Saturday, November 03, 2007

Thoughts On A Rainy Day

Copyright Tattered Edge 2007

Since I am lacking in anything terribly exciting to tell you, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have been enjoying in cyberland lately.

I seem to be on a textile bent lately. It's funny how you always come back to your roots and mine is in textiles. Funny really, when you consider I was the girl who flunked sewing class (yes, I sure did-hated every blessed minute of that class!) and also stunk at math. I have 15 years of quilting under my belt now and once I learned the ins and outs of the Imperial system (I was raised on metrics remember-I am Canadian!) I was like a duck to water. Give me some fabric and a rotary cutter and I am good to go-no pattern necessary. I love designing as I go along.

I think part of the reason why I love paper collage so much is that in a way, it's the pulling together of a variety elements to create harmony, much the same skills used in quilting. I get such a sense of deep satisfaction when I finish something, stand back, look and think "Yeah, I like that. It works."

I come from a long line of "makers"- a carpenter, a painter, a quilter, a seamstress, an inventor, a blacksmith. When I engage in creating, it makes me feel close to those that came before me, as if for a moment or two all those people live and breathe through me and into my art. I believe when we create, we settle fully into who we really are. There's a sacredness in the works of our hands and of our hearts.

There's an old Shaker saying that I love. It goes like this:
"Whatsoever the hand finds to do, the heart shall go forth in unison."
and as the great Leonardo Da Vinci put it:
"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."


2 comments:

Sandra Evertson said...

Lovely post, I love that saying!
Sandra Evertson

Ruth Rae said...

fellow flunkers of sewing class unite!
we must of been at the back of that class together!
who needs a pattern!

"There's a sacredness in the works of our hands and of our hearts."

amazing words!