About 7 years ago, I began working on 2 of the larger figures in the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos Woven Women by drawing a large Goddess figure in pencil on a piece of paper that was over a meter (a yard) square. I then took very heavy wire (fencing wire- probably 6 or 8 gauge) and with pliers and wire cutters, freeform shaped the ‘Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones.
The rest of the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women evolved from her, so she is the Mother of all the pieces in the show.
I find it amusing that she was also the last of the Woven Women to be finished… I was frantically sewing the last of the tiny Goddess figures to her as my husband, Jim and our grandson, were unwrapping the other figures all around me in the gallery!
She evolved over the years… she hung in the window of my studio for several years, as I watched the shadows that she cast and tried different ideas out with her.
Then a few years later, just before Covid hit our family, I asked Jim to please weld me a heavy weight version of the large Goddess, so he took my initial drawing and carefully cut and measured and welded a version of her. He used 1/4 inch steel rod to formulate her and whew… she is hefty!
This iteration eventually became: “Flourish, Yes, Even in the Middle of All This”.
She is very dear to my heart, as our daughter, Chloe Findlay-Harder, who is a fused glass artist, taught several workshops to our family and I made the face for ‘Flourish’ in fused glass…. I have painted many layers of oil paint over the initial face to arrive at the final face. I loved our classes with Chloe and have made many elements in fused glass for the Oracle of Stillness figures. Lots of them have fused glass faces and butterflies and other elements.
Chloe’s husband, Clancy, and I had a wonderful afternoon one Sunday when our family were gathered for our weekly dinner together. Clancy and I spent a long time talking about ‘Flourish’ and how she needed to evolve. He and I circled her and shifted elements and talked about the impact of color and texture. It was a wonderful and inspiring time of deep connection…. and, shockingly, not long after, he died of a blood clot caused by the Covid virus. Needless to say, this is a piece that I will never part with.
Clancy also made me a fused glass piece that represented a loom, and I had his permission to include it in one of the Oracle of Stillness figures.
It is the rectangle at the base of “Remembering”, which is a tribute to his golden heart and beautiful presence.
Her face is fused glass as well.
“Flourish, yes even in the middle of all this” and “Patience and Perseverance Advise the Ancient Ones” both took years to complete…. I would work on them, and live with them and come back, over and over. They each are about a meter tall by a meter wide.
After I had a dream in which I discovered that the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women all needed wings, I designed and crocheted their wings and then built wire armatures to stretch and secure the wings in full expansion.
I love the shadows that they cast on the walls behind them.
They are on display at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton AB until the 22 of November.
These 3 figures are love songs to sing sorrow into compassion and grief into a larger love, as love opens and blossoms and transforms in unexpected, heart-rending miraculous ways…. ❤
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