Catching Up and Other Thoughts

Time seems to slip by so quickly lately. I have been spending some time gardening mostly in my son's and daughter-in-law's yard. Gardening teaches me so much. I am very present when I'm working in my garden and wonderful ideas often pop into my head. Actually, I don't consider it work, I even call it "playing in the dirt."  Gardening is also a great stress reducer for me which I seem to need lately. So time to do a little catching up.

One of Ava's, a member of Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul, quilts went missing. I don't know why, but in my heart I knew it would turn up. When the stuffed envelope turned up in my mailbox, I honestly wasn't thinking about Ava's quilt. I was wondering what the heck I had ordered and forgotten. Why it was mailed to me and not Ava, I can't answer. Nor can I answer who mailed it as there was no return address. Frankly, I didn't care and still don't. It had turned up! Ava chose to pick it up in person. We had lunch (salads at Penera's) and visited Pieceful Heart Fabrics. I got to see the sweet garden quilt that Ava is making with her granddaughter and I got to share some of my new work with her. It was only later in the evening that it occurred to me that we would not have had this wonderful time together had her quilt not gone missing. I want to thank the person who returned it for this wonderful gift (and of course for returning the quilt).

While at the quilt shop, I ran into one of my former students, Kathy. She shared with me that in the last five years the only quilts she has finished are the quilt-as-you-go ones from the classes I taught.  Made me happy! I got to see the fabric for her next one--a "techie" quilt. She had some fabulous fabrics! The hug was appreciated too. I'm a hugger. One of my nieces, Jennifer, even describes me that way. "Look out my Aunt Karen is a hugger. You will be hugged." I am a firm believe that we need at least three just to maintain.

Yesterday I had a strange message on m answering machine. I did recognize the name so I decided to give her a call. She didn't mean to call me and we are not even sure how she got my number because she called using a list from the AQSG conference and I didn't attend. We ended by talking for almost two hours and I have a new friend--Gail Ingram! I love when these kind of things happen in life.

Whenever I go to a funeral of someone I know well, I marvel at how the person is portrayed. So seldom is the wonderfully imperfect person present instead I hear idealized descriptions and wonder, "Who are they talking about?" Okay, I know this is meant to comfort, but it only sanitizes the life of the deceased. To know someone fully and love them in spite of, even because of, their imperfections is an act that requires us to recognize and forgive, two important qualities we should all embrace. Because if we can do that for others, just maybe we can do it for ourselves. It is our fallibility and uncertainty that make us human. Our constant challenge is not to seek perfection in ourselves and others, but to find ways to be happy in an imperfect world. When I die, share all the good and the bad. And please make sure you share the funny too.

And before I forget, the plant in the photograph is an Acanthus Spinosus (Spiny Bear's Breeches) and it's in my front yard next to my lime green bird bath. The flower is 16 inches tall. I feel in love with this plant the instant I saw it. I want another one!

Interpreting Manuel Felguerez

They Ask for Fish by Manuel Felguérez

Continuing to share the work of Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul and the Mexican artists whose work they choose to interpret. Christina choose Manuel Felguérez's painting They Ask for Fish (created in 1966) from the permanent collection in National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

Felguérez was born in 1928 in Valparaíso, Zacatecas in Mexico. He's still alive, living in Mexico and working. I encourage you to Google images of his work where you will find both images of his paintings and sculpture. I discovered that I really liked his abstract expressionist paintings. He is an avid collector of all sorts of objects (would love to know exactly what kind of objects), taxidermist, anthropologist, teacher, investigator and master artist. He traveled to Europe in the late 1940s which is where he had his first meaningful encounter with art and attempted to study art in Mexico. He was one of the first artists to criticize the Mexican school of painting.  He adopted the ideas of writer, poet, and diplomat  Octavio Paz (1914-1998), who thought that art had to be an incessant movement of continuity and breaks from tradition. In both sculpture and painting, Felguérez constantly appropriated the artistic movements of his time (Cubism and Abstract Expressionism).

Christina Carlos

He was a professor at Cornell University. professor of Design and Investigacion Visual at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and was awarded a awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship while he worked as an investigator at Harvard University.  It always interests me to discover how many Mexican artists have a connection to the muralism movement so it was interesting to find out that in the early 1960s, Felguérez was commissioned to make more than 30 murals for public and private institutions. According to Octavio Paz, "Manuel Felguérez created a new muralism movement where painting is joined with sculpture." He charged little for the murals in an effort to be recognized nationally and internationally as an artist. It worked. He closed his mural workshop and opened a studio to focus on painting.  Personally, I think he would be a fascinating man to meet.

I  did not take long for Christina to select Felguérez's painting and I was proud of her for selecting something abstract. I'm especially appreciative that she did because I learned so much personally.

Interpreting Vladimir Cora

Bather 28 by Vladimir Cora

I miss my Saturdays with Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul. It was a wonderful experience being able to teach at a museum (National Museum of Mexican Art) that I loved. I never imaged it would last three years. In our last session, the group selected a piece from the museum's permanent collection and to interpret, not recreate, that chosen work of art. I encouraged the women to push beyond their comfort zones and choose something abstract or at least something different.

