This is a really thoughtful - and thought-provoking - post. I shall have to read it again and think about it. And as someone who had her last proper period in April '21 (though vaguely on and off since with my hormone patches) I'm still wondering where I'm going next, though what with a mother with dementia, recent redundancy and very unsureness with the new job, it's no wonder my creativity has vanished for a bit.
Oh gosh Freyalyn, that is a lot on your plate! And a huge and unsettled/unsettling time, inside and out. Have you perchance seen or read Hagitude by Sharon Blackie? I really enjoy the way she shines lights on all this very unsettledness --kind of like "Of course it is hard as hell --and also possibly/hopefully interesting if we can remember to be interested and notice. And then there is the possibility and wonder on the other side" My words and takeaway. Thinking of you❤️
I don’t consider myself an artist, more of a dabbler and someone curious about lots of things - hmm... what color would I get from that plant? How can I make these colors go together? What if I drafted a cold red and a warm red dyed fiber together? Ooops! One was super wash and one wasn’t. Will that make a difference? It didn’t. And then I’m a learner - what new thing can I learn today. So I don’t know if the fertility question applies. I know that I was working full-time and raising children when I was fertile and while I knit then, it was not a specially productive time. I knit socks and sweaters mostly, with an occasional shawl thrown in. It was only after I hit menopause and empty nest syndrome and eventually retirement that I had time to indulge my curiosity and my desire to learn and experiment. I don’t know if that answers your question at all!
Learner and dabbler -- I would call myself both of those things as well. The word artist came from outside in unexpected ways -- and I think it is easier to embrace now, like you, what with all the experimenting and fresh time to indulge my curiosity. Not that you have to call yourself an artist. Textile adventurer????
Oh my, Tuesday's delight has hopped into my mailbox! I've been thinking of what Sarah might be up to this week, while rearranging my life after two lovely, chaotic weeks with our empty nest full of family. Time again, and so many possibilities, where to start? An enviable predicament, for sure.... I didn't really get fully tangled in fiber adventures until menopause and retirement. .... It's grand to see your wonderful earlier works in The Gusset. So many marvelous slow stories! I've wondered, where do they all reside? .... Thanks for sharing your life and work, old and new!
Menopause and retirement -- the joyousness of that --opening up so much possibility and curiosity -- and room for frogs and a new kind of creative fertility?
I first encountered your work in the “large, text-based tapestry” era — a show at the Pritchard. The large, colorful “fertile years” tapestries are new to me and something of a revelation — gorgeous, but so different!
Reflecting on your experience with weaving and my own with knitting, I see some similarities. During the fertile years, I knit intricate, drape-y, gothic, dramatic lace in fine lace-weight yarn— and I usually knit really fast. Now in my crone years, I’m more likely to knit larger objects with more focus on large, sweeping shapes, generous, forgiving, abundant. I knit more slowly, in fingering or dk or even worsted yarn, with less concern about those fussy, intricate lace patterns and more joy in just seeing where the fiber and the process take me.
All that before I remember to say what I meant to say first: I’m entranced with the frog quilt! It may be my favorite of your work so far.
OH my --what wonderful words: sweeping, generous, forgiving, abundant.... Would that the world would embrace them all. Thank you for all of them. And isn't it delicious to watch those inner shifts reflected outward into the material and deliciously yarn-centric world?
And how fabulous that you saw the show at the Pritchard! That was a delightful one --an interesting crossroads moment--all the word tapestries together (perhaps for the last time), even as the rest of my work was getting smaller too (all those little mobiles upstairs.... and embroidered tapestries).
I'm sure you're familiar with the little frog hidden amongst the flowers in the Cloisters' unicorn tapestry titled "The Unicorn Rests in the Garden." I've always loved hunting for it when I visit there. The Cloisters website says "Many of the other plants represented here, such as wild orchid, bistort, and thistle, echo this theme of marriage and procreation: they were acclaimed in the Middle Ages as fertility aids for both men and women. Even the little frog, nestled among the violets at the lower right, was cited by medieval writers for its noisy mating." I don't know if that has anything to do with your frog time or not, but I think it's interesting and a bit coincidental.
OH yes -- the treasure hunt pleasure of a mille fleurs tapestry is not to be equaled. I always wanted to weave one actually--not trying to fit everyone into a spacial composition that makes "sense", but scatter the treasures and secrets and tiny stories all over the cloth. Also makes me think of the Bayeux Tapestry/Embroidery-- and the parallel stories happening in the borders..
