Cloud Is A Whisper

It was still warm in my studio last night after dinner even though it was cold and dark outside.  The buttons for my tree called to me, I wanted to get them sewed on.  So I tuned into the Selected Shorts podcast and started sewing.

I wore out around 9:30 pm, with just a few more buttons left to sew on.  After finishing them up this morning, I started on the words.

I decided to use red for the backing of the words and stitch them in yellow thread. It took a few tries for me to get it right.  The first two times I stitched the words all in cursive.  I was thinking of the Mexican Votive paintings, a style that Frida Khalo used in some of her paintings.  I’ve always found the technique interesting because it’s more Folk than Fine Art.  Like a handwritten letter or story, it’s more democratic,  easier for more people to relate to.

But it didn’t feel right to me.  As if the words were not expressive enough in themselves.

I’ve talked to my friend and artist Emily Gold a lot about using words in art.  It’s something she does regularly and is constantly exploring.  So I wondered what it would look like if I took each word and wrote it the way it felt to me in this context.

It was much more creatively stimulating to do and enjoyable.  And when I was finished, I thought it looked and worked better with the piece too.

I’ll give it one more fresh look tomorrow.  Then, if there are no more changes to make, I’ll begin sewing it all together.