Category: Art & Quilts

  • A Whole Life

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    Here is the completed quilt for the 2013 Dial Help's Spring Gala.  

    I love how she turned out, and can't wait to see who she goes home with.  Tickets are still available by calling dial help.  


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    I just realized I have not named her.  I will have to see if something comes to mind, I feel her energy, the peace of sitting and letting her mind go, of being infused by nature's sounds and the sights.  It reminds me of my time spent at the beach house in the days when I was a stay at home mom…with time to take in life or to be with life.  It is far different when I am working, I feel the pace has definitely picked up.

    Days by the shore of Lake Superior are few and far between…a treat.  One that I guess I am at fault for not going more.  Maybe this summer I will make a committment to sit on the shores…to move more artfully outside.

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    I love how my ladies look in nature…

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    Art and Nature both are both important to a whole life!

  • Spring Gala Quilt 2013

    I had the day off and my intention was to play with fabric to create a quilt for the Spring Gala for Dial-Help.  I worked with a few different poses, and came up with this….
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    She will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.  

    I still have to do the machine quilting and add the finishing touches, but….this as far as I know, this will be My Lady…

    Some of the fabric is my hand-dyed….I ordered the water fabric online and was pleased with it for water…


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    I love the design in the border and may add some more geometric designs….it is fun to add surprises to the borders…

  • Back into Me.

    I still have leaky borders, where my responsibility leaks out into another's life and I have a hard time being present in mine. I felt burdened and weighed down and had less energy for my world…regardless I headed downstairs to quilt today.

    I used to think that I quilted when my world became too hard to handle, and I did…but I could see now that it brought me to be present and even how its therapy wasn't to express myself but to get me out of the swirling thoughts.  

    It wasn't like I was depressed, but I was darkened.  I was unable to enjoy the mundane things in life, for a fog of thoughts flowed with me, keeping me from being clear and present in my peaceful home and life….while pondering abuse rippling outward in another church.  And, what could I do, knowing the mindset was similar to mine, etc.

    Sundays are my Art days, the days where I am free to let go of life's chores and just get lost. Today, I was short fabric…I could create the center, the sky, water and shore, but I didn't have enough to complete a whole new piece….and, then I broke my darning foot that I use for free motion quilting…well it was fractured, I still managed to quilt but handicapped.  It seemed that the easy flow in my Art was choppy as much as my thoughts….like I wasn't comfortably at one with my Art…like I was barely able to hide from what was troubling me….

    My husband wanted to take a ride, and I wondered if we would talk about the abuse, or would I be able to let it go and just enjoy nature….I did.  It just was too nice a day to pour out conversation, he could do nothing about….

    Here are some shots along Lake Superior…the shoreline between Gay and Lac La Belle….
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    As you can see, pristine snow and perfect sky. The temps were just above 20…


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    Nature pulled me to itself time and time again.  Breath taking in its quiet self.
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    A jeep, a quiet peaceful man….and a Sunday ride.

    We were gone about 4 hours and I came home restored and centered.  The date, nature and art brought me back to center…in my life.


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    You could hear the waves or the water….sounds of Spring, even though it looks like mid-winter.


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    You can see Mt. Bohemia in the distance.  We ate the Bear Belly and hope to watch skiers, but the hill closed at 4pm.

    What I learned today, it is helpful to do Art when life's question overwhelm you…and to get dressed up and go out for a ride, to force yourself to leave your troubles behind.  It doesn't make you less responsible, but more.  Responsible for your own mental health, your own life…it puts you back to you…and you gain perspective and separation.

    It was good to see how easily the evil or bad of the world can seep into your life, and how it is at that time, crucial to become 'irresponsible' and leave your troubling thoughts behind and jump into this moment of time…even force yourself to do what you love to do, where you know your peace, love and joy is found.  Go there…and be filled.


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    I found, there wasn't anyone in my present day, asking me for help. 

    There is a flow to helping…

    My role may just be to listen…and to share my experience, but it is also to live my life well.  If, I am to be a conduit to exposing abuse, it will happen.  My role will unveil itself with ease.  

    I let go…albeit reluctantly…and forced myself back into me!



  • Nature’s Art

    Nature takes its own sweet time….creating a visual affect that can only be done slowly.  


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    Creating a curtain….it is fairly thick.


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    and, you can see the lines from the galvanized roofing….and there is a shine, where the snow melted into ice.  I love how it just hangs, barely.


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    Nature's Art.

  • Surrounded by blackness.

    I had a restless night.  I was awake in dreams out of control, where my body was overtaken by emotions of incapacitated movements…but I rode them out, awake while dreaming.

