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so.

context.

what does this word/concept/wordconcept                 mean?

context is about: weaving together of words         coherence

i think about context with my Alzheimer's B.  she has no ability to touch into context anymore, so her thoughts float….adrift.  sometimes just a word.          i am familiar with her context and almost always can guess, and guess correctly.  it helps a lot.  cause otherwise, there would be just this drift when you are not IN it, might appear to be kinda appealing, but when it's all you have… is stressfull.

so.  context.         Thunder Man still a maybe, tho now just a maybe, but still….best to turn off the computer.

 

 
 

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32 responses to “context”

  1. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Grace I really like the arcs of stitch you’ve done here. Oh…and the little thread beads floating here and there..yes!

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  2. nance Avatar
    nance

    well.. i’ll take a stab at context…. i think the context of a piece of art… of course needs to take in the surrounding atmosphere… in the piece itself and in the life of the maker and then in the world in all of its layers. that is a big definition. so for you grace i would think the arcing lines going in many directions might be seen to parallel your life, your family…. lines crossing could be seen as a conflict…. or just intersections. colors…storm below… gauze rising into the light… or the lines could be seen going on the other direction to one point …you on the substation. there are just so many contexts for any one piece. so if one comes to this particular piece with out knowing anything about you,the maker…one would have to take one’s cues from the colors shapes and line that are the basis of any piece of art. and make them tell a story. but can one tell a story without bringing into it ones own environment? can one really see something objectively… and we are back again to context… which gives a certain slant to the meaning of a piece.

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  3. manya Avatar
    manya

    my 2 bits: context, for the storyteller, is wealth. the more of it there is, the richer the experience..many try to control and lead the “audience”-receptor towards the path they have seen in what they make, (therapy oriented people are especially guilty of this, teachers too) but that, in my opinion, is like building walls, or castrating. all the maker has to do is to be aware of context, try to create as many connexions as his/her art(technique) allows, leave them open for all to enter..even those that we can’t imagine what it might mean forthem. It is like taking a path together with someone and letting them take the other road when it branches out..and sometimes you can go with them. without knowing where it will take you. only then it can be exciting, interesting and new every time.
    Grace I can’t always see the images here, I’m on an old laptop these days, but when it sorts itself out and I see what you are posting I’m flabbergasted! only it all crashes when its made that effort so it is hard to comment too
    but I am here and watching
    and thanks for posting

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  4. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Hi Grace,
    I’ve often tried to work out ways of telling stories in my pictures, textile pieces – of creating things in a certain context that was meaningful for me: it never worked for me. When I tried my brain achieved total control -which led to a kind of fight: playful creating verses intellectual control. It paralyzed me. But I think that ideas, problems, stories, traumas or whatsoever surely influence our artistical work. I prefer to just let it flow, look whether the result suits me or not.
    The above piece you worked on is beautiful! I love the colours, the technique …the result is very appealing.
    I think the frame (the long, small rectangles) is especially good, because it’s open in the top left corner. And that’s where the story may start: a piece of once beloved cloth, a handkerchief soaked with tears of sadness…fell into it’s rightful space, into a picture, as a reminder of long gone sadness.
    Oh my goodness…this is as addictive as weaving!!
    eva

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  5. nance Avatar
    nance

    of course this presupposes that your intent is not to communicate so that others will understand but instead make it your personal piece….how YOU see it. one can always add specific clues for others if the intention of the piece is for others to “get” it. so it boils down to intention as well.
    last time i tried to second post, it got gobbled up…

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  6. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    this piece is pulchritudinous.
    {i started with the word ‘lovely’ which is so old-fashioned, and wasn’t what i wanted to say…so i googled it and found this word that means ‘beautiful’ and ‘physically attractive’…which IS what i wanted to say}

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  7. judy keathley Avatar
    judy keathley

    a couple of thoughts—
    i googled the definition of context —
    & it seems to boil down (to me anyway) to “context helps us determine meaning”
    i used to make pots. i learned in a very traditional setting—why did you put the handle there? why do you think that mark is essential? basically—explain myself. most of the time i really couldn’t.
    at least not in the way that was wanted..
    it just seemed like thats where the handle should go? i just liked how that mark looked there?
    then i came across a teacher (who actually taught/still teaches? at university of n.m.) who talked about “working intuitively” as a valid–even desirable –way to work.
    i was pretty flipped out because now i was doing sculpturey kind of stuff that i had no clue how to explain–even to myself.
    so–in my mind–she was saying do what moves you –go where you feel like going. doesn’t matter if it makes no sense to anybody else.
    doesn’t matter if it makes no sense to you.
    i needed that permission then —it was extraordinarily liberating —
    & i need to remind myself of this notion–
    & i think of outsider artists who do stuff totally off the grid–
    folks who paint polka dots on the walls of their house , & the furniture & their clothes–
    or create tiny villages to scale out of discarded aluminum foil–
    with NO thought of anybody else–
    or like gees bend quilts –that hot shot art “experts” have called some of the finest art that has ever come out of this country–
    i think i’m rambling –or maybe ranting–& likely making little sense—
    so in closing–
    from william carlos williams (i think)
    ” a poem ( a cloth?) should Be
    not Mean”

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  8. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Judy- I love your pottery example as way of explanation. I usually do not know ‘why’ I’ve done what I’ve done when making art. It just happens and just flows. Sometimes the meaning comes out as I work, sometimes upon completion. Sometimes it is the process and that’s what’s important. Maybe the pieces I use (the fabric or fiber or trinket etc.)have story, create context…maybe not. In the past I have only had a very small circle of a few people to share my art with, so I have no idea how it ‘reads’ to others. But this conversation reminds me that I have been meaning to post some old artwork over at my blog…for feedback more than anything else. I will have to get to that later today. I am grateful to have a community now to share with!

