I have been thinking this week about the orderliness of dreams. They don’t feel orderly. They sometimes feel confusing or jarring.
But I believe as we sleep, our brain processes what we have experienced – both recently and long ago – and makes sense of it. Experiences are rearranged and juxtaposed with unlike events and then stored in a new order.
In the waking world, artmaking is my way of processing. My way to make sense of things. (This week contained some powerful “this-makes-NO-sense” experiences.) Each part of the process is part of creating a new reality.
So, this weekend as I am backing and finishing the quit of the little paper doll girl, I am continuing that rearrangement into the otherwise-tedious stages of backing and binding.
Here is the neighborhood in which the paper doll girl now dwells.
Artwork face-up: Here on my worktable, I have glued on the backing fabric, a nice grey eco-felt. I weighted the quilt for a while, and then I let it breath overnight.
Artwork face-down: Here is the back, and the hanging mechanism.
I use a grey felt backer to create a professional presentation and provide a nice weight for hanging. The hanging sleeve is shown here with its basting stitch still in. When I remove that, the sleeve will have some give so the rod does not pooch through to the front. I like details like providing a D-ring positioned so it’s easy for someone to hang the artwork. (This is a 55”+ wide quilt, so I have included two D-rings.) The finishing touches say that I take my own work seriously.
Now for binding. On the quilt I’m using a turned strip binding, created in sections of color and patterns that match or complement the part of the quilt that section is next to.
This afternoon, I will spend a few hours in my studio hand stitching the turned binding onto the back.
This is the only hand stitching I do. I might play music, or I might just absorb the quiet of the studio and think.
I’ll think about the story of the girl in the neighborhood I have created. How the images are my way of making sense of memories.
I’ll think of this week’s news : among the many stories, an attempted execution in Missouri that did not work. The prisoner did not die. She snored. They took her to a hospital where she is on Ife support. Is the government saving her to try to kill her again?
The horrible crime she committed was senseless and brutal. The crimes inflicted on her when she was young were senseless and brutal. And now this attempted execution was senseless and brutal.
How does one even begin to understand these events?
Or the bombing of bridges in Kiev? Or the struggles of people in the West bank and Gaza? Or people in America losing SNAP benefits?
When thoughts of the real world are overwhelming, I process what I can. I participate in civic life to the best of my ability. And I make art. This is something I can do.
And each stage of the work is my way of bringing some order and completeness to the world.
. . . . . .
For all of us: focus each day on the good
that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi