We have brought all the mixed media Woven Women tapestries of the “Oracle of Stillness” series home from #harcourthousegallery and our house feels like home again.
Not that it is easy to hang 50 tapestries in one small living room!
But it is lovely to be among all of them again.
My husband and I missed them when they were off in the gallery.
Today’s Woven Woman is “Sanctuary”.
I hope that your home is a sacred sanctuary that brings you healing, joy, respite, renewal and all good things.
Today is the final day of the exhibition of ‘Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton, AB. If you are in YEG, do step over to the gallery, as they have done such an exquisite job of lighting the show that the Woven Women fairly dance on the walls.
I offer my most enormous gratitude to Darren Kooyman, Jacek Malec, Marija Nikolajev and the Board members of Harcourt House- it is such an honor to have been invited to exhibit at Harcourt House and I am eternally grateful for all the hard work that you have done to create and sustain such a wonderful centre for the arts in Edmonton!
The last Woven Woman that I wove for the series of the Oracle of Stillness is: “The Mysterious and the Magical Have a Way of Waiting Patiently to Reveal the Astonishing”.
She announced herself in a dream and I had to wake up to be sure to write down the correct words in the right order, as she was very clear that that was essential.
And, it was fascinating to feel that she was the final piece- the 50th one…. I knew that I would be weaving 50 Oracles of Stillness, and was intrigued by how that unfolded.
She was very clear about exactly what I needed to do to make her fully true and accurate to her raison d’etre.
There wasn’t enough room in the gallery for all 50 of the mixed media Woven Women Oracles of Stillness to be in the exhibition, but I will get all 50 of them uploaded here on: www.tottietalkscrafts.com
I was invited by a group of 7 contemplative writers to join them at Harcourt House Gallery as they gathered to immerse themselves in ‘The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ and then write about it.
I was feeling very sick and didn’t think I could make it, but I knew that I would regret it forever if I didn’t go.
And, oh my word! It was so powerful…. The energy in the gallery of kindness, respect, honesty, presence, integrity, healing and wholeness was like a tsunami of YES… this is the way the world should be!
I am in awe of the insights of this marvelous group of women sages and seers. To say that it was powerful is an understatement.
It was the perfect way to draw the exhibition to a close.
The show ends on Saturday November 22, so if you are in Edmonton, do step into the gallery- you can feel the magic of the writers circle still, I am sure.
By the way, I took one of my looms along to weave words as the other writers wrote. Magical.
Thank you to Marija Nikolajev and Theresa Belter for the photographs.
I love our 5 year old next door neighbour so much!
The doorbell just rang- He needed to tell us that he had shot his Nerf into the air and hit our roof and was sorry and could he have the nerf bullets back next spring when we clean the gutters?
And, he was freezing and could he please stay in the studio for awhile to warm up?
His Mum said ‘No… we can warm up at home’.
‘But I like it here’. (Aww)
We chatted a bit and then I gave our neighbor/friend back a plant that she had given me when it was tiny and it has now gotten too big for the shelf.
We laughed about trying to get rid of clutter, and the wee boy announced solemnly that Miss Noreen has a LOT OF CLUTTER.
Which I agreed to and then folded up with laughter as his Mum tried to shush his discussion of too much clutter and herd him out the door at the same time.
It was wonderful and I am still laughing. (But Mum, you SAID we have to get rid of our clutter!)
Which brings me to today’s mixed media Woven Woman from the Oracle of Stillness:
“The Songs of Motherhood: Love, Celebration, Laments, Loss, Learning, Essence” and how on earth did I forget to add “LAUGHTER” to her naming?
She hereby will be blessed with the addition of one of life’s greatest gifts: “LAUGHTER”.
Sometimes, when our bodies are challenged, the best place to dance is in our dreams.
This mixed media Woven Woman tapestry, “The Dance” is part of the Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos series.
I twisted wire to make the armature for “The Dance” and freeform wove the beads to shape her into that moment of stillness that sparks the moment between the movements.
