You Must Become an Island...

It's been almost two weeks since I returned from the island…

Life was very different there…things moved at a reasonable pace, there was time to enjoy, create, reflect and even take in the nature around us…Sounds perfect, doesn't it? That's not asking for too much is it? 

Since I have been back home, things move at an unreasonable pace and I wake up wondering how I am going to get through my teaching day, drive an hour in traffic, to get to a place where it is impossible to keep all the balls in the air…some fall, some bounce, some break…by the end of the work day, if there is any energy left, maybe I can try to make something before I crash and have to do it all over again… This is not the life I want to be living…I find myself thinking, "I want to go back to the island!" or maybe at least keep a touch of the island life. I have held on the memories and even had the students in my last block at the end of a long and exhausting Tuesday paint purple starfish! 

I recently read an article by Hans Ulrich Obrist titled The Future of Art. https://www.artsy.net/article/hans-ulrich-obrist-the-future-of-art-according-to-hans-ulrich-obrist
In it he speaks of the "Extreme Present" which he defines as "a time in which it feels impossible to maintain pace with the present, never mind chart the future…" This is not good for anyone! Thank goodness for the moments that I have been able to find to weave and do yoga and begin to ground myself again a mist all the chaos. 

Sorry Little Terri, although you are now in my studio (your new home, away from home), I have not had a chance to work on you much…

Instead, I have been stealing those moments at night on my loom in the living room to make infinity scarves with the remaining portion of my February warp and to set up the loom with my March warp. Before I left for the residency, I had chosen the colors and measured the warp strings. I had also started a collect of objects that would be par of my March weaving. Funny, that like Terri, I too had chosen some old jewelry and beads...

A detail of my January and February weaving from 2016

The March warp…not too far off from the colors I chose at the residency...

Setting up the March warp in the living room

The March warp

The March weaving…full of beads and old turtle jewelry...

Containing ginger candy wrappers and my old studio key

Last Friday since there was no school on Good Friday, we took a trip to WEBS. This is an amazing yarn store in Northampton, MA and I was able to get some great yarns to use into my March weaving and more!

At WEBS buying yarn

Here are some photos of the March weaving…completed last night before midnight, of course…who I am I kidding… I finished this one way before midnight!

More beads

The key to my red Matrix that was totaled last March in a car accident .

January, February, and March

During the residency I was listening to Sara Bareilles's album The Blessed Unrest. The song Island spoke to me then and is in my head often lately…

It's like I'm standing on the edge with just a telephone wire
Trying to get to you first to say the world's on fire
Holding my breath until I know you're alright
Because the water will only rise
When will you realize (ha ha haa)
You must become an island
(Ha ha haa) you must become an island
(Ha ha haa) you must become an island
(Ha ha haa) and see for yourself the horizon is all we have
See for yourself the horizon is all we have

Holding my breath until I know you're alright
Because the water will only rise