Resting Between Night and Day

  'Resting Between Night and Day'

43" x 50"

2016

Hand stitched on Natural dyed silk & linen

with discharged black cotton.

We packaged it up and sent it off

to Gallery Stratford

for the new Connections Fibre Artists show

'Running with Fibre'

Connections Fibre Artists

is a group of amazing artists and friends

that I have had the privilege of being

a part of since I started this journey into stitch

way, way back.

As I photographed this piece 

I noticed all the small pebbles stitched into the

body of the large rock.

Working every day

threaded needle in hand

Cloth either stretching out flat on the table

or stretched in a frame on my lap

is what I do

and love to do.

It is hard to send a work like that far away.

I wonder if I will see it again

for it is like an old familiar friend

after months of stitching.

'Running with Fibre'

will run from July 15th to September 24th

at the Gallery Stratford, Ontario, Canada

with opening reception on July 14th 7-9 pm.

When a Stone Travels

This little beauty arrived all the way from Washington State

It arrived with two lovely stitchings from Vicky

So kind of you....thanks!

Love this chevron marking.

The other side is beautiful too

but so far I have insisted on a new stone every day.

Perhaps I might allow myself to use both sides of one pebble

in future.

Some are just too beautiful to miss.

Encircled by wrappings of tiny marks.

I thought it was interesting that as soon as I spied this one

on the ground I thought needle weaving.

A tiny speckled stonette!

A streaked beauty

Nature did a much better job than me.

Now I am off to visit the grand little girls for a few weeks.

Can you imagine Ashley, the 2 3/4 year old,

is now playing (?) soccer!

And Stevie, the 6 week old, now

actually looks at the screen as we Face Time!

It is so amazing watching little ones grow and unfold.

Walking Woodland Stones

'Walking Woodland Stones'

2017

Natural dyed and printed silks and cottons

Threads of cotton and wool.

Running stitch

straight row upon row

Higgledy piggledy

Loose and lumpy

but running stitch all the same

Couching travelling the edge of stones.

Imagining the footsteps of insects and small critters

marking pathways across the stones.

The woodland canopy keeping the land beneath cool.

Touching the edges of rocks.

Can a rock speak of what it is feeling inside?

Feeling Stones

Touch is crucial to our experience here on earth.

I suppose some of us become more immersed in the sense of touch than others.

I surely am drawn to expressing myself with thread and cloth

simply because of the immediacy and honesty of touch.

After all, your eyes can deceive you

but touch confirms that which your eyes can't believe.

In his book 'The Senses of Touch'

Mark Paterson reminds us of the expression

"Seeing is believing, but feeling's the truth".

Interesting how nowadays we seem to have dropped the second part.

Touch also makes me think of intimacy and proximity.

Holding my loved ones in my arms

gathering those little grand-girls in a close embrace

and I am eagerly awaiting being able to do exactly that very soon!

But there is more than the immediacy of touch on the skin.

I have always felt that

"Art can and should be a touching experience."

And Paterson goes on to explains this further

"Standing in front of a painting, appreciating a sculpture, or walking through a building, even if we are not permitted to physically touch the work we should at least be touched by it."

Therefore we feel or have a haptic experience

not only through our skin

but internally because of our aesthetic ability

for feeling, sensing and being affected

by what we see.

"Haptic Aesthetics"

 As a teen, before I thought of stitching as an expressive art form,

I loved (for teens always love or hate don't they!) the paintings of Cezanne.

I never understood why

but reading this book I am trying to understand why.

"Cezanne himself rather boldly declares that talking about art is almost useless since the man of letters expresses himself in abstractions whereas a painter, by means of drawing and colour, gives concrete form to his sensations and perceptions."

I think it must have been his direct approach

his ability of creating an aesthetic haptic experience for me

because of his ability to translate depth, smoothness, softness, hardness and even smell into paint.

He was able to "paint the sensation".

I am still absorbing and thinking

trying to simplify Paterson's complex thoughts

and bring them into daily life in the studio.

Working towards stitching the sensation

Sometimes successfully

Sometimes not so

but somehow people like us are driven to try and try again.

I hope you have a haptic aesthetic experience today!

Summer Rocks!

Summer, precious Summer

When the sun is up before I rise

and seems to go to bed long after me.

When squawking hatchlings

of every kind

chase their patient mothers all over the garden

demanding to be fed the next bug or worm she finds.

I spied a A grackle being swarmed by no less than five babies

yesterday

Babies that seemed so much bigger than her.

She must be exhausted.

Summertime

when early morning shoreline fog

is soon burnt off by the heat of the sun.

Summertime

when the weeds grow faster than I can keep up!

Summertime when

the Rusty Pups, Handy Hubby and I

look forward to hikes

on long sandy beaches

or rocky shorelines.

Precious days filled with bright specks of colour

from a myriad of flowering plants.

And the smells of summer

The salty sea breezes that cool us down

The welcoming scents from perennial flowerbeds

The mouthwatering smells of barbecues sizzling in the neighbourhood

the refreshing smell of newly cut grass

and of course enticing aroma of suntan lotion.

I love Summer Days

Hope your day is great

Seven Plain Stones Plus One

This past week found me retreating

like a snail or a turtle from the world.

Retreating not only to look backwards and mull over my feelings

about the five larger stoney pieces just completed....

(I will post their stories soon)

....but also to clear my mind and studio for new work.

Always an exciting but calm time of reflection.

A time to make sure I have a clear idea of

what I want to say

and how I want to accomplish that. 

"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, 

into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. 

The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."

 Napoleon Hill

Sometimes what one sees is crystal clear

but becomes fuzzy when reproduced!

At the moment ideas

are coming fast and furious

like a bombardment.

I have to remember they can be fleeting!

In order to coax those ideas into clarity

I need to have my notebook handy at all times.

At a time like this I like to keep away from the computer as much as possible

because everything on the web is so seductive

and so easily muddies the clarity of one's voice.

I get tempted here there and everywhere!

Found this tiny little pebble among my mementoes.

In the sixties I painted stones

now I stitch them.

I hope 

Summer has arrived where you are

because she is certainly taking her time to get here!