"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty
Been reading and thinking a lot lately about vintage sewing, about work done by hands in the countless generations before me.
Make art about feeling connected to something from another era, another time. Reveal this connection through a specific daily process or specific object.
I grew up in Hurricane Alley, eastern North Carolina, so the preparation for these big storms is something I learned early. Hurricane Matthew has ripped through Haiti, and is on his way to the US East Coast. All my provisions are laid in, flashlights and emergency equipment in place and ready, and I’ve battened down as much as I can. But sometimes Mama Nature’s just too big and unpredictable for any kind of preparation.
Make art about preparing the best you can.
10/5/2016
Thinking a lot today about all the ways people find their way to, or demonstrate faith. Took me immediately to one of my top three favorite songs, The Mountain, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.
Excerpted Lyrics by Dave Carter
Some build temples and some find altars, some come in tall hats and robes spun fine. Some in rags, some in gemstone halters, some push the pegs back in line.
I see the mountain, the mountain comes to me, I see the mountain and that is all I see.
Make art about temples or altars or shrines, faith in some unexpected way.
10/6/2016
Road Angel Andrea at Walmart today told me about her grandmama teaching her to sew, first by making curtains, long straight hems, she said, over and over again, summer curtains, winter curtains with their heavy lining. She said her grandmama was patient but tough, making her tear out crooked stitches, and try again til she got it right. “I learned to take my time,” she said. “I learned to take my time, look ahead of the foot, and how a pair of curtains can make all the difference in a room.”
Make art about curtains. Or about what you learned from an elder.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”~John Kennedy
Make art about revolution.
7/20/2016
When the world becomes too much, I make things, usually for other people. So this week I’m sewing old fashioned cloth dolls to send to the children’s unit at the Massey Cancer Center.
Make art about when the world becomes too much.
7/21/2016
In the way I was taught, there are four fundamental types of dreams: waking life dreams; visitation dreams; teaching dreams; and traveling dreams.
All my kids coming home for a visit 🙂 Make art about visitors.
8/30/2015
You are my children. You are my jewels. We old ones invest our future in you.” ~Diane Samuels Make art about children, young or adult, or about parenting.
8/31/2015
I’m fixin to go on a sewin binge 🙂 The first known sewing needle came from southwestern France and dates to about 25,000 years ago. When I sew, I feel an endless procession of women surround me, as I, in my small way, add to the story. Make art about sewing, or needlework, or stitching something together.
A set of bone needles from the Cave of Courbet in the Aveyron Valley, near Toulouse, France. Believed to be over 13,000 years old.
Recent Comments