rooted in place

"rooted in place"...

an appropriate title for this post though it could equally have been called 

"from here to there and back again"

the comings and goings of the last four weeks have been some of the most pleasant days I have spent in a very long time... uplifting visits with family and friends, a few days away in a favourite city, a lovely drive to the mountains

even sketching one whilst standing in almost-the-middle of the road with a dear friend and partner in crime

now it's back to quiet, and my consolation is time back in the studio

this week I have painted, pasted, stitched, cut, drawn and written my way through a number of delightful forays into creative work

one such adventure was an itch that has been on the list for many months which is now well under way

making textile versions of the pilings along the Yukon River

this week I scratched that itch

layers of cloth coloured with earth pigments

I'm working on four different pilings, the one shown in this post is the smallest, clocking in at just over 5" tall

next up is to add a few straight stitches here and there

I found some of my fabric painted to look like water and laid it behind to get a sense of what that might look like

my favourite was recently done, seen in the first photo of this post and the last: a piece of linen coloured by letting a blue-black ink seep up as far as it would

as with much of what I've done over the last year I'm not quite sure exactly where this is going but I do know it's an important piece of the puzzle and having a few to work with allows me some latitude for experimentation

and as if four wasn't enough there's another idea brewing for pilings of a different nature

thankfully I have another week of studio time before staring down the fence yet again!

Take care,

Jillayne

see feelingly

on the yoga mat this morning, moving into mountain pose...

the idea was to bring your feet together without looking down and the instructor used a phrase that normally passes me by but today something about it made me pause mid-pose

"see feelingly"

this morning the words triggered a memory...

walking by the small lake downtown, early March a few years ago

it was a day or two after a massive wind-storm,  and the weather had put the shore ice into a relentless freeze-thaw cycle 

I noticed tree branches all along the shore, some partially caught in that ice, others fully frozen in place, frost encasing their branches

I was utterly transfixed

what I saw that day inspired all of my creative work for at least the next six months and in many ways it still does today

I realized this morning whilst on the yoga mat I hadn't just been inspired by the visuals alone

I saw those branches, frozen in place, feelingly

the icy grip, the inability to move... to go from waving in the wind to completely immobile

to be entangled

from there my thoughts skittered to a small framed print hanging on the wall in our family room

I stumbled on it in a small antique store over 20 years ago and knew immediately it was going to follow me home

 I've always liked the imagery of boats at full sail... the feeling of heaviness in the drape of the sails, the rough texture of the cloth and that sky, the feeling of being uplifted in clouds

 a feeling of buoyancy 

"In Holland Waters"

by Paul Jean Clays

I hadn't just seen these things, I had felt what I was seeing as well

I love when these sort of connections are made, an understanding that hits me, makes the pieces all fit together in a way I hadn't understood before

I'm not sure I can "see feelingly" at will but I believe now, having made this connection, I'll recognize it when it comes

and allow that to guide what I do next

we'll see

take care,

Jillayne