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the tomato plant ties from last year

 

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a piece of one

 

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a piece of copper wire that was on the ground

 

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together

 

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cloth i dyed with Coral Berry

 

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together.

 

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the very close walkway.  slate.  where i raked and then swept so many dried up poops from Tulip in her last weeks when she could only manage to get that far.

 

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the Rag Flag

 

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i bumped the mouse into the keyboard and this happened

 

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exactly as i saw it.  Where? ,  did this come from?   it has never been there before.  This is a log that borders the Onion Bed.  

 

so…looking.  and feeling somewhat adrift.  it was a WorkAway day and not a whole lot left of it when i got home and i felt somewhat adrift.  Somewhat adrift.  and realized it has been only a week, which means 7 days since Rory, Zarina and Owen were here.  That seems forever ago.  and that it is only 2 days since that 365 day which also seems forever ago.    I have no cloth in the making.  there is an empty space there.  i am just in a place of Looking.   like i am in a place where i need to 

re  Place myself.   ie  re Position.   that i have shifted out of Position.  shifted.  shifted out.  am floating like those Crows…floating, but not flying.   riding the currents.  

and looking at those cloth pieces,  i suddenly thought i wonder HOW i could depict what it is to  ummmm….to LOOK out….to look out of my own head, my own eyes, my own being.  to not depict what i see when i look,  to to depict the ACT of Looking.   Something "in me", that is "me" Looks.  Like through the holes in my skull, with my eyeballs and Sees things.   HOW can i make a cloth that Shows that?

 

 

 

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20 responses to “the Act of Looking”

  1. Judith of N. CA Avatar
    Judith of N. CA

    The mouse made magic ! Those colors are so rich..oh, they would be wonderful together on cloth.
    To depict the Act of Looking…is the “just going” the same thing ?

    Like

  2. judykeathley@cox.net Avatar
    judykeathley@cox.net

    just sew.

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  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    The perfect occupation for the seer of things is to look. Good job! Every fiber of cloth way up close, so close one could almost smell them! Then the glorious flying flag times THREE!!! Now I’m thinking about how to picture looking….to dream on. Nite nite.

    Like

  4. Dana Avatar

    Funny…I thought the piece of tomato tie with two holes in it looked like eyes, or eye holes. Like a mask. Looking out implies that you are in, or on the other side of something from what you are seeing. Maybe restricting the field of what is “seen” could imply the act of looking. I love the tangles in the copper wire and their mirror in the red flag.

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  5. patricia Avatar

    i think your cloths do show this. the act of looking. and it seems your next cloth is already brewing up there with the wire shape forming head and arms. excited to see where this one leads you.

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  6. beth Avatar

    How? You do. It is what you do. I’m most captured by the second photo. The weave giving way. Almost reaching to be back in place… or no, is it celebrating being free…

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  7. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Tuesday late afternoon–I’m returning to share this poem about images because it reminded me of your thinking about how to portray the act of looking…
    The Long Hand Wishes It Were Us
    by Jackie Clark
    Sometimes I wish I didn’t think in words
    and that instead for each thought I thought I drew upon an image,
    and that I was able to organize each image in a linear way that would be like sort of like reading
    and that instead of trying to describe the edges around something
    I could just think the color around the edges of the image to be darker,
    that the detail on the image could become more or less detailed depending on how much clarity I believe I needed to disclose at the time
    For instance, instead of saying love, I could just think watermelon
    I could just think of a watermelon cut in half, laying open on a picnic table
    The inside would be just as moist as it was pink
    I could picture cutting up pieces and giving them out to my friends.
    It wouldn’t have to be sunny
    It wouldn’t have to be anything else then just that
    It would really simplify my walk home at night,
    where every thought I think is some contrived line I repeat over and over to myself
    Words are always just replaced with new ones
    The pictures would never need to know otherwise

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  8. dee Avatar

    it is wonderful to LOOK along with you… whether at the surprise-moused picture of the rag, or at the silence, or at the place of no-cloth-making, or at the ground, or rips in the burlap.

    Like

  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    no…what i’m trying to get hold of is more somehow
    uhhhh, biological almost

    Like

  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    you’re right. that’s what i hope to do tomorrow

    Like

  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s an interesting question

    Like

  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes….this is in the right direction… ” implies that you are in, or on the other side of something”…this is good.

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    i have no idea about this collection of scraps. NO idea
    at all…

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    those kinds of cloth fibers just fill me with
    clothy feelings

    Like

  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    this is so
    FINE,
    Michelle
    i love this. just love this…..

    Like

  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    well…i do a Lot of it sometimes. Sometimes i can’t
    stop.

    Like

  17. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    The red flag looks so much like a beast of some kind clinging to the tree; just beautiful Grace.

    Like

  18. grace Avatar

    yes. it does. and yes. a Cloth Beast. a beast of its
    own kind. ClothBeast. more and more, Cloth is a living
    Being.

    Like

  19. KAMFreeman Avatar

    mice are amazing and wonderful little unknown electronically magic beings….on a borrowed laptop while my CPU is replaced I find things occurring without explanation nor understanding every few minutes, yet nothing as extraordinary as the color saturation that was your mouse gift.

    Like

  20. Nancy Avatar

    Great post of looking! The flag flying, the mouse bump, the fragments hanging out together…it is what feeds a weary soul. Thank you.

    Like

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