    I heard and felt the rumble and pulse of being overcome and withstood the roaring and muscle freezing energy and then felt it weaken and fall away.  

    The quarter moon was out my window and if I saw the moon, I knew I was awake in being awake and not awake in the dream of being awake.

    I know this will not make sense to many, but it was empowering to not be over run by a terror dream, but witness to it.

    I fell back into this terror emotion dream a few times…and tried to stay awake long enough to not fall back into the same state again, but failed.

    I recall the pulse and fast flow of my blood as it surged…ready to take flight or fight…it was like getting an inner body view of terror.  And, the train like sound as it roared at me, coming unbidden and unwelcome, yet blasting into my restfulness and completely overtaking my body, BUT not my awareness.  I was awake and did not succumb to the roiling blood flow. I remained a witness.

    I awoke to wonder what was the significance of that dream?  

    It was weird to see these terror feelings come from nowhere and to disappear and for me to be affected by it, for I felt it all, but also to remain detached.

    I also had dreams where I was shown how I was mistreating others unintentionally and then how others were aware.  Like I had misplaced a child and adults were waiting with her, reluctant to give her back, like I was the unfit mother…and I wasn't aware, aware that I was the one who lost her, and not she who lost me.

    It was an odd night.

    Yet not so odd.  I have been tossing around in my head my walking away, my estrangement and my lack of reconnection, my setting boundaries and standing firm. The life after walking away from abuse and how it impacts and echoes…

    It appears that my line in the sand is cement and others are free to dabble in old relationships seemingly 'more' loving than I.

    There is no rule book for estrangement, or at least none that I have found…and yet the family rule book appears large and rule-less…

    Family rule trumps and supercedes all actions of reality, it seems to have a separated life and view of reality where plausible will overtake rational thought.

    I get confused as to where I am standing and why, when others have leaky boundaries and step over and under them from time to time…and I, like a stubborn mule, remain behind my line.

    Perhaps the emotions of the dream are the emotions I would feel if a leak sprung in my line; where all the abuse in its distortion will come rushing in and overtake my life.

    I have no desire to go into the swirling waters of distortion…it is the undertow that lies beneath "Family" in abusive homes.  Underneathe the label brother/sister/mother/father lies a vortex… 

    A vortex of energies that carries no markers of love.  It is the terror grip of no control…a prison void of awareness.

    It is this sinkhole of blackness that keeps me away…where reality and clarity are not welcome… only the distorted feel at home here.

    In the bright light of morning…I feel assured.  I would rather be alone, than to be plunged back into that sea…where I would lose my self, my awareness, my peace, my love, my life…and the freedom to be me.


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    This is a small piece I worked on yesterday, inspired by the border in Fran Passerello's quilt.  I love the idea of bring creative inspiration to the borders.  It ironically or not depicts great motion and color surrounded by blackness.


     

     

  • You will be in the Art.

    "Sometime in your life you will go on a journey.  It will be the longest journey you have ever taken. It is the journey to find yourself."  Katherine Sharp

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    "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose."  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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    Creating Art is an experience without a known destination…I love how it takes me where it wants to go…

    I loved these colors together and had no idea what would be the center.  I had thought a silouhette perhaps, a tree….a bench, a woman.  But, much to my surprise…


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    A sunrise or sunset…and another windy lady.  I loved the challenge of the scarf, and I was limited by its length….(that was all I had)  


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    I even love that her skirt and the sun rays are the same fabric….

    She will be holding something in her hand, I am thinking flowers, we will see… or a hat maybe….

    Doing art is lots like living; it is done by feelings and the choices we make based upon feelings.  We design our lives by the choices we make or the choices we don't change.  And, by either honoring our feelings or neglecting them. 

    I believe that the more freer I am in my choice making in life, the more access I have of being daring in my art.  Not that I am doing anything earth shattering, but my colors can be bold and work in harmony even when they don't match.  

    And match. Who decided what matches and what does not.  If I feel they are a match, they match.  

    And, the quote…"Maybe being oneself is always an aquired taste" by Patricia Hampl, is true for art creation as well.  

    Being an artist you have to be comfortable doing that which others are not doing, to be different, to stand out, to let your feelings and personality come forth in the medium you are working in.  

    Doing by feelings…by what excites you and brings you joy.  If you create like that, you will be in the Art.
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  • Snow Ball Trees!

    I have been noticing these snowball trees.  I don't remember ever seeing such a sight.  They have a whimsy comical feeling to them.


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    These were taken on the Niemi Road.


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    I had wanted to take pictures a few days ago, but no camera….

