A Week that Rocked!

Having spent the week painting with

the amazing Wayne Boucher

and a talented bunch of artists

I am amazed my stones got done!

A white beauty stained and scarred.

I certainly got stained hands and clothes

at painting this week

and

at my age am certainly scarred!

All week long as we painted we were

constantly told

to turn our paintings to get fresh perspectives.

So why not turn a photo upside down.

I think this is my favourite this week.

At one point our wise master interrupted me

and suggested I insert a tiny amount of pink into a painting.

I think my exclamation of surprise

got the message through that pink was not my colour.

So in honour of Wayne

here is some pink.

This black beauty could really be a talisman

that I might carry with me wherever I go.

Which makes me think

as I handle these stones individually

I am getting very attached to them.

I am pondering whether to scatter my stones on the floor

when Judy and I hang our show at

The Mary E. Black gallery next year.

However, I might not be able to leave quite a few of them there!

They are becoming my heart.

The embroidery behind Stone Pathways this week

was stitched under the strict supervision

of the nuns at the convent in Belgium

when I was about nine years old.

Oh, look.....more pink!

Rock Gardens

A stone can perhaps look like a bear

A stone can perhaps look like Google Maps

A stone can be a near perfect sphere

that fits the palm of your hand

A stone might perhaps be a maze

A stone marked with the spiral of energy

would surely be a special stone.

Or perhaps it might be a delicious layered cake

with a bit bite taken out of it!

And finally a stone might become invisible

or at least lost.

Has anyone seen a strange little stone covered in black dimples?

Since Spring is supposedly here

This week I laid the stones on a flowery tablecloth 

embroidered in my childhood.

Don't miss an opportunity to stitch!

Circles Grow on Stones

This chocolate beauty is a favourite

The circle symbol has been adopted by just about every culture

including North American Indians.

"Everything an Indian does is in a circle,

and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,

and everything tries to be round.

The sky is round,

and

the earth is round like a ball,

and so are the stars.

The wind, in it's greatest power, whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles,

for theirs is the same religion as ours.

The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.

The moon does the same, and both are round.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing,

and always come back again to where they were.

The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood,

and so it is in everything where power moves."

Black Elk from Black Elk Speaks.

I think I need to go to the beach and find more circles.

Speckled stone

A stone that always makes me smile.

The first thought when I see it is grouper fish.

Simply silk

The colours of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak in a stone.

A surprise in a stone.

Maybe a stone that would rather be a bird!

Because it is Easter

I decided to colour with crosses

Seemed appropriate

but I do like the resulting texture.

Might use this on a larger piece.

Gee whizz

The yellow DMC thread was right next to the cream thread

and it was only after I finished stitching

that I noticed I had picked up the cream rather than the yellow!

Must get new glasses.

Some plain Jane's long for just a wee bit of pattern sometimes.

I hope that Spring has sprung wherever you are.

Somewhere out West got 8" of snow for Easter.

Brrrr.

Working to a Specific Size

Along with the piece I wrote about on Wednesday

this is another piece for a show this summer.

They all have to be a specific size

I don't like being told what I am or am not allowed to do.

But once committed 

you have to follow through.

At the beginning of March this one looked like this

So it has changed a bit

It's been stitched with thick threads

 and thin threads

Two boulders coming together

I have just started to embellish the leaf print section

 Sometimes well meaning friends

tell me to stop stitching

leave it plain

but that is not the way I work

the more stitches

the more textures

the more interesting things become to me

and the drape of the cloth with all that thread on it

is part of this medium that draws me in.

How Things Change

This piece which is not yet titled

is what I have been working on for the month of March.

Not quite finished

ran out of thread.

It is silk on an old blanket

You can see the raw edge of the blanket along the bottom edge.

Really like that.

This is what this piece looked like at the beginning of March.

It wasn't working for me.

Stitching the larger rock

I was thinking of the moss covered boulders

we find in our woods in these parts.

But as I stitched and stitched I was also reminded

of the beautiful tattoos of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

There are a few lines of shibori on the top piece of silk

They were left clear of stitch

Pathways across a stone.

I 'm tempted to leave the rows of smaller pebbles plain

no decoration at all.

At the moment I like the contrast

but

we shall see.

As I photographed I noticed this pile of yummy natural dyes

lying in a pile below the design wall

waiting their turn to be covered with stitch.

Aah the texture!

Seven Plus One

One is for speckled

But it is also for oneself

because on the first day I was at drawing class

with Bonnie Baker

where we had to do a ginormous self portrait.

We were told to come prepared to get dirty

Boy did I get dirty!

This was drawn with charcoal from a fire pit.

My favourite bit is the three little holes in my T-shirt

created one summer while bleaching fabric.

I'm looking very serious

and my excuse is

that I was looking at small bits of myself

through a very small hand mirror!

Two is for special

This rock I carry everywhere with me

It means a lot

Fits in my hand perfectly

Three is for stripes

Layers of growth

Nature's layers so much prettier than mine.

Four is for rusted favourite

Five is for marbled smoothness

Six is for Springtime pink!

Seven is for mended

When a stone is scarred with a chunk missing

You cut into your fabric

then

seeing a tiny mustard coloured mark

you have to turn that into a tiny darned mending.

Memory Lane

The importance of memory in art.

Perhaps the first art was created

through a society's need to remember events

of their time

or to help their descendants learn about

what went before them.

Perhaps it was from a society's need

to honour individuals or events.

Lest we forget

Maintaining

Our collective memory

Our collective conscience

Art surely keeps alive

the beliefs and accomplishments

and memories

of a society.

The memory of the senses.

The smell of salt air

The rhythmic sound of ocean waves

brought me back to live by the sea.

My work has changed

since coming here.

Did coming back to the sea

stir up unconscious of memories

that I need to put down in thread and cloth?

I know that as I get old I have a need

not only to recall memories

but also to create new ones.

Perhaps memory is not just looking backwards into the past.

I seem to have chopped off the first pebble of the week.

Woopsy daisy

 I might have obliterated a memory!

I hope you have a week of creating wonderful new memories.