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okey dokey

up before light, i am looking.  i did some things last eve and even during the night.  these are my thoughts:

is this cloth

  • a sampler of ideas
  • a    ~holder~   of cloth fragments and symbols that i love
  • just an experiment, a learning
  • all of the above

and if all of the above, which is most primary?

over in Magic Diaries,  Jude reminded us  of printing out the image in only black and white, pointing out that color can be "emotional".  and i did this and yes.   i became acutely aware of how much this is a work with color itself.  and also,  looking at it in black and white only, i understood something i had not before…that the vertical panel  on the left is about the Mystery,  the underlying guide to everything          and the vertical panel on the right,  how i experience the manifestation of that Mystery in the physical world.    the Center?, well…i don't know how to give words to that yet.  (also, in looking at the black/white print out,  i had a wonderful glimpse of what it might be like to someday make a cloth of only that, and grey's.)  this is what i was looking at at 5am:

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things had gotten re arranged again…there were additions

and mostly, i was looking at Glennis' blue square/circle.  the      blue.      and then there was nance's good thoughts a little while later that echoed.

it IS the same blue as in the 4th moon/sun above….exactly.  But  it is VERY blue.  a question came: is this discomfort with the very blue blue somehow an important part of the experience???  or not.  how can i blend, or correct the color with       thread?   stitches?  and,  a BIG question,      can those butterflies, tho they are a significant distance away,  adjust the blueness of the blue? 

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and then…about  uhhhh,  unifying the whole….          this is still very much open to anything.  but what i was wondering is,  if it would be possible that the butterflies, birds and yet to appear lizards could be that unifying component…and stitching…????   leaving the majority of Space as a critical?

a LOT of questions.

and i am going to go off for awhile.  Going to the once only every year open house at Sevilleta.  this shirt is i think 9 years old.   i am hoping they still have some of this design even though the Mexican Grey Wolf re-introduction program was put on hold

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thank you nance and jude for your specific  comments… at this point, they help a lot.

 

 

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26 responses to “okey dokey”

  1. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    LOTS of thinking going on out your way! Love the shirt. Have a lovely time out, too bad about the re-introduction program. Poor demonized wolves, coyotes too. So much fear and scapegoating….

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  2. jude Avatar
    jude

    i like that the cloth has different sections. perhaps the middle is about connecting the two side? some sort of in between.
    i like to tone down the blues lately, with walnut or a dip on this or that

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  3. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    Hi Grace, afraid I don’t have any fancy suggestions, but I do like the way your cloth is growing. I love the addition of the blue and white flower. Is it the light, or do you have pale blue eyes? I have pale blue eyes. Really love those baskets too, are they locally made? Hope you have a fun day out. Marg. ox

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  4. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i like old fashioned words.
    reconcile.
    the middle…maybe reconciliation of a sort
    in this cloth, this Diaries cloth, i will remember, the
    toning down with a dip
    but in this moment, i think i need to do the toning down
    with thread, with stitch. i like, very much, that wad
    of floss pressed on the “flannel board”. we’ll see.
    i love you Jude…for the “perhaps the middle…”
    for me, there is always so MUCH of in between

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  5. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    margaret…yes. i have pale blue eyes. a friend of my
    daughter’s used to say they were scarey.
    the baskets: no, not locally made, but sold by our
    Farmer’s Market as a fund thing. they are made by a
    women’s cooperative in Africa. i love them. i have 6.
    you LIKE that flower??????????????
    it’s from a man’s shirt from the thrift store. i am so
    ambivilant about it. i love it and i do not. it is the
    “back side” of the cloth. something about it is so VERY
    appealing to me………..????????????
    i love it most when the center is cut out.
    xoxo, g

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  6. jude Avatar
    jude

    perhaps the middle, the middle is the learning part?

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  7. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it’s the Middle where i like to live

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  8. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Grace, thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us (me). You are very busy with this one, this MD cloth.I was wondering that if it is ‘all of the above’…does there have to be only one ‘primary’ idea and couldn’t they be on a more equal footing, but maybe take turns stepping forward as the cloth evolves? Meanings and rankings and focuses and values often shift with the times. Maybe the lesson here is that all of this that has deep meaning for you is…I’m not making sense…can’t find the words…
    Um…maybe this cloth, like life is not stagnant and rolls with the tides. Relax and float…maybe something will come to you.
    Or…analyze and focus and maybe something will come to you!
    Hope your day was nice. Tomorrow we go to an avocado festival up the coast a bit! 🙂

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  9. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    Hi again Grace, it’s funny that your daughters friend thought your eyes looked scary. I used to hate my eye colour. After many years on eye drops for glaucoma, my eyes are a little darker now. Wierd huh. I think that’s what I like about the flower too’, the empty center. It has more possibilities that way. Oh boy, have I started a hornets nest with my next piece for magic diaries! I decided to do the ‘last’ section next. It involves a tree and a moth! Hope to have a pic up soon. I’ve been buzzing around like a lunatic trying to make up my mind which way to go with it. Cheers . ox

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  10. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    i thought it was a little too blue too….until i saw your eyes. that blue is reflecting you. do the thread thing, then you will love it too.
    i like the flower too. i would huh? maybe it needs a lizard tail twined in it….

