I’ve been haunted by the image of a blue ladder with a boat above it that came to me in a dream a couple of weeks ago. I knew I would make a wall hanging out of it and I started it today. This is how far I got when I left the studio this evening. I don’t know what, if anything, will come next besides sewing it all together. I really don’t know much about it yet, but I have a feeling that as I continue to work on it, it will become at least a little more clear.
This reminds me of a Canadian folk song we used to sing in Girl Scout camp:
Land of the Silver Birch
Land of the silver birch
Home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders at will
Refrain:
Blue lake and rocky shore
I will return once more
Boom diddy-ah da, boom diddy-ah da, boom diddy-ah da, eaa-aaa-aaa
High on a rocky ledge
I’ll build my wigwam
Close to the water’s edge
Silent and still
Refrain
My heart grows sick for thee
Here in the low lands
I will return to thee
Hills of the north
Refrain
I can almost hear you singing it Janet, Thanks!
Maria, people ask, where does your inspiration come from. In my head, I say. Well, it comes from some visual image I’ve seen, something I’ve heard in the media, an experience, it’s sometimes hard to explain. The scary part is taking it from that initial inspiration that you have in your mind and translating it to paper, then to whatever medium you work in, in my case, cloth, as you do as well. Where are we going with it, will it work out, if not, can we save it, all that work and sometimes it doesn’t come across as we’d initially imagined it. In many ways, that’s half the fun of the adventure, working it out so that it does work out for us visually, matching as closely as we can our inspiration, not loosing its essence. It will be interesting to see where you go with this, Maria,
SandyP in Canada
That’s always the trick Sandy, getting it from the head to the “paper”.
Oh Maria – This is wonderful…. I love the confidence you have in simply letting your art “flow” and evolve. The symbolism is astonishing to me. There’s been so much change in your life as of late; the passing of Simon, Lenore, and sweet Frieda.
What I see in your piece is transition. The boat is safety, sitting up above the choppy sea. You still have to climb (or are in the process of climbing) up to it. Even the girls jumping on the seesaw on the side of your piece shows vacillation and movement.
Things are changing. Frieda watched over you so beautifully. Now you can climb to safety yourself. Isn’t life beautiful? And aren’t’ you fortunate to have had such a protector.
That’s a really nice interpretation Renate. I think there’s more to this piece than I thought.
My initial reaction was that the ladder and boat resembles a Japanese torii gate which marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. Your dreaming brain is such a gift.
Wow Cheryl, that gives me chills.
It’s a bit of a climb to learn to sail to freedom.
I like that Deb.