I'm loving your frog Sarah. Have you ever tried free motion machining where you use a darning foot and drop the feed dog and just go for it drawing with the thread - you can go wherever you like, backwards and forwards and sideways..........
I've certainly read about and loved free motion embroidery for ages but have not actually tried it that way because my feed dogs don't drop (mine is a treadle sewing machine from 1912). Someone did once tell me I could just cover up the feed dogs with a piece of paper though. Didn't know about the darning foot. I wonder if I have one in my box of accessories? Thanks!
As ever, you pull me into your head and heart with your sweet ramblings. Your open-hearted inner dialogue is compelling…..I’ve never pondered my creative pathway I parallel to my fertility. Hm m m …something to meditate on while crocheting cozies. And like you, I have imagery that reappears in my work and then disappears….and I also just let the image pull me without analyzing it. That’s the beauty of being caught up in the creative process….not letting the head guide the work…but letting the heart pull us into imagination and unknowns. Carry on dear one.
You are so right about letting the image do the pulling - and then doing our best to follow as we can. Your cozies. I mean -- they are just everything!!! Color, form, texture, material, earth and air and light all together. As for noticing patterns-- it is only in retrospect that I can sometimes see one-- or seemingly obvious turning points. And the fertility connection truly never occurred to me till I was writing on Tuesday and I found it curiously restful. So many forces at work behind the scenes what can a gal do but notice and respond?
Thank you for the interesting question. In Wisdom and the Senses Joan Erikson writes about the progression of artistic creativity through the life stages. She uses weaving as a way to visualize the changes. I think my life somewhat followed these stages. In my young/fertile stage, my fiber arts were utilitarian (knitted sweaters, origami mobiles, woven wall hangings and placemats). Through the menopause/retirement stage I was fortunate enough to teach fiber arts passing on what I’d learned like an elder. Now I’m nearly 80 and approaching old age. Erikson sees this as a grounded/earthy/humorous stage which points to “a creative way that perhaps enables the making of a silken purse out of a sow’s ear or out of whatever material life sends your way” (p. 197). I’m looking forward to this stage even with the creative “downsizing” required by iffy eyesight, cranky hands, and general befuddlement.
P. S. This is a wonderful book about Erikson in her wildly creative old age. She died at 94.
OH my goodness, I absolutely must read this book. OH my word. The Grounded/earthy/humorous stage!? Bring it on. "Silken purse out of a sows ear or whatever material life sends your way," is decidedly my kind of path --even as it does require that difficult downsizing and daily decisions about what one can or actually wants to do. Ever looking for the magic. THANK YOU for your words and wisdom and being here.
In addition to your beautiful inner-work-analysis of weaving your creativity and a woman's sacred life cycle, there is yet another thread of connecting the "dots". Or should I say, "frogs". Beryl arrives into your life...amazing colors of indigo? emerald? aquamarine?...the mineral Beryl found in such crystals...Crystals...Crystal Frogs...woven-frogs-from-the-past...painted-frogs-on-cloth. Life is superbly wonderful it all its interconnected-ness. Isn't it? 😉
I love this. You say, "the creative unconscious is an unfathomable place," that our job is to "make" not necessarily "make of" and also take a nap - that last one's my favorite. I've been thinking a lot about the unfathomable lately (truthfully, for most of my life!) and your recipe here seems pretty simple, contains more space, and a lot less work than some of the other ones I've tried. Thank you for the deep breath and the wrinkles!
And thank you Emily, for getting it and living it. I so relish reading your newsletter. "Who am I, where am I going, and what does that have to do with car repairs???" ❤️ All so important and hard and interesting. Naps essential (more and more to be sure). Glad you are here.
I wonder if you realize how much we all enjoy seeing your writings pop up each week? You really are a star young lady! So I have to ask, do you still have the Eight of Frogs or was it sold long, long ago?
Alison, my brother and I commissioned the Eight of Frogs for my mom’s sixtieth birthday. She loved and collected all things frogs. It hung in her house until she died. It now proudly resides in mine where it reminds me of her on a regular basis
This is a really thoughtful - and thought-provoking - post. I shall have to read it again and think about it. And as someone who had her last proper period in April '21 (though vaguely on and off since with my hormone patches) I'm still wondering where I'm going next, though what with a mother with dementia, recent redundancy and very unsureness with the new job, it's no wonder my creativity has vanished for a bit.
