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signs

there seems to be a         quickening             of  Signs.   they always play a part in things for me,  and i always take note (i think),  but recently,  some are really standing out.   this recent sense of it all began with that post of September 5,  Still heavy with love,   with the finding of that beautiful side~oat grama grass.      Simultaneously,  i received          correspondence    from Eva U and enclosed was this

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i am not sure this is the positioning she had in her mind,  but for me,  immediately i connected it to that Native Grass….          to me it the Spirit of that grass personified.  it is so perfect in my mind…how the spirit lives in the soil,  ready,  and has all of it all the time, the plant itself, the seeds, the bloom.  so beautiful, and how this land lies at the feet of those mountains.

and then,  the visit from the friend.  then yesterday,  i  accomplished something that i have thought about doing for 6 years but have not.  i  peeled that entire sack of chili.  POUNDS of it.  and because i don't have a freezer, it needed to be dried.  of course (and this would be a significant part of the sign) it is rainy AND     Wind    has returned.   what to do?   so i brought in one of the tomatoe cages and tada!

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if Cristina sees this, she will laugh.

and today,  first thing,  i look upon the amazing and oh so stunning cloths that Deb Lacativa brought forth………..   and in so many ways, they are so related to the drying chilis

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and so, it's been quite a day.  a daydreaming day.  moving things around on/off/and just around  on the Diaries cloth.  i finally found that round woven piece from Cloth to Cloth.  i had been having feelings,  not knowing where it was, searching.  today i just suddenly knew and here it is.  there will be a "response sign" to this.  i'm waiting for it…………………… 

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37 responses to “signs”

  1. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    those chili’s are fantastic! wonder if you could pound them into fabric? if they didn’t work you could always throw the fabric in the bean pot and cook off the mush…
    the magic is sure twinkling with energy at your house!

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  2. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    You are a native visionary–the cage was such a fine solution, and so attractive just as an art object too, and your big cloth seems to be coming along nicely as well. Nothing like a productive day to set things right.

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  3. Sandy Avatar
    Sandy

    love how the cloth is coming along. Sign’s… they are showing us the path that Jude spoke of today. I am trying to be open to it all. The sun has returned to the east coast and that is the most positive sign of all!
    Love the chili “tree”!

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  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i like the cloth in the bean pot….
    it’s a good time, these days……..

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  5. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i laugh!!!!! a native visionary ~!~ what a wonderful
    term….is it Yours? can i quote you?????

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  6. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Sandy…yes!!!
    a chili tree…YES!, it is…
    i am SO glad Sun shines upon your land. so critical.

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  7. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    Love everything Grace; the chile rack is simply beautiful. You know how sometimes you see some assemblage, something a person has just put together for some practical reason, something routine, and you’re struck by its ‘wholeness’? Like a cord of split wood or a stack of folded shirts or a jar of buttons? The chile tower struck me in exactly that way. I think I see this work of assembling in your Magic cloth. Things coming together. Thinking….

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  8. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Wendy- coming together towards wholeness, a nice thought.
    Grace that middle chili has a face, a little man it is! Reminds me of your dolls.
    Such a productive day, eh?! Nice.

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  9. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    I like Wendy’s words of “practical assemblages”… when i first scrolled through the photos I thought the chiles were cloth! they would be a beautiful chandelier. grace, i love how you see the wholeness of your life. i hope i grow up to be like my big sister.

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  10. stitchinglife2 Avatar
    stitchinglife2

    I thought the chillies looked like cloth too… but then cotton is a plant as well… paper, cloth, vegetation, ourselves… all made of the same stuff I guess. It all looks so festive hanging over that frame.

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  11. Martine Avatar
    Martine

    that chillies became a beautiful piece of art………………
    XXXm

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  12. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    The chili tree has a definite jester quality to it – or like a medieval tent pavilion, wonderful. I’m enjoying the large cloth. It seems a perfect match to your process of letting the cloth speak to you. Having all the stories together in conversation and then moving them around for different conversations… it makes so much sense. And then the morning of KNOWING exactly where something is, that’s listening. I think someone once mentioned colorforms or felt boards in response to this cloth, I think that’s what I’m seeing it as – a kind of sacred felt board. When I was growing up it was colorforms, did you know those? Some sort of rubbery material in shapes – figures, houses, etc. – that got stuck to a larger piece of the same material. We would move things around and “tell” stories. I liked that.

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  13. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes!…i know exactly what you are saying…
    assemblage.
    am thinking a lot lately about beauty, and in particular,
    this kind of beauty
    and how it inspires something in us that wants to
    harmonize with it, dance with it

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  14. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes. a productive day. and very satisfying in that
    this chili peeling is LABOR. takes hours. but as it
    turned out, the need to dry them v.s. freeze is great
    because now i can easily send some to Jenny and Alyssia
    in California.

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  15. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    you already are….
    a chandelier!!!!!!!!!!!!! you have such a great Mind!…

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  16. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Karen…chilis are the focal point of this time of year
    here. i cannot tell you the sense of well-being that
    pervades with the fragrance of them being roasted all over town, in front of the grocery stores, in the central plaza
    on Market days. an elixir.

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  17. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    OH Martine!!!!! hooo hooooo!
    XXXto YOU

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  18. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes…it is very much like a storyboard, felt board. and moving just one image to a different place changes it all.
    it IS such a great cloth for this, although there is beginning to be a little persistent urge to do some serious stitching somewhere
    and yes..colorforms. and OH, this has set something
    into motion…to make something like this…felt board/
    colorforms for the Julian baby boy……what a great
    idea!

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  19. Penny B Avatar
    Penny B

    Clever drying wrack and gorgeous chillies! I agree everything around us talks to us, we just have to listen don’t we.

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  20. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    when i used to do this with the crazy man, we hung them
    on the fence, the little inyard house fence…which is
    the same fencing. actually the tomatoe cages/frames are
    from the tail end of that roll. i was so glad i thought
    of it. without really thinking ahead, i just imagined
    self doing the outside fence thing…but then,
    weather.
    and as with everything to do with growing, agriculture, here things are at least a month off the usual
    Listen. how long, i wonder, does it take to have that
    be just a way to move through the day…to become totally
    natural…………? i do it and then i don’t. do it
    and then don’t. oh sigh.

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  21. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Oh, yes, that’s a GREAT idea! I can see your lizards and crows and moon-woman-grandmother, how wonderful!

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  22. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Hi Grace,
    Well, I’ve always believed in “fate” ….things that happen to you bad or worse (or even good!)…turning out to be good (even unbelievably good) at last. That’s what Granny always taught me to believe.In most cases she was right.
    Grace, your chillies look great…there’s a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois that looks exactly like it!She created it being inspired by a Turner painting (I saw it in an exhibition years ago in the National Gallery in London)
    Strange coincidence? Similar artistic thoughts?
    Love your work,
    eva

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  23. Yvonne Avatar
    Yvonne

    Your dried chiles are like a spiral tower of pennants and could inspire a cloth of similar shapes! I notice signs, too, and love how access to the right piece and the knowing where that is just happens. I once had a locked trunk that belonged to my mother and while sitting one day pondering my life direction, my son came to ask me what was in the trunk. I suddenly knew the key would be in my mother’s sewing box – I looked, and there it was – and better yet – inide the trunk was art of mine she had saved from when I was a child – so I’d say that was a sign about my direction! Your cloth is unfolding beautifully as you listen to its song.

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  24. Els Avatar
    Els

    great chili-tree!

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  25. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    food flags…

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  26. nance Avatar
    nance

    your hanging chilis would make a great skit…if it had a lining!

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  27. nance Avatar
    nance

    now for something more serious.
    your quilt has so many magical moments and beautiful symbols in it, but there is more you can achieve. grace, you and i have spoken of art a lot and we have always been open to each other so i want to say a few things from an artistic perspective.
    first, i think the circle surrounding the buddha needs to be toned down a bit. maybe tea dye it in strong tea…or coffee. though you do need to balance out the color, this is just too much… a small amt of a paler color like the yellow on the opposing side could be placed somewhere nearby. you have a bright middle and then a bit paler sunflower… which suggests to me a gradient color scheme reaching out to the edges. i know you will be adding more and i am looking forward to what you add. think about continuing some line too. maybe couching a thinly rolled strip of fabric..which could be pieced in gradient colors… just an idea… you have that beautiful line dance maybe you could repeat that on a larger scale. you have an analogous color scheme going here… the golden orange ish opposing the greyish blue. then some rose and yellow to either side of the orange. my computer may not be showing the accurate colors but that is what it appears to be and it is lovely and muted. i want to stress that this is your cloth and it is your choice. so these are just ideas to think about… and offered with love.

