“Gorges Unexplored”, My Wall Hanging Sold

The book just came in the mail.  I mentioned it to Jon a couple of days ago, The Dance of The Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd, and he bought it for me.  Now just after finishing my wall hanging ,I had it in my hands.

I brought it and Goddesses in Older Women by Jean Shinoda Bolen, into my studio.

I wasn’t sure what this wall hanging was  about.  I made it not thinking about it too much, letting it evolve till it was done.

But now  it was done and a title still hadn’t come to me.  Words which I knew would shed light on the meaning of the piece.  Help me understand it so I could explain it to anyone else who might be interested.

Once in my studio I laid out my yoga mat and sat in front of the wall hanging,  looking at it, trying to see it as if for the first time.  Hoping to understand what it was trying to tell me.

What came to mind again was initiation.  And more specifically, the liminal stage of initiation.  The threshold. The transition from one self to another that comes after experiencing something  life-changing.

Thinking of my trip to India and transitioning from it to being home again,  I opened the Sue Monk Kidd book randomly, and found myself on the second page of the chapter titled Initiation.  There, Kidd is referring to a poem by Adrienne Rich where she writes about “the unexplored gorge”.  The idea of going inside ourselves to a place so new and unknown it’s both exciting and scary.  A descent, that once we emerge from it, we will not be the same. 

This is just what  I was working out when I was making this wall hanging.  Exploring that uncharted terrain inside of myself,  which opened up, like a gaping gorge,  after my experiences in India.

In this wall hanging, I captured  just what that  liminal stage feels like to me.  The confusion, fear, joy, uncertainty, excitement, chaos, trust and surrender.

From Twenty One Love Poems by Adrianne Rich

XIII
“The rules break like a thermometer,
quicksilver spills across the charted systems,
we’re out in a country that has no language
no laws, we’re chasing the raven and the wren
through gorges unexplored since dawn
whatever we do together is pure invention
the maps they gave us were out of date
by years we’re driving through the desert
wondering if the water will hold out
the hallucinations turn to simple villages
the music on the radio comes clear –
neither Rosenkavalier nor Gotterdammerung
but a woman’s voice singing old songs
with new words, with a quiet bass, a flute
plucked and fingered by women outside the law.”

Gorges Unexplored is for sale Sold.  It is 51″x65″ and is $500 + shipping.  If you’re interested in it, you can email me here at [email protected].

Here’s a few details form Gorges Unexplored…