Oh gosh Freyalyn, that is a lot on your plate! And a huge and unsettled/unsettling time, inside and out. Have you perchance seen or read Hagitude by Sharon Blackie? I really enjoy the way she shines lights on all this very unsettledness --kind of like "Of course it is hard as hell --and also possibly/hopefully interesting if we can remember to be interested and notice. And then there is the possibility and wonder on the other side" My words and takeaway. Thinking of you❤️
Just meeting you here - you're the first comment I saw. I sure hope the road smooths out for you soonest.
Pure delight
I don’t consider myself an artist, more of a dabbler and someone curious about lots of things - hmm... what color would I get from that plant? How can I make these colors go together? What if I drafted a cold red and a warm red dyed fiber together? Ooops! One was super wash and one wasn’t. Will that make a difference? It didn’t. And then I’m a learner - what new thing can I learn today. So I don’t know if the fertility question applies. I know that I was working full-time and raising children when I was fertile and while I knit then, it was not a specially productive time. I knit socks and sweaters mostly, with an occasional shawl thrown in. It was only after I hit menopause and empty nest syndrome and eventually retirement that I had time to indulge my curiosity and my desire to learn and experiment. I don’t know if that answers your question at all!
Learner and dabbler -- I would call myself both of those things as well. The word artist came from outside in unexpected ways -- and I think it is easier to embrace now, like you, what with all the experimenting and fresh time to indulge my curiosity. Not that you have to call yourself an artist. Textile adventurer????
Oh my, Tuesday's delight has hopped into my mailbox! I've been thinking of what Sarah might be up to this week, while rearranging my life after two lovely, chaotic weeks with our empty nest full of family. Time again, and so many possibilities, where to start? An enviable predicament, for sure.... I didn't really get fully tangled in fiber adventures until menopause and retirement. .... It's grand to see your wonderful earlier works in The Gusset. So many marvelous slow stories! I've wondered, where do they all reside? .... Thanks for sharing your life and work, old and new!
Menopause and retirement -- the joyousness of that --opening up so much possibility and curiosity -- and room for frogs and a new kind of creative fertility?
Celebrating my 80th birthday today and so happy to have you and your blog as part of my day, thank you for giving me such joy💓
Happy Birthday Elaine!
Adrienne
Well happy Birthday Elaine, three days late. I hope it was wondrous. So happy to have you here.
I first encountered your work in the “large, text-based tapestry” era — a show at the Pritchard. The large, colorful “fertile years” tapestries are new to me and something of a revelation — gorgeous, but so different!
Reflecting on your experience with weaving and my own with knitting, I see some similarities. During the fertile years, I knit intricate, drape-y, gothic, dramatic lace in fine lace-weight yarn— and I usually knit really fast. Now in my crone years, I’m more likely to knit larger objects with more focus on large, sweeping shapes, generous, forgiving, abundant. I knit more slowly, in fingering or dk or even worsted yarn, with less concern about those fussy, intricate lace patterns and more joy in just seeing where the fiber and the process take me.
All that before I remember to say what I meant to say first: I’m entranced with the frog quilt! It may be my favorite of your work so far.
OH my --what wonderful words: sweeping, generous, forgiving, abundant.... Would that the world would embrace them all. Thank you for all of them. And isn't it delicious to watch those inner shifts reflected outward into the material and deliciously yarn-centric world?
And how fabulous that you saw the show at the Pritchard! That was a delightful one --an interesting crossroads moment--all the word tapestries together (perhaps for the last time), even as the rest of my work was getting smaller too (all those little mobiles upstairs.... and embroidered tapestries).
I really like this one! Thank you!
I'm sure you're familiar with the little frog hidden amongst the flowers in the Cloisters' unicorn tapestry titled "The Unicorn Rests in the Garden." I've always loved hunting for it when I visit there. The Cloisters website says "Many of the other plants represented here, such as wild orchid, bistort, and thistle, echo this theme of marriage and procreation: they were acclaimed in the Middle Ages as fertility aids for both men and women. Even the little frog, nestled among the violets at the lower right, was cited by medieval writers for its noisy mating." I don't know if that has anything to do with your frog time or not, but I think it's interesting and a bit coincidental.
OH yes -- the treasure hunt pleasure of a mille fleurs tapestry is not to be equaled. I always wanted to weave one actually--not trying to fit everyone into a spacial composition that makes "sense", but scatter the treasures and secrets and tiny stories all over the cloth. Also makes me think of the Bayeux Tapestry/Embroidery-- and the parallel stories happening in the borders..
You are a treasure.
Oh geez!😊
I'm loving your frog Sarah. Have you ever tried free motion machining where you use a darning foot and drop the feed dog and just go for it drawing with the thread - you can go wherever you like, backwards and forwards and sideways..........
I've certainly read about and loved free motion embroidery for ages but have not actually tried it that way because my feed dogs don't drop (mine is a treadle sewing machine from 1912). Someone did once tell me I could just cover up the feed dogs with a piece of paper though. Didn't know about the darning foot. I wonder if I have one in my box of accessories? Thanks!
As ever, you pull me into your head and heart with your sweet ramblings. Your open-hearted inner dialogue is compelling…..I’ve never pondered my creative pathway I parallel to my fertility. Hm m m …something to meditate on while crocheting cozies. And like you, I have imagery that reappears in my work and then disappears….and I also just let the image pull me without analyzing it. That’s the beauty of being caught up in the creative process….not letting the head guide the work…but letting the heart pull us into imagination and unknowns. Carry on dear one.
You are so right about letting the image do the pulling - and then doing our best to follow as we can. Your cozies. I mean -- they are just everything!!! Color, form, texture, material, earth and air and light all together. As for noticing patterns-- it is only in retrospect that I can sometimes see one-- or seemingly obvious turning points. And the fertility connection truly never occurred to me till I was writing on Tuesday and I found it curiously restful. So many forces at work behind the scenes what can a gal do but notice and respond?
Thank you for the interesting question. In Wisdom and the Senses Joan Erikson writes about the progression of artistic creativity through the life stages. She uses weaving as a way to visualize the changes. I think my life somewhat followed these stages. In my young/fertile stage, my fiber arts were utilitarian (knitted sweaters, origami mobiles, woven wall hangings and placemats). Through the menopause/retirement stage I was fortunate enough to teach fiber arts passing on what I’d learned like an elder. Now I’m nearly 80 and approaching old age. Erikson sees this as a grounded/earthy/humorous stage which points to “a creative way that perhaps enables the making of a silken purse out of a sow’s ear or out of whatever material life sends your way” (p. 197). I’m looking forward to this stage even with the creative “downsizing” required by iffy eyesight, cranky hands, and general befuddlement.
P. S. This is a wonderful book about Erikson in her wildly creative old age. She died at 94.
A Walk on the Beach by Joan Anderson.
OH my goodness, I absolutely must read this book. OH my word. The Grounded/earthy/humorous stage!? Bring it on. "Silken purse out of a sows ear or whatever material life sends your way," is decidedly my kind of path --even as it does require that difficult downsizing and daily decisions about what one can or actually wants to do. Ever looking for the magic. THANK YOU for your words and wisdom and being here.
In addition to your beautiful inner-work-analysis of weaving your creativity and a woman's sacred life cycle, there is yet another thread of connecting the "dots". Or should I say, "frogs". Beryl arrives into your life...amazing colors of indigo? emerald? aquamarine?...the mineral Beryl found in such crystals...Crystals...Crystal Frogs...woven-frogs-from-the-past...painted-frogs-on-cloth. Life is superbly wonderful it all its interconnected-ness. Isn't it? 😉
Isn't that the truth Bonnie? Thank you for reflecting it back. What pleasure.
Hi Sarah,
I love this. You say, "the creative unconscious is an unfathomable place," that our job is to "make" not necessarily "make of" and also take a nap - that last one's my favorite. I've been thinking a lot about the unfathomable lately (truthfully, for most of my life!) and your recipe here seems pretty simple, contains more space, and a lot less work than some of the other ones I've tried. Thank you for the deep breath and the wrinkles!
And thank you Emily, for getting it and living it. I so relish reading your newsletter. "Who am I, where am I going, and what does that have to do with car repairs???" ❤️ All so important and hard and interesting. Naps essential (more and more to be sure). Glad you are here.
I'm so glad you enjoy the newsletter! And I'm glad we're both here:)
I wonder if you realize how much we all enjoy seeing your writings pop up each week? You really are a star young lady! So I have to ask, do you still have the Eight of Frogs or was it sold long, long ago?
Alison, my brother and I commissioned the Eight of Frogs for my mom’s sixtieth birthday. She loved and collected all things frogs. It hung in her house until she died. It now proudly resides in mine where it reminds me of her on a regular basis
Geez Alison! 😊 Thank you.
And you Vicki for filling her in on life of Sue' frogs...
Well, Hello Froggy!
Love seeing your beautiful tapestries from a while back. And I think Froggy should stick around for a bit and see what’s happening presently!
Well I think you're probably right. I hope she does!