Walk Through of In the Middle of the World

 Judy Martin and I did a walk through and talked about our pieces 

hanging at The Muse Gallery in Kenora, Ontario.

Thank you Miranda Bouchard for recording the event with your Photographs.

'My Awakened Heart', 'Her Arms Wrapped Round' and 'My Heart'

Judy's three pieces in the foreground.

'Resting Between Night and Day', 'The Edge of the Woods', 'A Stream Runs Through it' and 'Woodpeckers Live Here'

My pieces on the wall.

As you walk into the gallery this is the beginning of what I think is an emotional experience.

Not to be sentimental but being surrounded by large stitchings have that effect on me!

 They create a welcoming and comforting environment.

Like old English houses where walls were hung with tapestries 

both to impress but also to help warm the place.

Like my grandmother's home where huge, heavy velvet curtains separated the living room from the dining room to keep us warm with a coal (yikes) fire burning.

Love this photo

'Beaver Moon Dreaming' My piece on the wall.

'Eternity', 'Flowers Bloomed' and 'The Forever' Judy's three pieces.

'Resting at Low Tide' My piece on the wall.

'The Forever' Side B Judy's piece in the foreground.

We are so different yet so alike!

Miranda, me, Dagmar Plenk and Judy

We had a surprise visitor, Dagmar who came up from the States to see the show.

We had met online but it is so much better getting to know someone in the flesh.

We had a lovely visit didn't we, Dagmar!

We all loved listening to Judy explaining each piece.

'The Forever' and 'Time Future' Judy's pieces in the foreground.

'Summer's Dance' my piece on the wall.

'Time Past' Judy's piece in the foreground.

'Woodland Berries' My piece on the wall.

'Woodland Berries' is a piece not only about the wild berries the float 

like waves through the woods in Autumn

 but it's also about the woodpeckers that lie in these woods

and the stoney ground that huge trees somehow manage to find nutrients in.

'Dancing in the Wind' and 'Follow the Moon' My pieces on the wall.

'Medicine Earth' Side B Judy's piece beyond the door.

My experience of someone's work is always enriched with their artist talk.

So I am always happy to share my thoughts and process with others.

Even if my throat goes dry and scratchy sometimes!

Some of my works had to be given a wall of their own.

Just too many of them!

Thank you to The Muse for giving them space.

We are delighted that

'In the Middle of the World'

A show of Judith E. Martin and Penny Berens's work

Curated by Miranda Bouchard

has been extended to hang in The Muse gallery,

Kenora, Ontario

Until July 4th, 2023.

Have a great day

We are enjoying a few days of rain here in Nova Scotia

 Hope it is enough to dampen all the wild fires.

  

Breathe

The woods are breathing in the warmth.

I'm breathing in the Joy that sunshine brings.

Finally!

Up at the pond my beautiful magnolia

is bursting into bloom.

And Rusty Pups can now lick morning dew

from fresh young grasses growing along the pond's edge.

I'm stitching fresh air into my blue background.

Some paler blues....

....and some darker blues.

There is a lot of untamed texture on this piece.

This piece started as a challenge to use blue....

....my least favourite colour.

The more I stitch the more I like it!

I thought to call it

"Holding Deep Memory"

referring way, way back to my schooldays

where my dislike of blue started

but it also refers to rocky inlets on Georgian Bay

a place oh, so close to my heart.

I hope you have a place that fills your heart with memory.

Warming Breath

 

Always thrilled when the red tulips bloom along the stream

Always thrilled when the first warm days arrive.

The only red I have in the garden

Must get more.

And of course

because I showed an interest

the Rusty Pups had to investigate.

Meanwhile back to Blue

I hope you have a sky blue day.

Blue on Blue and a bit of Rust

Blue on the design wall

 Pinned over lots of colour waiting for attention.

Rusted blue linen tablecloth

My old denim dress torn into strips and couched down into rocks

Rocks are circles

Blue shibori moon

Moons are circles.

