I M Perfect lady

Tag: art

  • Let me be Free!

    While many may not feel or experiences brushes from souls passed, I feel the presence of my father’s sister, the one who taught me how to quilt, who set me on a path of playing with fabric that suited my nature.

    She didn’t bend me to do what she felt, but listened and offered to me a pattern that fit my free spirit, one that gave me my first drink of what it feels like to be the architect, the designer and the builder, she opened the door for me to play.

    She herself would do intricate, tiny little pieces that had to match perfectly, her work was detailed and painstakingly put together, I was her complete opposite, yet we matched in doing what we loved to do.

    Her past relationships with men were ones that left her hurting and it seemed she found solace in Art.

    My youngest daughter, out of the blue, says she wants to do a quilt, and it is the same quilt my Aunt had offered to me as a good first quilt.

    Unbeknownst to my daughter, I feel she is being spoken to by her great aunt, for she knows the feelings my daughter is going through and is heading her in a direction where she can find herself, Art.

    During my darkest spots on my journey, I clung to the moments when I had the energy to be lost in fabric, design and colors, and in those moments, I could feel my Aunt speak to me, telling me words of wisdom, that applied to working on a new technique in quilting or walking a new walk in life.

    I was given my Aunt’s sewing machine after she died, and I believe her spirit lingers nearby and encourages me to stretch and reach and be beyond where she was able to be.

    Her influence in my quilting, especially when I had just begun was key to me continuing forward, her undying faith that I could do anything is with me still.

    I felt that I wasn’t alone anymore in teaching my daughter, that I would have leagues of woman who have gone before lending their wisdom and voices with mine.

    My aunt loved my daughter, her spirit, her disposition, her spunk, her flair for being herself, and I know that if it is possible to help her now, she will.

    Today is a full circle moment, where I can be the teacher as I take my daughter to choose the fabric of her first quilt, it is my greatest hope that I can instill in her the love of quilting that my Aunt gave to me, or the art of creating.

    And all she did was open the door and let me be free!

  • We Play!

    “When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college – that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?” ~Howard Ikemoto

    Imagine a world where we didn’t forget to be a child, to have the childlike wonder of the world, a sense of knowing we know how to do anything without fear and lack of self-confidence?

    Where we didn’t have to take classes to learn how ‘draw correctly’ or write perfectly, but instead do what feels right for you.

    It seems at times we are taught so much, we are taught how not to be ourselves.

    We learn until we lose our way back to our self.

    Perhaps the class we need the most is an open class without rules or expectations, a class where we go to unlearn all the fears and lacks that have been preached to us, a safe zone where we shed the years and layers of all the things that are not us.

    A shedding room, a fleecing space where we can get back to the childlike place, where we are the center of the Universe, where we can do anything and we admire ourselves and all that we accomplish, where we affix stars to all that we do each day, where there is an unlimited amount of energy and things we want to see and do, where the world is wide open and we are free.

    How do we take off the heavy cloaks of doubt, fear, and lack that we drag around each day? How do we quiet the voices that have trained us to be motionless in fear?

    We wiggle free by doing things no adult in their ‘right’ mind would do… we play!

  • I belong on this Tree.

    The story line art project allows you to reflect backwards to get know those who came before you, to see whose shoulders you stand upon, who blazed the trail before you.
    Immediately we all go into our memory banks to withdraw someone who was a hero, who against all odds, seemed to flourish and persevere.
    As I flipped through files in my mind, I knew who I would write about.
    I know her intimately for her shoes I wear; yet I have no pictures of her, nothing.
    Well, I do have a family picture with a sticky note saying she is missing.
    Her and I are the sticky notes, the holes in the family or the ones that got away.
    Like a pair of mittens knitted decades apart, we match.
    When I seen the mitten tree with all the different mittens who lost their pair, I felt a sense of connectedness.
    I loved how they looked displayed so artfully on the branches, the snow, the green tree and the lights.
    I wondered what drew me to that tree and its simplicity, homemade and nature.
    As I drove home from the quilt meeting with my own mitten tree quilt, it took on new meaning. How the mittens were all misfits, mismatched, part of a broken set, yet when hung together make a beautiful tree.
    And this morning as I sit here with the quilt in front of me, I see the lady approaching the tree…I see the tree, and I wonder how this will complete itself.
    What story line will this quilt unfold for me?
    Before it is even complete I feel a great sense of peace settle over me. I belong on this tree.
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  • My Ladies come alive!

    Sometimes in life the Universe offers you a glimpse at someone who is a delight to watch and listen to.

    She arrived wearing a black hat, set jauntily on her head and big interesting jewelry all off set on an outfit in black.

