My piece, Symmetry, followed by the poem Tera Freese wrote in response. To read more about this project see this post: Venus: Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect and Evening Star/A Walk with Sadness.
Symmetry
This Recurring Kindness
by Tera Freese
Every August it happens
white blaze of afternoon
ripens the fruit
makes even the birds
fat as queens.
Here they are now
twittering and thrashing in the high
sweet grasses, dark wings dusted
with deep gold pollens
throwing confetti of fireweed
days of merriment and feasting.
Even in their tiny eyes -
a bright exuberant health
as in something that has come ’round again
to meet it’s full potential.
These are the same mourning doves
that eat dark oily seed
from my pale palm after the curtain
of Autumn has dropped.
Yes, even when there is not this bounty,
there is still enough.
For that which dwells in the first hung star
is there, too, in the last to fade
to morning’s tide.
Here is Tera’s poem (the one I chose to respond to of the four she shared with me) along with my piece. In working on my piece, I allowed the imagery and emotional tone of the poem to stimulate my imagination.
A Walk With Sadness
by Tera Freese
Evening Star - Dyes and pigments on cotton - 25x43
Sadness sits in my lap
like a small child —
Brown tears, hot plum breath.
Standing, I zip her up,
safe inside my coat
like an infant in a sling.
Look, I whisper — the white
legs of birch,
The lake’s many ice rafts
rising and falling
on her huge abdomen,
The yellow globe of moon
winding with the trail.
There, the cold ripples of ice
resemble an elephant’s trunk,
The slight thaw having dripped and froze again
two massive wings
growing from the steep silver cliff.
and — look — bright Venus
Like a place you visited
long ago and are waiting
to return to.
I keep still — and – like a carpet
rolling outward into shimmers
of sky, like all of the sages
reaching back through
fields of time —
Sadness unfolds and
is gone.
I’m experimenting with 2-layered pieces. These are difficult to photograph because the lighting is so critical. I’m not 100% satisfied with the way these are presented; more ideas re: presentation are percolating in my imagination. The piece called “Symmetry” is part of a collaborative project curated by fiber artist Erika Mock. Erika has paired fiber artists and poets to collaborate on the theme of “Venus.” Participants will interpret this theme in many ways — I am contemplating the concept of beauty in nature, which is usually my inspiration and the source of my imagery. I am paired with Duluth poet Tera Freese. She has given me four lovely poems in exchange for Symmetry. (I will ask her permission to post them here!) This summer each of us will create work in response to each other’s work. The show will be held in Superior, Wisconsin this coming September.
Remembered Contours
Symmetry
Matrix: Mourning Doves
