I had spent years working to develop this skill. 

After understandably grieving this loss it became obvious to me that I was looking to my ability to produce 'art' as a way to be loved rather than as a way to express love.

How had I so unconsciously taken a form of expression that had once been a source of joy and turned it into something that had to provide my life with meaning?

Carl Jung has written:  " The greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally unsolvable.  They can never be solved but only out grown."

Those Who Dwell Among the Beauties and Mysteries of the Earth Are Never Alone or Weary of Life - Rachel Carson

This is an art quilt I just finished.  It was inspired by a Saw Whet Owl.  These are very small owls (about the size of an American robin) who come out at dusk to hunt where I live.  They are frequently on the ground along side of the road waiting for mice to come out.  Driving home one evening recently, I came upon one of these amazing little beings waiting in the middle of the road.  I pulled over to encourage this owl to leave the middle of the road but s/he was so intent on hunting that I got right up to it before it flew off.  I am grateful for the encounter.

One of the things I have learned over the years is to pick my teachers, to the best of my ability, from my experience of what I feel their art 'transmits'.  I look for teachers who transmit, love, joy, depthfulness and heart.  The teacher I have learned about sewing, quilting and cloth from (and am still taking classes with her) is Jude Hill .  If you are interested in learning about working with cloth from a Master I highly recommend taking one or more of her classes.

"Beauty is its own excuse for being." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are many ideas and philosophies about what art actually is.  Briefly, for me, art is an expression of beauty.  I think some of the most interesting ideas about what is considered art can be found here in a book written by the Gorilla Girls.
Some of the most amazing art I have seen recently are in the area of textile arts:  quilts, slow cloths, weaving, baskets and much more.  I just finished taking an on line class with Jude Hill called Boro cloth.  I think this was the most encouraging class I have ever been in.  I also view encouragement as an expression of beauty ( in parenting and relationship theory, encouragement is considered the foundation of relationships.  Encouragement is not the same as praise, and it actually requires the use of  temporo-perietal junction and the posterior cingulated cortex of the brain to even be expressed.)
Here is a pillow I made while taking the class.  On the front I have hand painted and stitched the cloth to make the flowers.  The back of the pillow utilizes weaving and patching techniques explored in the class.
Here is the front of the pillow:

and the back of the pillow:

"We live by encouragement and die without it - slowly, sadly, angrily."   -Celeste Holm