Moonlit rock circles

Loving the shibori moon

Need to do more of that.

Blue

Rocky shoreline

Beneath full blue moons

We are circled by rocks

We have a coastal community in Nova Scotia called Blue Rocks.

Rust can always be found amidst shoreline rocks.

It needs to rest right now as I decide

if more stitching is needed.

I am a fan of excessive stitching!

Whether to stitch inside the rock circles

or

surround the rocks with stitch.

Don't know yet.

But for now I've had my fill of blue!

I hope you too can play with a colour you you never use!

The Evolution of a Piece

Chasing the Moon  50 1/2" w x 40" h

Part of the enjoyment of hand stitching is the time it allows for a piece to evolve and tell me it's story.

In the beginning I started making a piece about the marshlands

after the beavers have left

when sticks and chewed off trees litter the landscape.

The sky called to me but it didn't want to be too clear

and so scraps and bits and pieces of colour interrupts the flow

adding a feeling of blowing in the wind....I hope.

Then the grasses reminded me they had to be included

because they are growing back with renewed vigour

since the flooded beaver ponds have dried up.

I wove them into the running stitch sky.

The Moon asked to be included in the story

among the flotsam and jetsam in the sky

and the title Chasing the Moon popped into my head.

Then the ground demanded attention and so

 I turned to enjoying the luxury of stitching through silk velvet.

 A delicious gift from my dear friend Judy Martin.

And so it is finished

the story is complete

Do you ever feel sad when you've finished?

No more to add

No more days of stitching.

But then a new piece grabs your imagination and off you go again

a new story starts.

I received a delightful addition to Stevie's story this week.

At the age of three she is stitching clothes for her mermaid!

 

With all this distancing I'm missing so many firsts!

Well done sweetheart!

There is Something About New Beginnings

My spirit simply soars

when the decision is made

on which piece of cloth to pick up and stitch next.

There's always so many waiting in the wings

pinned to the wall

or laying on tables

but

when I commit

my heart lifts with excitement.

Doesn't it do that to you too?

Such a relief from our current reality

cut off from little munchkins

whose hugs I so miss.

Keeping creativity going is medicine indeed

Morning walks are medicinal too

I read somewhere that doing Sudokus just makes you good at doing sudokus

but 

a walk in the woods where you have to plan where to step

is good for and old mind and muscles like mine!

When Rusty Pups are behaving

A walk is a meditation for me

a time to observe what grows....

 ....and what dies.

The woods can be messy

it's floor strewn with worn roots and new growth

And my studio can be messy

Every flat surface covered in potential

and walls covered in layers of ideas percolating!

 Rusty Pups can be messy

all covered in mud

but today they came home cleanish

no diving into streams

or mud baths today!

Some People Know I Used to Use Colour!

Shorelines

I loved texture then.....still do.

Seven or eight layers of cloth stitched together 

(by machine in those days)

Then I took the scissors to it

and gave myself carpel tunnel problems for years afterwards!

I loved her weight

her drape

and her texture.

I love that she now lives with Judy Martin on the shores of Georgian Bay.

Sixties Groove

Also made at least twenty four years ago

Way before blogging!

Made for a Connections Show on the theme of Hippies.

I can't imagine now how I assembled all those curvey sections together.

This piece still makes me smile.

Memories it evokes

like my simple act of rebellion

painting my bedroom furniture pink and orange.

My cousin had ginger hair and the family always

said she should never wear pink.

But now we know differently don't we.

I am finding it quite calming to look back at past works

In these days of isolation, days of suffering and loss for so many families

my mind is scattered

my heart breaks

I cry

my blood boils

my spirit fills with admiration and gratitude 

for the heroism

 of those working on the front lines of this pandemic

Thank you.

The colours I am drawn to for the past twenty years

since the turn of the century are quieter and softer.

The lines I seek out now are those irregular

meandering lines created by Mother Nature.

I hope you have a happy and healthy day.