A New Hello!

Often to get to a different perspective something has to change.  Getting arthritis in my hands was a big change that included a number of endings.  In order for me to move past the self pity and entropy I was swimming in I had to question and make shifts in strongly held beliefs.
I found out very quickly how strongly my sense of meaning was tied to what I was able to DO: drawing, painting, cleaning, cooking, gardening (all activities that I needed my hands for) and was not very connected to who I am.
I will be writing more in the coming weeks about this Grace Filled process of discovery and sharing how in the midst of changes it became very clear to me that mysterious creative process is always present and available.
I have been doing different types of art:

And have been rediscovering creating out of love rather than to get love.

My arthritis is healing and that too involved a significant change in diet.  If anyone is interested in the diet that has been helping me it is called the GAPS diet.

If you are brave

enough to say

goodbye, life will

reward you with

a new hello

-Paulo Coehlo

 

 

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - Emily Dickinson

This is an art quilt I am completing featuring a Belted kingfisher pair.  There are a number of Belted Kingfishers close to where I live and their feathers are cobalt blue with flecks of teal green.

The current state of my studio!:

Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune without the words, 
And never stops at all,
- Emily Dickinson

The Presence of Trees

I am moved by and very grateful to trees.  They oxygenate our planet, often provide food, and definitely inspire contemplation.
I have been making tree prayer flags, each stitch in the flag holds a prayer for the blessing, health, and increase of all trees on our planet:

The Presence of Trees

by Michael S. Glaser

I have always felt the living presence
of trees
the forest that calls to me as deeply
as I breathe,
as though the woods were marrow of my bone
as though
I myself were tree, a breathing, reaching
arc of the larger canopy
beside a brook bubbling to foam
like the one
deep in these woods,
that calls
that whispers home

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