I'm so thankful for the things I learn while I'm not looking with my eyes open...that's when I seem to see things the most clearly...in some sort of state of dreaming. I'd been coming to terms with justifying this new work that I'm drawn to make...this simple stitching on teabags, or mending and patching holes in paper and allowing myself to follow these instincts, even as I chastised myself for not making the work I felt I should be making. I'd started those Season Cycles pieces in the spring and intended to follow it through the year, with the four seasons providing the thread that would carry the work through. I made twenty-five in the spring and not even half that in the summer, as I explored a myriad of other things in the studio. Here, autumn is upon us and I kept feeling as if I should get some 5 x 5" pieces of paper going with layers of paint...and yet, I kept stitching on teabags and delicate Japanese paper. But in my sleep, when I'd let go, I understood that these things don't have to be different at all. Why would I insist on treating them separately...it's all one thing and the next day I went into the studio and stitched delicate lines in the colors of autumn, arranged awkwardly, like the trace of falling leaves. Today, the teabags are mounted on 5 x 5" Japanese paper and here is the first Season Cycles, Autumn no.1.
I think that we have to follow our instincts, one foot in front of the other....there is work that's asking to be made that only we can create.
