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142

this morning, i couldn't find Mercy when i went out to move the feed tubs

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and then i saw her.  She was having a personal moment.

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and all the while everyone else crowed and pushed and maneuvered,  she remained there.  i can't know what she was thinking.  but for sure, Something.

and then…the Lizard.

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this is an old drawing.  but i can draw a lizard in a heartbeat.  Stitching a lizard is an entirely different thing.

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i stitched and took away.  stitched and took away.  on and on.  it's the 

GESTURE

so subtle.  just a gesture that represented,  gives them the reality of what they are.  or makes them appear as something else entirely.  so…over and over.  and still, not yet.  but for today, enough.  and i have NO idea if i can do it.  maybe not.  i knew when making one of this size it might be hard.  but i didn't know HOW hard.  so

i learn.

 

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26 responses to “142”

  1. LaceLady Avatar
    LaceLady

    oh this is one of your BEST ~ I mean to say my favourite, instead ~ posts EVER! the goats ~ pictures, commentary ~ lizard drawing, lizard stitching, your “stamina and resilience”! made my day, thank you so much!

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  2. jude Avatar
    jude

    the sense of it. yes.

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  3. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    hey!, LL……..i’m glad then. made your day….Clinta Eastwood.
    yes. and ok.
    i’ve already taken out the left rear leg. try again tomorrow.
    i like the day too. wasn’t a particularly Easy day, but was a
    very GOOD day. it just went too fast. like they all do.
    what are YOU doing?

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  4. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s really Hard. and i can’t understand Why. shouldn’t
    be..but i am experiencing it as such. something here i
    don’t know, can’t
    touch
    yet
    but it shouldn’t be any harder at all. it’s
    me.
    and if i can’t get the sense of it, i can’t do it. i think
    back about that lizard cloth i made in Beasts that is
    with Wendy Golden Levitt’s kids. how not too long ago
    one of the girls needed to take it outside to feed it
    grass. wanted to Feed it.
    THIS IS GESTURE.
    and that lizard, very different from this lizard, had
    Gesture. enough to hold the hearts of the kids, to make
    someone want to take it out to feed it grass.

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  5. jude Avatar
    jude

    it is hard grace but in another sense than difficult. it is clarity. too bright to look at directly. kids are better at it. and then we become kids again. i feel that. i look forward to it now that i get glimpses of it.

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  6. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    something about these words…too bright to look at
    directly….
    lizards don’t let you see them directly. just some.
    just enough.

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  7. jude Avatar
    jude

    that’s interesting, i don’t know lizards well enough, but i can understand. that.

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  8. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Beautiful drawing, Grace, and I can see how sewing a lizard would be challenging if drawing it comes so easily. Fluid flowing lines vs. rhtymic stitch to depict or capture lizard-ness… a different mind-set. Drawing is all illusion, stitch, though small, still is 3-D, textural – it demands an entirely different form of magic, I imagine. Just a thought.

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  9. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    woops… rhythmic!

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  10. kat Avatar
    kat

    Taking a moment – don’t we all wish for that once in a while?
    The drawing is beautiful. The stitching is becoming – I feel movement and see it particularly in the sketch of a tail. This is going to be a wonder full one, Grace.

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  11. LaceLady Avatar
    LaceLady

    winding down a hot, dusty day. grateful that I have things in life that give me purpose, and yes, exhaust me in a good way. I am now intriqued with lizards, of all things. The only creature close to a lizard, that I am familiar with, is what I call a “roughy newt” ~ Roughskin Newt (Taricha granulosa), which is nasty, and not really a lizard. Piqued yet another segue in my curiousity and learning! Yay! Rest thee well.

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  12. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Yes, envisioning seems so much easier than manifesting. That’s the practice though, isn’t it? You sure GOT it in the drawing, and the stitch will find it’s way, it’s already indicating that.
    Mercy all by her own on that high place…so specifically setting herself apart. That’s just the sort of thing one could watch for hours, and wonder at. Reminds me a bit of ‘BABE’ that pig who stood out from the rest.

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  13. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    i was looking at the paper–it looks rich–like rag perhaps. and the beautiful drawing. then thinking about how you draw your wonderful face on cloth and from there wondered if you might just draw lizard on cloth–or stitch the lizard drawing onto cloth?
    then looking back at the cloth lizard–it’s beautiful. i don’t know this critter at all so don’t really know the gesture you’re looking for–but remember something you said to me about the flicker’s eye–how just a suggestion of…can be MORE. but you know this. love to you

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  14. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Essence: looking at the cloth, I see and more importantly, feel the essence of lizard and for me, it is enough. The drawing is exquisite, the cloth hints at the wonder and indescribable beauty and mystery of lizard.

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  15. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    Hey y’know how you can draw a lizard in a heartbeat? well why not? just go outside and draw this whiptail from life for a few hours and then come back to the cloth…

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  16. elizabeth fortes Avatar
    elizabeth fortes

    Dear Grace,
    Your love of lizards: it is so inspiring!
    e.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Newts are the Best too

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    love these thoughts…they Help me

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s going to be important to me

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    the first thing you think of with Goats is if there is
    something wrong. they stay to themselves if they are
    hurt or not feeling well.
    so…i remembered that and watched…but the sense all along
    was that she just wanted to be there for her own reasons. and it turned out to be true. i love her so much.

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    the gesture…it’s so momentary…well…way less than
    a moment…just a hesitation…

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    MARTI…thank you for sending from San Francisco!!!!!!!

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  23. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Mo…they are not still. more than an iota of a second
    they have these huge busy lives of almost constant
    movement, FAST. only in spring, when they are coming up
    from Wintering into the Sun…sometimes then they rest
    a moment for my eye. OR sometimes and it’s rare, when
    one comes to drink when i have watered into a tree well
    but i have let those places become overgrown this year
    …for them…so they can remain secluded in their doings

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  24. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    oh…elizabeth…………………….i DO love them.
    their eyes, their elbows and wrists………..their
    love of Place

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  25. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    even better 1-2 second flying sketches to get that flash the movement the feeling

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  26. mimmin Avatar
    mimmin

    oh mercy
    a singular goat
    and oh that drawing, those stitches!!!!

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