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  28. jude Avatar
    jude

    the chilis. they look like feathers.
    but a lit like flags on the rack. like opening day ant the circus.
    and they are reminiscent of deb’s hot sense of color.
    you cloth, i see a lot of alignment. horizontal and vertical. like the way some cactus grow. and space, a big component. and a grid is behind it all. it is quite ordered, more so than cloths before. it is like all the pieces are hovering, ready to snap into some underlying place-ness.

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  29. linda Avatar
    linda

    i didn”t know you had to peel chilies.
    i always roast them. then peel them. is that what you did? no of course not.
    sorry.
    love your cloth. if i saw it hanging in a museum i would know it is you.

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  30. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    this is so great…
    Louise Bourgeois
    Turner
    a chandalier
    a skirt
    i love your grass spirit a LOT LOT LOT

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  31. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Yvonne…that is a beautiful story. again, could be a
    children’s book….

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  32. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i should keep it for the christmas season, drape some
    tinsel ????

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  33. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    and received with love!
    so many thoughts here….i read then go look at the cloth
    come back and re-read…this will continue on through
    today and more, i know…
    you are so right about the blue of the blue Glennis…that
    was already a point of study…what to do…and actually,
    this morning i wondered if i had tea dyed the bottom part
    of the orange buddha cloth….how would THAT have changed
    the blue in and of itself?????
    last night, in my mind, i’d begun putting together thoughts
    and i will post a next post after this and maybe you can
    see more of what i was thinking and add some thoughts to
    the newest variation on the theme (whatever the theme is)
    …and i don’t quite understand the part of continuing
    the line…the couching…Where do you see that????
    wish you were here to point with your finger….oh well…
    THANK YOU!!! and love,

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  34. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    opening day at the circus…..what a beautiful image….
    yes. horizon tal and vertical my two loves. with
    “hoverings” ……….. YES.
    and yes, Thank You so much for validating the thing that
    i have about space being an important component to how
    i see/feel things. thank you. this is important for me
    to remember. that space for me is a very valid component.
    especially here.

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  35. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes….they were roasted in the big barrel roaster at the
    Farmer’s Market, put in a plastic garbage bag to Sweat and
    then peeled here. actually, it’s as common here to just
    roast them and freeze them with the peels on, peel them
    when you are going to use them. but since i’m sending
    them to other people who might be sensitive to the peeling
    process (hands can “burn” for days from a big sack) i did
    it right away.
    once my granddaughter asked me what i was going to do with
    all the cloths i make and i said i didn’t know, maybe just
    stack them on chairs for cushions and her response was no…we will make a museum of your house when you’re dead.
    your comment reminded me of that….thank you for that
    compliment and for the memory….
    love

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  36. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Yes Grace, you’re right,
    and that’s the sad part of it:
    Lots of us have these great ideas…really good ideas…and?
    Nothing happens!
    No one writes that story or draws the pictures – that’s the sad thing: all that creative power…”dissolved into thin air” (W. Shakespeare).
    Why not try it…some of us can draw, paint, write…
    Well, just an idea – because in my heart I am as scared as most of us. “Is that picture good enough?” …”Will people laugh at me?”
    I guess you all add some of these thoughts.
    Anyway, Grace, have a beautiful Sunday.
    Take care,
    eva

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  37. Cristina Ortega Avatar
    Cristina Ortega

    Just read your note Grace! OMG your chile hanging is a work of art
    and so perfect for drying! Genius! I really have to show this to my
    dad, who was born in Chimayó. They grew a large field of chile and
    made ristras to hang all along the walls of their home.
    Your chile chandelier made me smile in a large way. I just love it!!!!
    hey. this is how traditions begin………
    Both my folks caught really bad colds so I have been “on constant duty”
    for a week and some. with each new season it takes longer for them
    to recover from gunk like this……..
    love all your cloth work, too Sister!
    cris

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