    I was hoping they snowball trees would not disappear before I had a chance to photograph them.

    They have made me smile for many afternoons….about half way through my route!


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    Love the Snow Ball!


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  • Let it be…

    Am I the only one who feels ill prepared for life? That what I need for this particular experience, will arrive to me when it is over.  I will have the wisdom to navigate these waterfalls, after falling down the falls, but not before.

    I head in time and time again, unsure and unknowing…

    That parenting is like trial and error, but never a sure bet or a clear path.  It is always like we are learning on our children, AND with their feelings and lives.  

    Is it that we rub each other in order to find our truth? 

    Today my head is tired of flipping the rubic's cube of mothering around and around…wondering what is the better way, what is the less invasive, more caring, less neglecting etc….

    I took a break and dove into my art space.

    I half heartedly and with my soul tied up in angst, I did create.  

    I can see why I was drawn to do this years ago, and still find solace here.

    It calms my mind, by not focusing I can focus.  It brings in color, design and good energy. 


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    It holds me in the present, I can't wander too far back or forward.  I seek fabrics that are bright to help me see better…inside of me.

    As I sat back and looked at this one, I could see the lines, the road it appeared and how Love and Energy floated free above it.

    I keep thinking there are rules to mothering, that I must stay on the path of knowing, when I can't know.  

    I am not sure how this quilt will be in the end, but for today, this quilt top anchored me.  

    Oh, and a ride with my husband, who remembers more clearly his youth…his years of doing and learning and growing…He is good for my children for he can see their side.  He can remember his journey how it weaved and curved…and, how he is wiser because of it. 

    Life isn't a paved road of knowing, that we will never veer off of….it is much more like a learn as you go life.  

    Kind of like I do art….I never know what it will be until it is over….but I do my best, add what feels right, move things around…and then let it be.

    (there will be an answer, let it be, let it be….) 


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  • A story of You.

    I had not realized that there is always a second part to our speaking out; and that is the space we bring it to.  We need the person to be open enough in their beliefs to accept what we are saying.  

    "Narrow minded" is not just a saying, it is literally true.  Some minds are not accepting of experiences and lifestyles beyond their own.  

    Often, we then are left feeling odd or abnormal, when actually our lives are just too colorful and filled with experiences that can't fit into their narrow ideas of the world; people, what is right and what is wrong, what is normal and what is not.

    If it isn't reflective of their self, it doesn't fit.

    Today, I made journal covers…and I was told that the real art will be what is written inside.  And, I believe that it is true for all of us.  Inside of us, is where the real art of who we are lives…


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    We can be as narrow minded or as broad minded by how we stretch in learning about our selves.  

    It would seem that we would be open minded IF we accepted all people, without a boundary; to have no lines drawn in the sand, but be like an open doorway, where all can come into our lives and pass out…without restraints.

    I am not talking about being without boundaries, but rather a mind that is open, curious, questioning, inquisitive, probing…investigating and wanting to learn more and enter the deeper parts of who we are.

    The surface revolving door, will allow any one in, but only at a surface level…

    A open mind, will be one who will want to know the soul of who you are; how you were created, what makes you you.

    Writing stretched my mind about me…


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    Here are four more journals without my Art….or should I say the surfaces before I add constrasts, designs, shapes.  They are not bad, but just one dimension…


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    And, with Art added.  Imagine then, if you will with words. Feeling words, painful words, sorrowful words, betrayal words…depth, heart and soul…all encased in a warm blanket…a quilted cover…something to hold…a story of you.




     


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  • Harmony is in our Choices.

    ‎"Harmony is the inner cadence of contentment we feel when the melody of life is in tune. When somehow we're able to strike the right cord to balance the expectations of our families and our responsibilities in the world on one hand with our inner needs of spiritual growth and personal expression on the other. This is one of the most difficult challenges any woman (man) faces because it requires us to make choices every day. And yet most of us often feel too tired to choose anything more than what to have for dinner." Sarah Ban Breathnach

    Life is in the choices we choose…and remember the old saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."  

    It then seems, that in order to have balance; we need to play for as many hours we work.  

    And to make it half of our life's work to do things for your Inner Needs.

    To put that on the list and be as conscientious as if it were a Job.

    I bet, if we start paying attention to our choices and see that there are two distinct categories, one being for the expecations family and job….and the other self, we will see what parts we are overfeeding.

    Deepak Chopra used to end his hour long radio show with, "Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground."

    To keep our imaginations and playfulness alive…while keeping up with our responsiblities.

    I have my yoga room heating….and then off to work….but, I will end this day in the company of Ladies and Art Quilts.  Harmony is in our choices.