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  9. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Judy, keep on rambling and ranting!

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  10. nance Avatar
    nance

    nancy and judy… wow! i really think the intuitive process is where its at… heart that is… its what comes from the real you… and in that case…” you” are the context!

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  11. jude hill Avatar
    jude hill

    you can’t avoid context.

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  12. judy keathley Avatar
    judy keathley

    jude—
    do you say that because you think context is being avoided here?
    in this conversation?

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  13. nance Avatar
    nance

    right… its impossible.

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  14. jude hill Avatar
    jude hill

    No. Just a general statement.
    Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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  15. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I like that…you are the context!

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  16. helen salo Avatar
    helen salo

    vicky, but can you pronounce it? ha! ha.

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  17. helen salo Avatar
    helen salo

    Nance, love your thought process!!!!Lots to digest here.

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  18. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes…..the arcs were a surprise….no thought ahead, just
    all of a sudden, i saw arcs.
    thread beads are almost as wonderful as invisible stitch

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  19. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    well…i’m not sure that the word context is what i
    wanted it to be…but maybe….
    what was interesting to me was i saw the lines as the
    context for all the rest of the components of the cloth
    and the Whole of all the rest…..
    the lines gave all the rest
    context….??????????

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  20. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Manya…i was so relieved to see you here and to see
    something over at Myth colour…..was concerned for you,
    your son….
    i will focus on you working out the computer thing…IF
    is right for you in this time…maybe not, but
    MUCH love to you and your story world

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  21. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i love the story that you found in this cloth…it’s
    a beautiful story.
    and yes. the “frame” pieces were problem solving…and
    i liked that it seems to work too. i was stubbornly
    wanting the whole of the central piece of cloth from
    Deb Lacativa to just be what it was…not to interfere
    with what it “said” to me. so the “frame” was an idea.
    and then…oh then, the arcs.
    so…you are a weaver ????

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  22. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    thank you Vicky….going to all that work not to say
    lovely…
    lovely that you did that…..
    and again, thank you………..

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  23. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    looking for the old art work…..

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  24. nance Avatar
    nance

    the lines gave it context in an aesthetic sense yes! they balance and add grounding and direction.
    in a post that got gobbled i spoke of that little heart as the center…the gauze as spirit… and the whole o it rising to the light but staying grounded in the shadow.

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  25. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    no…unless it’s just a very plain single piece of cloth…
    like you posted the other day…the white one from India.
    that totally fascinated me.

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  26. nance Avatar
    nance

    i just went to look and grace…you have to see the diorama!!!

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  27. eva Avatar
    eva

    No, but since I started Jude’s “Contemporary Boro” class I am constantly experimenting with old “rescued” pieces of fabric. As I wrote in Jude’s blog before,real nice and neat pieces of fabric always scare me – the same goes for precious watercolour paper.
    No, I am not a weaver or anything like that. I am an art teacher who is much more interested in textiles than in painting.
    Enjoy 4th July!!
    eva

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  28. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    almost all of the cloth i use is from the local Thrift
    Shop. it is a very small town and it’s amazing that
    i can find “Enough” there…but i do….

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  29. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    We haven’t got Thrift Shops here. There is one Oxfam shop in the city centre. I asked my colleagues last week whether they could spare some really old kitchen towels or shirts – well, by the look of their faces I can only guess they thought I’ve lost my marbles…
    eva

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  30. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    so…Eva, is it the UK where you are? i have tried to
    remember all day a previous reference to Oxfam shops and
    think it was UK? what DO people do with textiles…
    clothing, bedding, etc etc that they no longer want?
    i laughed at your asking…
    maybe there is so much here because we throw so much
    away. almost ALWAYS when i go to check things out, i can
    find really wonderful cotton curtains..plain/unbleached
    thick woven cotton ones. it’s really something. and
    going through the clothing racks, both mens and women
    silk, linen, cotton. and this is a small relatively
    rural town in New Mexico.

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  31. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Hi Grace,
    I don’t know what people do with their old stuff – just through it away, I guess. In a world, where teenagers say that their hobbby is “shopping” and T-shirts are available for pocket money ….I think this is the way it goes.
    So this is “Good morning” from Germany,
    eva

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  32. lynda Avatar
    lynda

    people have said most things on here l had wanted to say…x so l will just say l use old clothes for all my fibre art and never throw anything away. Just adore this piece of ARTxxxlynda
    So glad l found you and now have subscribed so l don’t loose youxx
    http://tryingtocreatearteveryday.blogspot.com
    and daily photo diary
    http://chocolatelifeandjazz.blogspot.com

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