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  11. Cristina Ortega Avatar
    Cristina Ortega

    hi grace.
    i just love the glow of your cloth wall………
    so full of warmth.
    and. such a graceful image> the burnt orange looking out
    from the blue circle window. wonder what it sees………
    all together becoming a lovely friendship

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  12. suzanna Avatar
    suzanna

    hi grace…someone, in high school once told me she was scared by my eyes and I felt very worried by that, so I had trouble looking directly at people for fear of scaring them. It’s taken a long time to realize I’m the one who’s been so scared! Yesterday (I’m at a conference in the mountains) someone I was talking to said, you’re eyes are very blue. I said.”scary blue?”. She said No, just very blue. Phew, that was reassuring. I have been trying to face up to my fears. It’s amazing this happened yesterday before I read your posting. It has always seemed so mysterious that our eye color doesn’t affect what we see, or I don’t think it does. I love the way you describe the meaning layers of your cloth and how it is evolving.

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  13. Tammy Avatar
    Tammy

    You know I had to look at the image of you over and over and over. And I saw the lines connecting. The image of you in the sort of middle of your cloth and those lines that show on the ceiling giving a kind of perspective of you inside the cloth and the line that is just under the wolf leads over to the line on the edge of the cloth and the windowsil on the other side of you another line and the top of the window itself also going the same direction as the bottom of the cloth.. I just kept thinking .. your in the middle of your own cloth. Some how that fits ….your eyes are striking, some people see with more knowing and I think that puts some people off. Love those wolf eyes.

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  14. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    it’s so complex here. the ranchers take issue and i do
    love the ranch families. so i cannot get real steal hearted about it. but there IS a way for us all, including the wolves, to find our own place it’s just
    so hard to give up certain ways of thinking.
    tho the reintroduction program is on hold, the wolves
    that are there, at Sevielleta Refuge…are THERE. it’s
    only some miles away and i feel so good to be so near
    them….

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  15. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Margaret…i cannot wait to see the last but next
    you are such a gifted woman
    and i love buzzing around like a lunatic…i know that….
    she didn’t like the pale blue and then the
    pupil
    she is a “mixed” girl and we argued that black people,
    or people of color have pupils too. she was sure they
    didn’t, only white people and the worst being blue eyed
    ones, and worst of all, PALE blue eyed ones
    we spent long moments in front of the mirror studying our
    eyes. this was when she was young. her name is Cassidy
    and i have such great love for her.

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  16. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    an Avacado Festival…oh, swoon………
    my daughter tells me that where she is now in central Cal
    her neighbors have a pomegranate tree, some branches hang
    into daughter’s yard and drop LOTS of pomegranates. the
    doe goats LOVE them, gobble them up….not the buck goats???
    this is one thing i look forward to about going there…
    what grows.

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  17. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes, that WOULD be you…the flower thing…
    so…coming along.
    the lizards, they are the blue tailed. they would make
    it worse…..need to be elsewhere, but today, i think
    i knew where………

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  18. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    so happy to see you here…i MISS your blogging. hope
    that soon it will find its place again……..

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  19. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    scareyblueveryblue… it’s really interesting, isn’t it, how a comment from someone at a formative time in our lives sticks and it takes so long to understand enough to even question it…..

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  20. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    YIKES! all the lines!!!!!
    yes. the wolf eyes. they no longer have these shirts.
    bummer.

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  21. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    i love the very blue, of the cloths and of your eyes.

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  22. lynda howells Avatar
    lynda howells

    everybody has said what l think about this amazing piece of workxxalso great to see you in the mirror.xxx

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  23. BJ Avatar
    BJ

    Thank you for sharing a peek into your work space…your creative haven. Your cloth(s), with the directional lines and swooping curves, are wonderful!

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  24. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    because of my stubbornness about using those scavenged
    windows, it will be time soon to cover them with plastic
    for winter’s Wind. oh, Whaa. AND, before they get
    covered, they need to be washed….
    seasonal details……………….

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  25. BJ Avatar
    BJ

    Our home is a put-together. It started as a 4-room Sunday School addition to a local church. Someone bought it and remodeled it, living there for several years. They were building a new home behind the smallish 4-roomer…it had a “for sale” sign near the street. My husband asked how much they wanted for it. The man’s wife wanted a $700 sofa for their new home…so we paid $700 for our little ‘fixer-upper’. After paying $800 to have it moved several miles, we remodeled…remodeled…and remodeled again. Our windows don’t match and the floor creaks…but we don’t have a house payment. And it’s nearly time to put plastic on some of the older windows. Love this ole house/home of ours. Scavenged windows have a beauty…if they could only talk — what tales they’d tell.

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  26. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    BJ…i LOVe this story about your home/house. it is
    something VERY close to my heart, the making a home by
    hand and also having it so simple that it is paid for.
    for some years after leaving Michigan i lived in a 23ft
    airstream, actually, an avion…a version of an airstream.
    1950’s. so when i found myself dragging this trailerhouse
    here, it felt like a mansion in comparison. and then,
    when my daughter and i sawed the wall away to make the
    ROOM, well…i can’t tell you.
    it is something that i feel so deeply connected to…it’s
    so similar to the cloth work that i am amazed. mending a
    living space. adding here and there, patching in, mosaic
    mending. contemporary boro living. the satisfaction is
    enormous. and it allows a freedom in Living that is
    extreme. spending a life paying a mortgage is crazy, to
    me. for what?
    spending a life living is a good thing. and actually why
    i left Michigan, my old life. i wanted to understand
    something about all this. and i have. great happiness
    in this.
    i love it that she wanted a couch. bless her heart,
    little did she know, huh.
    again…..thank you so much for this story of Yours…
    they are few and far between…. thank you. xoxo

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