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Just Drawing.
Trying to reach beyond words. My own especially.
Note to self: To crop is to create focus. A kind of Design mending. Redefining context. Measuring reach. Interesting to look at the steps to get there as the composition.
I did not get to my emails yesterday. I stacked wood. And came to grips with some sadness.
I'll catch up today.
Always interesting when you use a dictionary.
the place where one lives permanently (residence, house, nest, address, dwelling, habitation, shelter), especially as a member of a family or household, the family or social unit occupying a home, a place where something flourishes (sanctuary), is most typically found, or from which it originates (origin, source, cradle, starting place), a place where an object is kept, an institution for people needing professional care or supervision (institution, rest home) , (in sports) the goal or end point ( home plate, safe zone), relating to the place where one lives, made, done, or intended for use in the place where one lives (homemade, homegrown), relating to one's own country and its domestic affairs, denoting the administrative center of an organization, to or at the place where one lives (local, native), to the end or conclusion of a race or something difficult, (of an animal) return by instinct to its territory after leaving it, move or be aimed toward (a target or destination) with great accuracy, focus attention on (homing in). Old English hām, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch heem and German Heim
Usually my (brain) Storming process is done in stages. First I look inside myself at what has been collected. Then I go back and look it up. Compare them.
Since home has been a category for a while, I have a lot to look back on. I think this is the first time I looked it up. Or I can't remember.
The reason I stitched on this one yesterday was because it was on the wall waiting. Still trying to finish up what is here. A little woven house from Considering Weave, one of the many woven components still looking, ironically, for a home. I rearranged a bit and stitched it down after all this time. Since I wove this rather casually, letting the threads from the color changes hang free, I used them like sewing thread and stitched them into the cloth background. To anchor it. I so sense the crossover between sewing and weaving, this works well to emphasize that sense. The small red scrap is a wool piece with a small woven motif that reminds me of houses. Homes not local but still homes. Far away. (the ethnic weave here is something I would like to talk about later)
To honor the word home, however we might understand it, I played with letters. The H is and old scrap from an alphabet print. I only had a small piece with a few letters, H was one of them. I've played with stitched words many times. I have a renewed interest in that. What with the index and the Alphabet and all.
I'll call this Refuge.
And I think the woven home will become a tree. And earth beast is nearby.
Reconsidering Wings, Reach.
I step back for a moment. 2013. Spirit Cloth Diaries.
Here I was diagramming thought. And delving into Butterfly Self. The Basket self holds many selves.
I am revisiting them. Basket Self evolved to hold them. These often times Loose Selves. To create a safe place for them to get to know each other. To reassure each other. To hide. Become. To prepare for more Small Journeys.
I've included the audio that accompanied this moment.
Because these things belong together.
The Diary Series. There were several. They have not been released as part of Feel Free. They were very personal and expansive in terms of Considering. As I go back, I am aware of the deep content there. Much of the technique and design evolution there can be indexed. Useful to my efforts to expand my open teaching project. But I look at the units as a whole. How wonderful it is to have them like that. To revisit days as they went. Mostly though, so many ideas that might be expanded upon. We are limitless.
I have a big job in front of me. To contain all of this in a useful way.
I think there are 2 main categories. One being Technique. The other being Creative Thought, Design.
How might they feed each other? How might I be able We be able to encourage that?
I've made a some notes to self this morning. About reach. How I envision that. How big it can become. But how keeping things within reach is also part of making things useful. Considering all of this before getting too far and having regrets. Knowing the limits of effectiveness. Thank you all for your patience through this process. I have to take my time.
I will not release the Diaries as a unit for free. I will offer them up against donations, all in good time.
As usual, I am REconsidering many things. I have one question now. If you have donated already to this effort, and would like to be on the Feel Free Community listing... might you send me a note by email? With your name (or how you want to be listed), a note ( anything, even a bit about your self or thoughts, feedback) if you want to publicly say something, and a link to whatever online presence you might want to make known, if you have one. Thank you.
This project has taken on new meaning in these sad days of small thinking and self serving endeavor.
Here's to Education without Borders.
B
B is for Basket.
Basket is Big in my personal universe. Basket is me. The symbol for me. To me. Basket Self. Self as a woven vessel. Built from the center.
I am back to the index for FEEL FREE. I'll have a lot of questions for you. Your answers will help me move forward.
B is also for Butterfly. Which is often filed under W for Wings. I think it can be both.
Last night I had a pen in my hand. You never know what will happen if there is no paper nearby. I am often asked if I am afraid of ruining a piece when I draw directly on it with no plan. No. Why? Because.
I remember that not being a good enough answer. Teachers saying that. Because? That's not an answer. Because what?
B is also for Because. Because. It's still good enough. It is how it might happen. Just going.
