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remembering this kind of WIND

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first morning with Sorels

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still life  cricket in blue bathroom sink

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i take this postcard of the painting of Noelle,  The Goat Lady,  from here to there and back  as i move around the house.  She is here in her Hay Barn.  I think of her,  tending her Goats into her 90's. , moving through her day,  her sweater closed with a safety pin.  She and her Goats lived in Massachusetts.  I am sure it was Cold there.  

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just more roots.  this taken as Cloth was flat, lying on the table.  Maybe allows the roots to be more visible?   Roots are slow going.

Liz had this quote on her blog  I'mgoingtoTexas.blogspot.com.  I've thought about it all day.

"Art" is not found in our language.  But what do we call a piece of work which embodies the life of its creator?  What will it be if it has a life and a soul, while its maker sings and prays for it?  In my home we call it pottery painted with designs to tell us a story.  In my mother's house, we call it a wedding basket to hold blue corn meal for the groom's family.  In my grandma's place we call it a Kachina doll, a carved image of a life force that holds the Hopi world in place.  We make pieces of life to see, touch and feel.  Shall we call it  "Art"?  I hope not.  It may lose its soul.  Its people."

Michael Lacapa  Apache Hopi Tewa

Thinking.  Maybe i make these Cloths to "hold my world in place"?,   i think Yes.  My small bit of world that is so clearly OF a large and far reaching world that covers a planet.  But this small part that i am in partnership with.  To hold it in place, maybe.  I like this.

 

 

 

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25 responses to “remembering this kind of WIND”

  1. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    That quote kicked off a thought-storm for me too. Your cloth gains in beauty every day, like the unfolding sunflower.

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  2. ² Avatar
    ²

    it is more than “like ” this
    it ” IS ” this
    you can be sure of that
    in partnership with !!!

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  3. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    you make good art Grace! I have your x-roads cloth, it transforms my life and helps me see clearly.

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  4. julie Avatar
    julie

    Holds the place at the same time it opens a window…lets the maker breath and lets the viewer see in.

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  5. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Art, not a word that I think about all that much and rarely in connection with what I do with cloth. At one time, when I first began to dye cloth and stitch, a discussion arose about making as craft rather than Art and there seemed to be such a value on making art as opposed to making for use or simply for the joy of wanting to tell a story…it all got a little too pretentious for me.
    Your thoughts grace re cloth as holder of place, I understand. To me, place is inner as well as outer. By inner I mean the emotions that rise as I begin to place my vision of what I have seen, lived in, flown over, visited. Everything that I make with cloth, even my recent experience with stitching a nine patch to the back of a jacket, is about landscape. When I speak of place as outer, I refer to the materials that I use from the land to bring color and place to life.
    My need to tell the story of landscape perhaps arises from the many years spent traveling about this country. It became and is a way to anchor myself. So now that I am permanently in place, I wonder how or if my story in cloth will change…

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  6. cynthia Avatar
    cynthia

    i look at my three cloths..the cloths you made grace..right now they are on my blue table..they receive the morning sun..they travel..they have been up and down the coast..from virginia to northern vermont..one has hung outside the goat’s pen ..which travels here so much that i brought it back and it held fast with the cows..sukie and ajax fascinated by the activity..cows are so curious ..i never knew this about them..
    they have held place ..and i love that the young women in my life have walked into the room and caught their breath..full of questions and enjoyment…i followed the stories of their making..and i have shared them..but it is something to watch fresh eyes see them, value them..make up stories of their own meaning….that the pieces are picked up and held..that to me they still have the distant scent of your country grace and now my much loved niece has added a small piece of yerba santa .
    ….because the cloth has touched them as well..
    what you create grace art..a world..a celebration of life that you share..it holds a place in many hearts
    gentle day grace

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  7. cynthia Avatar
    cynthia

    ps….and really i love the Sorels..i wish i had had mine..ok… could find mine..a box unearthed?? we had such snow this morning..but i rushed out in it..feet un- guarded….because there was a gray fox bounding across the snow..the first one i have ever seen here..so beautiful..he paused at the edge of the meadow..and well.. he played in the snow..no other word for it..at least in human terms. and then he simply faded into the woods…a gift of this morning..

