Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
March exhibit in the atrium of The Gallery Shop in Lemont, PA: my felted scarves, tea cozies, and hand-carded/hand-spun “Improv” art yarn wearables contrast glass pieces by Kim Filkins of mekim studio.
What’s next…? There’s always a lull after the busyness of preparing an exhibit. Time to tidy up the studio and refocus.
I enjoyed this paragraph so much and want to share it. It’s from the introduction to the book “Radical Homemakers,” by Shannon Hayes. The context: she’s talking about the folks she interviewed to write her book:
“In addition, the happiest among them were successful at setting realistic expectations for themselves. They did not live in impeccably clean houses on manicured estates. They saw their homes as living systems and accepted the flux, flow, dirt and chaos that are a natural part of that. They were masters at redefining pleasure not as something that should be bought in the consumer marketplace, but as something that could be created, no matter how much or how little money they had in their pockets. And above all, they were fearless. They did not let themselves be bullied by the conventional ideals regarding money, status, or material possessions. These families did not see their homes as a refuge from the world. Rather, each home was the center for social change, the starting point from which a better life would ripple out for everyone. ”
I love her description of a home as “a living system” because it seems to encourage creativity and what I’d call a “deeply lived-in home.” And now, to vacuum mine…!
A fellow fiber artist’s grandmother told her “When you create something it should look like it was blown together by the wind.” I think her grandmother might like this shawl…
In what I’m calling “an artistic senior moment,” I used the wrong color silk fabric in this commissioned nuno shawl. How, I wonder, could I focus for hour after hour, and get the scarf so technically splendid and yet totally wrong? And the answer to my wondering has to be that Imbolc vibe I’ve been conjuring. I’d blame it on one of “the little people,” except I suspect I AM one of the little people.
As today unfolded, I searched to find some sacred dimension that might inspire my studio work. I found a clue in The Chronicle of Higher Education. This paragraph is from the article “Reclaiming a Sense of the Sacred,” written by Marilynne Robinson, a professor of creative writing at the University of Iowa. Her interesting article appeared in The Chronicle Review on February 17, 2012:
“Having read recently that there are more neurons in the human brain than there are stars in the Milky Way, and having read any number of times that the human brain is the most complex object known to exist in the universe, and that the mind is not identical with the brain but is more mysterious still, it seems to me that this astonishing nexus of the self, so uniquely elegant and capable, merits a name that would indicate a difference in kind from the ontological run of things, and for my purposes “soul” would do nicely.”
Reading the Chronicle article affirmed my search and my goal: I want my art to speak to soul: to awaken a longing for the sacred; to make the comfort of convention feel somewhat uncomfortable; to tap a wild reflex in the spirit — just-so — so that it cannot help but kick. Like a rainbow reminds us of something we know. How can I do this? My work consists of trying to figure this out.
Oh the weather outside is frightful… but there’s heat in this scarf — very thin layers of merino wool and silk felted onto on a base of Suzanne Morgan’s (“Presence”) deep red hand-dyed silk chiffon.
Suzanne Morgan’s hand-dyed silk chiffon is the iridescent base layer of this gossamer “nuno” felted scarf. I love how Suzanne’s artfully dyed silks swirl with interesting color nuances, and glow with a lively, organic vitality — even before I begin to layer the surface elements to create a nuno scarf.
To create each of the dozens of little torches on this scarf design I’ve layered wisps of fiber from five to eight different merino wool and silk colors. Light through the layers creates an opalescent shimmer. Inspiration: anticipation of spring!
Wooly Bliss 