I started working on the wall hanging that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks. It came to me when I was having a massage. I kept seeing the desert in my mind. I have this idea that the desert is a place where everything is exposed and preserved. Unlike the North East where I live, where everything is covered with layers of soil and leaves and plants which are constantly decomposing. There is little visible evidence of what went on here a few hundred years ago, unless you dig for it and then it’s mostly decayed. In the desert, you can find bones and pottery shards from hundreds of years ago, nothing is overgrown, rocks aren’t buried beneath layers of damp soil and moss.
For me it’s become metaphor for living openly and honestly. For standing in my truth and speaking my truth. The words also came to me during the massage.
As dry and bare as the desert
Nowhere to hide
Nothing to Hide
This Is Me
It is interesting that people think of the desert as dry and bare. I suppose some are. I live in Arizona, high desert country, and it is anything but bare, though I too did not realize that until my husband and I moved here. It is full of life and beauty, and during monsoon season it is as far from dry as you can imagine. Oh, and just an additional note, pottery pieces are known as sherds, not shards. Shards is for glass. Learned that also once I moved here and became involved with the Verde Valley Archeology Center. Beautiful piece – thanks for sharing.
Joanne, I spent almost a year in the southwest and explored so many of the deserts and Native American lands and ruins and in New Mexico and Arizona, including Chaco Canyon and Canyon d e Chelly and many of the lesser known National Parks. You’re right the dessert is lush in it’s own way, but compared to the north east it is bare. Like it’s bones are sticking out. And it is beautiful. I have a love of the desert from the first time I saw it. What I loved about it is that it seems everything is visible. It was truly a metaphor for me for not being able to hide. Even in the areas that are dense with plant life, each plant seems to have it’s own space as if it was intentionally planted there. I met an artist in Taos who said spent some time in New York and said he didn’t like the North east because when you sleep on the ground when you wake up your back is wet. I always thought that said so much about the difference between the two.
love the way this looks and what it says — you just get better and better! 🙂
Maria, I LOVE this! (Both the sentiment and the visuals.) Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
I love this piece, Maria. It says so much. I can’t tell from the photo for sure but it looks like the woman is covered in stars. The closeness of the stars at night is one of the things that I love best about the New Mexico and Arizona dessert (my only experience of desserts and only a brief few weeks at that). But I loved the dessert during the day, too. Thank you for bringing those memories back to me. I’m a Virginia girl, born and raised, but would love to live out there, too.
They are flowers Pat, but I do remember the night skies and the stars, so many stars.
Too funny – I’m on a diet and I see that I typed “dessert” instead of “desert” :):):) Guess my subconcious sneaked one in there on me :):)
Oh food Pat, it’s always there, even in the desert.