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  8. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Don and I love your Underlying Order … backed by the hearth-stone in our living room, a piece of the New Mexico that is now a part of who we are, too.
    And though I know your newest piece of cloth is your story, your place, I want to share what I, a child of the Atlantic Ocean, saw in it this morning for the first time:
    A ship, its sails furled, at anchor in a safe harbor amidst gentle winds
    I think this is because the very best stories/cloths not only tell the author’s story, but are also able to evoke new stories in those who read/see them …

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  9. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    I feel sad that people want to bypass the idea of art in their lives or don’t see it as relevant to their own practice, that is it something “other” when making art is how we understand the world and make sense of it and honour thew experience of tour short spans, think of the early cave paintings in France and Australia, they transcend time and space and give us a window into the experience of being human across the millenia

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  10. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    there’s a million typos but you can get the idea

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  11. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    a bit later & I really hope I won’t offend anyone
    Some people are artists gifted in communication via the written word, they inspire us to see more clearly the world around us
    other people are artists in life & love & how they care for others
    some people are artists in dance, they inspire us with how they move & make us all feel like we can do dance through life too
    other people are artists who carry the choirs with their strong voices
    others play the blues and help us transcend the pain of our days
    others are artists in the garden or building a fence or cooking a cake
    I find it sad when people put art on a pedestal or demean it as” popular” and not having any soul as the Native American man implied in his quote
    Art exalts, transforms and honours our lives
    namaste

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  12. grace Avatar
    grace

    what’s happening with all the roots is the FEEL of it. It is
    gaining depth, density,

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  13. grace Avatar
    grace

    partnership. i so so much love framing it all this way

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  14. grace Avatar
    grace

    everytime i think of this i am happy

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes and i am going to go to your latest comment from here

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  16. grace Avatar
    grace

    good at context

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  17. grace Avatar
    grace

    There is NEVER offence here. Ever. Just us having Thoughts.
    offence doesn’t live here.
    and you know i read that last sentence too and i understand your
    point…although what i did love about what he says is “We make pieces of life to see, touch and feel.” and “What will it be if it has a life and soul, while its maker sings and prays for it?”
    And the quote is taken out of some larger context which might give use more understanding too. I think maybe the aboriginal people in Australia might say something similar. I know the tension here with Native People and their Art…things that were originally made to Hold Place for so many generations being seen as objects of Art by the touristas, who First Persons have an ever uneasy relationship with. There is the benefit of income, but also
    the uneasyness of objectifying and assigning monetary value to
    Spirit.
    We have been over and over about what Art might be or might not be over at Spirit Cloth for a loooooong time. And really, there will never be one answer. We have our own answer in each of our hearts and then i just think it’s that eye of the beholder. An example
    being me thinking what i make is Art Cloth and Alz B. looking at
    it …BEFORE her Slide, saying “but why is it so Dirty? (the plant dyed cloth) Why is it all wrinkled and torn? So for her, she
    did not see art. She saw something else entirely. And if you would have asked her she would say she loved Art, the Arts and
    had collected Art all her life.
    so…my beloved Mo….no offence. xoxo and love

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  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…it is a MUTUAL EXCHANGE

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  19. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    (((Grace))) thank you

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    i think this is IT…”the joy of wanting to tell a story”…
    i love this and i think it’s the THING. Whatever anyone wants
    to call it, designate it….
    This is in Art, it is in Craft, it is in any deep urge to
    tell a story
    and we’ll see, won’t we, how or if your story in cloth will change…

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  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    i love that others in your world hold these Cloths. I love this
    VERY much. And equally, Sukie and Ajax. This makes me
    truly part of your life. What a Gift!

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  22. grace Avatar
    grace

    GO! unearth your sorels….the world becomes something else
    entirely when you have good feet!
    O and EEEeeeee, your gray fox bounding. I have seen them play
    in snow and PLAY it is, JOY it IS…as with Wolves and how also
    i know Tay would play….
    What a gift you were given and now give to Us…THANK YOU so much
    and LOVE

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  23. grace Avatar
    grace

    these words are so GOOD to me, because it is what i would Hope for.
    What i stitch rises from the experience of being Alive here where i
    am, but it is a shared and common experience of Aliveness AnyWhere.
    “because the very best stories not only tell the author’s story, but are also able to evoke new stories in those who read/see them”
    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH YES.
    THANK YOU for articulating this so clearly. I wrote it down.
    Perfect.

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  24. grace Avatar
    grace

    and FURTHERMORE i can get a little snotty too. And talk about
    the fact that because i sit here in this Tin Home of mine in the
    Middle of NoWhere, stitching away with recycle scraps that will
    Never be SHOWN anywhere Important, that what i Make is LESS than
    that made by others who see their work in Grand Places. It is not
    the Same but it IS what it IS and when i look upon it, i look
    with a great Love for the story it tells me. It breathes back
    to me with the same life force as anything in a Grand Place.

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  25. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    LOVE–“Offense doesn’t live here.” So definite and good.
    Laughed out loud when You said “and FURTHERMORE i can get a little snotty too. And talk about the fact that because i sit here in this Tin Home of mine in the Middle of NoWhere, stitching away with recycle scraps that will Never be SHOWN anywhere Important, that what i Make is LESS than that made by others who see their work in Grand Places.” You sure can…but no need and anyway your life, cloth, work, breath and word is a bundle, nothing can separate from the rest.
    We all just do and do and be and be. It’s high art this doing and being. The highest art, and priceless.

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