which reminds me of this
So what has happened since 2018 [not in order, of time or weight]... Boris Johnson has become the buffoon comic right wing leader of the UK, Covid has hit us and schools here in Italy have been closed since March this year, [enforced hibernation - side effect: wonderful for introverts!] , we've been to Buddhafields twice!, I found the book Threads of Life, by Clare Hunter and we moved to a village not to far from Palermo. We are creating a home and trying to imbue it with creativity, colour, nurture, peace, and sanctity. In fact, we've been here a bit over a year already! [more to follow on this little topic of home]
lso some recent very excitng workshop stuff, where some of all of the above was used. [for another post]
Firstly, the mystery of the creative spirits.. I started making this [below] just prior to Covid and the lockdown, which I find oddly magical, in the creative spirits of the universe, kind of way. It is a start of what seems to be fabric or fiber books, pages, I'm not quite sure.
There is a process in looking at this. First see the little red flaps or pages, open them and read each page, look at the page they rest on.
This is also part of a bigger patchworky fiber piece, There are many more pages and words and messages. I like this, so far. Even if its as meandering as a stream running down a mountain in the rains.
The timing of the lockdown has been idealic for me, being at home, journying with my hands and making and being .. with Gabriel and 3 months of homeschooling! [of course I am not mentioning t the massive damage of the virus on so many levels, that is not ignored, but just not for this topic]
So I made this, lift up the pages one by one.
Trust, Be still, Be curious, Intuit, Creat, Be powerful |
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Quite often I need to hibernateand here are some more bits of collected stitching and made things, and thoughts and whispers to put together.. following the breadcrumbs.. journeying |
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This, I think, is a page, from a book, to go somewhere, its also very linked to my study on 'home'A few more: [work in progress..] |
This one... I still have it, unfinished! view 2018!! the one about making my heart.I guess it takes a long time to make one's heart! |
and all of these will be part of a bigger kind of montage of fibre, words, hand stitching, texture, colour, recycle and found things and we'll see! At the moment I am thinking it will hang on the wall, but we shall see.. free standing ? Let's see.. [but I am thinking i want it to be interactive, i want to invite the viewer to peer inside, turn pages, read, touch and be close. I want to create a kind of intimacy that is like the experience of slow stitching where you sit with the cloth and the thread and you need your glasses and a cup of tea and a comfy chair,
So anywayz, my intention, in getting back to blogging, finally, I hope, is to do 'managed' posts, with each post [for the time being, given how long I have been away] being a retrospective block of lego, or stitched bit of the webby meandering tapestry of the last 2 years. So I will try to let each bit be imperfectly finished, even if I am tempted to not want to leave.
Another cool toy I got just before Lockdown, again, the serendipity of it all..! I had this challenge, where I can't leave my little guy alone at home while I go running, so I decided to solve this problem with this!:
Lastly, I was reminded, by a certain creative empathic spirit, of an artist I found quite soon after I started making spirit dolls, and I remember now, with joy, how his work gave me the idea and permission and freedom to stitch in the way I paint and now that I see it again, I am reminded to keep going and be as liberated as I wish in stitching and not worry about any kind of learned or 'correct' way of stitching. I love his paintings too!
MICHEL NEDJAR!
Until next time! good to be back!
