strong personal voice

Here is some of what was written by the moderation team:

Your enquiring mind, techincal skill, and critical judgements have enabled a successful outcome. You have communicated ideas and concepts in a clear and individual style, you identify practical requirements and present your very thought provoking ideas in a strong personal voice.

I am really pleased with the assessment results and want to thank my tutor, Kay Swancutt for the encouragement and support she gave me throughout the fall.

girls coming home

shipwreck, pastel by Grace Martin 2006

Our two youngest daughters arrive today for Christmas. In preparation, I hung their own artwork in their bedrooms and took the things I hung last June down.

wildflower bouquet, watercolour by April Martin 2008

Recital

Today was my piano recital. I rarely talk about my piano teaching on this blog even though it is and has been a huge part of my life since I was 16 years old.
It was a very short recital today, only half an hour. I am stepping away from music teaching and although past recitals have had over thirty performers, today there were only eleven. Sweet children and hard working pianists every one.

I only teach one day a week now. My art making has taken precedent. Here is a list of what was performed. You would have enjoyed it.

Up on the Housetop (duet with teacher)
Jingle Bells (duet with teacher)
Angels We Have Heard on High
Frosty the Snowman
O Come, All Ye faithful (duet with teacher)
Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer (duet with teacher)
The Little Drummer Boy
Santa Claus is Coming To Town
Winter Wind
Joy to the world
Astroids ( a jazz piece)
Silent Night (duet with her mother)
Must be Santa
Frosty the Snowman
The Night Before Christmas
Deck the Hall
Jolly Old St Nicholas (duet with his mother)
Jingle Bells (duet with his mother)
God Bless All
Up On the Housetop
Rockin' Around the Chirstmas Tree (duet with teacher)
We Wish You as Merry Chirstmas (duet with teacher)

Be Safe, My Love

So much of my recent work has been on the theme of protection. Yesterday, I chose the title "Be Safe, My Love" for an exhibition of textiles and drawings of textiles that I have been invited to show at the Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph this spring.

A relatively complete list of 2010 exhibitions and workshops is in my updates.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
the falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Things fall apart,
the centre cannot hold,
more anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The blood dimmed tide is loosed
and everywhere
the ceremony of innocence
is drowned.

W.B. Yeats 1920
the second coming

remembrances

whole, perfect, transcendently beautiful

a busy time of year

I want to thank those who have been writing me such interesting personal emails inspired by this blog. I will answer you soon once I can gather myself some computer time. Don't forget that I am still on dial-up and everything takes twice as long. It is gratifying to be able to connect to so many people who are on my wave length.

It's a busy time of year. There are gifts to be organized, a house to be cleaned, recitals or parties to give and attend, in addition to what one does on a regular basis. I remember that I'm lucky to be this kind of busy (as opposed to so many other kinds). It is a blessing to be able to give gifts, to bake cookies.

Works in Progress

I have a lot of 'works in progress' at present and am taking them in turns. They are not for Christmas presents, they are not for any special exhibit, they are not school assignments. They just ARE. It's been a while since I've shown this large silk piece. I worked on it a bit last night and also this morning. Very light weight even though it is densely hand stiched. Sometimes its just the materials that inspire.

Joyce Wieland

O Canada animation by Joyce Wieland (1970)
71 embroidered lips sing Canada's national anthem

The problem is to go into oneself. Go to the darkest parts and the brightest parts and find out what you like and want, and validate that. It's not just a question of art and finding out who you are and making this wonderful thing happen out of yourself, but it's the responsibility to society and caring about other people. A lot of people think art is to be separate, but art is to embrace others - whether to convey something difficult or to talk about light. Work that comes from the spirit, journeys into the spirit are what we need now. Spirit has always been in art. Joyce Wieland

Joyce Wieland remains one of my very favourite artists, there's more about her on my modernist aesthetic blog.

one piece of baloney at a time

Work continues on the meditation panels that I am making with the Manitoulin community. I enjoy spending my Thursdays working on this project in the church hall. I enjoy the large work space and I enjoy visiting with the variety of women. Right now we are working on "Twig Cross". Today I brought the 90" square drawing into the studio and pinned it up to see what we've accomplished so far. I'm planning to do some work on it there.
My father's mantra, 'one piece of baloney at a time',comes to mind.

snow day

I was able to do a little work on this piece after months of neglect. It was a snow day, piano lessons were cancelled.

red dot

I have returned to my quilting projects, put on hold for the last two months while I rushed through the fine art embroidery module for my degree.

I love quilts. Quilts have all the layers that I tried to show with my black dress embroidery. Quilts automatically have the metaphors that I want to refer to - protection, woman's hand as work and caress, meditation, story telling, political statements. I love the size of a bed quilt, ample as a modernist painting but much deeper, softer.

dualism

Hand stitch invites the viewer to touch as much as look and touching helps with thinking because it breaches the gap between the body and the mind. It links emotion with thoughts.

As I stitched, a powerful self-portrait appeared on the reverse side; an inside out, sensual, raw-edged messiness that contradicts the competent dress I had drawn on the front.


This piece challenges thinking, even as it shouts it, and lays out the process of making as most important. Yes, the work came from my mind and hand but it also came from my inner self and is a portrait of my own dualism. Part of me thinks too much, the other just does it.

The best thing? IT's DONE!