    Around the room she went introducing herself, holding your hand, looking you in the eyes and repeating your name.

    She immediately changed the energy of the room, at least for me.

    As she gave her message, she was delighted with herself and her Art, asking for others to join her vision.

    Her Art is a community project; it involves everyone who is open and willing to share.

    She envisions 10,000 individual stories all hung together joining a long line of connections, weaving the past to the present, showing the walks of many who have walked upon the same roads we travel today.

    Her idea is to see whose shoulders you stand upon.

    Written in the first person, a story and a picture, all hanging together in a line of humanity, their lives, their struggles, the journey of their times, told by someone today.

    The Art will be displayed this summer at an opera and a music festival.

    She needed help with panels upon which the story will rest. Some of us will lend a hand in making her vision possible.

    After she involved us in her Art, she then sat back and enjoyed ours.

    It was fun to watch her engage life, how she seemed to hang on each second, paying close attention to what was at hand…astute, curious and involved and very much her own self and very comfortable there.

    I have to admit that I wanted to share my quilts with her, just to watch her reaction.

    I was tickled when she smiled and literally gave me a thumbs up, very pleased.

    She epitomizes my ladies or my ladies are a reflection of her!

    What is the saying life imitating Art…

    It was like seeing one of my Ladies come alive!

  • Reality is a mixed life.

    I am reading Robert Bly’s book “Iron John.” 

     

    Here are a few paragraphs that caught my attention.

     

    “If a human being takes an action, the soul takes an action….. The soul itself which does nothing if you do nothing; but if you light a fire, it chops wood; if you make a boat, it becomes the ocean.”

     

    ”When an artist is at work on a painting, images he or she had never thought of arrive instead of the images the artist planned to set down.”

     

    “ The sacred response depends on a serious decisive effort made by a man or woman.”

     

    The key is the serious decisive effort….and I suppose the knowing of who walks with us.

     

    Imagine the free will to decide how to move and the soul responds. 

     

    The Universe is waiting for us so it can respond in kind.  If you are not building a boat, no need for an ocean, if you are not in your studio playing with fabrics and design, an inspired image will not fall out! 

     

    How exciting to know that our serious decisive efforts are the key. 

     

    Maya Angelou on the radio yesterday said, “We are equal to the mountain we face.”

     

    In my experience that is true, you have to trust that you will conquer the mountain you face. 

     

    Maya also said that the greatest virtue is courage, for without courage you can’t maintain the other virtues.  I am not even certain what the ‘other virtues’ are, but I do know that I am learning to become very courageous.

     

    And one more thing I heard yesterday, and I believe it was from Carly Simon.  She was asked if she was in a good place in life, and she responded that she doesn’t believe you ever get to a good place and those that say they are, are lying.  Instead she says that she has a mixed life. 

     

    Meaning that it is ever changing and there are ups and downs and all in between.

     

    I would say reality is a mixed life.

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  • Soul Trail

    I was in her home today, way in and able to see so much.  All the insides to the many many packages I had delivered over the years.   

    I am not sure what I expected, but how fun to see there was very little practical stuff.  Instead there were things that made you smile.  There was bright glass in wonderful odd shapes and in many colors.  Dishes that would add such character to dinner parties and quiet evenings. There were oodles of stuff, birds of all size and shapes and designs.  A flower that was a huge bowl that made me laugh out loud. I was able to run my hands over expensive warm glass that was signed by the Artist, and it felt alive. There were counters filled with jewelry that would add interest to each outfit, just that special touch. 

    As I walked about it all made me happy, intrigued, and interested, wondering and present. 

    She purchased with love, not need or guilt.  She purchased to enhance her experience of life. She purchased just because she liked it.

    In the expensive things you felt her self worth.

    In the whimsical you felt her young years.

    In each piece you understood what she meant to herself.

    In her house you felt the remains of a happy soul.

    I brought home a bowl, small and purple, odd shaped one, to sit on my mantel as a reminder; if I were to die today, what would I leave behind, what clues to how I lived, how I loved and what made me smile. 

    Would people walk around picking up my stuff and understand me?

    In life we hear of a paper trail, but what of a soul trail?

    What part of you do you leave behind?

    What trails behind you as you leave a room, a job, or relationship?

    What feelings do you leave behind?  What lingers after you are long gone.

    This woman lived to be 100 years old, and there are 100 years worth of delightful treasures which will be passed on like good memories.  Another eye to enjoy, another hand to caress, another woman to feel worthy.

    She inspired me to live without looking at the end, but instead believing that there is no end. 

    Her trail leaves you wanting more.

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