Thursday, November 16, 2017

bitchier botanizing heliolatry

  • “Freedom consists in doing what you can do best, 
  •                            your work, what you have to do.”
  • Ursula Le Guin


This squirrel story was in the Tampa paper yesterday and TY sent it to me because he has an inkling that I have a 'thing' for squirrels.  No, I don't collect them though some of my friends see to it that I have plenty around the house-  toys, NOT real squirrels.  Actually my canine companions kept our yard pretty clear as they made heir feeling obvious on what should happen to them.  So this headline and the baby picture of Brutis are the expected squirrel picture AND the pithy comment all in one.  Ready?  Here goes.


Clearwater Beach man facing eviction over emotional support squirrel

Brutis' baby picture, newly minted condo squirrel and therapy animal.
This drives me crazy-  a squirrel is a wild animal and is no different from calling an opossom a therapy animal, though who would let it into the house?.  Why don't these people who are so attached to their animal that they cannot be without it spend some quality time with a real therapist?  I hate seeing women wheeling their dogs through a mall in baby carriages!  I hate seeing therapy dogs scam airlines-  what about the allergic people around them?  I have no quarrel for those keeping an animal in their travel cage under the seat but my last flight out there was a guy a few rows ahead of me who flaunted his Pomeranian holding him up to see and be seen by the whole plane-  'LOOK AT ME- I HAVE A FRIEND!!'  And making a waving paw like he was taking a stage bow.  His fluffy orange head popped up through the whole flight.
As if.

Now I do know that PTSD is real, I don't quarrel with that.  I do know people love their animals, another no-quarrel from me.  But animals that have the heady responsibility of keeping their owners calm and sane are ridiculous.  Again, therapy is also real, so are drugs.  Get some, and leave the damn animal, whatever it is, at it's real home, safe and sound.  

(Ed.  Holy crap-  TY just called me in to watch Fox News covering the squirrel story.  I guess Trump has been immobilized for the time being, and this is all they could find to yammer about until they let him back out to spread his abundant cheer across 'this land of yours and mine'.)  He has squirrels too but they are imaginary, living under the yellow thatched roof.

But ENUF about squirrels and if they like living in air conditioned splendor in Tampa.  I want to talk about creativity again.  Today I got this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert in the mail and it's wonderful!  It has opened up a whole new arena of thinking about where it comes from and who it visits.  Watch now:


This talk gives me a whole new perspective on what I do and who I am and completely releases me from thinking ahead in my so-called-career.  OK, so it's not a career, it's a vocation that most certainly does NOT venture into hobby material.  It was once a career and I am happy to rest on the few laurels I did achieve and now I am left to simply paddle my way down the center of the river and see what happens!  I hope this whacks you like it did me.  



Please accept this as my ARTY PART today, I'm too tired to hunt one down!
Along that same vein -of VAIN...- the New England Quilt Museum acquisitions committee contacted me yesterday to request that one of my quilts from the show last spring stay with them!  It joins 'Lotus Eaters' (the one Liza has dubbed 'Tastes Like Chicken' so that's what it's mostly called around here) as part of their permanent collection.It's one that I have always liked and made originally for Pat Pauly's show a few years back called Parallax Patterns  The THING is that it wasn't quite what she expected and I don't think it fit into her vision for the show.  I've always felt bad about that but what can ya do in retrospective?  ANYway, it was a wonderful show and I was proud to have my oddity included.  It's this one:

And the story (you know me well enough to know there is always a story!)  is that I saw an article in the NYTs about a deceased professional photographer in Mali who worked sort of mid-century making his living taking studio portraits of middle class citizens.  Mali at that time was quite prosperous and everybody wanted a portrait.  His pictures all had elaborate fabric backdrops with giant patterns and the people posing all wore their own elaborate patterns which, to my eye was intriguing-  the faces and personalities were completely overshadowed.  I used one of his old photographs as inspiration-  a woman holding her infant twins, just a brief moment from her life.
  
This is all constructed of vintage red and white quilts and quit tops-  I think I used six or seven plus other patterned fabrics and embroideries I had on hand.  Additionally I wanted to flatten out the perspective and let a different 3 dimensionality happen.  Because I was dealing with those hanging drapes behind the subject, I wanted the quilt to hang in folds so there is a series of large snaps on the hanging rod that allows the whole thing to hang like a drape, and I know that drives a hanging team crazy so I never showed it beyond the Parallax Patterns show and the celebratory 30 Year Anniversary show of my crit group last spring at the NEQM.  I am thrilled it has a new home where a few snaps won't stop them from bringing it out once in awhile!  Thanks, NEQM!  


OLE, OLE, OLE!


4 comments :

Sandy said...

Well done! How good someone appreciates it in the end!
Sandy

Janet W said...

This is my very favorite piece of yours.

Max said...

Good on you!

Pat Pauly said...

Oh, Sandy, I don't often read this -- but I should -- but that's another story. I do want to go on record that I absolutely love this twins piece. I was a bit distracted at first, but as I saw it for real, it became one of my favorites in the Parallax show. I totally saw that duality of seeing something from two sides, or two visions of the same thing. It is / was perfect for the theme, and I was just so glad to have it be part of that show. You know, and I know that the show was a far reach, and the work in it was stunning. I was, for one, stopped in my track. And your piece had me. Thank you again for making it, showing it, and bravo for having it preserved at the NEQM.

Pat Pauly