I had put off pricing my quilts, for the task seemed overwhelming. Today I asked a special friend of mine to give me hand, to see if we could find a respectable price that our local market would hold, yet honor the energy and Art of each piece.
The pile of twenty was quickly moved into smaller categories of size and composition. From that point, we appraised its energy, story and fabric content (hand-dyed vs store bought) and found a price.
Once the prices were in range, I then went to work on giving each a name and brief description.
These quilts had been set aside as quilts I could sell, for they didn't seem to have what I called my story line or were part of my healing Art Therapy, or had a bit of me in them. Yet when I began to give them titles and sit and stare at each one, all are part of my journey and in fact they hold energies of joy, feelings of sorrow, weight of tangled confusion, brilliant wisdom, subtle nuances and wistful growth, sisterhood, sister friends, soul sisters, etc…all carry a part of my healing, the past and the future.
I could also see how my lady started.
She was small.
She lacked movement and energy.
She was drowned out by the color and design upon which she stood.
As the years went on, she grew animated with movement, even her sorrow was pronounced…and her self worth blatantly evident in her size.,
What I didn't expect from this collection of quilts is to see so much of me…and to feel the small almost unrecognizable me and the how the background energy moved into the Lady.
Below are some from what I call my personal story line, that will show you how I saw myself back in 2005.
She is one of the first ladies to emerge…Her size in comparison to the background really hit me. How small I saw myself…insignificant almost.
Actually this one came before the previous one, for she doesn't even have hair… The writing in the quilting says, "Freedom to be free". At the time it was a dream, a thought…a someday desire. An unknown feeling. And the freedom seemed to be around me and I was trying to catch it.
What struck me about these dancing ladies is the empty head…first I thought how sad, and then I thought, how delightful, to be empty of beliefs and thoughts, to be wide open. A clean slate…a new me. (this one was one of the first lady quilts to sell)
In looking below at one of the latest quilts, one I pulled out of the pile going to Marquette, (I wasn't ready to let her go and she seems to be truly apart of my storyline) you can see how the lady and the background are equally as bright and infused with energy. A balance…I am no longer smaller than my surroundings.
So, no matter which quilt I have done, there you will find me…a snippet of my journey, a bit of inner wisdom and knowing…without words, you see me in the shape, color and design. Wow, Art really is revealing.
The description I wrote for this quilt, titled, "Comfortable Wisdom"…is,
"She rests easy in knowing who she is, where she has been…no regrets. She fully accepts the past and is at peace with the present…a lover of reality."
You simply can't hide in Art…it sneaks into every aspect of what you create.
As odd as it sounds, the more time I spend with my art, the more I understand it and the more in awe I become. While playing with the fabrics and designs I am blind to the subtle blaring messages that are screaming at me in silence. Just amazing to not see yourself…it is a slow progression. I changed as my art changed…or my art shows my inner changes.
I M Perfect lady 