Is Because good enough for you? Or do you worry about it more?
???? ( to make 9).
HeartHead. (from here)
A few days back. I wrote: ( sort of a stream of consciousness thing)
TwilightZone. HeartHead has lost sight of her own face.
It is floating somewhere beyond reach. Like a tomorrow.
Where are we? I need new Eyes.
Spring is not far off. Dreaming of it.
It's raining. A lot.
Faces come out of the Rain. People are Strange.
And that is how this happened. By considering those words.
Alignment is a big thing in composition I think. Here. Aligning with the rain, and the idea of faces coming out of the rain. Creating what I often call Sympathetic Evolution. Change through connection. Flow. Ultimately new form.
HeartHead. Being Winter Rain.
I made an audio today, because I had thoughts, but really, really, I am going to forget how to do all this if I put to much space between doings.
The Spirit of Standing Up.
I named it that.
I thought to leave it simple. But it is not simple really. The figure is embedded in goings on, context. The flow doesn't stop. You stand in spite of it. Hold ground. There is a lot more turbulence to come. Practice balance.
I love how the cloth has begun to curve in the areas of dense stitching. That's the nature of the cloth yielding to the spirit of the stitch. Ripples form. Pull things off grid. I named that part the learning curve. A new symbol perhaps.
The rain stopped but the leaky part of the roof almost fell in. Time must be taken to address the situation. Mend the hole. We'll give in and fix it. Hope it doesn't cost too much. Hope they don't have to open it up. It's a bit chilly for that. But February is sure to bring snow. And snow is wet and heavy.
Another Face.
Last night we slept fireside. Just to do that.
It was raining hard. The roof was leaking a lot. The power was up and down. And it just seemed warmer and drier and brought back memories of living smaller, doing that one room thing in winters past. 'Twas was a quick decision and as we pulled out the sleeper couch, I grabbed the cat quilt, which I had been mending ( yes still at that), and spread it out "face" down as a sheet.
Ha! Instantly it became the next piece in the Sanity Collection.
I think probably the other side of a cloth has always been part of my consideration. Especially the quilt. Which in many ways, over time, has taken on the sense of a Double Cloth to me, specifically the class of double cloth that is referred to Double Face.
Double-faced fabrics are a form of double cloth made of one warp and two sets of wefts, or (less often) two warps and one weft. These fabrics have two right sides or faces and no wrong side, and include most blankets, satin ribbons, and interlinings.[2] Wikipedia
It is interesting to use this crossover in terms of my own roots in weave. I have always loved that the right sides of a cloth are often referred to as faces. I just made a note to self that, for me, no kind of cloth has a wrong side. I have a category for The Other Side. Maybe I should file that under Faces.
The lines are a result of quilting. Not the conventional kind I used way back when that's what I did. But now. As I mend and connect the layers with less regard for that. I need to continue mending this cloth for a while longer. It is helping me through something.
Back to quietly fitting in
but not disappearing.
There's a storm watch here today. With big Rain and Big Wind. I expect we might lose power. Hauling a lot of wood inside right after I post here. Just in case.
I'm back to Sanity. The work I call Sanity that is. Mostly looking at it. The collection has grown, but my plans for exhibiting have all but disappeared. I have conflicting issues about who I am in the "art world". Mostly to do with my introverted-ness. And then also about the attitude of those already There. I've tried to engage in that community but it has left me feeling left out. Probably I have caused that with my doubts about the validity of most of it. And because I just don't know. I cannot change that about myself.
I look at this today, tempted to put pink ears on it. I think about trend, and how it is used to engage. I think about the hypocrisy in that. Trend. How truth is diverted.
I am not looking for praise. I am looking for clarity.
I look. I love this one for many reasons. It's patchwork of course. And it is simply by emphasizing where the connections are in the puzzle, that define the wings. Connections define us.
Yes.
We All Felt It.
Even if you didn't want to.
It gave me back my voice.
I don't like the word Power.
I like the word Energy. It is, in the long run, more useful and life sustaining.
Whenever I engage in what seems like political comment, I lose followers. Yesterday was no different. Followers are not the goal. It's the open road, the freedom to walk a path in peace. Don't we all want that? The right to that. That's all.
I gained positive energy from the gentle stream of walking. Going.
I did not enjoy Madonna's rude outburst. That was her, on her usual power trip. Making her no different from what she was protesting against.
Power diverts energy. To get more power. Let it be.
Go do your thing with out keeping others from doing the same.
Of course these are all notes to self. ( maybe I don't like the word Marching (ie. marching as to War) either, maybe Walking?)
Anyway. Just Being. Becoming visible.
If the path before you is clear,
you are probably on
someone else's.
-Carl Jung