Soco choose Vladimir Cora's Bather 28 created in 1988.  Cora was born in Nayarit, Mexico in 1951. He is self-taught and was able to build a reputation as a formidable painter is his late teens. He knew he wanted to be a painter after seeing a print of Monet's Water Lilies in his aunt's pharmacy where he worked when he was thirteen. Cora was named after Vladimir Lenin by his father, a saddle maker and avid follower of politics. Cora met Rufino Tamayo in 1978 and remained his student until the mentor died in 1991. In Mexico, Cora is a highly regarded established artist. He lives and works in Santa Ana, California.  (Source: Pigment of Imagination by Vivian Letran, Los Angeles Times Magazine, December 21, 2000) 

Socorro Carlos

I was proud of Soco for choosing this painting. She also kept her piece small so she was able to finish by the end of class (another goal with the group). I hope you agree with me that she did an excellent job!

The part I loved was researching and learning about the artists the women choose. Also don't you just love the hot pink walls of the modern section in the museum? It is one of the many things I love about this museum.

Wordless Wednesday

I guess today won't be wordless since I received two emails (thank you Carolyn and Sue) asking questions and encouraging me to share the story. This is Alicia and she was one of my students when I taught at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Whenever Alicia was stuck on what to do next, she would go to the fabric bins and "Listen to the fabric because I know some of the will speak to me and give me direction." She was always so engrossed in what she was doing and so full of joy when she had found the fabrics that spoke to her. For me, it was always a joy to watch her in this process. I'm not sure people who do not work with fabric would understand this. What fabrics have spoken to you?

President's House: Their Untold Stories in Quilts

The catalog for The President's House: Their Untold Stories in Quilts arrived which was exciting. Carolyn Crump did a great job with the design. Michelle Flamer, the curator, accomplished something amazing with this exhibition. If you are visiting Philadelphia before September 1, please check out this incredible exhibition which can be viewed at three different institutions--Independence Visitors Center, National Constitution Center and the African American Museum in Philadelphia. I am particularly proud of my group Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul. Their quilts can be seen at the Independence Visitors Center. If you go, please send me photos. Finances simply don't allow me to attend.

Carolyn Crump and I was fortunate to have our quilts selected for the press conference back in March. How cool is that? I am so grateful.

Prayer Flag- Honoring Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul

I woke early yesterday and knew exactly what I wanted to do for my Prayer Flag. I didn't quite get it done before I left to teach at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago; a journey I have made about every two weeks for the last three years. We have been known for a while as Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul. It has been an amazing experience being able to teach basically the same group of women for three years. I thought we would continue, but now our future is uncertain. I made it until six o'clock last night before crying. It makes this Prayer Flag have even deeper meaning for me. If we don't ever get to meet again, I only hope I have given them enough to continue and I know with time the pain of their loss will lessen.

Hearts for Christchurch

With the devastation in Japan, it is easy to overlook the earthquake in New Zealand. When my friend and fellow Postmark'd Art member, Evie Harris, put out a call for hearts I knew I had to send them. Evie has a blog, Hearts for Christchurch, and I encourage you to make some hearts too.

Digging through things I discovered some wooden hearts I had purchased (can't remember what for) and decided to use them.  Of course, I shared this with my group, Los puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul, at the National Museum of Mexican. Together we sent 49 hearts!

Martha Dominquez-Diaz "Ex-voto"

At  the end of last year, Los puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul explored spirituality as a them for our quilts. I thought I would share a few of the quilts with you. I love how each woman in the group has her own distinctive style and while they support one another, they all stay true to themselves.

Martha is one of the most generous and caring people I have ever met. I also happen to love her style. She is learning that less is sometimes more. She loves to embellish.

Here is Martha's artist statement:

My faith is a vital part of my life. I believe in the apparitions of the Virgin and praying the rosary. I've survived many mishaps by meditating. Miracles can happen!

This Ex-voto is thanking the Virgin of Guadalupe for her intercession during my car accident; being able to walk again and take care of my two sons.

My fe es una parte vital de mi vida. Creo en las apariciones de la virgen Maria y en rezar el rosario. He sobrevivido, gracias a la meditacion. Milagros si occurren!

Este Ex-voto es: dando gracias a Nuestra senora de Guadalupe por su intercesion durante mi accidente automovistico; por poder caminar y por el cuidado de mis hijos.

Translation of quilt: "Am I, who am your mother, not here?

On october 19, 1995 I had an accident. Thank you Virgin of Guadalupe for the miracle of being able to walk and take care of my sons.

The Butterfly Project

I apologize for not posting. I spend my days interviewing, researching, and writing. I am trying to finish my book. When I'm not working on my book, then I try to find someway to be creative in a different way. With Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the soul, my group at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, we are creating butterflies for the Holocaust Museum Houston. 

1,500,000 innocent children died during the Holocaust. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2013, for all to remember.The project is based on this poem.

The Butterfly

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone...

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.

More than 12,000 children under the age of 15 passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between the years 1942-1944. More than 90 percent perished during the Holocaust. 

More than anything, I wanted to take the time to create something that took time to honor all those lost children. It's approx. 10 x 8 inches and took me about 30 hours to create.

Florinda Malacara

 Florinda has not had an easy life. I remember how angry she appeared when she first joined the group. Now she works so hard and I'm watching her blossom. This is her second quilt which she titled "The Exceptional Slave/ La esclava excepcional."

Oney Judge was a seamstress for Mrs. Washington, but they also allowed her to play with Nelly, their granddaughter. They never allowed her to read and write. Her history reminds me of many stories of people in my community.

Oney era la costurera de la Sra. Washington pero además le permitían jugar con Nelly- la nieta de los Washington- pero nunca le permitieron aprender a leer. Su historia me recuerda a tantas historias de gente de mi comunidad.