It is the Pause, Breathe, Begin Again that nurtures and heals.
The questions: “What would happen if I did this? How can I make this/that work?” are, for me, the key to living a fascinating, intriguing life that is stuffed full of creativity.
This mixed media Woven Woman from my Oracle of Stillness series, is named: “Curiosity as a Healing Art”.
I wove her face and the narrow bands, made some lace, beaded her body, fused some glass and painted some images, and my husband welded her steel armature to embody these questions about living with curiosity and imagination and how they heal all manner of things in wholeness and harmony.
Yesterday was a day full of challenges and mistakes… I am working on a new series of mixed media weaving and had to do a lot of re-considering and re-working.
I also got a couple of other things quite wrong, so had to remind myself to be curious about what I could do about that.
At bedtime, I asked my Dream Guides and Wise and Well Ancestors for guidance, and what immediately popped up was: Do some Ho Opono Opono, so I did. It’s very helpful!
This morning, I woke up with a cluster of phrases in mind as I floated in the hypnagognic state:
Gifts from the Dream Guides and Wise and Well Ancestors, for sure:
“Pax Vobiscum”, “Fiat Lux”, “Que La Lumiere Soit” and “Pause, Breathe, Begin Again”.
It also made me think:
These challenges are the reason why the mixed media Oracle of Stillness Woven Woman: “Paradox- Joy and Sorrow Walk Together” is so important to me.
She speaks the truth of dealing with the challenges that help me to understand that life is multifaceted, complicated, messy, sometimes uncomfortable and downright miserable at times, too…. BUT… in among all that, there is still Peace, Wisdom, Strength, Tenacity and the ability to maintain the Courage to be Curious and the willingness to accept that sometimes I say and do things that I am unhappy about and have to find a way to reset my compass, and to Pause, Breathe and Begin Again….
Yup. It’s a Paradox and it’s profoundly healing and deeply soulful. Not easy… but oh so necessary.
Long ago and far away, when my sister and I were little, our family lived in a small prairie town that was safe enough for children to be free range.
On Thursday evenings, my sister and I would walk to choir practice and then home again in the dark.
The stars were incredible! The Milky Way poured across the sky like a gigantic silk scarf that felt close enough to touch.
Sometimes we stood in awe and stared up at the Northern lights.
Always, always, we made wishes on the stars that sparkled, just out of reach.
This mixed media Woven Woman is partly a sense memory of those magical times with my sister, and partly a celebration of Sacred Geometry.
Her name is: “Every Star Invites a Wish”.
Please feel free to make wishes upon her- whether it’s for wellness, peace, calm, clarity, serenity, kindness, wisdom, abundance, or any and all good things for yourself and for everyone, everywhere, may all your lovely wishes come true.
Completing the “Oracle of Stillness” series of mixed media weavings has signalled some deep changes in our home.
This taken the form of a complete shift about of furniture and re-configuring how we use our spaces. Feng Shui in action!
This shape shifting has made us feel much happier with our little home as it feels more alive and cleaner and cozier and ready to receive the new work that is deliciously emerging for us… lots happening with new inspiration, but more about that later.
The decisions around ‘what do we let go of’ and ‘what do we use in new ways’ and’what do we need to bring in?’ has stirred all kinds of musings and dreaming about what ‘HOME’ is and how deeply the concept of ‘Home’ reaches down into our many levels of mind and also into our dream universes.
This Woven Woman from the ‘Oracle of Stillness’ series, “Finding the Way Home” is one of the ‘Grandmother’s Coat’ series, and is also a compendium of fleeting images from many dreams that I have had about the power of “home”.
My wish is: May everyone, everywhere find peace and healing in their homes May everyone everywhere have safe harbor in their homes May everyone everywhere feel heard and seen in their homes May everyone everywhere feel welcome in their homes May everyone everywhere feel restful repose and have sweet dreams in their homes Whatever “HOME” means to you, may you find your way home to that…
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